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o2-USA Liaisonships & Groups
What’s expected of o2-USA liaisons/chapters and the logistics of getting you going.
Responsibilities:
+ Just be you, and do what you do best.
+ Be an o2-Global contributing list member. (free to join)
http://www.egroups.com/group/o2mailinglist
+ As you do research for yourself and find cool eco links and events, post them to your group as well as o2-Global.
+ If there’s a question posed from the Global Site about your State, chip in your 2 cents worth.
+ At your area events, act as an o2 salesperson, pass out o2 info cards.
+ If you have time and want to do more, contact your area design professors, green groups (Natural Step, Sierra Club, etc.), and industry groups (AIA, AIGA, IDSA, and IoPP chapters) to introduce yourself. The industry groups’ green committees are usually starved for attention, so you’ll be well received.
That’s all there is to it. When you think the time feels right, consider setting-up an area Chapter. Who Chairs this Chapter is totally up to your group. It need not be the liaison.
Liaison Tools:
+ Set-up a YahooGroup (or your own) list to help gather people together under your contact brand and distribute local event info (the automated calendar feature at Yahoo is very handy, chapter newsgroup examples: http://o2-usa.org/involved.html ).
+ You will be given a single page on the o2-USA website and an o2-USA e-mail address, to give you a central info point and presence to help you with your promotions.
+ o2-UMW has cards to hand out for their industry liaisons, you might want to make something like that to hand out at your area events.
+ When you get to the point you’re ready for a Chapter, your group will share in the costs of the National site. As a single Liaison, we support your share for free.
In anticipation of a chapter developing in your area at some point, we ask that you think ahead and settle on a logical service area now. Your work as a liaison is brand building for your future chapter (whether you’re involved with it or not).
Our first choice is that you cover your State or a region, over a single city. If sub-chapters develop (Minnesota and Wisconsin are sub-chapters of o2-USA/Upper Midwest) you’ll keep the established chapter as the umbrella, and divide the rest as you see fit.
With your approval your name will be: o2-USA/State (your web address will be o2-usa.org/state and your e-mail will be [email protected] [this is a forwarding address so you can change liaisons if you like without impacting the brand you’ve been building]).
We’ll set the web stuff up for you as soon as we get your okay. The liaisons use their o2-usa.org mails on the o2-Global site and all other promotional materials to be able to easily transfer liaison duties without loosing equity. Apply good strategic thinking about the name, be inclusive rather than exclusive. With luck, we’ll be using it for a very long time.
Setting up an o2-USA Chapter:
+ Get approval for starting a new chapter from o2-Global and the chapter chairs of o2-USA.
+ Look into funding for your new chapter. If you don’t want to do the pass-the-hat thing, research eco funding opportunities in your State. o2-USA/Bayarea and o2-USA/UMW are operating as a “Club” or “Foundation.” Meaning if they keep their account at IRS defined limits they need not file taxes. They get their funding through grants (considered an eco-education effort, “sponsored” by a member corporation), plus whatever people kick in for incidentals. Consult an accountant in your State to better understand your options.
+ Talk to your local Sierra Club, Green Peace, Office of Environmental Assistance (your local EPA), and Natural Step people for assistance in getting the word out about your new chapter. And/or finding funding sources — or perhaps allowing you to come under their 501c umbrella. You can of course set-up your chapter as a 501c. Talk to o2-Chicago about how difficult it was and if it’s worth the work.
We – o2-USA – have agreed to share the cost of a website. We’ve agreed to provide a single page and e-mail forward to all new liaisons for free (the full chapters share the hosting and name [o2-usa.org] registration costs). If you start a full blown chapter, we ask you share the national website expenses with us, and of course are then provided with your own sub-directory for your activities (o2-usa.org/mi – for example).
Nomenclature for o2-USA is: a lower case o followed by the number 2, then a hyphen (-), then an upper case USA, then a slash (/) and your chapter name. Examples: o2-USA/Upper Midwest, o2-USA/NYC. For short in your own area, you may use o2-Chapter. Examples o2-UMW, o2-NYC, o2-Chicago.
And lastly, never forget you are a SUB-chapter of o2-USA, which is itself a SUB-chapter of o2-Global, and are expected to act accordingly. Though the chapters work independently of each other, we are viewed as one from outside, and are stronger, as a group. As we share a name and presence, efforts of ONE reflect on us all.
To keep o2-USA building as an inclusive, unifying, brand, you are not to undertake actions unilaterally that will impact the other chapters without getting complete buy-in from the constituent chapter heads. This includes acting in the name of o2-USA, assuming a similar name, entering into contracts under the name of o2-USA (or some form of the name), or representing yourself as the voice of o2-USA. No one group is o2-USA. Failure to respect the shared needs of the group will result in termination of your o2 affiliation.
These conditions are subject to change or clarification as the needs of the cooperative evolve. When in doubt, cc: all chapter heads as well as o2-Global (EJvH is the o2 global chair). E-mail addresses for each chapter are located on the o2-USA website (http://www.o2-usa.org).
If you have any further questions, please contact:
info06@ [this domain]
Wendy Jedlicka, CPP
o2-USA Cooperative Co-coordinator
o2-USA/Upper Midwest, Chapter Chair
(001) 651.636.0964
Peter Nicholson
o2-USA Cooperative Co-coordinator
o2-Chicago, Chapter Chair
