|
|
Sierra Club Steering Committee for Florida
The steering committee is commited to open dialog and providing information that is important for the 18 Sierra Club Florida Groups. Appointed in May 2008, the committee has already prepared the following information:
Steering Committee Members
 |
Craig Diamond has been a member of the Sierra Club continuously since 1982. At the group level, he served as the Loxahatchee Group's Treasurer and as a member of its Conservation Committee. For the Florida Chapter, he served as Conservation Chair, Everglades Committee Chair, delegate to the Gulf Coast Regional Conservation Committee, and member of the Atlantic Eco-Region Task Force. He has served on several national committees, including energy and agriculture, as well as the Sustainable Planet Strategy Team. He has co-represented the Club on the State's OSDS research advisory council and PCS Phosphate's environmental advisory body. For over 25 years, Craig has been a citizen advocate and worked professionally for wetland and habitat protection, energy conservation, and surface water quality improvement within the State University System and local and state government. |
 |
Betsy Grass is a native New Yorker who came to Miami to go to college and never left. She went on her first ever camping trip with Sierra Club (Dry Tortugas) and has been active with the Miami Group since the 1980's. She has worn many hats for the Club including being Group Chair twice. She has worked on campaigns to keep the airports out of the Everglades, getting curbside recycling in Miami-Dade County, and getting environmental education into Miami-Dade Schools. She is currently the group webmaster and has a seat on the Miami ExCom. Betsy has traveled extensively – Australia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Costa Rica – playing nature photographer. |
 |
Linda Bremer is a Florida homegrown native living in Jacksonville. She has been a member of Sierra Club since 1986 interested in conserving wetlands and waters locally, in state regulations and federal protections. She worked for the development of the cumulative and secondary impacts regulations for Florida's wetlands. She also worked for isolated wetland protections in forestry and is on the BMP Technical Advisory Committee for the Florida Division of Forestry. She has an interest in developing walkable communities, lives in an historic neighborhood and is the current chairman of the Bicycle Pedestrian Safety Committee for the First Coast Transportation Organization. |
 |
Rudy E. Scheffer has been an active member of Sierra Club since 1988. He is presently serving as the Suncoast Group Treasurer, Sierra Florida Outing Chair and on the National level serving as the Outdoor Activities Volunteer CO-Lead. In the past, Rudy served as: the Fl-Chapter Council Delegate and Alternate Delegate; Chapter Outing Chair; chair of the National Group and Chapter Outings Committee; member of the National Outdoor Activity Governance Committee; and chair of the National Outdoor Activity Training Committee. On the Group level, Rudy has served as Outing Leader, Outing Chair, Vice-Chair and Treasurer. Rudy has a great love for the outdoors, the preservation of wilderness and for wildlife protection world wide. He hopes that Sierra Florida can work to build coalitions and working relationships with like-minded organizations to elect "Green" candidates, and help to educate the public and political leaders about the importance of environmental issues. |
 |
A member of the Sierra Club since 1994, in 2000 Tom Larson became active with the Northeast Florida Group and got involved in a member’s SC-endorsed campaign for state senate. After a time, he joined the Group’s Executive Committee, then in early 2004 was tapped to be its Chair. “Fortunately for us all, club members are active in various committees and we share a wonderful vision for Florida’s and our planet’s future.” Protection of the headwaters of two urban creeks from development was one of the early goals for his work with the club—and continuing engagement of the club as an important player in the civic dialog remains a focus. Tom's advised the Florida Energy Commission and is on the Sierra Club Florida Energy Committee, as well as the Florida Steering Committee and serves as Treasurer for Sierra Club Florida. Dealing with global warming/climate change issues and protection of Florida wildlife habitat and natural areas are major tunes in his song book, as are expanding member and neighbor enjoyment of outings, and participation in community leadership and advocacy. |
 |
John Swingle, a retired fire department Battalion Chief from Connecticut, has been a Sierra member since 1999. He has served as group chair and as Florida Chapter Conservation Chair and Chapter Chair. On the national level he has been a member of the National Marine Committee for 5 years, two and a half of those years as Chair. He has served as Sierra Club’s representative to the Board of Advisors of the Marine fish Conservation Network for 3 years. Besides the national marine committee, he is presently on the ExCom of the Central Florida Group and serves as its Membership Chair. He is also a member of the Everglades Committee. John has always loved being outdoors and is an avid camper and angler. He sees water usage and sprawl as two issues that have a severe effect on Florida’s environment. He says, "Instead of smart growth, we have insane growth in Florida". (John, as Steering Committee Alternate, has taken the place of Al Donn, who has resigned as of March 2009.)
| | |
 |
Marian Ryan is a life long resident of Winter Haven and enjoys native plant
gardening, nature photography, hiking and cooking. She has served in
many capacities for the Sierra Club Florida since joining in 1988. Her
conservation interests have focused on Green Swamp protection, Peace
River restoration and land acquisition. As a dairy inspector for the
Florida Department of Agriculture, she covers 8 counties regulating the
manufacture of milk products, cheese and frozen desserts. |
| |
To ask questions about the steering committee process, please send an email to
Fl-Steering-Contact@lists.sierraclub.org |
|
