CCL Wisconsin’s Giant Work Party

By Gram Brownlee

This spring, CCL volunteers from across Wisconsin joined forces to get out the climate vote at a statewide “work party.” 

In March, over 70 CCL volunteers traveled from their homes across Wisconsin to Stevens Point to help kickstart the Wisconsin Climate Voter Campaign. The event was held at Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church, the church of one of CCL Wisconsin’s state leaders.

Volunteers spent the day listening to speakers and joining breakout sessions to learn how to mobilize climate-concerned citizens to head to the polls in this year’s primary and general elections. The Work Party had eight breakout sessions, held in church rooms from the choir hall to the children’s playroom.

The multipronged approach to voter outreach included a statewide effort by all Wisconsin CCL chapters to write more than 20,000 postcards to environmentalists, a phone bank to call potential voters, and sessions for members to learn how to talk with their community about Wisconsin candidates and policies that most support CCL’s mission.

Topics also covered leveraging social media and print media to communicate with the public and performing outreach with student voters. 

CCL’s Wisconsin State Coordinator Jill Mitchler said the Giant Work Party was a great way to get people motivated. She planned the event with fellow coordinator Dan Dieterich, Madeleine Para, and a small group of volunteers.

“Wisconsin used to have annual conferences but, because of Covid, our volunteers hadn’t really been together in person this way for over three years,” said Jill.

One CCL member, Liz Fentress of the Chequamegon, WI chapter, took inspiration from the event and wrote a letter to the editor, published in the Star News of Central Wisconsin.  “If we don’t act now to reduce our carbon footprint, the climate is going to continue to change. It’s not like the climate is going to warm to a temperature that’s convenient in northern Wisconsin and then stay put,” she warns. “It’s going to keep warming!” 

Messages like these encourage every candidate for office to take the climate issue seriously and strengthen their climate position to win the votes of constituents like Liz and the other Work Party attendees. 

Work Party impacts primary election

Ahead of Wisconsin’s primary election earlier this month, the Climate Voter Campaign alerted folks to two climate-related state constitutional amendments which would make it harder for the state to receive federal funding to deal with the effects of climate change. 

In a year dominated by presidential campaigning, Jill believes that the strategies implemented at the Giant Work Party helped get voters to the polls for Wisconsin’s August primary election which people might otherwise have passed over. 

“The Giant Work Party was very helpful in preparing for this work,” she said. “It helped gather volunteers who are interested in helping elect pro-climate candidates and generated lots of energy and interest.”

Not only did it generate energy and interest, but it also achieved the desired result. “We defeated the two constitutional amendments in that primary — a huge success!” Jill celebrates, also acknowledging the work of many state organizations and nonpartisan groups who worked for that outcome too.

Throw your own Work Party

Want to organize a work party like this in your own state? Hosting an event like this is an opportunity to share strategies and align chapter goals across an entire region. 

Wisconsin chapters focused on their own primary and general election goals, but for any other region interested in doing their own version of the Giant Work Party, Jill recommends working with your state coordinators to create a volunteer team to organize an in-person event.

Built-in downtime is also essential. It is a work party, after all. The Wisconsin event included a 45-minute BYO lunch break — a great opportunity to meet fellow activists, build new connections and network. 

Jill said it was important for this event to be held in-person, to get people excited about their work in the upcoming elections. By holding off on any hybrid options, the Work Party increased turnout.

Then as the event neared, they created options for members who weren’t able to be physically present by ensuring recordings of the breakout sessions were uploaded to YouTube and information about the voter campaign project were shared on CCL Wisconsin’s website.

Great work, CCL Wisconsin!

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