CEC Newsletter May 1996
by Scott Ward
On behalf of the CEC Board of Trustees, I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as the organization's new Executive Director, and to outline briefly my goals for the Citizens' Environmental Coalition.
By way of introduction, I was born in Cleveland, grew up in Louisville, and lived for the past six years in Washington, DC. Which, if I'm not mistaken, pretty much makes me a native Houstonian.
I've spent my professional life in the non-profit and public interest arena, mostly as a communications person but also as a manager. In many ways, this position constitutes my "dream job." It will allow me to continue my public interest work, but to do so on the community level, where the fruit of the labor, to me anyway, has always tended to taste a little sweeter.
Before I discuss my "vision" (for lack of a less dramatic word) for CEC, I want to emphasize that I do so with the understanding that I am simply offering an outline. For CEC - as a coalition - is really nothing more than the combined efforts of its members. Our Board, our offices, even the executive director are merely an exoskeleton encasing something far less tangible yet far more valuable: The collective energy, talent and experience of our members and our member organizations.
I think everyone can agree that CEC can be best defined as a loose collection of diverse organizations that consistently maintains a variety of quality products and services, such as our calendar, our newsletter, our Environmental Resource Guide, and our educational outreach activities. We are active at press conferences and roundtables, engaged with the business community and city hall, and respected among the organizations and individuals that make up our constituency. In short, we largely constitute the composite public face of Houston's environmental community.
We currently have more than 80 organizational members, representing everything from outdoor recreation to grassroots activism. The CEC can help achieve our members' goals in several ways. Primarily, we can act as a central coordinating point for the dozens of groups that are working on any given issue. Second, we can provide leadership to our members by helping to prioritize issues that need to be addressed in the context of the current political landscape, and what strategies might be best employed to ensure favorable outcomes.
Finally, but perhaps most important, CEC can be an effective and dedicated follower, taking direction on policy issues from the people who know best - our member groups who are most intimately linked with their particular issues.
Beyond serving those basic needs, in my mind, CEC should be the "big tent" for Houston's environmental movement. We must be the organization that says to the community: You can neither be too conservative nor too radical to join our organization. Whether your experience is with a corporation or as a canvasser, working within the system, despite the system, or to spite the system, if you care about making this region a better place to live for all its residents, and you're willing to work to do so in good faith, then you're welcome at our table. We need to make sure that CEC has reached into every corner of the community - from the top of downtown office buildings to the hearts of urban and suburban neighborhoods. Inclusion cuts every direction, and we must be sure that we have spread out as far and wide as our imagination and energy will allow.
New Executive Director Named