Join the Citizens’ Climate Lobby Forsyth Chapter
Forsyth County, Georgia
CCL Forsyth Chapter members meet with U.S. Representative Caroline Bourdeaux (D-GA) to discuss various bills including the bipartisan Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (H.R. 2307).
Welcome to Citizens’ Climate Lobby!
We are glad you are here! Please look over this orientation sheet to help get you started.
CCL is set up in chapters to lobby members of Congress (MOCs) by legislative district. We are Georgia District 07 and lobby Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux. District 07 covers most of Gwinnett County and much of Forsyth. The Forsyth chapter also welcomes people from District 09 in the north part of the county, but there are other chapters that focus more exclusively on the 09 district.
We ask for lobby meetings with our MOC’s office several times per year both locally and in DC. In normal times, DC meetings happen in June and November as part of a national conference. All members are welcome. In COVID times, meetings have been virtual.
We meet the 3rd Monday of every month at 6:30 pm. All meetings are currently virtual on Zoom. You will receive an email with the link.
Our chapter leaders are Ken Kirby for Forsyth and Kathe Gowland for Gwinnett. Terry Welsher was instrumental in setting up our chapters, and in addition to advising us, now acts as one of the state coordinators. Emily Kaminski is the chapter liaison for Carolyn Bourdeaux’s office and sets up our lobby meetings. Don’t hesitate to reach out to any of us if we can help you connect to climate advocacy.
Getting yourself up to speed
Attend a live or recorded informational session from the national office. This is a great overview of CCL and what we are all about.
Join the calling campaign! If our MOCs are going to act on climate, they need to hear that we want it! Signing up for the calling campaign means you will get a text or email notification once per month reminding you to call your MOCs and express your hopes that they will prioritize climate. You will either leave a message or speak to an aide who will take a message. We track this both locally and nationally. This is not bothering the MOC. They use these calls as a tool for gauging what their constituents are thinking about.
Find the Gwinnett/Forsyth Citizens’ Climate Lobby group page on Facebook. You can follow the national organization here and the Georgia state page here. If you are willing to use Twitter, etc to amplify climate news and MOCs actions, ask to join the Facebook social media page here. The national CCL runs an Instagram page here.
Attend a training about how to effectively work with Congress. This training is particularly helpful for working as part of the lobby team that meets with the MOC. These are offered live regularly, but a recording is available too.
Watch for and attend an En-Roads presentation. The En-Roads climate solutions simulation tool shows how adjusting different factors in our environment impacts warming. This tool was developed by MIT and is a powerful way to talk about solving the climate crisis.
Join the CCL community. These are message boards where members from across the country collaborate to find ways to effectively get our message across. You can also find and join “Action Teams” that focus on specific areas. Examples include: faith groups, industry/business groups, agriculture, education, diversity groups, and more. Go to CCL Action Teams to get started.
Explore the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. This is the specific bill that CCL is advocating. We are asking Congress to put a steadily rising price on carbon and return funds collected as a dividend to all citizens. We also support other bills that relate to climate and environmental issues.
Think about how you can help! There’s lots of room in our group for innovative self-starters! We need your creativity as we ramp up our efforts to make climate solutions a reality.
We are glad you are here! Please look over this orientation sheet to help get you started.
CCL is set up in chapters to lobby members of Congress (MOCs) by legislative district. We are Georgia District 07 and lobby Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux. District 07 covers most of Gwinnett County and much of Forsyth. The Forsyth chapter also welcomes people from District 09 in the north part of the county, but there are other chapters that focus more exclusively on the 09 district.
We ask for lobby meetings with our MOC’s office several times per year both locally and in DC. In normal times, DC meetings happen in June and November as part of a national conference. All members are welcome. In COVID times, meetings have been virtual.
We meet the 3rd Monday of every month at 6:30 pm. All meetings are currently virtual on Zoom. You will receive an email with the link.
Our chapter leaders are Ken Kirby for Forsyth and Kathe Gowland for Gwinnett. Terry Welsher was instrumental in setting up our chapters, and in addition to advising us, now acts as one of the state coordinators. Emily Kaminski is the chapter liaison for Carolyn Bourdeaux’s office and sets up our lobby meetings. Don’t hesitate to reach out to any of us if we can help you connect to climate advocacy.
Getting yourself up to speed
Attend a live or recorded informational session from the national office. This is a great overview of CCL and what we are all about.
Join the calling campaign! If our MOCs are going to act on climate, they need to hear that we want it! Signing up for the calling campaign means you will get a text or email notification once per month reminding you to call your MOCs and express your hopes that they will prioritize climate. You will either leave a message or speak to an aide who will take a message. We track this both locally and nationally. This is not bothering the MOC. They use these calls as a tool for gauging what their constituents are thinking about.
Find the Gwinnett/Forsyth Citizens’ Climate Lobby group page on Facebook. You can follow the national organization here and the Georgia state page here. If you are willing to use Twitter, etc to amplify climate news and MOCs actions, ask to join the Facebook social media page here. The national CCL runs an Instagram page here.
Attend a training about how to effectively work with Congress. This training is particularly helpful for working as part of the lobby team that meets with the MOC. These are offered live regularly, but a recording is available too.
Watch for and attend an En-Roads presentation. The En-Roads climate solutions simulation tool shows how adjusting different factors in our environment impacts warming. This tool was developed by MIT and is a powerful way to talk about solving the climate crisis.
Join the CCL community. These are message boards where members from across the country collaborate to find ways to effectively get our message across. You can also find and join “Action Teams” that focus on specific areas. Examples include: faith groups, industry/business groups, agriculture, education, diversity groups, and more. Go to CCL Action Teams to get started.
Explore the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. This is the specific bill that CCL is advocating. We are asking Congress to put a steadily rising price on carbon and return funds collected as a dividend to all citizens. We also support other bills that relate to climate and environmental issues.
Think about how you can help! There’s lots of room in our group for innovative self-starters! We need your creativity as we ramp up our efforts to make climate solutions a reality.
- Can you invite friends to join you?
- Do you own a business that would be willing to endorse the Energy Innovation Act?
- Would you be excited to talk to businesses and organizations about endorsing our bill?
- Who do you know that needs to hear about us. Who could help?
Connect with our chapter
Don’t see your town listed? Check out our other Georgia CCL chapters
GA Athens- Athens, GA (Active)GA Atlanta- Atlanta, GA (Active)
GA Augusta- Augusta, Dearing, GA (Active)
GA Chatuge- Hiawassee, GA and Hayesville, NC, GA (Active)
GA Dalton- Dalton, GA (Active)
GA Forsyth- Cumming, GA (Active)
GA Georgia Institute of Technology- Atlanta, GA (In Progress)
GA Gwinnett County- Buford, Suwanee, GA (Active)
GA North Atlanta- Atlanta, GA (Active)
GA Roswell- Roswell, GA (Active)
Georgia - At Large (In Progress)
Join the Forsyth chapter
