I'm pleased to say that the Green Tennessee (GT) Campaign is off and running with a great start! First of all, a huge thanks to everyone who attended the workshop and campaign launch: You all made the workshop a big success and a real pleasure to host. The diversity of ages and backgrounds represented was quite heartening, and exactly what I think is needed to get the kind of legislation enacted we want in order to protect our environment. So again, to everyone there, thank you!

After presenting a brief overview of the GT campaign, I handed things off to Seannalyn Brandmeir, presenter for the Climate Project. She provided an excellent overview of the goals and structure of Climate Project presentations, leading us through many great examples and explaining how the presentation builds its argument from start to finish. Next, Jeff Barrie, filmmaker and creator of Kilowatt Ours explained why he made the film, and how the Kilowatt Ours film and project seeks to show people how they can practically and dramatically reduce their energy usage without nearly as much effort or sacrifice as one might think.

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From there, we discussed the policy agenda for the GT campaign -- geothermal power for city and county schools, energy reviews for government buildings, and creating greener cities with the LEED standards -- and went into some detail on how individuals and local DFA chapters can go about hosting a Town Hall meeting. The ultimate goal of Town Hall meetings, of course, will be to see relevant legislation enacted, which we also discussed in some detail.

Plans are already in progress to host the first GT Town Hall meeting in Nashville, and most likely Chatanooga very shortly thereafter. So, expect to be hearing from me soon on how YOU can help out with these Town Hall meetings. Finally, we'll be using a website to organize these and future events, so keep an eye out for that. The website will be www.green-tennessee.org, which should have some content available in the next week or two.

Doug Morse,
Green Tennessee organizer