About Thurston Climate Action Team

Thurston Climate Action Team (TCAT), founded in 2009, is the leading grassroots, citizen-based nonprofit focused on reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHG) in Thurston County. Our mission is to create a healthy and sustainable future for Thurston County by bringing our community together to reduce climate disruption, resulting in a healthy, just, and prosperous future for all. Working with local government, businesses, and non-profits, we focus on initiatives that will quickly, significantly, and equitably reduce GHG emissions within Thurston County using science-based targets, and that can be a model for other similar sized regions.

The Cities of Olympia, Lacey, and Tumwater, along with the Thurston County Commissioners, have committed to the development of a Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan (TCMP) that lays out a concrete process for achieving speedy and significant GHG emissions reductions.  Development of the TCMP is well underway. A draft is expected to be released for public input by spring 2020 and a final plan released by summer. TCAT has continued to be involved throughout this work, participating and/or attending committee meetings, providing expert input and public testimony when appropriate, keeping the broader environmental community updated and informed about opportunities to impact the process, and meeting individually with the jurisdictions to address concerns and motivate early action.

Position Overview: Community Engagement Organizer

TCAT has an immediate need for a Community Engagement Organizer. This position supports the Community Engagement Director and the work of TCAT in getting a robust Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan (TCMP) approved by the four jurisdictions participating in the TCMP process (Lacey, Olympia, Tumwater and Thurston County).

Our team is looking for a motivated individual who is passionate about addressing climate change in Thurston County. This is a part-time, temporary position, funded until the end of June 2020. Continuation beyond that point depends on funding requests currently pending.

Action Group Support

The Organizer will be responsible, with support, for starting a Transportation Action Group.  She/he will help with arrangements of other Climate Action Groups (Advocacy, Buildings & Energy, Agriculture & Food, Trees), and attend meetings, research, and produce support materials when requested by the Director; will help with arrangements for and advertising of the monthly education events put on by the different action groups or with Coordinating Council partner groups.

Organizing Stakeholder groups in support of the TCMP

The Organizer will work with the Director to arrange meetings of Stakeholder groups: unions, people of faith, people of color, low income people, business owners, etc.  This includes identifying leaders from these groups and doing outreach to them, making meeting arrangements and keeping email communication with stakeholders to keep their engagement.  This also includes creating supporting documentation for the different groups.

Arrangements coordination

The Organizer will help with making room arrangements and advertising of Coordinating Council meetings, above listed action groups and stakeholder groups as well as supporting an Earth Day event on April 18. Will work with both the Community Engagement Director and the Digital Communications Coordinator to support registration and physical arrangements for the Earth Day event.

Social Media

Will actively post social media of various sorts for all of the above events.

Desired skills and experience:

BA in a relevant field.

Previous organizing experience for environmental or other social justice issue groups.

Initiative and ability to self-motivate, multi-task and proven track record working without direct supervision.  Ability to work as part of a team in a collaborative manner.

Proven ability to complete projects and tasks on time, and meet the expectations of the public, other staff, volunteers, partner organizations and supervisors.

Experience with making flyers, Facebook event pages and other forms of social media advertising.  Comfort with calling and talking to strangers.

Experience with basic spreadsheet functions (e.g., sort, search, graphs), online membership or customer tracking applications, updating content for websites, and web-based calendar applications.

How to apply

Submit resume and cover letter or note explaining why you are the best candidate for this position to Tom Crawford at tom@thurstonclimateaction.org.

The position is open until filled.

TCAT is an equal opportunity employer. Employment decisions are based on merit and business needs, and not on race, color, citizenship status, national origin, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, religion, creed, physical or mental disability, marital status, veteran status, political affiliation, or any other factor protected by law.