A very important email - are we continuing fossil free?

[Patty O'Keefe]

Hi friends,

This is a heart, cuz I love you all ^^^

Please read the message below and give feedback on how you think we should move forward with fossil free.

Last Monday, Noah, Paige V., myself, Simone, Justin and Louis met to hang out, catch up, and discuss how things are going with Fossil Free and what to do for next semester.

We had an honest conversation about how this last semester has been pretty hard on us and our campaign.  Meetings have been very low energy, and a few of us admitted that we've been attending the meetings more so out of guilt and commitment to relationships than being excited about the work.  This has made it hard to retain new members and take on work commitments to keep the campaign running.

No one should feel bad about this.  These things happen, and we've done a lot of really great work together.  I'm really proud of everything we've accomplished as a campaign over the last 3 years and so grateful for the relationships I've built with every single one of you.

But we do need to be realistic about how we're moving forward.  

Paige, Noah and I felt that we do not want to have another semester like last semester.  We want people to feel excited, empowered and committed to the campaign they're working on and it doesn't feel like people's hearts are set on this campaign right now.  Though we did not feel we could make a decision last week, just the three of us - we need those who have been involved over the last year to weigh in.  

These were the options that Noah and Paige and I came up with for possibilities for moving forward:

1. Disband the group and end the campaign

2. Talk with MPIRG about potentially merging with their enviro task force: I don't know what this would entail and if it's something MPIRG is serious about - but if you know more or have thoughts please say so!

3. Continue meeting but work on another type of campaign

4. Continue meeting and work on divestment/reinvestment

Please respond with what you think we should do about fossil free.

Love you all,

--

Patty O'Keefe

Fossil Free Coordinator

MN350

952-221-3977

[Paige Carlson]

Hey all!

So sorry to have missed the meeting, I was out of town but would have loved to see you all!

Personally I won't be putting any capacity towards organizing with Fossil Free or around divestment this upcoming semester. The past semester was really rough on me as far as guilt, and lack of interest in the specificities of the campaign were concerned. I love you all very much, but I don't think divestment is the place where I can give the most. I also think that my interests bend further away from "organizing-organizing" than I had realized. That being said if y'all start something up and want support I can for sure pop in and out but won't be able to give sustained capacity.

I like the idea that we pass divestment over to MPIRG if they're interested. We have a done a lot of research and it would be a shame to put all that to waste! I know that UMN Morris's divestment campaign is operating out of their MPIRG so we could put them in contact with each other if that would be helpful.

<3 Paige

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