Because we want to encourage activism among Switzer Fellows, we recently passed along some information about the Science Network of the Union of Concerned Scientists.  The UCS Science Network is a community of over 20,000 scientists and technical experts who have committed to raising their hands for science-based decision making.  Switzer Fellows are strongly encouraged to join!   Put your expertise into action by receiving real-time action alerts, opportunities for you to add your voice, as well as trainings and resources on how to effectively engage in policy discussions.  If you missed the email from Erin, please contact her for more information.

UCS also offers a new resource to securely share information about political interference in science.  This tool allows you to share information securely and anonymously if you experience political interference in your work.  More information is available on their website.

On January 19th, Fellow Jason Grumet, Founder and President of the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, DC, offered Fellows his assessment of the Trump administration and the new Congress, and what they mean for energy and environmental policy.  Fellows who were not able to join the call can listen to the recorded version available on the private side of our website.  To access it, you must be logged in to the site!  (If you need help logging in, contact Don Brackett for assistance.)  Then go to Network Resources in the gray bar, click on Trainings, and you will see a listing for "Policy Briefing with Jason Grumet".  Please note, however, that our agreement with Jason is that this briefing was for Fellows only, so please help us honor that by not sharing it.  Thank you.

Our colleagues at Rockwood Leadership Institute are offering a special discount to Switzer Fellows who take their Art of Leadership course!  This course, a five-day residential retreat, teaches powerful visioning, listening, and team building skills to emerging and established social change leaders.  In the spirit of our ongoing partnership with them, Rockwood will provide a 10% discount off their sliding scale for all Switzer Fellows who apply through March 31, 2017.  Simply enter the code "SWITZER" in the online application coupon field.  We may be able to offer up to $500 in Professional Development funds to assist you with tuition if your organization can't fund the entire cost.  Contact   Erin  for more information.  

To make progress on ideologically or politically sticky issues, social sector organizations must re-shape their messaging to do more than cite facts; they must use smart storytelling and craft solutions that don't require those they want to reach to sacrifice their values, according to a recent article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

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Each year, we have the opportunity to look back on the year's accomplishments (ours and yours!) when writing our annual report.  All Fellows were emailed a copy of the report, but if you missed it, it is also available on our website.  Our 30th anniversary was a great year!  Here's to the next 30. 

Just a reminder that, if you'll be attending a conference and are interested in meeting up with other Fellows who may be attending, there is a spreadsheet for that!  On the excellent suggestion of Fellows, we've developed a central spreadsheet where you can add your name to a list of conference attendees and try to arrange a meet-up while you're there.  The sheet is accessible to all Fellows.

Politics, capitalism, and energy poverty are combining in strange ways across India.  The result looks like progress - sometimes.

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President Trump jettisoned more than 30 years of bipartisan regulatory policy on January 30 when he issued an executive order on " Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs."  The order requires that whenever a new regulation is enacted by any federal agency, regulators must eliminate two rules, so that the cost of complying with the new rule is offset by the costs associated with the two existing rules.  But Fellow Joe Aldy says Trump misses a crucial point about government regulations:  They impose costs on society, but they also produce benefits. 

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Adopting new policies and new technologies requires an awareness of the damage we are doing to our global life-support system.  This awareness depends on our ecological literacy - whether we can understand basic scientific processes and how human activity is altering those processes (and then, how those alterations affect our present and future wellbeing).  Aware of this, President Donald J. Trump has declared war on ecological literacy, writes Fellow Daniel Orenstein.

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