In August  2016, the Climate Reality training program in Houston was well attended by DFW area residents. Because there was no local chapters program, DFW trainees talked about forming a DFW group after the training for the purposes of mutual support and collective action. Early attempts to hold an organizing meeting were poorly attended. Two of the Houston trainees, Larry Weil and Roger Knudson, did meet to discuss forming an ongoing group. Two other Houston trainees, Robert Landolt and Clint Light, joined this conversation. Efforts were made to find other trained leaders via Reality Hub searches, but none of those contacted expressed interest in the group. 

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In April 2017, three of the founding members participated in the People’s Climate March in Washington, DC. At that march, Roger spoke with some staff members from the DC office and was told that a local chapters program would be coming “in the fall.” 

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In the summer of 2017, Kelly Longfellow (Denver, 2017) joined the group. When the announcement was made in early August 2017 that applications were being accepted for chapter charters,  it included a requirement that a minimum of five trained Climate Leaders needed to sign the application. We met the bare minimum requirement.

 

We applied immediately and received our charter via email on August 25, 2017. At our first meeting shortly thereafter, we added Climate Leader Christine Alico (Houston, 2016) to our chapter membership. We identified a place to meet on a monthly basis that was free of charge, and felt as if we had taken the first step toward creating a chapter. A major factor in the success of the chapter came in October when a large group of newly trained Climate Leaders from the Pittsburgh training joined the chapter. Most of those new members became actively involved right away, and the chapter started to attract new Public Members (members who have not yet attended a training program) as well.