We had our first official meeting tonight at the RAN offices in San Francisco. 24 people in total came and discussed RAN, our renewed effort to grassroots market activism and our current campaigns and where they’re at.  We had some pizza, strawberries (maybe not an obvious combo but I’m telling you they are surprising tasty together), chips and organic fruit juice.

I was immediatley struck by the diversity of folks who showed up.  I talked with Marielle who was fresh out of college, and somehow was managing to rent in two places at once in San Francisco (ok, she was moving).  Toby was working on homeless issues in Golden Gate Park and wanted to know where to plug-in.  Lorna Li is developing a new rainforest issues portal that she said she hopes will be a “National Geographic-type experience for rainforest groups and NGOs.”  Amir drove up from San Jose to attend the meeting and asked pointed questions about how to get this information into the schools.

Perhaps the most moving moment was when Denise, a wonderful woman who told us that she had volunteered and interned with RAN years ago, but hasn’t done any activism since 2004 and “felt like something was missing in [her] life.”

One piece I realized about halfway thorugh the meeting was that most people don’t REALLY understand the ins and outs of market campaigning. But its not that this stuff is beyond anyone; as soon as we started talking more intricately about certain aspects of our work folks started nodding and saying, “yeah, thats great.”   I think that will be a big focus for everyone in the coming months.

Amid the flurry of business cards being exchanged Lorna found out that she and Levana, our Education Outreach Coordinator, were friends with the same family in the Brazilian rainforest. Small world, this rainforest stuff.

We’re having more organizing meetings, for sure in different parts of the bay. If you’re interested in jumping in, let us know: jwolk[at]ran[dot]org.