Hello!

Welcome to GMT's monthly e-newsletter for December 2007, the last one of the year! We hope you are enjoying the holiday season!

I'd like to thank you all for a wonderful year of membership. We've had a lot of great experiences over the last year and I am looking forward to more in 2008! I am really excited for the holidays, as I get to head back to my home state of Connecticut to see family and old friends. I hope each of you have a great holiday as well!

As a reminder, the GMT office will be closed as of 2pm EST on Monday, December 24th, and will reopen on Wednesday, January 2nd. During this time, you will be able to contact Vocus support, although they will be closed on December 25th and January 1st.

You are receiving this as your organization is a member of Green Media Toolshed and you are currently a registered GMT user. Should you wish to opt out of this monthly communication, please see the instructions in section 8 below.

In this issue you will find:
1. Member Connections.
2. Buzz from the Beat.
3. Link(s) of the Month.
4. Community Coverage.
5. GMT's Newest Members.
6. Be in the Know: Why You Need GMT's Tools.
7. Support options.
8. Opt out instructions.

1. Member Connections: Don't forget to sign up for the True Spin Conference before it's too late!

# GMT is attending the True Spin Conference - are you? Registration is now open for the conference that is happening in Denver, Colorado, from January 31st to February 1st, 2008. If you are interested in attending, sign up soon before it sells out! Cause Communications, the conference organizer, is extending a $50 per-attendee discount to GMT members. In order to receive the discount, you must send the registration form and payment via mail and write "GMT" clearly on the form. The registration fee, with the $50 discount, is $300 before Dec. 14th and $425 on Dec. 15th or later. You can access the mail-in registration form here. Cause Communications is also giving away 15 scholarships. Details for applying for one can be found here.

A tentative list of the workshops can be found here. GMT has set up a training track, featuring presentations on netcentric advocacy and online tools by GMT's Executive Director Marty Kearns and GMT's Associate Director Bobbi Russell. We've also lined up John Amos of SkyTruth, who will be hosting a workshop on using aerial images as a part of environmental communications, and consultant John Kelly, who will be explaining new ways of looking at the political blogosphere.
# Congrats to the winner of the November skill building training raffle: Sarah Kagan of Pacific Environment! Sarah was entered into a raffle with other attendees of the Message Development training and won two free hours of consulting time with the trainer, Renee Davidson of GrassrootsPR.
# Support the Polar Bear Plunge to stop global warming! On December 8th, GMT member Josh Tulkin of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network will join 250 crazy people to plunge into the freezing cold waters of the Chesapeake Bay to raise awareness about global warming ? and raise money to support CCAN's fight against global warming. As part of the Third Annual Polar Bear Plunge - hundreds of "plungers" are getting thousands of people to pledge support as they freeze their heinies off for the climate. Rising temperatures threaten the health of the planet - and the Chesapeake Bay.

"Chesapeake Climate Action Network is the leading grassroots group fighting global warming in Maryland, Virginia and DC," explains Josh. "Our grassroots approach involves thousands of volunteers in promoting clean energy, fighting coal-fired power plants, and defending communities against the worst impacts of global warming. We are fighting the good fight, but we need your help to keep it up. Can you make a tax-deductible pledge to support this crucial work. Simply go to www.chesapeakeclimate.org/plunge to donate, or go to www.keepwintercold.org for more info."

2. Buzz from the Beat: Fighting to protect the first environmental law...

Janet Pelley of Environmental Science and Technology recently wrote about how recent cuts to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by the Bush administration threaten to seriously undermine the landmark law. NEPA is considered the Magna Carta of environmental policy in the U.S. The reasoning behind it was that "federal agencies should evaluate and disclose the environmental impacts of major projects before they are launched." Under the current administration, several laws have been passed allowing agencies looking to build dams, highways and oil and gas wells to waive important NEPA regulations. These regulations require environmental assessments of the projects, which are important to maintaining a sustainable future for the United States. Some have complained that the assessments are too costly and time consuming, but others believe they give the public involvement in these projects that could affect the environment. Ultimately, NEPA needs to be protected so that future laws won't further deteriorate it and the public won?t forget it.

Read the full story here.

3. Links of the month: Preparing for 2008...

# As the new year approaches, we are all busy closing out projects and financials and preparing for 2008. In preparation for the new year, sign up for Andy Goodman?s monthly newsletter, free range thinkingTM. Each month he provides useful tips on strategic communications, engaging your audience, storytelling and much more to help your organization. You can sign up for the free newsletter, sent via snail mail, here.
# Another newsletter you should sign up for, of the electronic sort, is Getting Attention. You'll receive useful tips from Nancy Schwartz and Company on effective marketing. These include bits on message development, email strategy and communications planning. If you're interested in seeing what has been written in previous editions, take a look at past articles. Under Media Relations/Press, there are several important articles on managing media coverage and effective press rooms.
# Lastly, sign up for Power Writing, a great e-newsletter with tips on improving your writing skills from Daphne Gray-Grant. Whether you're writing press releases, fundraising proposals or blog posts, the e-newsletter is quick and easy to read and offers a new tip with each email that will help in some area of your writing.

4. Community Coverage: The U.S. should pay attention to what Canada is up to...

The Boreal Songbird Initiative (BSI), a non-profit organization using outreach and education to spread the importance of the Boreal Forest region to North America's birds, recently sent out a press release about one of the biggest land conservation agreements in North American history. Canada announced on November 21st the protection of 25.5 million acres of land in the heart of the Canadian Boreal Forest. This land is almost equivalent to the size of 11 Yellowstone National Parks. The forest is also the largest intact forest remaining on Earth, rivaling the size and ecological important of the Amazon Basin.

To send out the announcement on this huge conservation victory, BSI looked at their core reporters (those they already had a relationship with or who have written about issues of interest to them) and broadened their scope to include reporters researched through the Vocus media database. "A lot of our media outreach focuses on reporters and publications whose beats are avian-specific or wildlife-oriented," explained Natalie Brandon, Communications Associate for BSI. "But with this announcement it was different. While this certainly was relevant to birds and wildlife - the overarching story was land protection in Canada. In order to track down the appropriate people and publications we had to branch out from our core list. We did this by researching other reporters' beats through the GMT database."

Since this was not a normal press release, BSI researched 4-5 reporters from larger newspapers. They also reached out to editorial writers with a secondary alert and researched outdoor magazines. "The great thing about GMT, of course, is that now we can save this info for future use," explained Natalie. "It was extremely helpful and made the story a hit.? One of the many great media hits the Boreal Songbird Initiative received was in the Associated Press. You can read the story here.

You can also view the full advisory and related video, along with the media coverage, on the BSI website.

Learn more about the Boreal Songbird Initiative.

Read the full press release here.

Read about issues GMT members are working on or post your press release to the GMT News Feed: http://www.greenmediatoolshed.org/news/.

Do you have a success story you'd like to share? Submit it to yvonne@greenmediatoolshed.org to be featured in our next e-newsletter.

5. GMT's Newest Members: Please welcome the following groups to the GMT network!

1. Center for Health, Environment and Justice "was created out of a commitment and passion to work with communities at risk." CHEJ is working to reduce the burden of dangerous chemicals on the environment and protect communities from exposure to these chemicals.
2. Going Coastal "is dedicated to promoting public enjoyment and responsible use of coastal resources" of the surrounding waters of New York City. One of their projects, the Clean Marine Initiative, is working to recognize local marine organizations and businesses that are helping to keep the waters clean.
3. Making Our Milk Safe (MOMS) is working to protect "the health of our babies by eliminating the growing threat of toxic chemicals and industrial pollutants in human breast milk." They do this through promoting progressive legislative and pushing to change corporate behavior. 4. Save Our Cumberland Mountains "working in Tennessee for social, environmental and economic justice." SOCM works in areas such as sustainable forestry, strip mining, mountain top removal and strip mining.

6. Be in the Know: Why You Need GMT Tools: Make sure your organization is making the most of online tools...

Green Media Toolshed's last skill building training of the year is happening on December 17th, at 3pm EST. This time around we'll be focusing on demystifying the interactive web. The success of campaigns such as World Bank protests, Chevy Tahoe and the national do-not-call list isn't magic - it's based on new models of advocacy. New web-based technologies provide powerful and increased opportunities for collaboration, deliberation, filtering and publishing of information. This workshop will familiarize participants with how new web-based tools can support these activities. Tools discussed will include: blogs, wikis, RSS, social networking sites, and tagging. Participants will leave with a basic understanding of how and why these tools can make a difference for their work.

This training will be hosted by Karen Showalter, Manager of Network Advocacy for NetCentric Campaigns (a project of Green Media Toolshed). She has worked with both domestic nonprofit and international organizations, most recently the Bank Information Center. From 2000 to 2003 Karen coordinated volunteers, public relations and outreach for the Youth Tutoring Program, a nonprofit organization serving refugee children living in Seattle's public housing communities. As a Natural Resource Management Specialist with the Peace Corps in Niger from 1996-1999, Karen designed environmental education campaigns.

Sign up today while there is still room! Send an email to Yvonne (yvonne@greenmediatoolshed.org) to secure a seat at the last training of the year and gain some valuable insight into the online tools your organization needs to be using in 2008. And don't forget to keep an eye out on the training schedule for next year!

7. Support Options and Monthly FAQ: How do I access past training recordings?

GMT office hours are Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm Eastern Standard Time.

For a full list of web browser requirements and support options for the media database, please visit this link.

For web tools or general GMT support, contact Yvonne Archer at 202-464-5357 or yvonne@greenmediatoolshed.org.

*FAQ of the month: How do I access past training recordings?

If you missed a skill building session this past year, you can view the recording within the GMT Training Center. Scroll down until you find the On Demand Trainings folder. Click on the folder to download the WebEx Player, which is needed to view past training recordings. Select the appropriate sub-folder to find the recorded training and accompanying materials ready for download. If you have any problems viewing the recordings or downloading the documents, email Yvonne at yvonne@greenmediatoolshed.org.

8. Opt out or Submit feedback: Come on, ask me a question?or better yet, pay me a compliment!

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View past e-newsletters in our monthly e-newsletter archive section of the GMT Training Center.

Hope you have a great New Year's! See you in 2008!

Take care,
Yvonne

Yvonne Archer
Green Media Toolshed
(ph) 202-464-5357
yvonne@greenmediatoolshed.org