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Sierra Club as an Interest Group
Sierra Club is an interest group that promotes the preservation and
celebration of the environment. Sierra Club was first founded on the May 28 of
1892 and it began with only 182 members. The original purpose for the formation
of Sierra Club was to "sponsor wilderness outings in the 'mountain regions of the
Pacific Coast.'", but soon after its formation John Muir, the first president of Sierra
Club, began to steer the organization towards taking political action to help the
conservation of nature. It's first success in 1905 by convincing the President at
the time, Theodore Roosevelt, to not constrict the size of Yosemite National Park.
This brought a lot of press to the club until it eventually brought the group to
50,000 members exclusively in California. In 1950 the group went national and
membership boomed until the point that now in the present the last milestone
that Sierra Club noted was 1.4 million members( .)
Sierra Club invites individuals to join their organization but they also
encourage groups to join for both network opportunities and the spread of their
mission statement. The group makes most of their group wide campaigns at
national headquarters with their 15 volunteer Board of Directors. There are five
directors and are elected to three-year terms and they are voted in by all the
members of Sierra Club. Sierra Club has chapters in each state, with the

exception of the state of California which has 14 chapters. Most issues the Sierra
Club approaches are dealt with by the individual chapters

"Sierra Club (American Conservation Group)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2013.

"History: Sierra Club Timeline." Sierra Club Timeline. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2013.