October 2026 Newsletter

We are affiliated with national Elders Climate Action, a project of Elders Action Network. Check out our websites: ECA Mass and ECA national.

In this Issue

ECA Mass Meetings: Chapter Meeting & Deep Dialogue
Legislative Update
Communications Survey
Saving Nature
Nine Ballot Questions
Mothers Out Front Today at Noon Zoom
Write Postcards for the Environment
We Need Energy Affordability
ECA Mass Members Out & About

ECA Mass Meetings

MONTHLY CHAPTER MEETING

TUESDAY, OCT 13

at NOON

Join us IN PERSON

at the Arlington Library

Or on Zoom

Potluck lunch at noon and speaker starts at 12:30. Discussion about member engagement will follow the speaker's presentation.

DEEP DIALOGUE

MONDAY, OCT 26

4 - 5:30 PM on Zoom

SAVE THE DATE

INFO and REGISTRATION LINK

WILL BE EMAILED LATER

Legislative Update:

Advocacy, Advocacy Everywhere

Energy Bill Blitz

ECA Mass and our allies in the MA Coalition for Affordable Energy (MCAE) have been rattling our legislators’ cages in many ways during the last month. A lobby day on September 23 was a great success with a hundred or so advocates rallying at the State House to hear speakers on the three demands (Save Mass Save, no cuts to Alternative Compliance Payment (ACP) funds for clean energy, and phase out the Gas System Enhancement Program (GSEP)) and then visited lawmakers to make our case and drop off copies of this one page summary.

The Coalition is sending out regular emails to all legislators with detailed arguments supporting the three demands. Meetings with key legislators are being scheduled by constituents to reinforce the message and learn from our supporters how to better focus our advocacy. We are still expecting an energy bill to come out of conference committee in October, although it is still possible that if the House and Senate cannot reach agreement that there would be no bill this session. Starting over in 2027 is not a good option because there are many proposals in the Senate version of the bill (GSEP reform, consumer protections, clean energy procurement, etc.) that we need to implement ASAP.

Advancing ECA Mass Advocacy

At the September chapter meeting, we had a chance to be inspired by Climate Chief Melissa Hoffer, learn about our advocacy motivations and potential, and discuss ways to improve our advocacy. We learned that most of those in attendance are motivated by awareness of climate as an existential crisis and the threat to future generations and about half were also motivated by concern about preserving our natural world and mitigating risks to human health and welfare.

Nearly all who responded to our poll reported that two things keep them involved in ECA Mass: Being able to make an effective contribution to climate action and being in community with like-minded elders. The many types of climate action those attending are involved in is remarkable (See poll results here). Nearly half of those attending also said that they are looking for ways to get more involved in climate action.

Stay tuned for new opportunities to get involved!

The Legislative Team Constituent Task Group and the Leadership Team will be following up on the chapter meeting, and working on ways to reach out to members effectively, design new options for engagement, and advance our advocacy in other ways.

Roger Luckmann

We Want to Hear from YOU!

Have you taken the Communications Survey?

If not, now is a great time to take 5-10 minutes to respond to the ECA Massachusetts survey questions! The survey is intended to:

Improve our communications and member experience
Better understand members' concerns and priorities
Match our advocacy and activities with the issues members care about
Identify ways to help more members engage in climate action

Help us go into the new legislative session stronger than ever! Click here to get to the survey.

Launa Zimmaro

Saving Nature in Your Yard

We have learned that it's important to salamanders, bees, fireflies, butterflies, and insect life in general to leave the leaves in your yard for the winter. Many of us are now leaving the leaves around trees and shrubs until spring. But beyond leaving the leaves, there is much more you can do to protect nature over the winter. Both Doug Tallamy and Joe Lamp’l provide suggestions

In his new book, How Can I Help? Saving Nature with Your Yard, Douglas Tallamy, professor at the University of Delaware, gives answers to many questions about how we can use our yards to protect the environment. Many of his ideas are easy to implement. Others, like leaving the leaves, are easy, but may not be the usual practice.

Here is another easy idea for homeowners concerned with broadleaf weeds in their lawns: don’t spray the lawn to kill them. White clover and dandelions are non-native plants, but both supply nectar for honeybees and generalist pollinators. Among Tallamy’s other suggestions are that even apartment dwellers can help pollinators by using containers on their porches that are planted with native plants.

In his online series, Growing a Greener World, Joe Lamp’l has pointed out that small habitat changes in your yard can make a big difference. For example, leaving a portion of perennial stems standing (insects may have winter homes there) or allowing seed heads to remain after the flowers are gone (birds may need them). Planting layers of different plants rather than spacing everything out provides more dense cover helpful to some of our garden residents. Leave a small stack of stones or piece of decaying log for other wildlife.

Rick Lent

This Election, Mass Has

NINE Ballot Questions

There are nine, count ‘em, nine ballot initiatives on the ballot in Massachusetts this upcoming election!

While ECA is a non-partisan organization, we know that voting is our strength as a democracy, and democracy depends on an informed and engaged electorate. Voting matters. The League of Women Voters is the premiere, nonpartisan voter advocacy organization in the country. The state League (lwvma.org) takes positions on ballot questions that directly relate to League priorities and also supports public education events to inform voters of the ballot issues.

On September 23, the LWVMA sponsored a debate on Question 3 which relates to State Primary Elections; here's the recording.

Here are the LWVMA positions on all 9 ballot questions.

The League of Women Voters of Concord-Carlisle hosted a hybrid forum on October 2, for an open discussion of the pros and cons of each ballot initiative and what a YES or NO vote would mean as a guide for voters. Evan Horowitz was the presenter. Evan is the Executive Director of the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University. Click here for more information about this event. A recording will be shared with members when available.

Launa Zimmaro

Build Relationships

with Your Legislators

On Tuesday, October 6 at noon, join the Mothers Out Front Climate Action call and learn how to build relationships with your legislators.

From our allies at Mothers Out Front:

We will explore the principles and concrete steps for building successful relationships with our state and municipal legislators, as well as with other public officials. We'll hear from one of our MOF chapters about how they have gone about this, and then will take actions related to the state Energy Bill currently being reconciled by a conference committee of the Massachusetts Legislature.

RSVP HERE

Tina Grosowsky

Write Postcards for the Environment!

Join others to write postcards for the Environmental Voter Project in Arlington. EVP identifies inactive environmentalists and turns them into consistent voters.

When: Friday, October 9 & Thursday, October 15

Time: 10 – 11:30 AM

Where: Mill St Café, 14 Mill St., Arlington

Who: Everyone is welcome!

Questions: Email Johanna meyer.jwm@gmail.com

Maiyim Baron

We Need Energy Affordability

Larry Chretien, Director of Green Energy Consumers Alliance, speaks to the crowd on the importance of the Alternative Compliance Plan (ACP)

ECA Mass is a member of the MA Coalition for Affordable Energy (MCAE) which hosted a rally on September 23 at the Boston State House to send a message to legislators on the Energy Affordability bill. The bill is in conference committee now. After the rally, members visited legislators on the conference committee and Leadership.

The message is clear:

NO cuts to Mass Save, NO cuts to the Alternative Compliance Plan (ACP) and eliminate Gas System Enhancement Plan (GSEP). This flyer was distributed to all legislators.

Tina Grosowsky

ECA Mass Members Out & About

Paul Reisberg and Tina Grosowsky host an ECA table at the Acton/Boxborough Farmers Market. They got several new members!!

Acton area gathering at the Acton Arboretum

Get More Involved & Join an ECA Team

If you would like to become more involved with ECA Mass on one of our teams (Communication, Education, Legislative, Membership, or Research) please contact Tina Grosowsky, tgrosowsky@gmail.com.

Tina Grosowsky

Join our Google Group!

We send announcements of our meetings and Action Alerts to eca-mass@googlegroups.com, which includes all those on our active list.

Please contact Dawn Edell if you want to confirm you are on our active list.

Find us on Social Media

Be a fan and follow ECA Mass on Instagram!

Visit the ECA Mass Facebook page and click the like button!

Did you miss a past meeting?

Did you miss an ECA Mass Chapter Meeting or Deep Dialogue? Or do you want to share one with friends and family?

We have you covered! Videos of past chapter meetings are here and videos of past deep dialogues are here.

WHAT ARE YOU READING?

Would you like to review a book for our newsletter?

Contact the newsletter editor Debora Hoffman.

This Newsletter is Published for Members and Friends of

Elders Climate Action - Massachusetts Chapter

ECA Massachusetts is a chapter of the national Elders Climate Action. We are a movement of elders committed to making our voices heard to change our nation's policies while there is still time to avoid catastrophic changes in the Earth's climate. Visit the ECA Massachusetts website, event calendar, and Facebook page to learn more about our chapter's activities and climate news. JOIN ECA MASSACHUSETTS AND STAY CONNECTED! Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, and for more active participation, sign up to receive Action Alerts and meeting announcements. Fill out our subscription form.

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