This summer marked the 4th annual SustainUS retreat and each year the retreat manages to be even more incredible and productive than the previous year. On the weekend of August 25 - 26th, 28 youth from all over the country gathered outside of New York City at Black Rock Forest Lodge, a 'green' conference facility with self-composting toilets and a geothermal heat pump system. The weather may have been sullen, but the spirits inside were certainly anything but that! The theme of the retreat was ACTION and the participants worked hard to create tangible results and action items by the end of the weekend.

Over the past year, SustainUS has grown into a professional and powerful organization, actively pursuing our mission of empowering young people to advance sustainable development. Representatives from four geoclusters (including a major showing by our newest city, Philadelphia), along with Steering Committee members and other SustainUS leadership attended the retreat. A major highlight of the weekend was the contributions from all the new folks - proving, once again, that SustainUS attracts amazing and inspiring youth who are passionate about bringing about real change in the world.

Saturday morning began with a brief introduction to the structure of SustainUS and updates from the national programs and geoclusters on activities from the past year. After a fabulous home cooked lunch, we launched into three workshops: an introduction to the United Nations Process; how to communicate sustainable development to the persuadable middle; and geocluster skills training. For the next session, we split up into smaller groups to discuss our strongest national program, Agents of Change. We reconvened to summarize the major points. [Agents of Change Discussion]

During another equally scrumptious meal for dinner, we created breakout groups to brainstorm ideas for geocluster activities. The thoughts were flowing and resulted in a matrix highlighting the project ideas by economic, social and environmental category. [Geocluster Activities Matrix]

The night ended on a high note after a few hours of catching up with old friends and learning about new ones. And we were up bright and early on Sunday for an action packed day!

Sunday launched started off full force with three breakout groups concentrating on 'bigger discussions' for SustainUS: Fundraising, Board of Directors roles and Membership Age. These are topics on which an entire SustainUS retreat could focus - but the plan for the session was just to get a fresh perspective and throw out ideas. [Bigger Issues Breakout Sessions]

The remainder of the retreat was geocluster-centric as we discussed much-needed updates for the Geocluster Guide, which will be a tremendous resource for geocluster heads - especially those people interested in starting up a new chapter. (Stay tuned for the updated version!) Later, folks from each of the four geoclusters represented at the retreat gathered to create action plans, including membership outreach goal, funding needs and strategies, and potential local partners.

Continuing on the amazing momentum, the final session was our call to action - as the entire group went over the major 'to do' items from the weekend and identified bottom liners for each. [Retreat Action Items]

Finally after a flurry of hugs and goodbyes, everyone got on the road to head back to their respective home bases. Even as we all parted ways though, the energy and excitement level remained strong as people left feeling empowered about their participation over the weekend and motivated to make real change. This is you, this is me, this is us - SustainUS!

[Photos from the retreat]