Roots & Shoots Youth Council Member Page

2025 RSYC Member Info

Welcome to 2025 with the Roots & Shoots Youth Council USA! Thank you for your commitment to making positive change happen—for humans, for animals, and for the environment we all share.

This webpage is a one-stop introduction to JGI, Roots & Shoots USA, and your role on the Council. There is great info for both returning and new members. Take some time to absorb it all and don’t hesitate to reach out with questions!

Roots & Shoots Mission

To foster respect and compassion for all living things, to promote understanding of all cultures and beliefs and to inspire each individual to take action to make the world a better place for animals, people, and the environment.

2025 Summit Overview

About the pre-Summit event on June 21

New this year! We are offering RSYC 101, a deep dive session all about R&S and the Council to our new members the day before the Summit. We’ll cover foundational R&S lore, learn about the global aspects of R&S and get up close and personal with the 4-Step Formula and Community Mapping.

This pre-Summit get-together is intended for our eleven new RSYC members. We encourage new members to attend for this extra day, but it is not required. For those who joined the Council in 2024 and would like to join in for an extra dose of R&S, please let me know (we have some extra spaces).

Activities will start bright and early on June 21st, so R&S 101 attendees should plan to arrive in the afternoon of June 20th. We’ll wrap the pre-meeting portion in the afternoon as the rest of the Summit participants start showing up.

About the “Down By the Bay” RSYC Summit
Sunday, June 22 – Tuesday, June 24

Three days fun of exploration, fun, presentations, service and learning based at NatureBridge. Day one will be spent exploring the ecosystems of the Golden Gate Recreation Area. On Day 2, we’ll head in San Francisco for our presentations and service project. Day 3 is our optional excursions day, we’re planning a visit to a marine mammal rescue center and a ecological whale watch boat excursion.

Plan on arriving on the afternoon/evening of Saturday, June 21st. Most departures will be on Wednesday, June 25 in the early morning

About travel planning and costs

You do not have to book or pay for your flights/transportation to these Summit events. You will be working with our travel agent later in April to select your flights. We also arrange transportation from the airport to our meeting site and we’ll meet you at the airport to make sure you get to the Summit! Thanks to a generous donor, JGI is able to pay for all meals, lodging, travel and related expenses for these events.

Especially for New Members

New members, the checklist below is your guide to completing your first responsibilities as a member of the 2025 RSYC.  Over the next week, return to Submittable to fill out our RSYC Member Info form. Deadline is January 9th at 4:00 pm ET.

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Great for New & Returning Members

Keep scrolling for good info and handy links to help you have a productive RSYC year!

• Roots & Shoots staff contact info
• RSYC position description, outlining benefits and expectations
• Meeting calendar
• Staying in touch
• Handy links, including the public RSYC page and pages about Jane, JGI, and Roots & Shoots

RSYC Hours Tracker 

Roots & Shoots USA Contact Info

Staying in Touch

Roots & Shoots Youth Council members are located throughout the United States in different time zones, which can be a challenge! To keep in touch, we use email, text, GroupMe messaging, a Google Group listserv and Zoom videoconferencing.

Meetings via Zoom

For our bi-weekly meetings, we use Zoom videoconferencing. You will
receive the Zoom link and a meeting agenda prior to each meeting. Our
meetings are scheduled for the 2nd Monday and the 4th Thursday of the month.

Zoom meetings are 1 hour

~ 2nd Monday and 4th Thursday of every month at 9pm EST ~

The RSYC has two required meetings a month, plus occasional Social Pop-Up calls, which are optional.

Update Meetings: Just for members of the Youth Council and R&S staff, these meetings consist of project sharing sessions with updates from JGI headquarters, so come ready to share!

Professional Development Webinars: Current Council members, JGI staff, and occasionally Youth Council alumni are invited to our Professional Development webinars. Focused on skills development, exploring careers and global issues, these meetings are generally led by invited guest experts and moderated by a Youth Leader.

Collaboration Meetings: Planning and work sessions for Council-wide projects and campaigns.

Communication Tools
EMAIL We use Google Group listserv as our main communication tool. Any messages posted to the list will go directly to your email, and you can reply to the message from your email. Joining our Google listserv is mandatory. We expect you to post and respond to messages. Roots & Shoots staff will add you directly.

Here’s the address: 2025-rs-youth-council@googlegroups.com. Please add this email to your contacts and safe senders lists (otherwise these messages end up in spam/junk folders). Also feel free to use it to communicate with the whole group!

TEXT We occasionally reach out by text for urgent matters or a quick, timely update. You have the option to opt out of receiving texts from R&S staff.

GROUP MESSAGING We also use GroupMe messaging to grab your attention! It is particularly useful when we are together in-person at the Summit or another R&S event. You can opt out of these messages.