Club 20 is a 73 year old, non-partisan, policy advocacy organization based in Grand Junction. Dubed "The voice of the Western Slope", Club 20 advocates for Western Slope communities in various venues.
KVNF caught up with Club 20's executive director Brittany Dixon to hear about what Club 20 does for the Western Slope today.
Transcription:
00:00:00 Brody Wilson (KVNF)
The Western Slope of Colorado is rural. Many residents drive significant distances to essential services like groceries and healthcare. More than 70 years ago, newspaper publishers from around the Western Slope decided to lock arms and advocate for their community's interest with a unified voice at the state Capitol, rather than as individual communities. And then a new policy organization was formed. That organization still exists today and is called Club 20. And KB&F had an opportunity to speak with their executive director.
00:00:33 Brittany Dixon (Club 20)
Yeah, my name is Brittany Dixon, and I'm the executive director of Club 20. I come from North Dakota originally, but decided to head this way for school at CMU and fell in love with the Grand Valley.
00:00:46 Brody Wilson (KVNF)
Let's start by just having you tell us what is Club 20?
00:00:50 Brittany Dixon (Club 20)
Yeah. So Club 20 is actually 73 going on 73 years old. And we are a nonpartisan political advocacy group. And we're a coalition of individuals, business leaders, corporate members, municipalities. We represent the 22 counties, like I said. So if you're in our region and not necessarily a paying member, we're still your voice. We've been dubbed the Voice of the Western slope over these 73 years.
00:01:18 Brody Wilson (KVNF)
And you say voice of the Western Slope, but the voice in what forum?
00:01:23 Brittany Dixon (Club 20)
Yeah, so that kind of leads me to our mission, which is to influence policy, provide education, and convene Coloradans in order to uplift the voices and advance the voices of the Western Slope so that people can understand our way of life over here and why we think it's so important to protect our voices over here. So we work at the local, the state, and the federal level. So we have a broad, encompassing membership and lots of issues, obviously, that are intertwined. And we are at the Capitol. That's where we do a lot of our advocacy work, is at the Capitol. But we'll also advocate for local leaders in certain roles, maybe to the CPW Commission or whatever that might look like. You know, we're really just trying to make sure that there's true representation and that our voice is not getting lost compared to the Metro voice.
00:02:14 Brody Wilson (KVNF)
I'm kind of curious. Can you help our listeners who maybe haven't heard of Club 20 understand what are the kind of core values that you are advocating for on behalf of this. This large area?
00:02:25 Brittany Dixon (Club 20)
Yeah, so that's where it gets a little bit tricky. We're. We don't work as much like a chamber of commerce. They just focus on business issues. We have 10 different policy committees, so we touch on ag, business affairs, education, energy. We have tourism, health care, public lands and natural resources, water. I'm missing a Few, sure, sure.
00:02:51 Brody Wilson (KVNF)
Those missing groups were telecommunications and transportation. Okay. And so these policy committees, do they do the advocacy themselves? Are they also in Denver at the Capitol, or is that club 20 staffers that are. That are respons for doing that?
00:03:05 Brittany Dixon (Club 20)
So it's a little bit of both. We want to make sure that we're using our grassroots efforts. That's what we were founded on, and that's what we want to continue to advocate in that style for. So myself, I'm at the Capitol every other week this session, really having those conversations, being a part of those hallway conversations that are so important in advocacy and policy making. But we do send out call to actions. We let our folks know, you know, why it's important and give them some talking points about, you know, how it could impact them. And what's important about our organization is at our policy committee meetings, our members are the ones that create our resolutions, and those are the only things that we are allowed to advocate using. So I can't, as the executive director, take positions on anything that aren't passed and approved by all of our members and our board of directors.
00:04:00 Brody Wilson (KVNF)
So here's a nonpartisan policy advocacy group working to represent the voice of 22 Western Slope communities. And 10 of their policy committees come together to decide which policy initiatives they're going to take up in what sounds.
00:04:14 Brittany Dixon (Club 20)
Like a democratic process within our 22 counties. Even though we're all rural in nature and reside west of the continental divide, we differ on a lot of things. So we have to try to find what we call the Western Slope nexus. And with that Western Slope nexus, we might. Our members might disagree on point A or point C or B, but we try to find the middle ground there, and then we push that forward.
00:04:46 Brody Wilson (KVNF)
The conversation shifted to the hyper polarized nature of our politics today and how getting consensus across such a broad geographic and demographic area can be challenging. You as the executive director of a nonpartisan policy organization, it sounds like you have a real front row seat to civil public dialogue about contentious issues. Something that I feel is quite rare these days. Tell me about that. What's that look like at Club 20?
00:05:20 Brittany Dixon (Club 20)
Yeah, so Club 20 is a perfect example that civil discourse can still exist in today's polarized political climate. And what's so important about that is, you know, I'll sit in the back of the room. And even my first day at our meetings when I first started at Club 20, you know, five years ago, I sat in the back with just the biggest grin on my face because I got to see two different, two completely opposite perspectives to an issue being voiced and disagreeing. And for us to be able to find at the end of the meeting, you know, we were able to find a solution and a common thread, that Western Slope nexus that we could agree on and that we could help push and advocate for moving forward. And that's the club 20 magic is we can disagree and have those conversations in today's climate rather than just shutting down completely. It helps you understand the other side, which can strengthen your opinion, might help you understand the other opinion even more and maybe come more towards the middle to have that civil discourse conversation. And at the end of the day, you know, we're having a latte or a drink together and asking how the kids are. Like you said, it's important. And in today's political climate, it's just not possible sometimes. But here at Club 20, it is absolutely important that we continue to advocate for our communities, but also for civil discourse to exist.
00:06:46 Brody Wilson (KVNF)
Well, Brittany Dixon, executive Director of Club 20, thank you very much for joining us and sharing your interests and passion with KVF listeners. Anything else you'd like to add before we go?
00:06:57 Brittany Dixon (Club 20)
Just a big thank you to you guys for this invitation. I surely appreciate it. And if anybody has any questions, we would love to hear from you. Feel free to call our office or shoot me an email.
00:07:08 Brody Wilson (KVNF)
Great. Thanks, Brittany.
00:07:09 Brittany Dixon (Club 20)
Thanks, Brody.
00:07:10 Brody Wilson (KVNF)
You can find all that contact information and learn more about Club 20@club20.org For KVNF news, I'm Brody Wilson.