First Parish in Concord

Green Sanctuary Group

First Parish > Green Sanctuary > Meeting Minutes

Meeting Minutes

Attendees:

Maria Cox
Berni Jenkins
Peter Lowitt
Andy Proulx
Peter Norton
Barbara Wheeler
Bob Andrews
Jay Barnes

1) We welcomed Peter Lowitt to the meeting. Peter is a green architect who has worked extensively on the Devens project.

2) The Boston Globe article that Peter Nobile told us about last month was printed in today's paper. It features a picture of First Parish and a great quote of Peter Nobile about the green-ness of the new building. Read it on the web.

The paper version of the article has a sidebar listing specific green aspects of the construction.

Nicely done Peter Nobile.

The article has energized us to gather information about the project and publicize the green aspects of it. The Building Committee (including Peter Nobile) and those Green Sanctuary folks who had extensive input (such as Andy Proulx) should have the results made known. I know that the First Parish community would be very interested in hearing the details.

3) Periodically we get asked, who are the members of Green Sanctuary. Over the years, we've collected a large (e)mailing list of people, some of whom attend meetings and work on projects and others who are just interested supporters of Green Sanctuary. Jay will be sending out a very short 3 question survey in the next week or so that aims to sort this list into members and friends.

4) Jay confessed to repeatedly talking about (but not actually doing) the project of acquiring discounted green cleaning products from Crosby's Marketplace to sell as Green Gift Bags. The idea would be to put together educational material (how to choose sustainably harvested, low mercury fish; what is the difference between a green cleaning product and a non-green cleaning product, etc.) along with the cleaning products. Part of getting people to use these products is getting them to try them. Barbara told us about Betty King's neighbor who makes eco-string bags.

The consensus, however, is that with coffee hour tables not being available and only two weekends left before Christmas that it would be better to defer this project until early next year.

5) Maria suggested that we work with RE to integrate the kids with our new (coming soon) sustainable landscaping.

6) We discussed getting organized around a series of activities and educational events and we began assigning volunteers to be leaders. We will loosely structure our efforts around the UUA Green Sanctuary program areas:

a) energy usage and conservation practices (Andy Proulx)
b) use of non-perishable materials and non-toxic cleaning supplies and recycling
c) green purchasing and investing
d) landscaping
e) religious education (Maria Cox)
f) worship practices
g) social action and environmental justice projects (Bob Andrews)

Jay suggested that we begin status reporting on our projects and activities to the Social Action Committee. Jay will discuss with Faith Bade.

7) Bob told us about the Bill McKibben event which Green Sanctuary co-sponsored. It was a rousing success and the standing room only attendees are newly energized to take more action on climate change. Bob will be organizing a how-to-follow-up-on-Mckibben meeting through ConcordCAN that we will be invited to.

8) Andy was one of the speakers at a League of Women Voters forum with Senator Pam Resor. Jay suggested that he provide us with a brief write up of what he talked about so that we can share it with the group.

Action Items:

a) Jay to talk with Peter Nobile about list of green building improvements.
b) Maria will get the details on the sustainable landscaping plan.
c) Maria will draft a Green Sanctuary calendar of activities that we can use to begin organizing our projects.
d) Barbara will write up the existing recycling policy at First Parish.
e) Jay will send out a membership survey along with the list of possible projects to gather feedback from the broader group.
f) Maria will talk with Liz Davis-Chafin about how we might do some sustainability training with the kids using FP's upcoming sustainable landscaping work.
g) Jay will talk with Faith Bade about communications with SAC.

Next Meeting: Sunday January 11th, 12:15 - 1:15. Bring something to eat if you like.