First Parish in Concord

Green Sanctuary Group

First Parish > Green Sanctuary > Meeting Minutes

Meeting Minutes

May 18, 2008

Present: Bob Andrews, Berni Jenkins, CC King, Betty King, George King, Nancy Harrison, Andy Proulx, Bo Shu,  Eric Van Loon, Barbara Wheeler, Peter Norton 

Our approach to minutes was discussed.  It was agreed that minutes should be posted as files on the website. The draft will be distributed via email  to those who attended, inviting corrections.  An approved version will be posted to all Google group members by the Co-Chair(s) after review of the draft and recommended revisions. 

The main theme of the meeting was that the church is taking steps toward becoming an accredited green sanctuary.  This goal was reviewed and supported from the Standing Committee recently. . The Standing Committee has asked the staff (ministers) to work on a plan for pursuing the accreditation. The Green Sanctuary Committee will provide resources to the staff as needed.  It was agreed that a working dialogue with the ministers should be developed in the fall through an initiative of the Co-Chairs. 

The next step toward accreditation that was discussed was the completion of an environmental audit, encompassing all areas of church life.  We took stock of what needs to be done and who will take responsibility for various parts of the process..  We also looked at what constitute a realistic timeline for our work, given the building renovations and expansion now underway.  Limited planning and exploration could be done by the Core Group this summer, using our homes or other locations outside of the church.  Most meetings and events that involve others will probably need to wait until late September or October. 

The purpose of the audit is fact-finding, with no agenda of recommending changes until after the audit is complete. Committee members should develop a set of questions and interview the appropriate church staff. 

We agreed that we could use some space on the Green Sanctuary website to file working documents that could help us carry out the environmental audit and other work projects.. Andy Proulx agreed to begin this by posting a copy of an uncompleted version of an accreditation application that was written three years ago. Other working documents might include the structured questions to be answered in each section of the audit and the minutes og Green Sanctuary meetings.  Bob volunteered, subject to consultation with Jay and Peter, to coordinate the preparation of the write-up of the audit and other portions of the accreditation application. 

Andy Proulx reported on the current status of the building energy portion of the environmental audit. A great deal of data has been collected over the past three years, a good deal of it this year by Andy and Jay. The data has been translated into graphs and drawings that were incorporated into a  power point presentation at the Sunday morning Forum a few months ago. We can refer to the original application for old data.  Andy and Jay can add new data.  Jim Pazaris has agreed to work with Andy and Jay on assessment of lighting and energy systems in the building. Bob can help with the writing. 

Barbara Wheeler reported on a very successful completed project of recycling sneakers. Sneakers were collected from kids in the RE program and then ground up for recycling of the materials. The young people seemed to get behind this with some enthusiasm; and it seemed to be something worth repeating next year. Barbara also reported that the trash examination project was abandoned at this time due to health concerns.  Other ways of looking at how the church handles trash and recycling will be developed.  Barbara agreed to take the lead in auditing current policies and practices. Betty agreed to help.  They will jointly approach Doug Baker, at a time convenient for him, to get a picture of current policies and practices in his area of management. Jane Johnson should also be approached regarding management of these issues in the church office. 

The need to include information about the church's purchasing policies and practices was also addressed. Bob reported that Maria Cox had done some work on this.

Betty King reported that preparing “green” bags containing environmentally benign products will be postponed to the fall.  She is investigating string bags, which could be useful for certain kinds of shopping, in addition to the cloth bags with graphics that we originally discussed. Eric agreed to provide Betty with a contact in Lowell for the string bags. 

The advent of a new green curriculum in the RE program was noted with pleasure.  CC King volunteered that she would act as liaison to the RE program next year. Jim Pazaris expressed an interest in working with CC and perhaps providing some technical instruction in the RE program.. 

We briefly reviewed the adult education achievements this year, noting that there were two Sunday morning forums sponsored by Green Sanctuary.  One focused on the church’s carbon footprint, as presented by Andy Proulx and Jay Barnes.  The other focused on the Low Carbon Diet initiative currently being promoted by Concord Climate Action network. There was also a speaker program in the Sanctuary, with a speaker who was a UU minister trained by Al Gore. Green Sanctuary joined with the Alliance for Democracy in co-sponsoring a film called “Out of Balance,” It was agreed that there is a need for an ongoing program of consciousness-raising programs with speakers and films, and that this will work best with a designated Coordinator.  Nancy Harrison, who joined the group for the first time on this occasion, agreed to take on responsibility for this in the year ahead.  An effort will be made as well to  have regular articles in the church newsletter. 

The group acknowledged the outstanding job that several GS members did in creating a special Green Sanctuary Earth Day service this year. This involved collaborating with the minister and others to create a coordinated worship experience. In their absence, it was suggested that Jay and Peter are probably the best GS members to maintain and develop a working relationship with the ministerial staff to ensure that at least one service per year is dedicated to our issues.  Ongoing integration of “green” themes into worship services is desired. 

Bo Chu, who has begun attending our meetings recently said that he is especially interested in landscaping practices. And offered to draft some of his ideas about what we should be looking at in this area. 

All agreed that First Parish should pursue the formation of Low Carbon Diet groups. Bob said that there is a substantial list of people who have said they are interested in participating, but there have been some difficulties in moving ahead. Peter Nobile agreed earlier to lead a group, but has been unable to find time to date to bring the group together.  A second group leader must also be identified.  Berni Jenkins volunteered to help with this.  She said that she will, after consultation with Peter, take responsibility for calling everyone on our list, with the objective of bringing groups together in the fall.