First Parish in Concord

Green Sanctuary Group

First Parish > Green Sanctuary > Meeting Minutes

Meeting Minutes

October 17, 2007

Green Sanctuary held its October open meeting on Wednesday, October 17 from
7:30-9 in the church parlor.

Those present included: Bob Andrews, Jay Barnes, Andy Proulx, Peter Nobile,
Peter Norton, Lorraine Loviglio, and Jim Snyder-Grant.

Jay Barnes and Andy Proulx led a discussion of recent steps toward an energy
audit at First Parish.  Jay has collected some data  that pinpoints First
Parish's carbon footprint from direct energy use.  He also has older data
going back to 2003. There is an interest in determining the amount of
electricity use for other electricity-powered equipment such as
refrigerators, steeple lights, electric sidewalk warmers, and other
non-lighting applications.

The end result of these activities would be a report estimating how much
money and CO2 would be saved by making some changes in lighting, fuel use ,
etc.  The Barneses have offered to donate CFLs to the church if the church
is willing to install them.  We need to be in a position to say how much
money any changes we propose would save the church, how much CO2 it would
reduce, and what new bulbs would look like.

There was not sufficient time available at this meeting to discuss these
proposed activities in any depth; and it was decided that developing a plan
for pursuing them should be a priority for our next two meetings of Green
Sanctuary.  

The committee had had some previous discussion of getting an external
organization, Interfaith Power and Light, to conduct an energy audit for us.
Peter Nobile had talked with Steve McCausland, the head of that
organization; and it was clear that McCausland would very much like to come
to our church, if not to do an energy audit perhaps as a speaker or
consultant. We agreed to invite him to a meeting to explore his potential
role. Peter will extend this invitation.

The main topic for this meeting was Church Communications.  Bob Andrews
started off the discussion by discussing goals for this part of our Green
Sanctuary program, as follows:

*        To establish and use effectively channels for communicating with
the congregation and the wider community about environmental issues and
sustainable  living strategies.

*        To keep the congregation informed about environmental actions
initiated by the committee, recruit participation in our program actions,
and motivate people to take personal actions that are environmentally
meaningful.

*        To encourage participation in collaborative environmental
initiatives with other churches and community organizations.

We then went through a discussion of communications media, beginning with
our new bulletin board. We agreed that it is the responsibility of the core
group to keep it current by adding notices of events, informative bulletins,
etc. etc. Any member of the core group may post items; items from others can
be posted via a core group member.

Peter Norton and Bob described recent changes in the Green Sanctuary
website. All agreed that it must be kept current and that new material must
come to it on a frequent basis.  All Green Sanctuary events as well as
significant events initiated by other organizations will be posted. Lorraine
Loviglio agreed to write up short pieces for the website, perhaps focusing
on actions of the week/month that parishioners can undertake. Peter Norton
will send out to the Google List information about how to access the website
easily.  This information can also be posted on the GS bulletin board, with
encouragement to visit the site. A link will be maintained between the Green
Sanctuary website and the brand new Concord Conserves website (Google
Concord Conserves). In this way we can communicate with the larger
community.

Bob reported that Lori Pazaris had agreed to work with him and others on
coordinating a steady Green Sanctuary presence at coffee hours..  We will be
hearing from Lori about the structure of this.  Some volunteers have already
come forward to staff such tables; others will be solicited. The group
agreed that doing this can provide an opportunity for parishioners who are
in some form of environmental or energy-related work to  share with others
what they are doing.

Bob has planned some events, one featuring; a global warming speaker trained
by Gore; the second will be a movie called Out of Balance on 11/27 at the
Harvey Wheeler Community Center, co-sponsored by the North Bridge Chapter of
the Alliance for Democracy. It will be posted on the Bulletin Board and
website.  Bob is looking for help with planning a series of speakers, films,
etc over the remainder of the church year. Some preference should be given,
it was agreed, to Green Sanctuary and FP members.  Those who may want to
speak are asked to contact Bob.

Discussion then turned to the issue of what kinds of content Green Sanctuary
wants to feature on the bulletin board, website, etc. It was agreed that the
emphasis should be on what people can do to address their concerns about an
environment at risk, or the critical issue of global climate change. We
should offer, in various ways, ways that people can be more caring for the
environment in their everyday lives.  Lorraine Loviglio  agreed that she
will act as a kind of roving reporter and may generate some articles based
on interviews with committee members as well as short pieces about things
people can do. We may want to draw attention to a new initiative of Concord
Climate Action, called the Low Carbon Diet. This is potentially a program
that can involve a lot of people in the church as well as in the larger
community.  We may also want to provide background on what it takes to apply
for recognition as a Green Sanctuary by the UU denomination.

The next Green Sanctuary meeting will be a meeting of the core group at 7:30
AM on Wednesday, Nov. 14.  Peter Nobile will plan and chair that meeting.

If you were part of our meeting, please feel free to correct or amend what
is contained above.