Tuesday, September 6, 2016

SC Green Team – meeting notes – 8/18/2016

SC Green Team – meeting notes – 8/18/2016

Attendees: Bill Schroeder, Candy Dann, Terry Ebner, Steve Fink, Fran Fink, Mark Bohrer, (Dave Welbourn – phone)

1.       Giving Garden / Harvest Dinner celebration Sunday Oct 2nd
o   Starting point: Alex’s idea to have a service and dinner at the Giving Garden
§  Questions about workability of dinner there – suggest to move dinner to church?
o   Idea for a two part event on Sunday October 2nd
§  Part 1) ecumenical service at Garden, for all volunteers and families
§  Part 2) pot-luck dinner at the church
o   Green education program element to evening
§  provide material at each table?
§  ideas for how to mix table seating – a concierge? 2 youth doing this?
§  Displays on Giving Garden’s output & other green topics like last year?
o   Invite North Parish Sustainability Team
§  Part of making the connection to other church green teams, a goal of Dana’s too
o   Other invites:
§  Anil Navkal
§  Karuthika (connection to Chinmara Center)
o   Next step: planning meeting on Tues 9/6

2.       Divestment – phone call with Dave Welbourn
o   want to start the discussion
§  want a discussion with Trustees of Trust Funds
§  want a discussion with church membership
o   Dave’s thoughts – broached idea that church should/might want to act on our principles, and do investments the same as we act in the community
§  Dave asked the question - in addition to divestment from fossil fuels, should we frame the question larger, should church make investments in alignment with social justice?
§  (Mark had to leave at this point….)
§  Conclusions? Next step? Meetings to start congregational discussion?

3.       Idea for monthly environmental movie, together with north parish and maybe other area churches?  I mentioned it to Karen Martin of North parish, and she liked the idea.


NEXT MEETING – Giving Garden Service/Potluck Planning  meeting on Tuesday 9/6

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

SC Green Team – meeting notes – 03/23/2016

SC Green Team – meeting notes – 03/23/2016

Attendees: Mark, Candy, Bill, Linda Z

Green Service – scheduled for April 24
-       Theme: Climate Change is a container issue (this doesn't sound so spiritual - we'll do this in a spiritual way!)
o   Churches care about poverty, hunger, homelessness, clean water, justice, war, etc
o   Climate change affects all of these – Climate change is now the “container” of all of these
o    Climate change is not "another issue" - it effectively supercedes them all by making them all more likely if we let things get worse
-       Bill will give a personal witness / mission moment
o   Dana is also giving a message
o   Church green service is registered on both the UCC site and the Interfaith Power & Light site.
o   Does someone from the giving garden also want to contribute?
§  We could work this in if someone is interested.
-       Music
o   Pentecostal Pickers are on for April 24 – they know it’s a green service
§  They are planning on doing 3 songs
-       Children’s talk
o   Idea: a large white bucket with a map of the earth filled with all the things we care about
§  could use a 5 gal paint bucket
§  or a wheelbarrow instead to tie it to the giving garden – it’s large and dramatic too.
o   Need youth voice or voices
§  Candy talked to Jenn Murray – Jenn agreed to ask two kids to do this.
·         Mark will provide the initial script
·         Steve could coach when back?
§  Possible youth:  Anna McGrath, Katherine Gatewood, Carolyn Parker?
§  Other middle school kids?
§  Christina Nardini ? (graduate student attending Merrimack College)
-       ACTION: Bill - Get EDF “I’m a Climate Voter” bumper stickers to handout at fellowship hour
-       Steve Fink’s suggestion of a theme - Local connection – we work this in with the Giving Garden
-       Green Sunday - Bulletin idea
o   a photo of the Giving Garden with the new shed in the background would make a nice program for the bulletin.

Divestment Discussion
-       We will take up how to spur the divestment discussion at church (both with the Trustees of the Trust Funds and with general church membership) at our next meeting
-       Bill has a 4 page handout that goes into divestment reasons/justification – he will send this out to the core group again.

Thursday, January 21, 2016

SC Green Team – meeting notes – 01/21/2016

SC Green Team – meeting notes – 01/21/2016
Present: Mark, Candy, Bill, Steve, Fran, Iric         We missed you: Janet, Terry

Paris Pledge 
            parispledge.org (sponsored by interfaithpowerandlight.org)
             – congregation and individuals commit to go carbon neutral by 2030 
             - can we do it??  How can we talk about it?
-       Could South Church go carbon neutral by 2030? Could we do it by 2025? Sooner than that?
-       Practically speaking, what are the areas to go after?  
-   Insulation in the sanctuary
§  Insulation… there are challenges with this - makes humidity changes,
§  organ/steeple opening – need to create an insulated, airtight box around organ pipes
-  (#1) Air sealing in the sanctuary, fellowship hall, office, library, parlor might be the best, first step
§  Ian Rex (Iric’s brother) has an energy efficiency business
§  ACTION: Iric – invite Ian to evaluate air sealing
-  (#2) Church Office is cold now, needs to be heated, requiring main boiler to run to heat it
§  Look at mini-split heat pump – can provide heating and cooling efficiently
§  Insulation improvements in office?
§  ACTION: Candy to send previous energy stewardship report from Thomas Nutt-Powell
  Heating system efficiency – long term replacement for boiler
§  what is the separate gas usage of boiler in old church vs addition (forced hot air heated powered by natural gas furnaces in addition)?
§  do we need to get a separate gas meter to find out?

Earth Day Service – propose Sunday May 1 - talk to Dana 
(on May 1 because mission trip returns on Sunday Apr 24th - want youth there & involved)
-       Tie in to Giving Garden fundraiser – already planned by Giving Garden committee for Saturday Apr 30
-       Church involvement – start the deep discussion on the Paris pledge in advance?
-       Youth involvement
-       Music involvement
Green Retreat for Families
-   Let's do it, it's time!
-       Shoot for early fall – late September, early October?
Topics we did not talk about
-       Divestment
-       LED lighting in the church
-       green thing of the month