South Church Green Team Meeting 2015-01-08

South Church Green Team Meeting 2015-01-08

Attendees: Mark, Steve, Fran, Bill, Candy (phone)

 

Minutes

1. Interfaith Community Garden
• Meetings have been held in town in the past month or so: Cindy Ozirsky, Fran Fink, Linda Zimmerman, Ellen Arvidson, Emily Strong, Dana, Ann Knowles (volunteer at AHS, involved in green interns program, and AHS garden)
• Group looked 2 plots of town conservation land
• Both have parking, would need water installed
• Ann K went to Conservation Commission – got some pushback
• Separate group in town was already working on this to have a town community garden, but not oriented around growing food to donate
• Next steps
• SC community garden group is working with Dana, to see how this could be kicked off in the best way at the church.

 

2. LED light change in SC - sanctuary, parlor, other places - very discounted lights purchased from utility
   
• Propose involving children  - Different age kids could do different things
• Some calculate the savings of LED lights in the average home, things like what will be the age of the kids when the lights next need to be replace (25 years), make a poster about it
• Some swap the light bulbs
• Some clean the globes
• This is moving forward - Candy is coordinating with Dave Stanwood
• May be scheduled for Feb vacation weekend
• Could this be tied to Preach-In Service, or rolled out that Sunday???
• Do before that and a photo opportunity, and announce on Feb 22^nd ??

 

3. Preach-In Service
• Official Sunday is February 15, 2015 (starts Friday February 13^th)
• If we have it on that Sunday
• That weekend is President’s holiday weekend
• ACTION: Mark – Send Dana information / link to Preach-IN
• Propose to postpone it to Feb 22^nd, next Sunday to get better family & children turnout
• We sent postcards, handed them out in the church service bulletin
• Did Hancock do this?
• New element: Noon Feb 14^th 1 minute of silence for the earth
• Sermon topic suggestions:
• Light of the Earth
• In the Garden
• connection to community garden
• connection to church musical “Secret Garden”

 

4. Earth Day / Earth Week – Ideas
• Outdoor/park cleanup activity
• Put up the fence around the community garden!
• Facilitate community building activity
• Do this around a cleanup activity – Lawrence downtown riverfront area
• ACTION: Steve will talk to Chris Cronin, Andover Dir of Muni Svc, Mark Fournier
• See how town can assist
• Idea: have a post-activity dinner for participants at SC

 

 

Parking Lot

1.       Can we start a Carbon Free Pledge? 

·         maybe two levels – 1) home & car, 2) everything (thru offsets)

2.       Make a one sheet handout for the green team & UCC.

·         We have more young families coming into the church that may need an update on the Green team, green energy pointers, and UCC stances.

 

3.       Green Thing of the Month at Fellowship hour - time to activate for this year

- New ideas for encouraging green living and energy efficiency in our church community

 

4.       Harvest Dinner - possibly do in January - would need a new name

 

5.       Discuss possible ideas for the next green retreat

 

Monthly themes – “Green Thing of the Month” at Fellowship hour << tabled – no event planned for April

-       Monthly Green themes

·   August – re-usable lunchboxes

·   September – local and garden harvests, composting, local farms, CSA’s

·   October – weatherizing / energy sealing, energy programmable thermostats

·   November/December – Green Xmas decorations, living trees

·   Jan – lighting, LED’s CFLs, timers, alternatives to salt & ice control

·   Feb – appliances, Energy Star

·   Mar – spring cleaning products

·   Apr – Green lawn care & gardening

·   May – plant trees to takeup C, shade house, invasive species

·   Jun – water conservation, farmers markets, water bottles, rain barrels

·   Jul – vacation offsets

 

Divestiture from fossil fuel companies in church investments – time to raise the discussion

-       Candy invited Janet to talk about UCC Divestiture

o   Will invite Trustees of Trust Funds

-       Can this lead to a church-wide discussion on divestiture for each household?