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Minutes of the St. Thomas Aquinas Green Committee Meeting
June 28, 2010
Present: Elizabeth Fitting, Katia Reeves, Laura Chiu, Paul
Chestnut, Walt Lundin, Laisz Lam*, Mary Ann Ho* [*long-time
members; first-time callers]
Elizabeth offered four
readings: [Dostoyevsky, Rohr, Teilhard and Julian of Norwich]
dealing with the immanence and transcendence of God = Love in us
and all creation.
Approval of agenda and May
minutes: Agenda was approved. #9 of May minutes was amended to
read: Recycle Thomas House materials: No recent meeting with
committee, but they will be getting "Energy Star"
appliances where new ones are needed and cashing in on
government rebates." [Someone wondered how much longer
rebates would be available. Another commented that not all
appliances labeled "green" really were green.
Bike rack status: STA: Site
committee has made its recommendations to Chuck. WALT will check
with him about early site preparation. Next step: Coordinate
flatbed and strong backs for transporting SESS rack. SAG: Rack
in place. OLR: WALT will check with Chuck about moving and using
ISP's second rack. We plan a monthly "Bike to Mass"
Sunday while weather is clement. [Walt heard an apt slogan: God
gave me legs."]
Carbon Footprint update
Katia displayed graph with
2009 and year-to-date 2010 parish-site usage - a small
reduction We have corresponding cost data. Godofredo continues
his lighting inventory. We have recommended a "frame"
for posting thermostat instructions but are aiming ultimately
for lockboxed thermostats. When winter comes: STA greeters
should be asked to keep outer and inner doors closed before
Mass to retain heat.
Home carbon footprint
calculations: We talked about Katia's 5/26 mailing. A few of us
had completed the study and were modestly proud (but not
complacent.) Others looked sheepish and avoided eye contact.
Discussion broadened into giving a parish presentation. We
thought parishioners would be ripe for this. The scope would be
general, universal and faith-related, then would narrow to the
nitty-gritty practices. "Think globally; act locally."
Closer contact with youth and
catechetical: Suggestions and comments:
Wait until we've made our
parish presentation.
Do the youth presentation
first. By osmosis this will reach the parents
Consult with and get ideas
from Youth leadershlp (Chris Miller and Vickie Howard). [WALT
will contact and invite them to our next meeting.]
Movies might be good
We should prepare a
discussion outline. [SUBSEQUENTLY: Elizabeth (6/29) sent
"Materials for Teen Religious Ed."
Composting SESS lunches:
Awaiting school opening.
Green Beatitudes: They were
published in the bulletin. [Blessed are those who write more for
Katia.]
Liaison Group of Parish Green
Commitees: Gerard and Walt attended 1st meeting on 6/10. Five
parishes plus Tony Strawa, Exec. Dir. of Catholic Green
Initiative were present. CGI has 6 committees: Advocacy,
Education, Resources, Liaison, Communications, Water. CGI plans
to issue "themes" with supporting educational
materials About half of the diocese's parishes are green - 12-15
ardent, 8-10 lukewarm. Liaisons will meet every bi-monthly.
Chair pro-tem is Leana Dalton (St. Martin of Tours). Plan is to
exchange parish policies, practices, events. We're sposed to
notify the Exec. Dir. when we have events planned..
CA Water Bond: [May agenda
items #9 & 10] - Great majority of environmental groups
oppose it. PAUL will do more research on it. before we decide
about taking a position on it. He summarized the water wars from
1901 to present. [Owens Lake/Colorado River/Mono Lake/Pat Brown
and the aqueduct/"Chinatown"/ Kesterson Reservoir.] We
discussed possibility of a parish informational forum on it -
perhaps by LWV or Jericho. [LATER: News reports say bond issue
may be withdrawn from ballot. See next GreenNews.]
Plant trees, funded by e-waste
collection: Katia clarified location as between Pastoral Center
and OLR. MaryAnn wants to see more palms grown so we do not have
to beg people in neighborhood to let us cut theirs. We are
already using some of the smaller palms from our own gardens for
decoration but need the bigger fronds for arching over doorways
and pews etc.
One-Year Plan: We decided to
wait, hoping CGI's "themes" might inspire us. [AGENDA
ITEM NEXT MTG.]
Factory Fish Farms: PAUL will
do a little research before we decide to join Food & Water
Watch's opposition. {SEE PAUL'S 6/30 "FISH FARMS E-MAIL.]
What's On Your Mind?
Elizabeth suggested (and we
agreed) environmental issues can be included in HCC's plan to
encourage socjus homilies.
Katia said Adult Spiritual
Development has offered us Spirituality Tuesday dates of
11/30/10 for "Environmental Stewardship" and 3/29/11
for our choice of topic. [See #9 CA Water Bond above: If we
plan a water bond presentation we should ask for a pre-election
date.]
Laisz encourages youth
education.
Laura
Laura took the Barron Park
Green tour and was impressed with many useful practices
Indoor recycling: [#10 on
agenda] She has enlisted site leaders (Hogan - STA; Briggs -
SAG) to assist. (Laura and Katia will meet with Hispanic
Leadership on 8/17 about 9 a.m. Mass hospitality.) With indoor
recycling we can reduce size (and cost) of trash bins and will
offset cost of compost bins. (The recycle bins are free.) She
plans good publicity for the Sept parish picnic.
Laura is linked to Los Altos
"Green Town Coop", a citizens group. This link
entitles her to a 25% discount for compostable table ware from
World Centric. She'll publicize this to parish groups.
Reminded us that our annual
report is due July 31.
Paul watched "King Corn"
- good
Walt
Reminded folks of Katia's
Project Interest Sign-Up Sheet. Thought it might be useful for
Time & Talent sign-ups as well.
Suggested we "refresh"
the St. Francis Pledge on its 1st anniversary with a report on
our 1st year's actions or something similar.
Briefly reviewed "Green
burial: advantages. (The last Valley Catholic said Gate of
Heaven is studying it.) He'll write an item for our Green
Corner.
We need a volunteer for a
faith-sharing question.
Next meeting: Casa Gill, July 26. (Any agenda
suggestions?)
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