Green Action Group

July 31, 2008

Present: Louise Davis, Leslie Gatcombe-Hynes, Barbara Merrill, Dick Merrill

Louise offered our opening prayer/meditation.

Louise shared the album she had put together for placement in the Green Action Group’s section of our church library. The album contains pertinent articles about the environment from such sources as Scientific American, the “Cape Lands” newsletter of the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust, and the Portland Water District. There are articles about energy saving in schools, a wind project in Texas, more energy efficient cars, and bottled water. A booklet titled “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Green Living” was also included.
A July article in The Cape Courier reported how pastor, Msgr. Michael Henchal and a parishioner James Masi, who is a physicist, helped St. Bartholomew become one of three Catholic churches in the state using solar power.
Louise will continue to develop additional albums for our library. Articles from these albums could be copied for posting on church bulletin boards. Information could be utilized in writing articles for The Beacon.

Barbara will contact the Library Committee to arrange for the albums to be catalogued so people can check them out. Barbara will order additional copies of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Green Living” so people can borrow these as well.

Dick will contact Msgr. Henchal and James Masi to obtain further information about St. Bartholomew’s solar project. Perhaps one of the gentlemen could visit our church and/or a group of us could visit St. Bartholemew. Dick will also contact Maine Audubon to learn more about their energy efficient building with the possibility of some of us visiting there as well.

Louise offered to look up information about four children’s books with which she is familiar on Energy, Recycling, Water, and Electricity. These might be added to our library.

Leslie contacted Ray Sirois and he is available to do a presentation this fall on “An Inconvenient Truth Update”. His information will focus on the New England region. Leslie will contact Cyndi Alden regarding church building availability in terms of date, time, and space. We discussed having the program at 7 PM during September or October in Guptil Hall. We would like to invite other faith communities and appropriate community groups to attend. We mentioned the idea of serving refreshments.

Sarah Ellsworth was not able to attend this meeting but said she has plans for a bulletin board presentation and will move forward on that.

Louise has a call in to Mary Ann Fathke regarding the possibility of a vegetable garden project.

Barbara shared materials that John McCall received from the Action Institute that includes information on Environmental Stewardship in the Judeo-Christian Tradition. A DVD and Study Guide are being reviewed by committee members. Barbara will order the complete program for possible use with study groups and/or placement in the library.

Items for our August Meeting on Thursday, August 28, at 7 PM in Davidson Lounge include:
-Green Action albums up-date by Louise
-Children’s books research by Louise
-Contact with Mary Ann Fathke report by Louise
-Library report by Barbara
-Ray Sirois’ program by Leslie
-St. Bartholomew report by Dick
-Maine Audubon report by Dick
-Bulletin Board report by Sarah
-Complete work on our Mission Statement (Objectives and Methods)
-Continue to plan for the adult education program in November
-Further planning for Gary Roberts’ program in the fall
-Plan for Homecoming Sunday—We discussed having our Green Action albums and fliers about Ray Sirois’ program on our table for Homecoming.


Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Merrill