Our May Meeting Update!

We have been busy planning!  We will ALL miss Sky Stewart as he moves on from Internship at CCUU. And we will certainly miss Laura Miller as she leaves us for Virginia, we'll gladly welcome her back in the Winter! Here is a list of Actionable Items from our 5/18 Meeting- you can see what we'll be doing in the coming month:

Alicia -Design congregational survey
-Contact Monique about possibility of future performance/presentation on Houma Nation/Shell/Wetlands/Native lands (2017)
-Contact/explore activist transportation needs

Rev. Jim- Termite control

Claire- Secure funds for Our Place in the Web of Life curriculum ($50 donation to UUA)
-Continue formal application for GS Candidacy
-Prepare brief congregational talk for Sunday, 5/29 *REVISED* TO 6/7!
-Contact Cynthia Ramirez about intergenerational environmental education offering (copy Rev. Jim)

Kyle- Contact Bill Fernandez about gardening, interest in seeds/helping with plant on a garden education day


Possible Projects for Action Plan (as discussed, now categorized)

Environmental Justice
-Lead Testing and Remediation
-Form action committee- interested individuals write/call/protest about LEAD (soil and water), OFFSHORE DRILLING, CLIMATE CHANGE/FOSSIL
-Transportation/Gas Collective for activist endeavors (protests, events, etc).
-Carpool

Worship and Celebration
-Monique from Houma Nation Poetry/presentation/Special Collection (2017)
-Commissioned Music
-Benefit concerts for environmental causes, perhaps twice per year?

Religious Education
-Our Place in the Web of Life course offering (Spring 2017)
-Intergenerational Education opportunity

Sustainable Living
-Conservation Education sessions (Chris Lute?)
-Offer garden day- plants/seeds/pots/education
-Birdhouses for kids?
-CCUU Building Improvements
-Leaks
-Water fountains
-Solar Metering
-RAIN BARRELS- ASAP!
-Gardens- food, butterfly
-Sustainable Coffee Hour
-Fair Trade coffee/tea
-Cloth napkins, reusable silverware, etc.
-Make recycling more VISIBLE- possibly design chart of what can be recycled
-Compost acceptable paper/food waste (again with visual!)
-Cloth towels in restrooms

April 13, 2016- Green Sanctuary Meeting

At April's meeting, we were quite productive. First, I want to thank Alicia for her wonderful address to everyone in attendance at the GNOUU Retreat on Sunday. She eloquently stated the mission of the Green Sanctuary program, and emphasized the importance of environmental justice work within the UUA's framework. She stressed that our work in this process may be lengthy, and how we as individuals will need to work even harder- that the changes we all must make will require growth, effort, and sacrifice. She nailed it!

In leiu of formal minutes, I have a rundown of important points from our 4/13 meeting.

Here's you go:



Actionable Items:



EVERYONE: Continue to flesh out your sections of the questionnaire. At our next meeting, we WILL be ready to figure out projects for our Action Plan.


REV. JIM: :

Check with Jeff Cantin about Solar- panel- functionality, efficiency, accurate monitoring
Water Bills for a year- assess our consumption. Send scanned/PDF versions to Claire for GS documentation.
Possibly have Andreas from Green Light NOLA come to assess lights
Determine what is necessary to petition for restoring CCUU as a community polling place. Contact Susan Guidry


CLAIRE:

Obtain East Bank NOLA Water quality report, research reliability of report
Update our blog, send blog info to be printed in bulletin.
Begin GS Application for Candidacy



HOWARD:

Contact Adrienne Katner- addressing water samples
Send Claire PDFS of energy bills for GS documentation.
FAMILIES of CONGREGATION- TEST YOUR HOME SOIL! Test your local playground! <--Should we announce this on a Sunday soon? Address taking proper samples in the community?


ALICIA-

Add to survey questions: Do you have home sprinklers? Do they run after a rain?



KYLE:

Checking on govt. seed program- What seeds are available, for whom, and from what sources?


Also discussed:


Possible Ideas Composting at CCUU. Possibly becoming a site for community compost and community garden. Desire to possibly obtain rainwater barrels


Possibly get involved with the following:


Alliance for Affordable Energy – Casey DeMoss


Gulf South Rising


Having members of the congregation commit to calling/writing legislators about pressing environmental issues. We discussed having an environmental-political action initiative within the congregation.




Thank you so much!


-Claire