Green Acton monthly meeting (and 2021 Annual Meeting) 2021-10-12

Attending: Debra Simes, Kim Kastens, Sue Jick, Mike Boss, Danny Factor, Chris Edwards, Ginger Harris, Dana Snyder-Grant, Jim Snyder-Grant, Matt Liebman, Debby Andell, Karen Watkins, Karen Herther, TF

AGENDA

• Welcome + housekeeping tasks

• Check-in

• PFAS in water was brought up in the Next Door network

Annual Meeting Business

• 2022 GA officers & directors: review & approval

  • Mike Boss is moving to LIttleton, no longer a Director after December 31.
  • Heather Haines no longer available to be Co-Treasurer.
  • Everyone else (Directors) willing to continue. 

Feedback from Volunteer Engagement Committee convos with current board members & officers

  • Committees are working
  • Directors are working better together; more successful at disagreeing
  • Burnout is on the horizon
  • Hoping for more younger people, more racial diversity
  • New person / old person gap still a problem
  • Articulating the role of Directors still a work in progress
  • Should we be getting more people involved in Green Acton; what is desired size of the active group? Pick up this conversation at a future meeting. 

Election of Officers

  • Does anyone want to stand for Co-Treasurer (alongside Treasurer Debby Andell)? No volunteers
  • Does anyone on the call want to be a Director? No volunteers
  • Slate of Directors: Consensus approval by thumbs up
  • Slate of Officers: Debra Simes, President; Sue Jick as co-President; Debbie Andell as Treasurer; Jim Snyder-Grant as Clerk. Consensus approval by thumbs up. 

• Climate Action Planning Process

    > report on CAP Advisory Group Meeting #2

  • Oct. 6 meeting of invited committee of Town staff, Town committees and boards, community organizations.
  • Input from survey + 3 different workshops
  • Andrea Becerra and MAPC (Metropolitan Area Planning Council) culled 55 draft strategies from the available input plus high-level goals
  • Oct 6. meeting asked 3 questions: What strategies most excited; which strategies forward equity concerns; what gaps do you see? Most of the meeting transpired in two breakout groups. 
  • Broad enthusiasm for: making Acton Power Choice GREEN the program default option; getting people off gas entirely, rather than fixing all gas leaks; advancing strategies that address equity concerns.
  • New suggestions: subsidize energy costs for low-income families. Make a GIS map of how residences are heated; get Eversource to upgrade local capacity to support more electricity use; electrification for all; composting.
  • Debra conveyed Kim’s concerns about not enough about resilience around drought and flooding
  • Sat., Oct. 16 public event to review the draft strategies open to everyone; 2–4 pm at NARA lower pavilion. 
  • Kim is unhappy with the balance of the entire document between mitigation (overwhelming) and adaptation/resilience (under-emphasized)
  • Karen Watkins had been to the Nature Based Strategies meeting and then the Oct. 6 meeting; stuff that was talked about in the lunchtime meetings dropped away in the pruning from 150 to 55 strategies (including some related to water). A few new items were added by MAPC as “best practices” and ranked highly. 

    > review & discussion on Jim S-G proposal for additional CAP goal

  • What was missing: re-use/rehab is preferred to new build. Suggest a tweak to Strategy 53: “Review and Update bylaws, policies, and procedures to incorporate climate change considerations (for permitting, planning approvals, etc.), including a preference for reuse over building new when there is a feasible reuse option.”
  • Danny Factor: continued thanks to Debra and Jim to have Green Acton’s voice into the process. He prefers to have rehab preference as a Goal rather than as one of 55 strategies. He wants to ensure that all Town Boards and Committees are following these priorities. He is concerned about overemphasis of MAPC. 
  • Debra clarifies that MAPC stuff comes from only Massachusetts “best practice” experience, not national. 
  • Suggest that we have a separate conversation by end of October about the CAP: Kim, Danny, Terra, Jim will meet to draft a response.
  • Danny: What is the process is when our sub-group has created new wording? Does it need to go back to the directors for approval? Yes — the group needs to send a draft to Green Acton Directors for approval. 

• Treasurers Report

  • Not much activity. Two donors donate recurringly (every month); a few other donations have come in. $12,223 balance. Expenses for: Zoom, QuickBooks, volunteer appreciation gifts, jetpack software. Pretty stable budget. 

• Event/action announcements

    > Oct. 16 CAP public workshop, NARA, 2–4pm, lower pavilion

Karen Watkins: Mothers Out Front event on pollution from unvented gas kitchen stoves: The Health Effects of Gas Stove Pollution, with Andee Krasner, MPH, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Oct. 27, 2021, 7:00-8:30pm, register at https://www.mothersoutfront.org/events/acton-ma-20211027/

 Karen Herther: maybe we could do something like the Boxborough reading group. 

• TRANSITION (checkout for those leaving)

[ADMINISTRATIVE/INTERNAL SECTION OF MEETING]

• Pesticides/Toxics Subcommittee: approve proposal review + approval, and approval of initial membership

• Review & approval of FY22 draft budget

• Reminder to directors: join Admin for a cycle of planning meetings

  • Goal: broader understanding of what the Admin Committee does and how agendas are set for our meetings. Meet 2 or 3 times/month, usually Friday mornings, between general monthly GA meetings. Directors are welcome; let us know if you’re interested in attending. 

• Checkout

GA Minutes: 2021-10-12