Sustainable Moraga

The president called the meeting to order at 7:10 pm.

The minutes of the January 17, 2007 meeting were approved as submitted.

The treasurer reported on the financial status of SMG. Others proposed ways to increase funding, possibly by seeking business sponsorship.

The agenda was approved as is.

Announcements

* The group reviewed the draft of a letter to the Town Council. We also discussed ideas for an ICLEI internship at St. Mary’s to handle data entry for Moraga…

* On February 20 Tim Burroughs of ICLEI USA will be speaking at Galileo Hall at St. Mary’s College.

OLD BUSINESS

Project Prioritization:

SMG Public Relations – It was discussed that the group will need general PR and also PR for specific projects, like the Energy Fair – May 5/6. Project committees will handle PR for their projects.

Energy Fair As part of Moraga Beautiful Days, May 5/6, and Sustainable Moraga agreed to sponsor the Energy Fair booth and other green participants

Realtor Gift Bags – The idea of Green Bags for new home buyers containing green information and green products was discussed

CFL’s – The board would look into initiatives for CFL bulb distribution

West Coast Green Event – Issue deferred to a later time.

Moraga Triathlon – April 2007. We want to recommend recyclable containers, etc.

New local Newspaper – A free weekly newspaper, The Lamorinda Weekly, will be delivered to every home in Moraga.

Green films – A committee was formed to study the feasibility of showing monthly ‘green’ films at the Rheem theatre.

Speaker Series – Tabled for now.

Green Bags –. Times of sales and volunteers needed. It was suggested to broadcast our need for many volunteers to large distribution email list. Sales with Ace Hardware need to be coordinated.

Composting Workshop – Group would like to sponsor at least one this year.

Letter to Town Council –a request that the Town become an active member of the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, and of ICLEI, and also encourages the town to (1) develop “greener” initiatives as part of the General and Specific Plans and (2) to plant more trees as part of the Beautification Program.

Bylaws – After short discussion, the Bylaws were unanimously approved with some minor changes, most notably that a simple majority of a quorum comprising two thirds of the active members is needed to repeal or alter them.

Political Action Committee –This group will track town, county and state issues and apprise the group of issues of concern.

Support of PfSE initiatives – Discussion tabled until next month regarding the precautionary principle initiative.

The next meeting will be Wednesday, March 7 at 7:00 in the Moraga Library Meeting Room.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:10pm.

The meeting was called to order at 7:20 pm.

Election of officers for 2007

Nominations were submitted for:

Director

Treasurer

Secretary

* Nominees were elected unanimously, without further discussion.

* We agreed that Board meetings would be open to whoever wishes to attend.

* Co-secretaries offered to record and send the minutes to members henceforth, eliminating the need for rotating note-takers.

Town of Moraga news

* Everyone was encouraged to attend the January 24 meeting of the Town Council to discuss the Specific Plan that is in the process of being developed. The meeting starts at 7:30 pm. We agreed to email the announcement of this meeting to the full Sustainable Moraga group (SMG) mailing list.

* On January 29, at 7:30 pm at the Joaquin Moraga auditorium, the Town Council will interview candidates for the six vacant positions on the Town Planning Committee. There are seventeen applicants. SMG members are encouraged to attend that meeting also.

A visioning/planning exercise was conducted; the findings will be sent to the group. The group reviewed our accomplishments, and then expressed both positive and negatives images of living in Moraga, which were then, organized into general themes. The themes were then used to develop concrete ideas to realize these goals/themes.

The next meeting will be Wednesday, February 7 at 7:00 in the Moraga Library Meeting Room.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:10.