Climate Crisis Task Force Meeting 2/26/17

After lengthy discussion, we decided to organize four meetings around the county to introduce the Campaign for 100% Renewable Energy Communities and launch it in all 26 towns of Franklin County.  At the meetings, members of town energy committees and all interested residents will learn about this statewide campaign and receive concrete training about how to begin implementing it in their town.  See this description of the campaign and this checklist which is one of the main tools of the campaign.  We would like to link to these on the FCCPR website.

We are aiming to have the meetings in late April/early May.

MA and Nancy will work with FRCOG to set one up in Greenfield.

Lynn and Ferd will set one up in the Orange area.

Elizabeth, Penny and Mike will set one up in the Buckland/Shelburne area

Don and Sarah will set one up in the Shutesbury/Leverett area

The goal is to know a time and place for all of these by March 12 (the next meeting of the Task Force).

Between now and then, Nancy and MA will work on a press release and a flier for review at the next meeting so that we can begin a solid publicity effort in mid-March.

As soon as publicity goes out, we will reach out to the energy committees in each town, as follows:

Elizabeth/Mike/Penny – Colrain, Ashfield, Hawley, Charlemont, Heath, Buckland,

Shelburne, Monroe, Rowe

MA/Bill – Deerfield, Conway, Sunderland, Whately

Lynne – Athol, Wendell, Erving, Orange, New Salem

Susan – Northfield, Gill, Warwick

Ferd – Montague

Don/Sarah – Shutesbury, Leverett

Bonny – Leyden, Greenfield, Bernardston

Between now and the next meeting, these people may begin informal contact or may just figure out who the right contact people are.

People who were not at the meeting can help!  Contact the people listed above.

In addition to launching the campaign, we hope that town energy committees will get new volunteers out of this effort, and that we will develop a larger cadre of people to lobby for the many pieces of good climate-related bills that have been filed in the State Legislature.

Elizabeth is inviting Mass Power Forward to send a representative to our next meeting.

  1. Meeting with Rep. Paul Mark to strategize about climate-related legislation: Monday, March 6 at 2 PM.  If you live in his district and want to attend, contact Nancy at nhazard@worldsustain.net.
  2. To more effectively support the campaign against TD Bank, we will all join the picket line on Tuesday, March 7, from 12 to 1 at the Greenfield branch.  We will spread the word through the CPR network.
  3. MassDivest is organizing an action at the office of the state pension fund investment board in downtown Boston the morning of May 16.  Stay tuned for details; we talked about organizing carpools.
  4. There is interest in organizing a CPR presence at the Climate March in Washington, DC on April 29.  No specific plans were made.  Does someone want to take the lead on this?

NEXT MEETING:

MARCH 12   4 – 6 PM (slight chance it will be 5-7 if that is better for Mass Power Forward

MONTAGUE POLICE STATION COMMUNITY ROOM

180 TURNPIKE ROAD, TURNERS FALLS