meeting minutes

Minutes from the Creation Care Team October 10, 2010 meeting

Fair trade coffee efforts – update

• We are currently using exclusively fair trade coffee during the post-8:30 service coffee hour
• The coffee is a combination of LaRue’s fair trade coffee and Pura Vida
• Still need to determine what is being used for the 11:00 service – whether fair trade is being used, or some other brand (and encourage the use of mugs or explore more environmentally-friendly plastic or paper cups)

Recycling rewards

• We have currently earned 1662 rewards points through the recycling program since roughly March
• Options in using the points include: $5 off $50 or more spent at Bag N Save (50 points, Donation of points to area schools, Discounts on coffee, Raffling off coupons purchased with points to give to the youth mission fund, or gift the coupons to the youth group, Purchasing coupons to give in the visitor gift bags, BOGO golf games
• It was determined that we would wait until we have more points, and discuss purchasing restaurant gift cards for some sort of church use or gift

Wednesday night dinners – traditional plates and cloth napkins

• Dinner crews having become so small that there are not enough dish teams to clean traditional dishes – most teams have reverted to using paper plates
• We will include a “call” for dish team volunteers in the Oakkin

Sunday school backpacks

• The theme for the take-home backpacks given in Sunday school this year (part of the “growing the faith at home” program) involves creation care, including Nancy Sleeth’s Go Green, Save Green book
• Plan is to highlight this connection to the Creation Care Team in the Oakkin

Governance change

• The upcoming change in church structure will lead to the need for the team to present our group to the Leadership Team, including our mission/vision and possibly our core values

Sarah will write up notes for the November Oakkin to highlight the team’s latest happenings/accomplishments

Fair Trade Coffee

Thanks to church members, as well as Creation Care Team members, FCC now uses exclusively fair trade coffee during it's 9:30 coffee hour! The coffee comes from both LaRue and Pura Vida.

The purpose of fair trade is to promote healthier working conditions and greater economic incentive for coffee producers. In buying and consuming fair trade coffee, you are ensuring that growers are provided with a living wage and safe working conditions.

Standards for fair trade coffee certification include:

• Fair labor conditions: Those who work with Fair Trade farms are able to work with freedom of association, safe working conditions, and fair wages. Child labor is strictly prohibited.
• Direct trade: With Fair Trade, importers purchase from Fair Trade producer groups as directly as possible, eliminating the middle man and letting the farmer compete in the global market.
• Democratic and transparent organizations: Through proof of a democratic market, Fair Trade farmers and farm workers decide how to invest Fair Trade revenues.
• Community development: Fair Trade farmers and workers invest Fair Trade premiums in social and business development projects like scholarship programs, healthcare services and quality improvement training.

Hope for Creation

Please join us at First Covenant Church on Wednesday, April 21st for a Live Global Simulcast presented by Blessed Earth!

Click here to view a short trailer.

Notes 01.18.2009

The Creation Care Team met after church today.

Gillie received information from Barbara Alf. We will keep on file and review at a later date.

Trash service/recycling was discussed. Our current provider is Waste Management, Bennington. Debbie Schroeder of Metro Disposal & Recycling spoke to our group about services they can provide. She will send a price quote on Monday, Jan. 19. Discussion was held regarding our current contract with Waste Management. Diane will contact Pat Dunlap, chair of Trustees, about the contract renewal dates.

Mug raiser feedback has been positive. People seem to like the conversation starters the random mugs provide. It had been suggested that we consider ordering First Covenant coffee mugs to use at church and as a possible fundraiser. Our team feels that the mug raiser we held is a better way to "Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle".

Erin has been talking to individuals who clean up after coffee hour about washing the mugs. If help is needed, team members have offered to help. Erin and Jenny sorted the mugs received and have stored the holiday ones.

Amy will talk to Naida about re-producing green tips in the monthly Oakkin.

Diane showed the reusable grocery bag samples received. We will consider a fundraiser with them, tabled until next time.

Trash Cans and Totes

I think I emailed this to most everyone already...but here is what I've found.

Hello All!

First of all...a question.
Should we do a mug raiser for the youth coffee hour as well? Should theirs be kinda seperate (like they would have their own rack of mugs?)

And here is what I've found out about trash cans:

It looks like what we are looking start at around $9.99 and go up from there. The ones that look a little nicer and a little more durable are more like $20 a piece. Prices are pretty much the same at Target, Walmart and Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Do we care exactly what type of lid the bins have? It looks like our options are flip lids, step on lids or touch lids.

So maybe we need to decide what is a reasonable price to spend per can and then buy what looks like the most durable with the lid we want for the money.

Also...Walmart sells a stainless steel 3 in 1 recycle center for $69.98. Obviously more expensive, but just thought I would throw that out there as well. It is only available to purchase online however.

Totes for the kitchen look like they would start at $5 and again, increase in price due to durability and type of lid.

Let me know if there is anything else that you would like to know or we need information about.

Jenny

Notes from meeting 2

Several of us met after church today to make some decisions about how to move forward.

Diane is going to get in contact with FirstStar to find out if they would be interested in making FCC a recycling center for the surrounding community.

Jenny is going to research trash can prices and make signs for the mug-raiser which will be held during the month of December.

Erin is going to work on finding out who will empty the recycling bins around church, e-mail Mary Andrews about writing a monthly environmental care article, and compile green tips for the Loop.

Gillie is still waiting to get information from Barbara and will let us know when she does.

Looking ahead to January: we hope to implement the use of real dishes on Wednesday nights by finding more people to do dishes after dinner and possibly just hooking them up with a cooking team so their is a rotation.

Looking ahead to April: Earth Day could be a good time for us to educate the congregation and Diane suggested the possibility of selling canvas totes as a fundraiser.

We will be meeting again after the first of the year after some of these changes have hopefully been implemented.

trash pickup - take two

I'm not sure why my whole message wasn't published. I am not a blogger, and my patience with this is wearing thin at the moment. But here is the info. (again)

Waste Management Systems of Bennington is our trash removal co. They currently offer mixed paper and cardboard recycling - they are "working on" aluminum and plastics. No time frame was available on that.

For their "starter package" (my name, not theirs) for this service, the info is as follows:

mixed paper/cardboard pickup
every other week
2-yard dumpster
$60/mo. - not incl. fees and taxes

My thoughts are: 1 - where would we put another dumpster? 2 - do we go through enough paper to fill a small dumpster in two weeks? 3 - did we decide Dian Magnuson was already doing this?