Sustainable Stockton Meeting Minutes 

Thursday, April 3, 2008, at 7:00 pm, Stockton Municipal Building (Meeting #8) 

Attendees:  Elizabeth Pitta; Renea Dahms; Donna Literski; Tom Literski; Jeanne Dodge; and Sharon Reichert.

 Agenda Items:

 Meeting Minutes.  Minutes of Meeting #8 were approved with Renea’s amendments to spell her name correctly (Renea not Renae) under “Election of Committee Co-chairs, Secretary, and Treasurer” item.   

Committee Description Vote.  Motion made by Donna/Seconded by Jeanne to approve the current committee description.  No discussion on the subject.  All present were in favor of the description.  The Sustainable Stockton Description is as follows:  “A citizen group working towards a sustainable community by promoting a functional and healthy economic, ecological, and social climate within the Town of Stockton.  The group will work to support individuals, businesses, and the Town government in making decisions that protect and enhance the quality of life for both humanity and natural systems, now and in the future.”

 Update on WEEB Grant/Lightbulb Projects.  No information to report at this time on the WEEB grant.  Though Cindy Davis wasn’t able to attend the meeting, she passed her information on to Jeanne regarding our home lightbulb study.  Jeanne said the homeowners involved need two more months to finish getting their data on electrical usage because they inadvertently forgot to replace some incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent ones in the workshop and some outside areas.  So, we will hear more about the results of this study sometime after May of this year. 

Report on Website/Possible Vote on Homepage Color and Outlook.  The Website Subcommittee (Mary, Sue, Donna, and Elizabeth) had to choose a webpage color prior to this meeting in order to meet the time constraints of the students working on this project for us.  Our homepage color is a bright, medium green (very similar to the green on our logo).  Donna and Elizabeth shared with us some of the work they have been doing for the webpage and discussed some items they could use more information for.  Renea volunteered to contribute information on agriculture-related resources and permaculture.  Sharon will help on the webpage project as well.  

Discussion on “10 Second Commercial” or “25 Words” (to Describe Our Committee).  Elizabeth thought it would be beneficial for our group to come up with a short statement that would answer questions about our committee like:  Who are we and what kind of service(s) are we offering to the community?  What are the advantages of our service(s)?  What are the benefits of joining our committee/movement?  For example, if we were working an exhibit for Sustainable Stockton at some convention, what would we say to introduce ourselves and  SS Min 4-3-08Page 2  explain what our group does to someone who just stopped by our booth?  We may want to send an e-mail to our whole group to get feedback on this concept.   The group continued to talk about what we can do to grab people’s attention and/or inspire citizens to be part of our cause.  Understanding that we will not help our purpose by pointing fingers or alienating those of certain opinions, the group discussed possibly sponsoring a water resources informational meeting/forum.  Issues like the Little Plover River, Residential Development and Water Impact, Surface Water Depletion, Eurasian Water Millifoil Invasion, Low Groundwater Table, Prescription Drugs in our Water/Prescription Drug Drop-Off, etc., could be addressed.  The diversity of topics may, in turn, bring in a diversified local population.  This type of community gathering may serve not only as an educational event but a possible forum to bring our message across as well.

 Discussion of Goals.  Goals will be re-addressed at the subcommittee level before being presented at an upcoming meeting. 

Next Meeting.  Next meeting will be Thursday, May 1, 2008, at 7:00 pm at the Stockton Municipal Building.  Agenda for that meeting will be sent at a later date. 

Respectfully Submitted, Sharon Reichert