| Meeting #15 - Dec 4, 2008 |
|
Sustainable Stockton Meeting Minutes
Thursday, December 4, 2008, at 6:30 pm, Stockton Municipal Building (meeting #15) (Meeting at earlier time to accommodate Fire Chief meeting in Town Municipal Building on same night.)
Attendees: Sue Anderson; Donna Literski; Mary Maller; Haley Sankey; and Sharon Reichert.
Agenda Items:
Meeting Minutes. Minutes of Meeting #14 were approved as written (Donna/Mary; all in favor).
Documentary Series Update/Advertising. We had a great turnout on November 13th with about 30 people showing up to view The Future of Food, the 1st documentary film in a series of four sponsored by Sustainable Stockton (SS) and Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA). Folks came from Stevens Point, Amherst, and the Town of Stockton to see the film. A hand-out listing the documentaries, an e-mail sign-up sheet, and free popcorn were available to attendees. Opening remarks were made by SS and MREA reps, and a discussion/comment period followed the film viewing. Lois Lawler stated she’d like to show the film at Portage County Democratic Party event.
Our next film in the series, Affluenza, will be shown on Thursday, January 15, 2009, at 7:00 pm at MREA. (Affluenza replaces the previously planned movie Escaping Affluenza because Mary reviewed the latter and found it too dated.) Affluenza addresses consumerism and the question of how much is too much? The movie viewing will follow the same format as the previous documentary. Donna will create posters for the event to get out around Jan 2, 2009. All of us available can print off posters and help put them up in the community.
Find It In Stockton Directory. Jerry Piesik, Town of Stockton Supervisor and owner of Jerry’s Small Engine, has generously agreed to photocopy our directory free of charge --about 1200 copies! It will take about 2-3 days to complete the copying. Mary will coordinate the copying and make arrangements with the Town of Stockton to ensure our directory is ready for the next Town of Stockton Newsletter mailing in January. (The Town of Stockton is including our directory with the Town Newsletter mailing without any charge to Sustainable Stockton). We will offer our assistance of labor to help Marie Helminiak, Town of Stockton Clerk, with stuffing envelopes or whatever she might need in order to get the Town Newsletter out in time. Mary will coordinate the Directory arrangements with Jerry and Marie.
E-Mail Lists & Usage. Group discussed possibly having several e-mail lists for Sustainable Stockton such as one regular list for agendas/minutes, one list for documentaries group, one from light bulb give away list, etc. so people only get information they’re interested in. More refining will be done on this matter, but for now we will include a note at the bottom of our e-mails with wording like, “it’s easy to get off this list, just e-mail Sharon Reichert with your removal request.” Perhaps we could send out a monthly notice with upcoming events and a link to the webpage which would include our minutes and agendas.
To address the 90 or so folks that indicated an interest in being on our e-mail list at the light bulb giveaway on Election Day Donna will send Sharon the Excel spreadsheet of that mailing list, Sue will write the introduction e-mail, andSharonwill send it out in February 2009.
In addition, we have some people that indicated an interest in Sustainable Stockton at the light bulb giveaway but did not include an e-mail address. Possibly, we can send them a one-time post card and refer them to our webpage or ask them to send their e-mail address if they have one since we don’t have the funding for postage to keep a regular mailing list.
Non-Profit Status. The benefits of becoming a non-profit organization are that our group would be eligible for grants, could receive over $9,000 in donations, and donators could use their gift to us as a tax write-off. Sue, Mary, and Donna all did research on this topic.
Donna talked to some lawyers and other folks regarding the possibly costs for their services to help us become a non-profit. She found the charges to be about $170/hour, with total estimates up to $500. Ideally, you find an attorney who knows about obtaining non-profit status so he/she doesn’t have to do much research and can keep hourly time required to a minimum.
Sue talked to MREA’s Tehri Parker about us working under the MREA umbrella and their non-profit status. Tehri said we’d have to present the MREA Board with a proposal, and, if approved, we may be able to usher our money through them with pretty minimal costs. Sue also talked to Nick Hylla of Farmshed. He thought the costs to become a non-profit would be approximately $100 for federal and state licensing fees which doesn’t include attorney costs. He suggested we may be able to find a lawyer to do pro bono work for us since they are all required to do so.
Mary approached the Community Foundation. They have two types of funds available: Endowed Fund (where you keep a large core amount and only spend interest with a minimal amount of deposit of $600 twice a year for 10 years.) or the Pass Through Fund (where you don’t want to write a lot of checks). Neither of which really applies to our situation.
Weatherization Workshop. Sue stated Kelly Zagrzebski from Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) is willing to present Weatherization Workshops---one in Stevens Point and one here in the Town of Stockton. She is available either on Tuesday, January 27, 2009, or Wednesday, January 28, 2009. The group agreed it preferred Wed., Jan. 28th around 6:30 pm or 7:00 pm for a Stockton date and time. Sue and Kim Becken will check with Amy Heart of MREA to see if the workshop can be held in their building. A free Weatherization Kit is given to workshop attendees which may help draw folks in.
Sue will give poster information on workshop to Sharon when she receives it from Kelly Z. Sharon will create poster for event. Group may advertise documentary series and workshop together.
Open Discussion. Mary mentioned that Michael Pollan (author of Omnivores’ Dilemma) wrote a great article to President Elect Barack Obama entitled “Farmer in Chief” (from the New York Times). Also, Mary stated that we may be interested in showing an episode of the Bill Moyers where Michael Pollan was a guest, for next year’s film series.Sue Anderson’s e-mail address has changed. You can now reach her at:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. Lastly, group discussed eco-friendly holiday gift suggestions and ways to include sustainable ideas into thoughtful gift-giving. Next Meeting. January meeting will be held on Thursday, January 8, 2009, due to the New Year’s holiday.
Respectfully Submitted, Sharon Reichert, Secretary
|