Menlo Green Ribbon Citizens' Committee

Menlo Park's Green Ribbon Citizens' Committee - 2008 Update

Do you want to…

…do your part to address climate change?
…help Menlo Park take leadership as a community in these efforts?
…work with other committed individuals to pass along a healthy environment to our children?

Then join the Menlo Park Green Ribbon Citizens’ Committee for Phase 2!

Our Successes in 2007’s Phase 1 include:

• Proposed 14 green items adopted into the 2007-2008 city budget
• Created "Climate Action Report and Recommendations"; presented to City Council in 11/07

Our Goals for 2008 are:

• Initiate at least 5 projects within the Menlo Park community to reduce greenhouse gases
• Support the City in creating a Climate Action Plan for the Menlo Park community to reduce greenhouse gases by at least 2% a year over the next 40 years

We are a group of dedicated citizens committed to working with the Menlo Park community to implement programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and do our part in reversing global warming.

We are organized into action teams and research groups that work on topics and projects that match their interests. Do you see a research group or action team you’d like to join?   

Outreach and Implementation Action Teams

• Schools
• Communities of Faith
• Business Community
• Homeowner/Neighborhood Associations
• Building Professionals

Research & Development Work Groups   

• Sustainable Building   
• Energy   
• Waste Reduction   
• Transit/Transportation   
• Green Business   

Marketing Groups

• Events
• PR/Communications

Our group consists of a broad cross-section of committed passionate individuals living in and close to Menlo Park, including members of the local scientific, business, civic, residential and environmental communities. We are open to the public. Please join us. Our meeting schedule for 2008 will be announced shortly.

If you'd like to get involved:

• Email us or call (650) 618-1465 with questions or your interests. We'll help you connect with the team that's best for you.
• Please sign up for our Menlo Park GRCC Yahoo! Group to receive notifications of our meetings and events.

Coordinating team meeting, April 18, 2007

The Fish Bowl Room” Wednesday - April 18, 2007 – 5:00 to 6:00 pm

Present: Adina, Chris, Gail, Kelly, Michelle, Mitch, Patti, Randy, Richard

Agenda:

1) Establish our meeting schedule and content

2) Low-hanging fruit items that can be proposed for the budget

There is an opportunity to propose up to five items from each group to be proposed for the current budget cycle at the next council meeting.  The deadline for this is May 24, and sooner is better to give the items a chance for approval.   Michelle, Gail and Randy are forming a SWAT team to collate these ideas.

3) Adina; will do a Yahoo group for the coordinating team; all of the subcommittee heads and liaisons.

4) Press release ideas

Kelly will do a press release for the upcoming meeting.

Other PR ideas: take turns writing letters to the editor about MenloGRCC activities.

5) Plan for the next plenary meeting agenda

News flashes up front.  Rich and Patti will do it this time, and the role will circulate around. Ideas include Earth Day, trains.

Before the meeting, the stations should be set up with flip charts. Signon sheets should include a new column with the group each person is in.

The focus of the meeting is for city staff to present current activities and be available to answer questions. Up to four staff members might show up. They will start with a presentation and then sit in on the working groups.

It would be useful during the breakout reports to highlight  ideas that a group has had that would be appropriate for another group.

Provide an inspirational ending, which brings us back to the vision, and look ahead to the next meeting.

There needs to be someone identified to take notes for the session.

 
6) The next meeting

Potentially invite IDEO to facilitate brainstorming.  Invite them to the next coordinating meeting to plan their participation in the plenary session.



7) Check in for each team

A quick check in from each subcommittee at each of our coordinating meeting.

Mitch: Energy and Materials – primarily in the research phase; 8 people were at the last meeting, with 3 or 4 not present.  Within four to six weeks, ideas will start taking form. The group will try to connect with Raleigh and Tucson to get the staff reports and the resolutions with what they did.

Randy: land use and building will be dividing into sub committees; sub groups will put together a process to think through the items and come to the next meeting with a four to five step process to determine whose going to do what.  Intent looks good and interest is high.  We need someone interested in and or committed to water.

Green Business has been quiet. The main person is underwater due to the Atherton project; after Earth Day more activity is expected.


Communications.

Adina:  The blog has been updated with all of the minutes from every meeting. The priorities for blogging include reports on what MenloGRCC are doing, local and regional activity; and traditional PR. Our group has been active and small in number; we’ve been limiting our suggestions to what we can do.

Gail: when the communication team reported it sounded more like a service entity vs. a substance one – how the community learns about climate change and can be mobilized to do something about it. There are additional opportunities to do proactive communication and education to community groups, such as schools, communities of faith, business groups, residents.

Mitch: there is some kind of program called power walk – door to door with free compact fluorescents;

Michelle: suggests creating program proposals. If the proposal is written,  the city can get it going and then a partner can help to take the idea/project to the next level. Peter is doing the sermon on Earth Day at the Unitarian U Church; It would be possible to Collect sermons and distribute them around to communities of faith;

Someone can post the details for Valerie’s event on Saturday night; Atherton Green.net