OUR LADY OF GOOD COUNSEL
GREEN CHURCH COMMITTEE
Minutes – Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Present – Wanda Taillefer, Salvatore Marchese, Katie Charette, Mary Trevisan, Rose-Marie
Valade, John Plecash, Chris Shoust, Suzanne Shoust

Regrets –Karen Gionette, Father Paul Conway, Betty Boisonneau

Opening Prayer

Approval of the Agenda – Motion: Rose-Marie, second: Chris – Approved

Approval of the Minutes of the November 20, 2022 Meeting – Motion: Katie, second: John
– Approved

Business Arising:
a) Direction for Styrofoam Compactor Project – We discussed if we want to move forward, and whether we want to forward the information compiled to date to the city for consideration. Chris will discuss with Emily Cormier and arrange to go to a sustainability meeting to do a presentation. Look into this next month.
Addition: Should we reach out to Brian Kelly or Elaine Della-Mattia to do a write up about our committee, a general interest piece with an outline of information from letters we have sent out, and information from the list on our website of what we have done-to-date.
b) Clean North Update – No update at this time. Salvatore will contact and follow up with a new contact. Other avenues we can look into are with the Environmental Monitoring Committee which meets 3-4 times a year. Contact Peter McLarty or Mike Blanchard who are committee members.
c) Adopt A Street – We will reach out to the city again regarding information for this program. As a committee we would prefer to switch to the adopt a street program instead of the adopt a highway program.
d) Strategic Plan – Future of Committee – We will organize a dedicated meeting for this particular item. At that meeting we will focus on our vision, mission, goals, strengths and weaknesses. Meeting to be planned at a later date when Rose-Marie returns from her trip, aiming for date in May.
e) Clothing Swap in the new year – Collection of clothes Saturday and Sunday January 28-29 before masses in the church hall. Katie, John and Wanda will be volunteering. Announcement to be added to the bulletin and Fr. Paul will make an announcement to the parish. Clothing Swap dates to be Saturday and Sunday February 4-5 after masses in the church hall. After the event all remaining clothes will be donated. Places to consider for donating: Pauline’s Place, Women in Crisis, St. Vincent de Paul, Community Soup Kitchen.
Addition:
f) Website – Updates: Chris has added information about Clean North’s prescription bottle recycling campaign, and will add an announcement about the clothing swap.

New Business:
a) Landfill Diversion Incentive – Chris sent an email, re: motion, possible points system idea. We discussed sending letters to large corporations/companies to get them to change their packaging. Maybe sending one letter a month to ask them to consider changing their product packaging to an eco-friendly, recyclable option. Companies to consider sending letters to would be pop companies, asking to remove plastic wrapping.

Next meeting – Thursday, February 16, 2023 at 7:00 pm. Chris to chair. Meeting will also be
a potluck dinner. Further details to be discussed/confirmed via email.