Meeting Minutes - Founding Meeting, February 27th, 2010

Here are the minutes from the founding meeting for the South Bay Community Earth Council.

We started right at 3:00pm, spending about half an hour meeting and getting to know one another.

We then went around the room, and everyone briefly shared why they attended the Council.

We then began to brainstorm and discuss various aspects of the Council and what kinds of things our council should focus on. I'll attempt to list out the various topics/discsussions by category.

General:
- A recommendation was made to read the book "Little Brother"

- At the end of the meeting, we agreed to meet on the last Thursday of the month at 7:00pm at Mark and John-Paul Riley's house. The next meeting will be March 25th.

Political:
- There was a point made that the CEC should provide a respectful forum for members to discuss political issues, even if we do not all have the same political viewpoints, we should all agree to speak of these issues from a position of balanced respect.

- There are many ballot issues and political positions that have environmental impact, and it is not always obvious what all the implications and side effects of these things are. One thing our group should focus on is researching and disseminating informed, respectful, and balanced evaluations of the environmental impact of various political issues as a service to the CEC members.

- There was an interesting discussion on Advertising as a possible reason why younger generations do not give much heed to older generations. The point was raised that Advertising encourages people to identify with the Advertising themes, and to be less open to identifying with points of view outside this spectrum. Another point was raised that Advertising causes us to focus on fulfilling personal wants rather than encouraging altruistic behavior. Another point was raised that perhaps it is the balance between these two messages that needs redressed, and our current society seems to be heavily weighted towards messages focusing on fulfilling personal wants, and not enough messages to encourage positive, altruistic action.

- The rise of the Tea-bagger movement was brought up. A point was made that the positions of the Tea-baggers appeal to people's fear and ignorance. The media lends unfair weight to their position, as evidenced by the fact that the last Tea-bagger convention had 800 participants, and nearly 300 journalists covering it, a ration of nearly 1 journalist for every three Tea-baggers in attendance. Another point was made that a way to discern whether or not to invite a public figure's views into our lives is respect. If a public figure speaks predominantly of that which they disrespect, their statements do not encourage positive action, nor are they accurately reflecting the topic they are addressing, since you cannot expect a fair evaluation of anything from a person who disrespects that of which they speak. The point was made that it appears many public figures who support the Tea-bagger movement speak only of that which they disrespect.

Outreach:

- The topic of outreach was raised, and a point was made that for the first few months, we should focus on recruiting friends that we feel would be a good fit for the type of solid, respectful foundation we are seeking to build. Then, after we have built what we all feel is a solid foundation, we can discuss other ways and means to broaden our outreach and recruitment efforts.

Reducing Personal Impact:

- We discussed the concept of the Simple Changes Support Group.

- We discussed the CEC library that has been started to help support these Simple Changes.

- The point was made that we should keep a Recommended Buying List after the CEC has evaluated a product.

- The point was made that we should keep a list of Simple Changes Ideas that people in the CEC can try out.

- The point was made that the CEC should also Research Issues regarding questions or concerns people have when trying to find the most sustainable solution to a particular sustainability problem.