• Tom and Joanne attended the most recent regional meeting of local energy committees in Greenfield. Chris Donelan and another legislator were present, and talked about proposed new legislation that may provide funding for local energy-related projects. Tom and Joanne will keep us informed about how this possibility develops.
• Steve reported that the state seems to be moving toward trying to install a megawatt of solar power capacity on a number of state-owned buildings (including prisons, state park buildings, etc.).

Report on presentation at North Quabbin Community Coalition meeting
Five people (Don, Pat, Steve, Janice, and Brian) attended the meeting and made a presentation about energy on May 18. This ended up being just a half hour instead of the hour that was planned on, so things were a bit rushed. Everyone in our group mentioned one thing they had recently done to reduce their energy use, and then the audience broke into five groups briefly to share and report back on their own energy-reduction ideas and strategies. Audience members were encouraged to think about (a) things they had done themselves, (b) additional things that individuals and families could do, and (c) things that companies or organizations might do. We gave out small paper bags with clothespins, seed packets, bookmarks, and other items.

Ideas for future group presentations
Based on the NQCC experience, we talked about how we might approach future presentations if we are invited to speak to other groups. We agreed that it would be good to include:

• some kind of "big picture" overview about why it's important to re-think our energy use
• some ideas from our group about things we have done/things people can do
• some time for the audience to talk about what they've done or might want to do

• why bother? i.e. what are the consequences of our petroleum-fueled lifestyle?
• stress conservation, then efficiency, then renewables, rather than just a focus on renewables
• it's important to seek out local resources, find out what's available locally and what people in the area are already doing

"Taking the Mystery Out of Recycling" show
The show was taped at AOTV on May 15, with a small studio audience. The recycling skit was taped at the Chicken Coop School and is now posted on our website, as well as being included in the TV show. The show will be aired on AOTV (Channel 13) on June 7 at 5:30 p.m., June 8 at 5:30 a.m. and 7 p.m., June 9 at 7 a.m., June 10 at 4 p.m., and June 11 at 4 p.m., as well as future dates t.b.d. We will do some PR to let people know that it will be broadcast. Tom suggested that the PR could be linked with the opening of bids for the construction of the Athol transfer station. Cathy will work on this. We will view the TV show at our next meeting.

Town energy committees
Steve suggested that NQE could support/encourage each of the nine North Quabbin towns to convene an energy committee that could work on various local projects (for example, improving energy efficiency in town buildings). Steve and Janice have recently become involved in a new committee in Warwick that is focusing on both town buildings and energy use. Wendell may already be doing something similar; Cathy will contact the town governments and find out who else is already working on this idea. Pat will look through our own list of contacts to see who in each town might be interested in starting and/or serving on a committee. Tom and Joanne will gather ideas about what other local energy committees are working on in the Franklin County groups who attend the regional meetings. Once we have gathered this info, we will contact selectboards and interested individuals to encourage them to set up committees in each town.

MREC building ideas
Don and Brian discussed some possible ideas for increasing the energy efficiency of the MREC building. We are not sure whether to keep trying to work directly with people at MREC or just to propose some projects ourselves and take it to them as a project that we would like to work on. At the next meeting we will do a group walk-through of the building and will decide on one or two projects (probably having to do with windows and fluorescent lights) to propose to MREC. Cathy will work on getting figures for current electricity and oil costs from Dave Small.

Possible panel on "green businesses"
Jane proposed sponsoring a presentation to the Rotary Club that featured some local businesspeople who were pursuing "green" initiatives for their company - possibly Dean Cycon of Dean's Beans (which has a Carbon Neutral Initiative), Peter Gerry of Pete's Tire Barns (planning possible solar and wind generation projects for Athol and Orange), and Douglas Starrett (working on adding hydropower capacity at the Crescent Street dam). After some discussion, it seemed that it might make more sense to try to get a panel like this together for another taped show at AOTV, rather than as a very brief set of presentations at a Rotary lunch. We will pursue these as two separate ideas, possibly for fall - an AOTV show about green businesses in our area, and a Rotary presentation on energy by NQE members.

Home Show/Energy Expo
Cathy contacted Steve Raymond at the North Quabbin Chamber of Commerce about the idea of co-sponsoring next year's Home Show. A third (outdoor-oriented) group is also interested in co-sponsoring, so this would make a good combination of organizations representing the area. The Chamber is very interested in working with us on this, and will keep us posted when they begin meeting to plan next spring's event. Tom will notify our Energy Expo vendor list from last year about this change for next year.

Next meeting
Thursday, June 28 at MREC
We will have a screening of "Taking the Mystery out of Recycling" at 6:30 p.m., along with a potluck supper (it's Tom Rich's birthday - Tom and Joanne will bring a cake!).

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