Previous Activity Reports

January, 2001

October, 2000

Activities Report, January, 2001

The thrust for our activities began with a workshop on social justice at our meeting house in the Spring of 2000. To the surprise of the facilitators, the rather unexpected outcome of this workshop was a strong sense among the participants that sustainability was the most important issue in our lives in that it is interwoven with every social, environmental and economic concern. There was also a strong sense that Responsible Consumption was the most immediate, direct, and personal way in which each individual could put into action his or her values and effect significant change. Coincidently, we learned at about this time of the Study/Action Project of the UUA on the topic: Responsible Consumption as a Moral Imperative. Hence, a Study/Action Group on Responsible Consumption/Sustainability was formed and has met monthly.

We began by organzing a summer Sunday discussion series We had attendance of 25-30 people at every session. The series included the following topics:

• "It's a Dog-Help-dog World: Cooperation is the Most Powerful Force in Sustainable Natural Communities-Phil Kern
• The Ecology of Sustainable Communities- Rich Greenlee
• Treading Lightly in Your Vehicle: Sustainable Personal Transportation, Colin High
• Power from the Sun: Sustainable Energy, Bill Martin
• Epicurean Simplicity: Our Food, Our Planet, Claudia Kern
• Power From the Wind: Sustainable Energy, Tom Gray
• Nice Guys Last Longest: Four Billion Years of Sustainable Communities, Phil Kern
• More Fun-Less Stuff (Your Money or Your Life): Responsible Consumption as a Moral, Frugal, and Hedonistic Imperative!

To date we have initiated the following projects:

1. We are building a sustainability library-we have developed a bibliography and have had nearly thirty books donated by members and friends. (Bibliography is available on our website)
2. One of our members, Tom Gray, has helped us to form an e-group at uucuv-simplify@yahoogroups.com. We share information on relevant actions, recommend good websites and books, and more. We are hoping to develop this even more as a vehicle of communication and participation.
3. Another of our members, Steve Ketcham, has created a website for us at uucuv.org/sustainability.html. This site is in its infancy, but will eventually provide links to many other sites.
4. In the Fall we sponsored three discussion courses with a total of 24 registered participants. We used the materials developed by the Northwest Earth Institute/Vermont Earth Institute for courses on "Voluntary Simplicity" and "Choices for Sustainable Living." We will be offering NEI/VEI courses on "Choices for Sustainable Living" and "Deep Ecology" and a course on "Your Money or Your Life" beginning late January.
5. We have begun greening our congregation's activities. The Meetinghouse committee is participating in a buying group which allows us to buy unbleached and recycled paper products at a reasonable price. In addition, we are exploring the interfaith program offered by Equal Exchange coffee company for cooperatively and organically-shade-grown coffee. At the January Board Meeting we received approval to participate as a Founding Church for the Seventh Principal Project's Green Sanctuary Program and are in the process of applying for candidacy.
6. We have instituted a Green Corner at our Coffee Hour with ASAP's (After-Service Action Projects!), which provide a quick social action that applies to sustainability and empowers people with the knowledge that their actions as consumers can make a difference. Some actions we have undertaken to date:
   • a petition regarding the roadless national forests project,
   • laundry line of clothes to urge folks to line-dry
   • a form to fill out requesting deletion from direct marketing lists and reduce junk mail (thanks to the Center for the New American Dream),
   • a checklist for evaluating one's family's food consumption patterns,
   • a handout from the Monterey Aquarium on consuming fish responsibly, etc.
   • letters to four major pulp paper producers requesting that they ban the use of chlorine bleaching and other organochlorines, and that they label any products which they continue to produce with these chemicals. Also, letters to EPA and congress requesting a legislative ban.
   • the Clean Car Pledge for individuals to sign and send
   • weatherization to reduce energy consumption
   • and more....
7. As a prelude to a focus on consumption and the holidays, in November we hosted a public showing of a satellite broadcast by Vicki Robin on "Your Money or Your Life." The interest from both the community and congregation was such that we will be offering a support group/ study course in January on this nine-step plan for redefining one's relationship with money.
8. Our major pre-holiday project was aimed toward building UU and public awareness about alternative, sustainable practices for holiday celebrations and gift-giving. We created 140 fabric gift bags at weekly sewing bees. The bags were created from donated, discontinued decorator fabric samples. We sold these at low cost at our annual Craft Fair, inviting people to use the idea to create a new holiday tradtion. At the Fair, we also distributed a flyer entitled "Walk gently on the Earth this season,"

and a pamphlet produced by the Center for the New American Dream entitled "Simplify the Holidays." We sold every bag, and the response was overwhelmingly positive.

In addtion to the Craft Fair educational projects, we created an "Alternative Gifts Gazette" built on congregational responses to the following questions:

1. What is the most wonderful handmade gift, gift of experience, gift of time, or other "alternative gift" you have ever received?
2. Describe for us the most joy-full "alternative gift" that you have ever given.
3. Let us know if you have you ever given donations in the name of a loved one as a gift? What cause or organization did you choose and why?
4. What special rituals or traditions for celebrations are unique to your family?

As part of a pre-holiday RE Sunday, the elementary children made a presentation on what they would "really" like for Christmas...things like time, activities with their families, etc. and they sang the following song to the tune of jingle bells:

A VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY CAROL
(to the tune of JINGLE BELLS)
Copyright 2000, by Patricia W. Eckels

Hap-py boys, hap-py girls,
Hap-py fa-mi-lies,
What we need are time and love, so
Lis-ten to us plee-eeze.

Too much buy, too much get,
Too much stress and fret.
Things that make us cross and tired,
All these we should for-get.

Dash-ing through the stores,
Till we're all out of sorts,
More-more-more-more-more,
Our lists are ne-ver short.

Let's find time for home.
This year we'll do it right.
We'll set a whole new tone,
And make our spi-rits bright!

Hap-py girls, hap-py boys,
Happy fa-mi-lies,
What we need are time and love,
And volun-tary sim-pli-ci-ty.

Looking ahead to a new year, we would like to initiate some programs for children on consumption and advertising, host letter-writing parties, and build an inventory of goods and talents for exchanging among UU's. Our main projects at the moment are assisting with the Green Sanctuary project, and, most especially, looking into the possibilities for buying green energy for our Meetinghouse, interested members of our congregation, and perhaps, even, a coalition of Upper Valley churches.

Our challenges are:

1. How to motivate concern and action for the issues surrounding sustainability, while at the same time building hope and vision.
2. Staying focused. Sustainability touches every aspect of life; how do we keep the message consistent, simple, and relevant? In part, that is why the filter of responsible consumption is useful.
3. How to bring our knowledge and concern to the community at large. What can UU's do and say on these issues, what should we be saying and doing as a congregation.
4. Resisting the temptation to think small!

For more information on this group, please contact Phil Kern or Claudia Kern by email, postal mail (PO Box 143, Lyme, NH 03768), or telephone (603-795-4930). We would be happy to hear from you.

Activities Report, October, 2000

The thrust for our activities began with a workshop on social justice at our meeting house in the Spring. To the surprise of the facilitators, the rather unexpected outcome of this workshop was a strong sense among the participants that sustainability was the most important issue in our lives. It is interwoven with every social, environmental and economic concern. There was also a strong sense that Responsible Consumption was the most immediate,direct,and personal way in which each of us could put into action our values. It also converged nicely with the Commission on Social Witness Study/Action Project: Responsible Consumption as a Moral Imperative. Hence a Study/Action Group on Responsible Consumption was formed and has met monthly. So far we have initiated the following projects:

1. We are building a sustainability library-we have developed a bibliography and have had nearly twenty books donated by members and friends.
2. One of our members has helped us to form an e-group at uucuv-simplify@yahoogroups.com. We share information on relevant actions, recommend good websites and books, and more. We are hoping to develop this even more as a vehicle of communication and participation.
3. Currently we are sponsoring three discussion courses with a total of 25 participants. We are using the materials developed by the Northwest Earth Institute for courses on "Voluntary Simplicity" and "Choices for Sustainable Living." We hope to offer additional courses in January.
4. We have begun thinking about greening our congregation's activities. The Meetinghouse committee is participating in a buying group which allows us to buy unbleached and recycled paper products at a reasonable price. In addition, we are exploring the interfaith program offered by Equal Exchange coffee company for cooperatively and organic-shade-grown coffee. Our ultimate goal is to be able to present to the board a list of recommendations.
5. We have instituted ASAP's (After-Service Action Projects!) which provides a quick social action that applies to sustainability (empowering people with the knowledge that what they do can make a difference). So far we have had:
   • a petition regarding the roadless national forests project,
   • laundry line of clothes to urge folks to line-dry,
   • a form to fill out to be deleted from direct marketing lists and reduce junk mail (thanks to the Center for the New American Dream),
   • a checklist for evaluating one's families food consumption patterns,
   • a handout from the Monterey Aquarium on consuming fish responsibly, etc.
   • letters to four major pulp paper producers requesting that they ban the use of chlorine bleaching and other organochlorines, and that
     they label any products which they continue to produce with these chemicals. Also, letters to EPA and congress requesting a legislative ban.
   • bookmarks listing seven principles of sustainability;
     decorated by our RE children
   • the Clean Car Pledge for individuals to sign and send

Things we want to get to include some programs for children on consumption and advertising, letter-writing parties, and an inventory of goods and talents for exchanging among one another. Right now our big push is toward building public awareness about alternative, sustainable practices for holiday celebrations and gift-giving. In conjunction with this last item, we've scheduled a showing of a satellite broadcast by Vicki Robin on "Your Money or Your Life" to be shown on two consequetive Mondays, November 13 and 20.

In addition to the Study/Action Group, a summer Sunday morning series was organized. We had record attendance of 25-30 people at every session. The series included the following topics:

• It's a Dog-Help-dog World: Cooperation is the Most Powerful Force in Sustainable Natural Communities
• The Ecology of Sustainable Communities
• Treading Lightly in Your Vehicle: Sustainable Personal Transportation
• Power from the Sun: Sustainable Energy
• Epicurean Simplicity: Our Food, Our Planet
• Power From the Wind: Sustainable Energy
• Nice Guys Last Longest: Four Billion Years of Sustainable Communities
• More Fun-Less Stuff (Your Money or Your Life): Responsible Consumption as a Moral, Frugal, and Hedonistic Imperative!

In addition, the study/action group has been invited to bring a display and information table to the District Annual Meeting in October, and the District is discussing making Sustainability and Responsible Consumption the themes of the Annual Meeting in 2001.

Please contact us by email through our coordinator, Claudia Kern, or our e-group, uucuv-simplify@yahoogroups.com.