1.

The agenda was reviewed for items to be discussed today. A quorum was present. Meeting minutes for March 30, 2004 were reviewed and approved by the committee without changes, motioned by Jim Whitney, second by Lou Host-Jablonski.

2.

EnAct by Sonya Newenhouse
Madison Environmental Group, Inc.
phone: (608) 204-2888
website: www.enactwi.org

EnAct creates environmental action teams in neighborhoods, community groups, and workplaces to encourage sustainable living.

Team members meet regularly in informal settings to learn from each other and work together to reduce waste, conserve energy and water, protect water quality, reduce automobile use. Teams meet regularly eight times over the course of approximately sixteen weeks.

Program Sponsors include: City of Madison Storm Sewer Utility, City of Madison Streets Division, City of Madison Water Utility, Dane County Department of Public Works, Madison Gas and Electric, Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District, and Metro Transit System. Additional sponsors are welcome.

Program Managers are Amanda Fuller and Rebecca Grossberg and Renata Vail, staff members of Madison Environmental Group. They administer the program, facilitate the organization of new teams, recruit and train volunteer facilitators, and provide support to team leaders and operating teams.

Facilitators are volunteers who help start new teams and provide support to existing teams in coordination with Program Managers.

Team Leaders are the people who initiate the teams, take responsibility for recruiting team members and host the kick-off meeting. (S)he is the primary liaison person between the team and the EnAct Program Managers.

Meeting Hosts and Discussion Leaders are the members of the team who are responsible for hosting a specific meeting and leading discussion during that meeting.

EnAct Program Goals

Encourage and empower Madison area and Dane County residents to take actions in their daily lives to reduce the environmental impact of their households. Build awareness of the environmental impacts of household activities and lifestyle practices. Build awareness of environmental issues specific to the Madison area and Dane County. Build awareness of local resources that facilitate sustainable living. Create stronger communities by encouraging neighbors (or colleagues) to get to know each other and work together.

EnAct Meeting Format

EnAct team meetings are scheduled every two to three weeks. Team members set their

own schedule according to their needs and interests. An EnAct Program Manager or a Facilitator leads the first (kick-off) meeting. Team members take turns to host consecutive meetings and facilitate discussion. At each meeting, team members discuss their progress on goals from the previous unit and choose actions for the new unit. Meetings are generally held in participants’ homes, to create a friendly atmosphere and a sense of community. Participants may, however, choose to meet in public meeting places (coffee shop, public library meeting room, local restaurant, or other location). Each meeting lasts approximately 1.5 hours.

EnAct Program Flexibility

EnAct encourages participants to explore and strengthen their environmental values and put them into practice. We are aware that participants are smart self-motivated people with plenty of ideas and suggestions that can enrich the program. Participants come with varying levels of knowledge and practice in environmental conservation. The program should help participants learn from each other and allow them to implement their own ideas. In organizing the teams and convening the introductory meeting, EnAct Facilitators try to strike a balance between structure and flexibility. The program needs to be structured

enough to make participants feel comfortable and not require them to work too much. But it also must be flexible enough to allow for variation among groups. EnAct Facilitators encourage teams to shape the program to fit their needs and interests. If new topics are suggested that are not included in the participant guide, or if some team members are particularly interested in certain topics, a team member is encouraged to take the lead and suggest activities to the group.

Materials

The EnAct Participant Guide is distributed to participants at the kick-off meeting. The Team Leader receives a complimentary copy. Other team members may choose to download a free copy, copy the Team Leader's manual or purchase a copy. The EnAct Participant Guide is a work in progress. We encourage you to submit photos and stories and to inform us as to how we can improve this publication. Throughout 2003, we will take your suggestions, stories and photos and revise the guide. We plan to publish the revised guide in early 2004. EnAct materials are meant to be shared. Please feel free to download, copy, and share them with others.

3.

Other Business

Joanie Henderson from RMI joined us on the conference phone.

The next meeting is scheduled for April 13, 2004. This meeting will be to start recommendations for the final report. Committee members will need to study meeting minutes, handouts and other information gathered and be prepared for this meeting.

Framing questions could be:

What recommendations would make Madison one of the greenest cities in the U.S. by focusing on effective energy conservation and green building initiatives to reduce the need for new generation and transmission. Or could also use the mission statement at the next meeting for recommendations format.

The purpose of the meeting on April 27th will be to get all of the initiatives out there on the board. The purpose of the meeting on May 4^th will be to evaluate the initiatives based on cost, time, and mission compliance. Review item #2 from meeting minutes dated March 16^th, 2004 that Sherrie developed.

• Two remaining meetings after this for info gathering and workgroup initiative generation.

• Two meetings for program implementation planning: 4/27/04, 5/4/04, 3 & 4 hour meetings. RMI will join us for the last.

• Draft matrix generated with results from 5/4/04, e-mailed for any edits/comments.

• RMI will assist in drafting the report.

• Report generated based on matrix, e-mailed for comments from committee members.

Evaluation criteria is based on impact, cost, how long to implement, time.

• Impact on Mission

• Cost Effective

• Time to Implement – immediate, short term, long term

• Economic Sector

• Impact on Environmental Sectors (air, water)

• Strategy Development – marketing, finance

• Prospect for Visible Success

• Change Driver/Sponsor

4.

Break into separate work group sessions, Energy Conservation working group, and Green Building working group.

5.

Adjourn.