upcoming RIACC board meeting, August 31st

All member commissioners -- from the imaginative and intrepid to the just plain curious -- are welcome to attend and sit in on this important board meeting!
                                                                            - Dan Novak, Chair
 
RI ASSOCIATION OF CONSERVATION COMMISSIONS BOARD MEETING: EXPANDED AGENDA

TUESDAY, AUG. 31, 2010, 7:00 PM, PILGRIM SENIOR CENTER, WARWICK

I hope you have all had a restful, and productive in your own way, summer.  A well needed respite and time for reflection…

Thanks to Mike Rice from RIACC for his summer fest generosity in July! 
This summer Susan Korte has done invaluable foundational work in recasting the RIACC website generally, and especially in the direction of direct member commission to commission interaction – something central to our mission.  Kudos Susan!
  
1.  MINUTES OF JUNE MEETING (Harvey Buford)

2.  NEWS AND OBSERVATIONS (all) -- informal sharing and perceptions of “what’s happening” – noticing conditions, trends and occurrences on the ground, what is salient in our economy, and developments of different sorts in our communities 
3.  TREASURER’S REPORT (Mike Ahnrud) -- balance, expenses. and requests for reimbursement; reminder to be sent out regarding 2010 dues outstanding; chair’s draft of the MACC grant reimbursement letter; soliciting foundations and available grants as one avenue of income

4.  NEW RIACC WEBSITE DEVELOPMENTS (Susan Korte) – homepage redesign, monthly calendar, place for announcements, finding relevant information – especially on individual commissions throughout the state!-- resource features and interactive forums; sign up procedure and access settings

5.  PRIORITY SEARCH FOR NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OR EQUIVALENT (John M. coordinate?) – composing a job description and search for a point person who has a sense of mission, is willing to work in the beginning as a volunteer as he/she develops in sync with the board with job assignments that evolve into a paid p/t or f/t position through grant writing applications; search involving Apeiron Institute application resumes and any contacts people may have with Grow Smart and the Champlin Foundation; person does not have to be a current municipal commissioner but does have to have a sense of vision, be willing to examine and commit to our locally focused support mission, and have a desire for and skill in flexible time and collaborating in work partnerships; important that this kind of position not be a dump all responsibility receptacle or an omnipotent figure (can do everything from recruitment to fundraising!) but rather be a seed source of encouragement and intelligent growth for the organization

Note: Continued recruitment of new board members with complementary and appropriate skills and diverse interests (Claudette Weissinger and Abby Brown)

6.  OUR DEFINING DIRECTION FOR THE FALL AND THE UPCOMING YEAR (Dan Novak, Bill Bivona, and all) –  *****  An initiative or campaign to change zoning regulations in towns and municipalities across the state to allow, encourage and expedite clean and renewable energy installations and practices

RIACC should provide a venue for inter-commission communication; it/we should continue to develop our web-based repertoire of model local ordinances, templates for a variety of guiding documents, and collection of best practices; we should be a sounding board for trouble-shooting and advocacy; but most of all we should lead the way by having an emphasis on initiative that all commissions across the state can be working on  – for example and especially, encouraging our fellow and sister local commissions to lobby for change in local zoning regulations across the state to support clean energy standards, modifications, and innovations (e.g., wind turbines and solar installations, building retrofits, 21st century infrastructures, and a deliberately wide variety of energy-related backyard and home-based and special local experiments), in short expediting the underpinnings of a new green economy.  We should help fellow local boards clear the way for such local and creative experimentation by removing unnecessary and antiquated zoning ordinance restrictions.

Our local grounding is our strength.  We are rooted in local communities and we have – or should have! – a large vision of what is needful and what is possible.  We need to be way ahead of the bad development curve by opposing individually and in concert with each other harmful patterns.  But we should also quietly but persistently show multiple ways to good, holistic and healthy development.  We are not ECRI or Grow Smart but we serve on municipal boards and we have to be the advocates for optimal development.  Therefore we should strut our distinctive stuff: town conservation inventories of our particular towns, help enact conservation development and other eco-supportive ordinances, routinely integrate green building standards into our review criteria, and be a reliable catalyst for the shift to a clean and healthy human economy.  We can host green plan/concept conversations in our home areas that could transform a host of municipal, local, and governmental processes. 

Because of our local roots and unique community concerns, we can do what other organizations ECRI (legislative), Grow Smart (regional and city) and DEM (state) cannot.   

7.  A THIRD MAJOR PRIORITY FOR THIS YEAR (all) –
A new conception of “training” commissioners that accords with digital communication possibilities and intimate/interpersonal/local listening visits, and, as a consequence develops a better concept of networking, i.e., being nimble enough to send out timely alerts, acclimating to digital culture, fostering person-to-person meetings, connecting and hosting, and doing much more effective organizational catalyzing

Cheers, Dan Novak, RIACC Board Chair