South Berwick, ME - Energy Efficiency Advisory Committee Minutes 05/01/2009

Action: Nomination of John Rudolph by Roberta Beavers, Seconded by George Muller-There was a unanimous vote for John Rudolph as Chair

John Rudolph indicated a desire to consider a Vice Chair to assure that there would always be someone to lead meetings in the event of the absence of the Chair. There was consensus that a Vice Chair would assure continuity

Action: Nomination of Roberta Beavers by John Rudolph, seconded by George Muller-There was a unanimous vote for Roberta Beavers as Vice Chair

Action: Nomination of Molly Colman by Roberta Beavers, Seconded by George Muller-There was a unanimous vote for Molly Colman as Recording Secretary

Consensus Agreement: Regular meetings of the Energy Committee will be held on the second Thursday of each month at 7 PM in Town Council Chambers.

John Schempf and Roberta Orsini distributed and reviewed the Freedom of Information Act and reviewed the use of email and what constitutes a meeting.

Email should only be used for arranging meetings or sending resources (e.g. grant announcements, research resources, etc.) No discussion of issues or Committee business shall take place via email.

For a committee of five, there must be 3 members present for a meeting, and when three members are present, it constitutes a meeting. For example if three members of the committee were to plan a field trip to visit an energy related conference, that would constitute a meeting and would require public notice.

Members who meet in social settings should refrain from discussing Committee business to avoid creating an unintentional meeting.

Consensus was reached that John Rudolph and Roberta Beavers will form a By-Laws sub-committee and be prepared to present a first draft at the May 14 meeting.

The committee discussed how to get the work of the committee started and reached consensus on the following points:

The Committee will be called the South Berwick Energy Efficiency Advisory Committee (SBEEAC). This name reinforces the advisory capacity of the committee.

1) Set up a website to help in carrying out the charge to provide public information to help residents and businesses to realize cost savings through energy conservation and the use of renewable energy

a. A subcommittee of George Muller and Molly Colman will begin the work of developing a website and present some initial ideas to the full committee for discussion at the May 14 meeting.

2) Begin gathering information so the committee will be prepared to respond to stimulus fund RFPs that are expected to be released in late June. To do this the committee identified three tasks:

a. Identify and investigate potential funding sources to understand which opportunities might be open to South Berwick.

i. A Sub-committee of Roberta Beavers and George Muller will contact legislative offices and State agencies such as PUC/Efficiency Maine and Maine State Housing to learn more about the stimulus funds.

ii. We will invite Paul Schumacher, and perhaps Julia Dundorf to the next meeting to learn from them about potential funding and what other energy committees have done.

i. A sub-committee of John Rudolph and Molly Colman will begin gathering this information, through interviews with Terry Oliver and others as needed.

c. Develop a list of potential energy conservation and efficiency related projects that may match with funding opportunities.

i. We will invite Terry Oliver to the May 14 meeting to discuss ideas that the Town may have already identified as needed.

There was some additional discussion regarding how this committee fits with other committees, including planning, EDC, and the conservation committee.