Final Notes from November 15, 2011 mtg.

• Notes from

  Advisory Committee: Envisioning UUC grounds (temporary name)

  November 15, 2011    7 pm – 8:45 pm   Room A at UUC

  
  

  NEXT MEETING: Tuesday December 6 at 7 pm

  
  Attendees: KC Arceneaux, Susie Fry, Gloria Heath, Marquita Hill, George Lally, Ben Logan, Tom Martin, Bonnie Moreno, Mike Skinner,
  
  Darrell Clowes was not here: Mike Skinner, not Darrell will come to these meetings and serve as liaison to the Board.
  
  Bonnie reminded us that we don’t have a name. She suggests Comprehensive Property Plan. Others suggested that we circulate possible names among ourselves and then make a decision.
  
  As regards the Charter, Dan Brown sent us a draft. Darla Bray did a good edit on it, which most people liked. [As a followup I sent it around to our members for further edits and will send it out below the meeting notes. I’ll assume that B&G or the Board might make their own changes. Marquita]
  
  Ben Logan discussed the blog. There is confusion as to how to access this site. Ben will ask Lisa to spell out the details for us and send them out to us.
  
  Ben reminded us of a small space beyond the Crescent Garden (now sodded in) that he had previously suggested serve as a Mourning Garden for mothers and fathers who have lost a child. He will give this matter more thought and get back to us.
  
  Request: Goldie asked for sanction to scatter pet ashes. A number of people would like to do this. They need to tell us what they would consider to be the ideal spot – the natural habitat areas? “Natural habitat for small creatures” (or something more directly relevant to their pets that they have lost)
  
  Mike spoke of surveying the grounds. George sees this as necessary as there are ambiguities regarding our borders. Mike will explore where the corners are before our next meeting.
  

  • Relating to a grounds survey, Bonnie noted that Goldie is willing to do this – a rough, not official survey. Let’s accept her offer, her special skills in being able to do this. In addition to borders, remember the new building addition being planned – it will help us all to better visualize that addition. 

  
  
  Announcements and public relations: Bonnie will be the person who writes the announcements and does public relations for the group This will include paper signs on the bulletin boards, hand-outs, layout design of any policy we may need to write, notices to the Congregation that get a published look, organizing for fund raising, work group dates, etc. She has a background in advertising and commercial design besides fine art and gardening and has been doing that work for UUC since the Capital Campaign.  
  
  Decision making in between meetings: Bonnie noted that some decisions are time sensitive, e.g., getting an as-soon-as-possible congregational meeting as noted below. The general feeling is that such decisions can be made by emailing around among our members or telephoning around in some instances.
  
  Congregational meetings: We must engage the Congregation and do so now – early in the process. They need to know what we have been doing, participate when they want to, and provide input. After doing groundwork (e.g., discussing with Darrell Clowes the format of the meeting and the date) Bonnie and George set up a December 4 post-service meeting with the Congregation. Bonnie is going all out to inform as many members as is possible of the meeting: getting it on the list serve, the bulletin board, into the order of service, and into the announcements. We will name this Committee after this meeting.
  
  George reported on his activities since our October 25 meeting. PLEASE SEE his document at the end of these notes. George also read us the last stanza of a poem by Philip Larkin: its suggestion to us is that the entire grounds is worship space, spiritual. This is similar to the view of the Earth Spirit Sisters. One person noted that a parking lot wasn’t spiritual. Bonnie noted that “A parking lot can be park like.”
  
  Susie spoke to the shortcomings of the Sanctuary entrance. We are adding that to the Components list of our grounds. Right now, especially at night it’s hard to even tell where the driveway is. She suggested ways to make it more presentable and give it a little pizzazz – entrance esthetics. One problem is that the forsythia at the entrance requires a lot of maintenance. Ben suggests we replace it with oakleaf hydrangea, which, other than some pruning, requires little maintenance. Susie had drawn an illustration of how she sees the entrance could look.
  
  Establishing subcommittees: Some (or all?) of the grounds’ components need subcommittees. Some already started or attempting to start are…
  

  • Circumferential Meditation Path – George Lally, Bonnie Moreno, and (?). It will emphasize the meditation path as a unifying element for the grounds
  • Crescent garden and Mourning garden– Ben Logan
  • Natural habitat – Marquita Hill, Gloria Heath, KC and/or Darla
  • Memorial Garden: Susan Baker?

  
  
  There is also a need for process subcommittees:
  

  • Plant inventory
  • Informing and working with the congregation – George Lally
  • Bringing water to appropriate places on the grounds
  • In addition to the above three, we need one on ensuring maintenance -- public relations and ownership.

  
  
  This sounds like a lot of subcommittees. Some could likely be combined. For example, the process of bringing water to the grounds could be part of the natural habitat subcommittee, while also remaining in close contact with the rest of the Committee. However, we must pace ourselves for patience and work.
  
  Mike Skinner (speaking for Dan Brown) noted that we need to develop a timeline for maintenance of activities planned for outside the building.  This led to a broader conversation on the grounds, especially maintenance
  

  • KC: the Community Garden could be a showplace.
  • George: think of how to integrate the CG and the picnic shelter into the whole
  • Ben: imagine how the place will look 5 years or 10 years down the line – who for example will then be maintaining the CG and the other grounds’ components that we now speak of so fondly?
  • Bonnie: as one part of maintenance, ask The Big Event (held every Spring) for help – cleaning up, spreading mulch, etc. They have willing and husky workers.
  • George emphasized the precept of “The less maintenance, the better!”
  • When making new plantings, make low maintenance a priority
  • When, over the longer term, replacing older plantings, replace them with low-maintenance plants

  • Marquita: let’s devote a meeting to maintenance issues and sustainability.

  
  
  Mike:  we need to recognize and remember that we are part of a larger Congregation, one in transition. We may become part of a larger umbrella organization. We need to be patient while also focusing on the overall plan for the UUC.
  
  The Larkin poem that George gives us focuses us on mission – not detail. It also points us to locating places on the grounds for natural habitat
  
  At our next meeting we will discuss happenings at the Dec 4 Congregational meeting. In near-future meetings, we need to focus on topics such as:
  

  • Developing priorities
  • Next steps in the process and overall sequence of actions
  • Money
  • We need a diagram or drawing to help us envision the grounds’ components.
  • Discuss locations for specific grounds’ components while understanding that we can move the parts around later

  
  
  

  COMPONENTS OF UUC GROUNDS

  As discussed at October 21, 25 and November 15 meetings

  In place
  

  • Sanctuary entrance
  • Labyrinth
  • Memorial garden
  • Crescent garden with a small Mourning garden at one end
  • Community garden
  • Wildflower garden
  • Butterfly garden
  • Foundation plantings
  • Picnic shelter

  
  Ideas
  

  • Circumferential Meditation Path
  • Natural habitat for small creatures
  • Location for ashes of beloved pets
  • Natural amphitheatre

  
  
  For several of these components, we need to remember the need for water.
  
  

  To keep in mind as we plan

  • INTEGRATION – physical layout and sequence of projects
  • MAINTENANCE
  • MONEY
  • SUSTAINABILITY
  • WORSHIP SPACE ENCOMPASSES THE ENTIRE GROUNDS