SJSF Current Action

Below is the up to date draft of the statement SJSF will be encouraging people, politicians, and community groups to sign onto..

"Burning fossil fuels threatens the health of our communities, the integrity of our climate, and the stability of our world. As an organization that has stake in a just and stable future, we recognize that society must stop burning fossil fuels as fast as we can. We also recognize the imperative to stop burning coal first, the dirtiest of all fuels. We join the call for the leaders of Massachusetts to phase out coal by 2015 and replace it with increased efficiency, reduced demand, and 100% clean, renewable electricity by 2020.We understand the importance and opportunities in transitioning towards a low-carbon future where sustainability and justice prevail in our communities.”

Meeting Notes for Nov 7th

Notes 11.7.10

·         Updates

o   Recent transition to coal by 2015 goal

o   Phase out of coal becomes a larger part of SJSF

o   Clean Caucus:

§  Assemble a group of politicians who have signed on to phase out coal

§  Introduce a bill on coal—moratorium

§  Make it a powerful goal with a core group of politicians

o   Politics, looking forward, getting people interested

·         Alternatives to coal è work with legislators to tax coal, and use the taxes to build renewable

·         MA uses about 40% coal

o   Worst polluter

o   Makes a huge statement

o   Health issues

·         PCC

o   Amherst High

§  6 weekend

§  A few day ppl

o   3 Mount Holyoke

o   7 Hampshire

o   4 Amherst

o   2

o   About 22

·         Transportation

o   Amherst 3 open seats –best case

o   Worst case—one person

o   Mino Driving??

o   Umass could get a van? -7 person

·         What is the purpose of the NE COP/Wesleyan Pricing Carbon Conference??

o   Try to get out of it what we want

o   Clear plan of what we need to do

o   Get everyone in New England on the same page

·         Barn Raising

o   A lot of weatherization projects already going on

o   We want to make the connections between elderly and low income homeowners

o   Partner with some long name thing

§  Want us to partner with them and do their stuff

o   Talk to Erica if you are interested

·         Get people to sign a letter about clean coal

o   Letter = one paragraph stating that you are anti clean coal

o   Where/how/what could we hold an event to get people to sign this letter?

§  Amherst center

§  Other events?

§  Burn coal, capture the gas, see who wants to breathe it

§  Quit coal T-shirts

§  Cupcakes

§  Go around to community groups before holding an event

§  Make sure we already have signatures first

§  Going to a legislator and saying “sign on to our gosh darn letter”

§  Invite people, not like force them

§  With Amherst 350

§  Hot chocolate event

§  Universal sign representing no coal

§  Public display on the commons

§  Dump a truck of coal on the commons

§  It might be cold, but it’s still heating up

§  There are other ways to keep warm besides burning coal

§  Show “burning the future” (In Amherst Cinema?)

·         Make this a huge event that involves the community

·         December- second week?

§  3 types of possible events:

·         Meet with legislator

·         Small potluck with community groups and legislators

·         Huge event, such as dumping coal on the commons

o   Community groups first

o   Get legislators to sign on

·         Planning committee for Amherst Cinema

o   Jibben

o   Jonathan

o   Jess

o   Mel

o   Sarah Grace

o   (ARHS)

o  

·         Event on the commons

o   .

·         Halloween Costumes

Worcester Sleep-out Photos

The sleep-out in Worcester was a big success! We had a lot of fun playing games, eating, marching from Worcester Commons to Institute Park, and hearing from some amazing speakers (including Jill Stein!) to protest dirty electricity. Here are some photos of our WMAHSJSFers at the sleep-out...

Sleep-out in Worcester

On October 23rd-24th, SJSF will hold it's first state-wide sleep-out in Worcester. Now that the school year has started, SJSF is really excited to get things going again, so they're putting a lot of energy into make this sleep-out really great!  It will be the usual fun time of  games,food, and getting to know eachother, then in the morning we'll be going to a MA Climate Action Network conference. More details are coming soon.

Sept. 19th Meeting Notes

9/12/10

Summary of the summer

            -Discussed opposing biomass

            -contacted Mary Booth about what we can do, no reply

            -mentioned it at the retreat

                        ~opposing biomass in the morotorium

2 bills in the statehouse this year

            -last years, taskforce for 100% by 2020

            -moratorium on coal, no new plants/infrastructure/relicensing

More bills if those pass, biomass?

3 pronged system this year

            Prong one: Political (bills and bird dogging.)

            Prong two:  Local solutions

            Prong three: Coal Action

SO this fall?

Timeline for Western Mass (mostly in Worcester)

            SO in Worcester (with MCAN component)

            This week is “Draw week”  getting people involved

            10/10/10 = community climate action day, (and Obama, PUT SOLAR PANELS ON THE WHITE  HOUSE)

            3rd = regional training (FREE FOOD!!!) For new members acquired in Draw Week

           

Structure

            Two arms and one head

            Head = Executive Board (day to day functioning)

            Left Arm = Executive membership (three meetings in a row)

            Right Arm = Campaign structure

                        2 state coordinators

                        Regional coordinator (Eric Feltham, probably)

                        Campus: Campaign Coordinator, Political, Local solutions, and Coal

                                    -Co Coal Coordinators: Elijah and ?

                                    - Community outreach: Jessalyn, Emmy, (Jessie?)

                                    -Political Coordinator: Jonathan + ?

COP (Conference of the Parties) and New England COP (Discussing how we can do stuff) NE COP

SJSF vocabulary:

New England = Connecticut and New Hampshire

Massachusetts = Massachusetts

Community = local environmental groups that are not students

Suggestions for Draw Week

            -Posters

            -ask little kids to make posters for us

            - Facebook messaging

            - EAC

            - Talking one on one (conversation with sneaky goal)

You are talking to someone who might be interested in getting involved. Ask what they are interested in, maybe sneakily. If they would be useful, ask if they would be interested in doing such and such for this group

            -Club fair

            -Bulletin

            - Announcement- Jonathan talk to Mr. Friedman

            - Email list

            - Facebook Event @Mino Caulton

We got money from Panda East! ($100)

            -Bringing to Worcester on Sunday 25th, to give to Craig. We'll use it as a "credit" for gas, that we'd charge for.

Sleep-out a Success!

Congratulations everyone on a great sleep-out! Thank you to everyone who organized, spoke, chaperoned, participated in, or had anything to do with the sleep-out. With your help over 30 high school and college students had a fun and safe 17 hours of music, games, food, camping, and of raising environmental awareness!

A special thanks to the speakers Mary Booth, Katie Mcgonagle, Larry Ely, Craig Altemose, and to W T Funk, Luke Plummer, Katie Spurgin, Ryan DeGroot, and Satchel Douglas for providing us with great music. Finally, we would like to thank the Spurgins, Rob Hirschfeld, and the Amherst Police Department for their asistance.

Once again, great job everyone; our sleep-out raised a lot of awareness downtown and WMAHSJSF was featured briefly in the June 22nd issue of the Hampshire Gazette and on ABC 40 on Wednesday the 23rd.

Sleep-out Agenda

Sleep-out Agenda

Wednesday, June 23rd
4:00 pm: Sleep-out begins; sign-in and set-up
4:30-5:30: Games
5:30-6:45: Rally and speakers
6:45-7:30: Dinner (pasta, salad, bread, drinks, and dessert potluck)
7:30-8:15: Form groups and decide fall goals
8:15-8:30: Regroup and discuss goals
8:30-11:00: Live music (The Elusive, The Ritmo Boys, and more)
11:00: Goodnight call
All Night: Nightwatch

June 24th
8:00 am: Get breakfast and pack up
8:45: Protest Biomass

June 13th Meeting

Notes

Leadership updates

-Communications:
Jess made and distributed pink flyers to hang in ARHS and downtown Amherst
Amanda posted flyers at Frontier
Northamptoners will post flyers soon

-Grace Church is in progress: we need to find out if we can definitely have music there

-Goals for the sleep-out?
Get PVPA students to join, and possibley Hopkins
Get at least 50 people total

-We're working on getting speakers
Larry Ely will likely speak

-Potluck in Grace Church
Drinks, pasta, salads and breads, desserts

-Please bring a personal reusable water bottle

-We'll try to supply biodegradable utensils for dinner

-People will talk to local bands; we want 3(?) bands

Upcoming Event!

On Wednesday the 23rd of June we will meet on the Amherst Common at 4pm to set up tents for our sleep-out.

For those of you who don't know, sleep-outs are held to protest the use of dirty electricity in our homes, and to pressure MA state legislature to pass SJSF's bill "An Act to Create a Repower Massachusetts Emergency Taskforce".
Our sleep-out, in addition to the above, will be to promote clean electricity and Students for a Just and Stable Future, to grow as a contributer to SJSF, and most importantly to have fun!
We'd love to have all SJSF and WMAHSJSF members at the sleep-out, and encourage everyone who is interested to join us, whether you'll be sleeping out or just stopping by. An agenda will be up shortly.

Right now we are waiting on conformation from the Amherst Police Dept. and Department of Public Works that the sleep-out will occur. In all likelihood it will and we will know within two weeks.

Hope to see you all there, it's going to be a lot of fun!
Next meeting is Sunday the 30th of May, time and place TBA.