In Attendance
Maryalice Crofton, Kate Klibansky, Luke Shorty, Rep. Morgan Rielly, Esperanza Stancioff, Stacie Haines
Minutes
Members gathered over Zoom at 1pm on December 17th.
The meeting began with a review of the agenda, which focused on the Think Tank held on December 13th. Luke expressed disappointment at the turnout for the meeting but did not think the number of participants is indicative of the productivity of the Think Tank. Maryalice reminded the group that there was still a way to give public input – either by emailing Kate Klibansky directly or visiting the Climate Corps website. At the point of the meeting, three written comments were received regarding the Climate Corps draft.
The group agreed that there was a lot of great information provided at the Think Tank, but the key pieces that spoke directly to the report were:
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that if time permits, diagrams, organizational maps, and maps of the locations of potential hosts and administration organizations would add to the report
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tribal input and projects within tribal communities are lacking
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additional contacts will be contacted based on Rep. Rielly and Esperanza Stancioff’s contacts
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EV education could be its own project, but EV use is not necessarily equitable
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Nothing immediately comes to mind that is workable for projects in reducing VMT but it is worth trying to work with rural communities to see if there are potential projects being overlooked
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Public health is addressed by nearly all pieces of climate work in some way, but there could be more explicitly public health focused projects related to tickborne diseases and extreme weather response
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Targeted recruitment should include New Mainer Groups
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DEI should be integrated into every host site to make sure that ALL members feel and are both safe and supported
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Forest Opportunity Roadmap Program is worth looking into for a potential program to build off of
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UMaine system and community college system should be leveraged
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Previous UMaine industrial assessment program could serve as a good model for “lead by example”
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We should acknowledge the excitement surrounding a Maine Climate Corps
Esperanza has some working relationships within Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Nations but the communities are incredibly busy as they deal with COVID and climate change on their own.
The Task Force reviewed the upcoming expectations for the draft, with the next draft being completed by December 31st, and a goal of sending the report to ENR by 1/19.
The meeting concluded at 1:50pm.
Next meeting is Friday, January 14th at 1pm.