February 2nd, 2008 was the first meeting of the Columbia County Green Towns Initiatives. It was held at the Real Food Network/Farmers Market Coop on Church Street, Chatham, NY at 10:00AM and lasted two hours. We had 12 people attending and they were from three different towns, Chatham, Hudson and Kinderhook/Valatie and one person all the way from Berkshire County in Massachussetts. Tom Stokes from South Lee, MA of the Climate Crisis Coalition gave us his version of what is going on in Berkshire County and how we can follow guidelines to make things actually happen in terms of contacting government agencies, grants available etc.. Also in attendance was Betsy from Sundog/Solaqua who gave us the newest news on what Congress is currently debating regarding renewable technologies.

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Mayor Clarence Speed of Philmont, NY was invited to attend our first meet up COLUMBIA COUNTY GREEN TOWNS INITIATIVES.

He was also given the US MAYORS CONFERENCE ON CLIMATE PROTECTION agreement and urged to support and sign the agreement page and send it to Washington DC.

Further a meeting will be held in Philmont Village Hall to introduce 11th hour documentary and its action group to the Mayor, his board members and the people of Philmont.

On January 24th, 2008, Karla Kavanaugh and Sumaya Conners were invited to talk to Mayor Boehme and his Village Board members about our new organization Columbia County Green Towns Initiatives and the documentary film 11th Hour.

Mayor Boehme was very interested in our presentation about green building, solar energy, developing clean and alernative energy not only for the Town Hall but for Main Street Chatham as well. Two of the board members were adamantly opposed to anything about climate change, did not believe in it and called it fear mongering and that climates have always changed even since the Roman times!?! We explained that the population has grown tremendously, that industry has contributed to global changes and that we all need to heed the warning signs.

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Sumaya Conners and Sharifa Perry attended a seminar titled "SOLAR ENERGY for your HOME - The Options and The Imperatives", held in Chatham, NY at theTracy Memorial.  A panel consisting of Solar Power company, NYSERDA representative and our Columbia County representative of our Congresswoman, Kirsten Gillibrand.

Talk was about what kind of solar energy are available;  what does it cost;  how much will I save on energy bills, can I retro fit my current home;  who are the people I should be talking to;  will I have power during blackout.

The seminar was well attended, over 50 people from all over the County,  which also gave us an intro to our own organization COLUMBIA COUNTY GREEN TOWNS INITIATIVES and announcing our first meet up on February 2, 2008 at 10AM at the Farmers' Market on Church Street in Chatham, NY.