Minutes and Sub Groups from the May 27 Meeting

Hi everyone!

Here’s the Digital version of what I managed to scribble on the flipchart at the meeting.

I will try to elaborate as much as I can for the benefit of those who were not there, if I miss something ortotally bork on my memory of something please do leave a correction in the comments.

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New Members: Bonnie and Julie … both SD70 teachers. WELCOME! 🙂

Present at the Meeting: Bonnie, Julie, Pat, Edna, Guy, Don, John, Dan, Colin, Myron, Mike and Chris.

We introduced the concepts of Transition Towns to Bonnie and Julie. There was also discussion of the new book by Jeff Rubin called “How your world is about to get much smaller”.

John Asked about going through the diagram that I had sent to the mailing lists explaining how the Subgroups work to form the “whole” of the TT. Unfortuately, we got on to a completely different topic and I totally forgot. So I’ll post the diagram here, it is just an example, nothing is actually setup right now. But it does hopefully give an idea of how the Sub Groups form to create the Transition Town ‘council’ or Steering Group, and how they are really the foundation of the TT Movement by forming relationships based on the different topics and needs, with existing groups and stakeholders in the community.


With that, we got into the meat of the meeting.

Mike Lewis suggested that perhaps the best way to figure out what Sub Groups should form would be to just go around the room and talk about our Interests and see what comes of that.

Mike Started:

He focused on the awareness raising and educational aspects. Getting the word out, so to speak, about the dual challenges of Climate Change and Peak Oil as well as what Transition Towns was.

Lectures, Seminars, Open Space events, Movie nights. Reaching out to Community is the key to the TT movement.

There was suggestion to try writing a weekly article for submission to the local paper that would address key issues more deeply. Dan offered to take that on with the support of Mike and all of us for content. There was also the suggestion to invite the media (newsprint) to participate in the Sub Group directly so that they were a key part and had a direct input into how to get the message out best as well as providing a direct output.

And finally we had a great discussion about how to involve schools and kids and how not only are they already extremely concerned about these issues, they are a wonderful, natural conduit to their parents. This will of course be a big focal point.

…….

Next up was John and a Food Group

We talked about Local Food Production. Particularly how Community Supported Agriculture is starting to take off as a way to revitalize local farming and connect producers directly with consumers. There are a number of examples popping up on the Island and a ton of interest from lots of people.

Creston and the Comox Valley were pointed out as places embracing and actively involved in rebuilding their agricultural capacity.

The notion of a Food Guide was brought by Pat who says it is something local farmers are looking to get off the ground in the form of an insert in the Pennyworth. This meshed well with Guys pet project that he has been working on to get an online Food Guide going of all the local producer/distributors in town.

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Next up was Myron who suggested an Energy Working Group.

Discussion centered around conservation, building practices, and alternative energy. Myron suggested the book “The Geography of Hope”. Networking with the City to encourage Energy Audits of existing homes and identify grants and local financing so that people can afford to make renovations. Also identify interested local businesses to develop skills and services. Alternative Energy discussed, Solar Heating, Solar PV, Deep Earth Geothermal, Earth and/or Lake based Heat Pumps and wind.

Don, if you’re reading this, could you send me the link to the “Show Home” you mentioned?

……

That was all that we could get to as far as the minutes were concerned. It doesn’t look like much (why do Minutes always do that?) but it was a wonderful discussion.
At the end it was suggested that the Sub Groups should meet before the next meeting of the main meeting.

We roughly identified who wanted to be on each group. There is of course some duplication, nor is it exclusive, it’s just those who put up their hand except for John who had to leave early and was named leader of the Food group. FYI John! 🙂

Awareness / Education Group: Mike (Leader), Colin, Bonnie, Pat, Dan, and Julie

Food Group: John (Leader), Edna, Julie, Don, Mike, Pat

Energy Group: Myron (Leader), Chris, Guy, Bonnie, Don, Colin

—- I will email the Leaders of the group directly with the individual emails of the people in the subgroups so that meetings can be set up.

The next General meeting, everyone welcome including new folks of course, is June 24, 2009

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