Greenlands Steering Committee will hold its next monthly meeting on Wednesday, January 14, 7:00 pm at the home of Kay Bingham, 3235 6^th Street.

 

Vision Building Community

1. Facilitating carbon reduction.
2. Providing a forum to exchange ideas.
3. Doing work now to improve the climate for future generations.

Goals for 2008-2009

1. Sign up 10 percent of the homes in the neighborhood (100 homes) for an energy audit.
2. Obtain bulk purchase rates of insulation for some of these homes based on their energy audit.

Minutes: Greenlands Meeting, 11/18/08

Present: Kay Bingham, Michael Brownlee, Vernita Cannon, Tim Eaton, Diane Merker, Steve Morgan, Sanjay Rajan, Deborah YinGreenlands Steering Committee will hold its next monthly meeting on Wednesday, January 14, 7:00 pm at the home of Kay Bingham, 3235 6^th Street.  For more information, refer to the “Contact Us” link at the right side of this page.

 

Michael Brownlee - Transition:

*    We started by bringing Michael up to date with what we have been doing so far.

*    One of our concerns is that we have mostly just been meeting with ourselves and have trouble reaching other people.

*    Michael talked about the way the transition initiative works:

-     It is an international movement that is just getting started in the United States.

-     It engages an entire community to become more self reliant and sustainable.

-     The larger movement makes it possible to do more than just a small neighborhood can do.

-     It can begin at a neighborhood level, but then moves beyond the neighborhood.

-     The transition initiative develops a plan for the whole community to reduce fossil fuel usage, uniting all the smaller groups, with everyone working together.

-     Transition Boulder County is a transition hub, helping local communities create their own initiatives.

-     They are helping Transition Boulder to create its own organization in Boulder.  Steve is member of Transition Boulder.

-     To become official, we need to begin with the 12 steps of transition and talk about how we can respond as individuals and as a community.

-     We can do what we can at home, but then we need to become involved with policies at the neighborhood and city level, such as creating bikeways, etc.

-     The plan is not totally specific but is more of a framework for starting a conversation for everyone in the community.  For us, we have a school, a church, and a hospital in our neighborhood that could all come together.

-     For example, we could, as a neighborhood, start a conversation with Breadworks and let them know that we would like to see them become more green.  It is important to remember that the goal is to work with people to help them find a way rather than to be combative.

-     A group that commits to transition sends a powerful message and can help to spread the word through their example.

*    Followup is important.  When we sponsor an event, we should always have more events lined up so people will leave knowing what is happening next.

*    Sandpoint, Idaho is a town of 8,000 people with a broad community base that started as a Transition Town in February.  They began hosting quite a few events and then had a large event at a local theater that drew 500 people. They organized a meeting the next day for specific interests and 115 people came to that, which was a four-hour workshop.

*    Transition Boulder hosts a gathering the second Sunday of every month at the Laughing Goat for two hours.  They have attracted 30 people by advertising on the Transition Colorado website.

*    One requirement for doing the transition is to have four to five people who are willing to put in approximately 10 hours a week.

*    It is important to find ways to connect people who have like interests with each other.

*    One of the biggest challenges is that people do not feel like they are part of a community or neighborhood.  Ways to bridge that gap are food and music events.

*    Kay received a fund-raising letter from the Center for Resource Conservation stating the following, “Keeping the CRC’s doors open requires contributions from people like you.” Then they stated that financial gifts would enable them to undertake these programs in the coming year: REAP, ReSource, Slow the Flow, ReNew Our Schools, and Garden in a Box.  It is becoming more important for these community groups to unite in a community campaign.  As an example, Transition Boulder County will join forces with Climate Smart in April to host a Climate Fest in an effort to do just that.

*    Transition Boulder is working on ways to support neighborhood groups like ours, but they are a new group so are still exploring the possibilities.

*    We can help Transition Boulder County by encouraging people from our neighborhood to go to their events.  Everyone works together.

*    To help get our word out, we will invite Lynn Appel to the next Community Platter.  She lives in the neighborhood and does the Edible Front Range magazine.  We would like to interest her in doing a story about the dinner.

*    Steve, Sanjay and Deborah will be our transition team.

 

New Business:

*    The number of registered users on our website has stayed the same.  Tina will enter the addresses that we have, or if she is having trouble with it, give them to Sanjay to enter.

*    We will continue to have Vernita edit pieces for the website and have Deborah upload them.  If people want to write directly to the webpage, an email will go to Vernita when someone writes and then she can edit and publish to the page.

*    Deborah is working on the Locavore webpage.  It will contain the following items:

-     A piece about the origin of Locavore.

-     Links.

-     Why we should eat local foods.  Michael Pollan article from the NY Times.

-     Working with schools.  Laura can talk about what she is doing and the work that Alice Waters and Ann Cooper are doing with school lunches.

-     What is CSA?

-     Resources and information.

-     Sources.  Link to eatlocalguide.com.

-     Vitamin Cottage has good prices with all organic produce and many local food options.  King Soopers got its start in Denver and still buys produce from some of the same suppliers it did then.  They always have Colorado potatoes in their stores, but their signage doesn’t always say so.  Safeway has both local and organic produce.

*    Ecocycle Exchange is a buy/sell/barter site.  Freecycle is a free site.  We may decide to use these and not create our own.

 

Next Meeting Agenda:

*    Decide how to have closure with the Carbon Loser contest.

*    Plan a 2009 Calendar of Events that will be printed in flyer form and delivered door-to-door throughout the neighborhood.  Some ideas could include a music event, a kids’ event, and monthly meetings at a neighborhood shop such as Vic’s.  This could be a good way to engage local businesses.  We should also harness some of the people who have signed up at our events and ask them to hand out flyers and do other small things, but not expect them to commit to the steering committee.  Come with ideas for the calendar!

*    Discuss how we might send out a monthly email blast and what its content might be. 

*    Rename the Community Roots webpage.  This is the name of an existing group, so we should use something different.

*    Discuss what we want Newlands Greenlands Neighborhood Network to do for us.

 

Websites of Interest:

*    transitionbouldercounty.org

*    transitioncolorado.ning.com

*    eatlocalguide.com

 

Information of Interest:

*    Cornucopia of Local, Saturday, November 22, 9:00-3:00, Boulder Outlook Hotel.  Indoor Farmer’s Market and presentations.

*    Winter Farmer’s Market, Saturday, December 13, 9:00-4:00, Boulder County Fairgrounds.

 

Action Items

*    Tina or Sanjay will add email addresses to the website.

*    Deborah will add the two upcoming farmer’s market events to the website.

*    Our transition team – Sanjay, Steve, and Deborah – will meet and discuss if and how Greenlands can work with the 12 Steps of Transition before our January meeting.  This will help us to decide if we will go forward and become an official Transition Neighborhood or simply join with Transition Boulder.