Notes Feb 15 Meeting

Tues. February 15, 2011, 7-9 pm at Around the Sound

NEXT MEETING: Tuesday March 15, 7 pm at Around the Sound . Shawna will facilitate.

Agenda Items to include:

-(possibly) Presentation to attendees on local investing options

-updates by groups including Chicken Group, Reskilling Group,Community Kitchen

ACTION ITEMS:

-Pauli - bring seeds to Garden Workshop March 12

-Ron - check in with folks from Durham community about microlending project. See if they would present info at upcoming Transition meeting.

-Jonathan - speak to Doug Miller about presenting info at upcoming Transition meeting on local investing

Present: Pauli, Ron, Shane, Anne, Dave, Jonathan, Shawna, Leslie, Megan, Allison

1) Panel Card /  Promo:

 -Panel card draft was created by Kelda and Allison and presented at January meeting. After suggestions, it was reworked and approx. 200 panel cards were printed.

-people present at this meeting took some to share with others. Still many left for future events, promo.

-folks can consider what changes to make for next time.

-suggestion - if RLA contributes to funding in future for this type of thing, can add their name at bottom as thank you.

2) Garden Workshop/ Reskilling Group Update:

-Reskilling group is planning for a Veggie Garden Basics workshop on Sat. March 12, 1-4 pm at Downtown Bookstore in Owen Sound.

-Intended to provide basics on how to get started, get people excited and feeling empowered to grow food. Save the experts for future in-depth workshops.

-Ron created an awesome poster and handed a few out at meeting

-Pauli has seeds - will bring to workshop on March 12.

-anyone who wants to help distribute posters, contact Ron.

3) Chicken Group Update:

- starting to contact different cities to find out how they dealt with bylaws

- meeting tonight after this one finished

-Shane trying to figure out which city committee to make recommendations to

4) Community Kitchen:

-received plumbing bill ( = moving forward!)

-range hoods installed recently, sinks done, electrical inspector supposed to come today

-now looking for: drywallers / those who want to learn!, drywall screws, Air Mile points, Visa Reward points, carpentry work, buy drywall

-Rural Learning Association will take donations and issue receipt for anything over $20 on kitchen's behalf.

5) Money / Local Investing:

-How can money be moved around outside of banking system & keep circulating within the community?

-There is a group of people interested in putting together local green investing opportunities. Goal is to have money go to someone local. More of an idea at this point - not yet a project.

-"Slow Money" = healthy.

-Probably people are already implementing this on a small scale; lending / giving money to a neighbour as investment. Seems to be a need to be one step removed from this though.

-Capital is there. It's a matter of finding people interested in setting up a system that others trust. Tricky part may be building a bridge from existing popular model to improved model.

-can we get someone in to present to people at an upcoming Transition meeting? Jonathan will talk to Doug Miller about presenting ideas.

-In Durham there is a micro lending project for small businesses. Ron will check with folks from Durham community to see how they are progressing. See if they would come and chat.

6) Georgian College Reskilling Classes / Teaching Garden at Sydenham School

-Megan working with Georgian College to present a series of reskilling workshops: 3 in Fall, 3 in Spring.

-will have courses finalized by May and will advertise independently

-minimum of 10 people sign up for course to run.

-starting a small garden at Sydenham School. Principal and teachers very supportive - received grant from Metro to do it. Garden will act as an outdoor classroom.