Minutes from February 10th Transition Strathcona Meeting

Feb 10th 4-6pm
In attendance:  Alexis, Penny, Emi, Jamie, Rebecca, Emily, Sobey

1)  Framework:  how will the Strathcona Village operate?

Possible locations for future meetings:
Vancouver Hack Space (45 W Hastings)
-pro:  large space, free, close enough for sustainable transport,
-con: maybe not kid friendly (machinery), 4 flights of stairs
Strathcona Community Centre
-pro: centrally located, Jamie (contact), advertising, free, reach wider community?
-con: maybe not as easily booked? requires planning in advance?
Sparticus Books?
Various living rooms (Alexis, Emi, Penny)

Communications:

• phone list/ tree:  
  
  • at least one contact number (in case people are running late etc.)
  • members present at meeting were comfortable with sharing phone numbers
  • nice ‘catch’ net for emails that get deleted, facebook groups/events that get ignored etc.
  • keeps people accountable
  • for those who don't have computer access
• email listserv
  
  • a way to disseminate info to a large audience
  • allows for ‘lurking’ members (aka people who want to know what’s going on, but don’t want to commit to coming out just yet)
  • mail chimp (mailchimp.com) as a way of organizing mail outs
• online tools
  
  • blog (alexis has volunteered to post events/ topics on blog)
  • google calendar (people can start suggesting dates for mtg, workshops etc.)
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • yahoo group (for forum type posting) as per example of Commercial Drive parents group?
  • village vancouver (alexis has volunteered to post meeting minutes etc. on VV)
• flyering/ postering

•  
  • to connect with people who don’t have computers/ aren’t computer literate
  • perhaps translating to different languages
  • using Strathcona BIA model?
  • strategic placement of posters (Wilder, Union Market, Community Centreetc.)
    • (alexis has volunteered to put this together when we have events)

*Jamie has done some study on efficacy of postering and evidence shows that it is effective in bringing a more diverse and larger population

** random note:  1.5 years ago, there was a large Strathcona Transitions group (organized by Christie Matthews) that attracted upwards of 50 very interested, keen people from the neighborhood.  How can we re-engage this population?

Meeting Structure
-inspirational guests (people from the neighborhood who can talk about awesome things they’re doing)
-”check in” for separate satellite working groups
-action meetings/ workshops (where practical skills are learned)
-”nights” (as exemplified by Hack Space) where certain nights of the week are designated as consistent “workshop” or “tea” or “food prep” nights to establish consistency
-working with the seasons to establish themes for workshops
-canning, winterizing our homes, cycling in the winter, seeding etc.
-support groups to inspire sustainable living
-helping each other stay accountable
-Amish work ‘blitz’ concept:  people collect all the work they want help with, and then call a “work blitz” where a group will come and help get all of the work done!

2) Vision/ Value Statement:  what are we hoping to create?

“People here are people who want to walk the walk, but also want to be able to talk the talk to their neighbors and wider community” -Penny

-what is sustainable?
-researching a suitable definition for our village
-types of workshops/ knowledge transfer that represents ‘sustainable’ to us

-what do we want to achieve?
-learn skills:  practical skills
-incorporating community into this learn/share/teach process
-increase accessibility of resource and knowledge
-how? -visioning meetings
-climate cafe model (used to be run by Fred Bast-sp?)
-meet monthly and chat about topics such as “how can I change my transportation habits?”
-important to create simple concrete statements
-ex: our group will meet once a week to....
-ex:  we will ____ by_____

-resource sharing
-there are many people in the community that have skills we want, but don’t know we want them!  (ex. older chinese community that has skills in seed saving ,intensive gardening, etc.)

-what is the future that you want?
-helping each other and the community get to “who we want to be”

3) Future Plans: short term action goals

Projects

• garden tours:
  
  • touring working and work in progress gardens to get inspired
  • first starting with our own gardens, and hopefully recruiting more through word of mouth 
  • recruiting gardens we admire personally in our neighborhoods
  • linking garden tours with garden work parties
  • advertising by putting signage up in participating gardens
  • perhaps we can get funding for professionally printed signs through Strathcona BIA?
  • John Atkin who does walking tours professionally may be able to do a walking tour of heritage gardens in the area?
  • Emi and Rebecca will talk to Beverly Chu from the City to discuss funding through Vancouver 125
    • Sobey and Emily have agreed to be support for this project
    • Emily will assist with the Grant Writing for this project
  • learning from success of Culture Crawl
• ready made kits
  
  • drop spindle kits, yarn dying kits, seeding kits, growing mushrooms kits
• in-season local potluck (inspiration from Al Fresco event in the West End)
  
  • eating outdoors by candlelight
  • everyone brings something that they’ve made from something they’ve grown

Short Term To Do List:

• calendar (google)
  
  • people can sign up with activities
• garden tour grant meeting
  
  • Emi and Rebecca will meet on Feb 13 @4pm @ Wilder
  • establish small garden tours
• email list
  
  • Emily has volunteered to put this together?
• phone list
  
  • we should all email our phone numbers to Emily to add to email list?
• talk green vancouver visioning meeting for strathcona village
• schedule next meeting in march (post march 10th)
• schedule composting workshop @ hack space
  
  • Emi and Emily to coordinate
  • Emi to write a composting entry on craft wiki

Upcoming events (thanks Emily!):
-www.vancouver.makerfaire.cais the website for all things Maker Faire Vancouver.  You'll see there that there's an info session this Saturday for crafters/hackers/sustainability enthusiasts!  - if you know anyone that would be interested (and "GREEN!" (is that a dirty word now?)), please pass this on!
-  Mending night on Monday, February 14th
-  Next Saturday the 19th is the first ever Super Happy Crafter House - an open night for crafting & socializing (and a means to re-invent Vancouver's night life! :)

Other Notes:
-Emily has volunteered to be link between Strathcona Transition and Hack Space