Present:  Steve, Amber, Jacobee, Jane, Dora, Tim, Sherry

New: Donna Joerg

Announcements:

Chandra sent message through Jacobee highly recommending the Earth Story weekend at EarthLands in Central MA the 3rd weekend of Aug.  Environmental and sustainability focus.

Peak Oil Task Force being started by Brattleboro Selectboard.  Application deadline has been extended. Steve and Tim will likely be on as area residents. Brattleboro is the 2nd town in the country to vote to form such a task force. Tim had a recent meeting with the Provost at SIT and discussed his interest in the Task Force and possibility of SIT students to do research work for the Task Force.

Steve is working on a film and possible speaker for the Jan 08 forum

Amber reported on the work she and Anne have been doing with greening the SIT campus and setting stage for new students arriving in Aug to pick up the baton.  The Provost is interested in expanding land use for community gardens, and perhaps some demo garden projects such as permaculture.  They will be continuing this work through the end of August then sadly for us, both Anne and Amber are off to do exciting work in other parts of the world.   Hopefully they will return to the region in the future!

There will be a POS regular 1st Wed meeting in August. Jane will facilitate and Larry will see that Room 211 is unlocked.   REMEMBER THERE IS NO MONTHLY FORUM IN AUGUST.

Tim has been exploring the idea of seeking grants for POS to support a paid part-time position such as a Local Foods Action Coordinator.  Cindy Hellmann is very interested in such a plan and brings a great level of energy and background experience.  Valley Food & Farm may be able to serve as fiscal agent for POS grants until or unless POR becomes 501C3.  POS will also have a work study student from SIT next year and Tim is already hearing from interested students.

Robert King is concerned about the long-term health of the soil at the Community Gardens and has offered to do a session for them about crop rotation and planning for the next season.  He will meet with the Gardeners at the Upper Dummerston Rd. Garden Friday, July 20 at 6 pm to start the session.  Folks will then carpool from there to his gardens in Putney.
 
Pliny Park -  Dora & Nancy have been the only workers maintaining the plantings in the park.  Water has been a problem and the soil is not good quality.  They are working to get that corrected.  Donna noted she lives across the street and will lend a hand.  There was also mention of a strip of land between the Coop and the Whetstone Pathway that would be a good potential small garden site.

There is growing interest from folks in the area to attend the Oct 07 Yellow Springs conference, and perhaps look at traveling as a group by train, then renting a large van for the drive from Columbus OH to the conference.  We need to get the details on cost.  Amber wanted to be sure that the information is shared with SIT students in August.

Winter Farmers Market:  
UPDATE SINCE THE JULY 5 POS MEETING – POS will be running/managing this market once again.  Tim and Lori Schreier presented the BAFM Board with a proposal to take on the market for the upcoming season.  There was some interest in this, despite all that they have on their plates and they were going to make a decision at the Aug meeting.  However, it was also noted that such a big undertaking really needs to be put before the membership of the BAFM.  So, the committee has decided to proceed with the market as a POS Market and have requested that the BAFM propose to their membership at the annual meeting in Dec or Jan that they will take on the WFM for the 2008/2009 season.

Donna offered to donate music for the market.

Next Meeting
Wed, August 1st
Room 211 Paramount Bldg
7 pm