May 7, 2008
Post Oil Solutions Monthly Meeting Wednesday, May 7, 2008 Present:
Announcements:
POS Anniversary Party Tim will help coordinate carpooling. Email him to let him know if you’re willing to drive or would like a ride. Bring utensils, plates, lawnchairs, blankets, partners, spouses, significant others, etc. Status Report on 501©3 The LC will need to meet to look over the bylaws so that application can move forward. Once it is completed, Deb suggests sending it to a lawyer to look over. Also note there is a $750 fee. The LC plus Tim will meet on Friday the 23rd at Janet and Walters at 6 PM. Dora will contact the two lawyers she knows that would possibly do it pro-bono. Tim noted that Walter and Janet will be stepping down from the LC and in the future Michael and Melissa will be nominated to join. It was suggested that they observe the meeting at Walter and Janet’s just to be part of the process though they will not vote. Agreed upon. Workshop Fee Proposal (Revisited) Proposal: $5-10 sliding scale with no one refused. While its nice to offer it for free, we can’t spend money without making it. The group decided to accept the sliding scale as long as we make special effort to reach the low income community. Stipend Considerations Cindy absent. POS has applied for a third Vista position to fund Liz. Fundraising Committee The group had its first meeting and realized that they need to develop a budget to clarify what we are fundraising for. This is in the works as are other fundraising ideas. They will meet again on the 12th at the Co Op at 6 pm. Jane’s proposal: The group Simba has volunteered to do a fundraiser for us. They propose using the Dummerston Grange for a fee of $75 and they’ll split the proceeds with us half and half. We could charge $10/person. Policy Committee Were unable to meet over the past month. Chandra will email the group about meeting this month. Carbon Diet Project Walter and Melissa led a Carbon Diet group over the month of April. Feel that it was a good test run and it was effective and can be done again. They would like to set up a forum to have a presentation ("Global Warming Café") where they would introduce it and split people into groups and they would then run their own Carbon Diet groups. They’ve contacted the Empowerment Institute that runs a tele-training in June that they will do. They’ll also be working through their contacts and are asking for the contacts of other people. Suggested that this may be a great project to collaborate with the Windam Environmental Coalition or Brattleboro Climate Protection. Contact Melissa or Walter with ideas or willingness to help. Townsend Farmers Market Update First market date will be June 5th. Considering a Grand Opening Celebration for the July 3rd market, a bluegrass band has offered to play and the Secretary of Agriculture who lives in Townsend has been invited. Outline of Projects We’ve Done Tim presented an outline of the POS projects. Food has been the central focus but other things are percolating. Health is a focus that is coming up – Melissa has a lot of interest around health, bartering and other projects that really deal with relocalization of services, community, healing, etc. Regional Food Sustainability Project Tim presented an outline of the four (4) dimensions of the RFSP (which includes the Food Security Project, below). One dimension is reaching out beyond Brattleboro with the kind of projects we’ve been doing (e.g., workshops, CSAs, farmers’ mkts., etc to towns like Cavendish and Townsend, and have workshops scheduled for other towns in the region through the summer. We’ve sent a grant off recently to the Vermont Community Fund and now have two grants out for a total of $25,000 to help fund the Sustainable Food Coordinator position, that is central to the 2nd dimension, building a Sustainable Food Center/Network. Lots of ideas out around connecting with soup kitchens out of the churches, looking into Home Depot as a space etc. People should feel free to look into these sorts of leads. Food Security Project Update This is the 3rd dimension of the RFSP. Really moving ahead with a gleaning component that will begin this summer. With this relationship we’ll be able to expand our services to low-income communities through gardens, container gardens, workshops etc. Tim has a meeting next week with the new president of the Windham Foundation to talk about the Retreat root cellar becoming a Brattleboro Root Cellar. It is not being used right now. Perhaps the "community kitchen" piece could be revised to emphasize that it is (at this point) envisioned as an educational kitchen and a processing kitchen. Also, perhaps the portion where we state that we support new sustainable crops we should also add "practices". Proposal to Purchase Peak Moments Its an "amateur TV type of thing". She interviews people around sustainable initiatives and projects in the northern California. We could show them on BCTV along with announcements about POS etc. Frederick Noyes of BCTV is very enthusiastic about this. The series is $200. Its both solution oriented and theory/opinion based. It can be watched online for free. It can also be shown on state-wide access TV. LC will take a look at it online and come back in June. Pliney Park Dora is interested in pushing it towards a more sustainably-minded park that would perhaps have some permaculture aspects. If people are interested in collaborating, donating (especially things that are long-blooming and aren’t ugly post-blooming, or super bee attractors), helping contact Dora. Or if you know folks that may want to get involved, send ‘em to Dora. June Meeting Michael will facilitate. Tim will cofacilitate.
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