Rebuilding Community Resilience & Self-Reliance
SC Meeting Notes 1-11-2012
Transition Milwaukee
Steering Committee Meeting
11 January 2012, Natalie Berland’s house
In attendance: Natalie Berland, Eleanor Harris, George Owen, Alex Montezon, Sarah Zahner, Sue Loomans, Jessica Cohodes, Dan Felix, Mark Miller
Check-ins:
- Mark has been working on a document for hub organization relationships.
- George has agreed to be the liaison for the Milwaukee Area Time Exchange.
- Alex has been working on reskilling efforts. He welcomes suggestions from anyone. We all discussed what should be listed on our events page and we agreed that it is fine to post events from other organizations as long as we point them to the sponsoring organization’s Web page for details.
- Sue has been transferring events that members post on our email list to our Web site.
- Natalie had several items to share. #The Water Work Group has approached Transition Wisconsin and the Urban Ecology Center for sponsorship so they can seek grants. #Transition Milwaukee is seeking incorporation or sponsorship also. #She is going to revive our Twitter account. #Powerdown Week. #She received several thank yous for posting the hub meeting notes on our Web site. She is going to begin putting the notes into a newsletter format. #Copies of the new Rob Hopkins book, The Transition Companion, is being purchased by Tom Brandstetter. We still have several copies of the original Transition Handbook.
- Jessica has been working on all aspects of TM communications and PR newsletter, UWM interns and working on a TM work group Web site template in order to make management of these more streamlined. She’s been talking to a Chicago-based group that wants to network with other Wisconsin Transition Towns on transportation and rail concerns. She’s been thinking about how new members are brought into the fold, profiles questions, mentorships.
- Dan has been communicating with Transition Wisconsin. They are still open to new funding projects. He’s also looking to develop a framework for municipality ordinances so that people can easily find out what they are legally able to do in their communities (such as raising chickens). Milwaukee has been successful in making changes because of all the citizens that are pushing for change.
Jessica is going to coordinate steering committee meetings through 2012 as far as setting dates, locations, and who will be leading. She would like for us to consider a 2nd monthly meeting that is done via Skype/phone conference.
Natalie stated that the Urban Ecology Center would like to have more detailed information on our monthly meeting notices in their newsletter. The deadline for their bimonthly newsletters are quite early, so planning our hub meetings further out would benefit this need.
Sue covered her handout containing the agenda for the next hub meeting on January 23rd. Jess suggested that she take a look at neighborhood inputs/yields in Gaia’s Garden (Toby Hemenway). Neighborhood leaders will specifically be invited for this hub meeting.
Sue is planning to start a neighborhood group around Whitnall Park.
For the February meeting, Zahner suggested that in light of Valentine Day talking about caring relationships and taking care of each other. Jan Christianson is a possibility and George will talk to her about presenting for this. Eleanor suggested how resiliency circles can help with these relationships. Dan mentioned that the South Shore group is following the resiliency circle track but he’s not sure what “brand” they’re following. Jess would like to have someone experienced in this area before we try.
Zahner also has an idea for a hub meeting that she’s been working on with Jessy Servi. This would help people on how to make choices on what to buy, what to do in certain situations that helps the environment. It is not to introduce guilt but to meet people where they are.
Mark made a couple of topic recommendations that has been on his mind lately and they are 1) what to do with your finances (on the heels of the Nicole Foss presentation on January 4th), and 2) determining what you want your living situation to be in light of potentially not being able to move once the economy collapses. We discussed how these topics can be more advanced (or intimidating) to new members and perhaps we can start with an overview of individual preparedness.
Someone mentioned two hub meeting topic items that came from Mike Arney. 1) David Peterny (sp?) big picture on global sustainability issues. 2) Home energy use and reducing your carbon footprint.
George will be in charge of planning the February hub meeting and will show the documentary, The Economics of Happiness.
Mark will plan the April hub meeting on the topic of preparedness (individual and possibly community).
We discussed the possible format for hub meeting agendas when groups will be reporting in. We will allow time for any community groups that attend but continue also with the “Transition Town” meeting with a topic as well until the hub part of the meeting comes into its own. CHECK THE DISCUSSION BOARD ON OUR WEB SITE.
Jess will plan the February steering committee meeting. She will be considering locations for this.
Natalie announced that Sue Loomans will be speaking at a meeting of the West Side Transition group that Mike Arney organized. She is presenting on The Climate Project (Tosa library).
February 14th is the Colog group meeting and TM is on the agenda to present. George will lead this effort.
Eleanor mentioned the importance of being able to point new members to how to get involved since they often ask how they can do so and this is obviously a very important moment. Mark agreed and recommended making this part of our agenda for the next SC meeting. Jess concurred.
We get many invites to table events but we’re not really setup to do that. Eleanor thought that it was OK not to do every event. Jess suggested that we post events on our Web site where we need volunteers to table it. Dan agreed to table the Greenfield event [name escapes me]. Dan said that we get a lot of volunteers for the MATC Green Energy Summit so that shouldn’t be a problem. Jess would like to have someone lead the volunteer effort for this and not have to default to Tom. (March 7-9).
Natalie would like a seminar for the SC on how to use our IT tools (how to manipulate our Web site, for example).
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