Meeting Summary – March 24th, 2013

Hi everyone,

I told Radha I’d be happy to take the minutes at the meeting on 24 March, so here they are:

The meeting commenced at 11.10am.  Radha and I were the only ones in attendance:)

We agreed to move forward with the Compost Revolution (please see details below from Radha’s email of 21 March).  Radha is going to email Warrumbungle Shire Council and take the next step to get Council on board with this project.  It was decided that, as this is something that won’t require a great deal of effort or money on Council’s part, has been successful in a number of other Shire Council areas and will encourage community participation without the Transition Town Group having to devote a lot of time and energy to get it up and running, it was definitely worth pursuing.  I mentioned to Radha that I’d heard the tip is filling up very quickly.  I think it’s fair to assume a lot of that would be household waste and other items that could be readily composted.  Radha said that Cas has experience with worm composting and may be interested in running a workshop for those who want to participate.  I’ve spoken with Amanda, who said that Brett also has a lot of experience in this area, so the fact we have such good local knowledge we can draw upon is terrific.

A sustainable building book list is now on the website and everyone is encouraged to submit details of books they recommend on the subject.

Carol will keep us updated on the Cal-Earth building workshop.

Anyone who hasn’t already given their Demeter orders to Peter is encouraged to do so.  Apparently Jennie B. has some people who are keen to place an order, so hopefully the co-op will keep growing and developing as more people become aware of it.

No update yet on the brick building machine.

The next meeting will be held at 11am on Sunday 28 April 2013 at the GoodLife building.  Hope to see you there!!

Warm regards,

Kim

Email from Radha to the Transition group – March 21st

Hi All

I would like to  remind you that the next Transition/GoodLife meeting is scheduled for this  coming Sunday, March 24th at 11am at the GoodLife Building in Timor St. 

Compost  Revolution

At the last meeting we discussed the possibility of initiating a waste project such as encouraging the local council to adopt a  composting system into their waste disposal strategy.   I was just surfing the net  to see what other councils are doing in this regard and came across Compost  Revolution – http://compostrevolution.com.au

This project began in the Eastern  Suburbs of Sydney in 2009 when ‘Randwick and Waverley Councils received funding from the NSW  Environmental Trust to trial an innovative community composting project.’

You can read more about it here – http://reduceyourfootprint.com.au/projects/compost-revolution/

This resulted in the Compost Revolution which is a national  campaign. Participating households receive a free worm farm or compost bin by  answering a simple quiz. They also hold workshops and distribute information on  composting.

All councils in Australia are welcome to join, we just need to  fill out this form and email it to them –

  http://compostrevolution.good.do/joinus/email-your-council-to-say-you-re-ready-for-the-revolution/  

Maybe we can discuss it at the  meeting 🙂

Love,

Radha 

 

Advertisements

Read Full Post »

MEETING SUMMARY – FEBRUARY 24TH, 2013

MEETING SUMMARY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24TH, 2013

Present – Sam; Peter R.; Cas; Brett and Callum; Peter T.; Radha; and an appearance from Kim 🙂

Apologies – Laura; Meg; Amanda; Joy; Di

TRANSITION COONABARABRAN meeting commenced approximately 11.10pm –

Meeting Opened –
Radha opened the meeting with the question of whether we would like to continue with exploring the topic of waste, as was discussed at our last meeting or if, in light of the recent fires, there was still energy to continue with any projects at all, or if perhaps there was a proposal for a different focus instead.

New Suggestion – Sustainable Building

Cas suggested that, as there will be a lot of re-building happening within the community, perhaps we could consider putting together a Resources List with links and recommendations for sustainable building methods. For instance there are many good books on the subject, such as Warm House Cool House -http://www.publish.csiro.au/pid/6869.htm which could be recommended and perhaps we could even get the local library to stock some of them.

The discussion continued with suggestions to include this Resources List on our website – https://transitioncoonabarabran.wordpress.com/ and perhaps also looking into including a link to this Resources List in the regular bush-fire mail-out which is being distributed locally. It was also suggested that perhaps we could put out a brochure or leaflet on this topic of sustainable building methods, etc.

Cal-Earth workshop

There was also a discussion about the possibility of a Cal-Earth (The California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture) workshop here in Coonabarabran – http://calearth.org/ which utilises a technique known as superadobe (sandbag and barbed wire) technology and is also sometimes referred to as Eco-Domes. This local workshop possibility is currently being looked-into by Carol, who is in communication with the Australian representative. I have contacted her to let her know our Transition group is interested to know more about this and to support her with the workshop.  She has already replied to let me know that she is thrilled to receive support from us and will put together some information on the workshop when she has a chance.

Buy Local

The topic of buy-local was also brought up. Many businesses in our community have experienced a downturn in sales due to the way the community has been affected by the fires and the resulting closure of the National Park so it would be helpful if we can all be particularly aware of supporting our local businesses right now.

Brick-making Machine

Peter T. is looking into the collective hire of a brick-making machine. The machine apparently makes around 2000 earth bricks per day.

Zero Waste

We returned to the subject of Zero Waste. We had a brief discussion about encouraging our local council to consider including a commercial composting system into their waste disposal strategy. There are other councils which have already adopted such methods. Perhaps this would involve a separate ‘house-hold green waste collection’ where people could put out food scraps, etc for collection and then they could be composted professionally at the local Waste Depot , using worms, for instance, and then the finished composted could be bagged up and sold to the community.

For more information on the Zero Waste initiative, please see these links –

http://www.zerowaste.org.au/

http://zerowasteaustralia.org/

http://www.nextworldtv.com/videos/reducing-waste/zero-waste-in-europe.html

Fluoride

For those who prefer a fluoride-free water supply, please note that the fluoridation process has now gone ahead. Even so, it is still not too late to get the subject of removing compulsory fluoridation from our water supply back on the agenda. Victor is happy to bring it up at a council meeting but first we need to send letters into the council to make it a big enough of an issue. There have been a few people already sending in letters. Letters to the Editor in the Coonabarabran Times would also help with this process. Please let our local council know if you are not in favour of fluoride and if you would like the decision to add fluoride to our water supply to be re-considered/overturned.

Summary of Transition Meeting and Resulting Action

• Sustainable Building Resources page – please send any links, recommended books, etc to Radha and she will compile the list.
• Cal-Earth workshop – information will be emailed to the group as it becomes available.
• Brick-making machine – information will be emailed to the group as it becomes available.
• Zero Waste – let’s begin collectively compiling research on commercial composting for council and then put a serious proposal to them. If anyone has any information on this, please bring it to the next meeting or email it to Radha.

GOODLIFE COONABARABRAN

Demeter Order

It has been around 3 months since we placed our last Demeter order and some of us are now ready to order again. If you would like to re-order, please email your order by the end of March to Peter R.

Please do not fill in the actual Demeter order form but just place a full description of the items you would like into the body of the email. Eg: Green Lentils – 2kg @ $9.73 = $19.46

Once Peter has collated the bulk order, he will contact you about payment into our GoodLife account for transfer to Demeter.

GoodLife Membership Fee change

We have decided to reduce the GoodLife membership fee from $25 to $10 per year per family. We did not receive any objections for this proposal which we put forward at the last meeting and the decision was agreed upon by all present at the meeting.

If you have already paid $25 membership, you can be reimbursed in various ways such as contributing to your membership renewal or your next order, or you could even just donate it to GoodLife if you feel so inclined.

The meeting closed at 12.30pm.

Our next Transition/GoodLife Coonabarabran meeting is due to be held on the next Market Sunday, March 24th at 11am at the GoodLife building in Timor St.

Please Note – it would be really good if someone else can do the notes so that we all take turns.

Love,

Radha

 

Read Full Post »

Meeting Summary – November 25th, 2012

MEETING SUMMARY – SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25TH, 2012

Present – Laura; Ken; Peter R; Di; Amanda; Radha

Apologies – Cas; Sam; Joy ; Stell & John

Transition Coonabarabran meeting commenced approximately 11.10pm –

Radha opened the meeting with a general explanation.

• At the last meeting we decided to commence our monthly meetings with a Transition Coonabarabran meeting, followed by a GoodLife Coonabarabran meeting. Everyone present agreed to continue with this format.
• It was summarised that GoodLife Coonabarabran began as the first initiative of the Transition Coonabarabran group which is an official “mulling” Transition Initiative – http://www.transitionnetwork.org/initiatives/coonabarabran  At the moment, just Radha and Peter R. (Robbo) are listed as members of the Core Team, but if anyone else would like to be listed, please just let me know. We have a WordPress website here – https://transitioncoonabarabran.wordpress.com and plenty of information about What is a Transition Initiative here – https://transitioncoonabarabran.wordpress.com/about  You can also sign up to ‘follow’ the blog where you will be notified when new posts are made and can make comments if you wish. There is also an Events page – https://transitioncoonabarabran.wordpress.com/events
• The question was put forward of whether we are happy just to cruise with the GoodLife project for now or whether there are any ideas for other projects we could implement.
• Ken put forth the possibility of having a representative from the Zero Waste project presenting a meeting in Coonabarabran – possibly in March. The general idea is to get people thinking about their trash, where it goes after they have used it and what we can do to take more responsibility for our waste production. Ken is the Regional Landcare Facilitator for East Namoi and puts together a great newsletter each month. I have attached pdf copies of the October & November editions – they are very informative with lots of links to local projects happening in the general area and definitely well worth taking the time to have a read through.

Here is Ken’s note which accompanied the newsletters –

Hi folks

With respect to stuff discussed at today’s meeting(s) the attached
E.News letters from October and November have links to the relevant
sites.

The information about Zero Waste Australia can be found on Pg 11 of
the November E.News and the link to the Regenerative Adelaide article
can be found on page 12 of the October edition. in the section about
The Solutions Journal.

The Catalyst story called ‘Plastic Oceans’ can be accessed via the
following link http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3583576.htm

In addition, there is a really excellent piece in The Conversation
(see: http://theconversation.edu.au/marine-debris-biodiversity-impacts-and-potential-solutions-2131)

Kind Regards

Ken

• There was general interest and agreement in the formation of a new Transition project revolving around the subject of Waste and it was also agreed that we should set aside some time to explore this subject a bit more at our next meeting.
• Laura brought up the possibility of organising a field trip to visit the Armidale Transition group so we can get more of a sense of what others in the movement are up to and also to strengthen our Transition ties.
• Radha followed up with an idea about possibly attending a Transition Facilitator course as they do come up from time to time.
• The new CWA Market (gratitude to Simone for being a key organiser of this), also came up. We discussed the possibility of holding a Transition      Coonabarabran/GoodLife stall there perhaps with some information about various local groups in alignment with the Transition theme or just to help promote/link-up various community groups and maybe selling some goodies. We also thought about the possibility of holding a workshop or talk with regard to Transition/GoodLife Coonabarabran and related themes of sustainable living.

GoodLife Coonabarabran meeting commenced approximately 12pm –

Peter R. commenced the GoodLife Meeting with a summary of the Demeter ordering situation. At the time of the meeting, we had not yet received an acknowledgement from Demeter with regard to the order we put in so Peter was going to follow up on the Monday. At the time of writing this email (Saturday, December 1st) we have not yet received our order so maybe there have been a few bumps to smooth out for this first order – all in good time 🙂

• As far as the smoothness of the ordering process is concerned, Peter shared with us that it would be better to not use the order forms next time as it is too difficult to glean the correct info from the form. Next order we will just email our individual items and prices through for the Order      Coordinator (currently Peter R.) to collate.
• Membership – there was a general discussion that perhaps the GoodLife Membership fee is too high and that perhaps it should be reduced. There evolved from this discussion a proposal that the GoodLife Membership fee be reduced from $25 per family per year to $10 per family per year so that more families would be encouraged to join and participate in the bulk ordering process as well as other GoodLife activities as they evolve.
• It was also proposed that perhaps current GoodLife Members who already paid the $25 Membership could be re-imbursed with their next Demeter order.
• The subject of which date the membership expires was also brought up. There was general agreement that the end of the financial year – June 30th – would be a good date as that is the time when we will need to get our financial details in order and also hold an Annual General Meeting (AGM).
• It was proposed that we hold off from adopting these proposals until the next meeting so that there is time inbetween for comments, support or      objections via this email list which can then be considered at the next meeting.

Delicious snacks were brought out towards the end of the GoodLife meeting, but in hindsight, perhaps we should have got started sooner 😉

The GoodLife Meeting closed about 12.40pm and we were all pretty much out the door by 12.50pm!

Our next Transition/GoodLife Coonabarabran meeting is due to be held on Sunday, January 22nd, 2013 at 11am at the GoodLife building in Timor St.

My personal view is that this Meeting Summary should be printed and brought to the next meeting (by one person) so that we can go over anything that needs to be further discussed. I feel this will help with the cohesiveness of our meetings. I volunteer to print this Meeting Summary to bring to the next meeting or if I cannot make it for some reason, I will contact someone else to see if they can do it.

Please feel free to share your thoughts via email about anything which was presented at the meeting or if you have something in particular, such as an idea, which you would like presented to the next meeting.

*Please bring a spare chair to the next meeting if you have one or if you have any spares to donate that would be greatly appreciated as well as things like bean bags, cushions, etc

*Some of us thought it might be a good idea to create a Kiddies Corner with an area for children to relax, read and play during the meetings, etc. So, if you have any spare toys or nice things for children (in alignment with our healthy, natural, sustainable living ethos) then please bring those along too.

Love,

Radha

Read Full Post »