TRANSITION TOWN MEETING MINUTES
June 16, 2009 6-8PM
Facilitated by Cheyenne Miller
Minutes Based on Notes Written on Poster Paper in Our Meeting 
1 .THE GROUP WAS ASKED WHAT SKILLS, GIFTS, ABILITIES THEY HAVE:
WHAT WE CAN GIVE: Sustainable Landscape Design History of the area Sustainable Building Technology Transport Nurse Paralegal Organics Writing Fishing Compost Toilets Simple Living Plumbing Electrician Encouraging and Educating Education about food and lifestyle Local Food distribution Dancing Meditation Mantra Repetition Working with the Elderly Building Hardware Environmental Awareness Raising Animal Husbandry-Raising Sheep, Milking Goats, Working with Horses Renewable Energy Knowledge Holistic Medical Sustainability Contract Law Healing with Food Alternative Education Adaptability Time Stress Release Permaculture Public Radio Ethics Journalism Photography Home Schooling Sustainable Family Lifestyle Office Work and Secretary Webmaster Bookkeeping Growing Food Networking skills Social Justice Activist Stewardship as service and Community Building Communications Graphic design Grant writing Carpentry Sewing
2. THE GROUP WAS ASKED WHAT THEY WOULD LIKE TO LEARN MORE? – About our Natural Resources, Farming, Sewage Systems, Geothermal, Waste Disposal Management, Transportation, Wisdom from the Past, Our Neighbors-How to live better together, Communicating with “others”, E-commerce, Recycling-Reusing, How to use the resources we already have, Community Living and Beyond, Local Currency, Reducing Taxes, Low Cost Housing such as Yurts and StrawBale, Gardening/Organics, How to start an Eco-Village, WHAT IS OUR “TOWN”?, How do we involve our town?, How secure is our food? Influence Legal Structures, Link together with already active groups, Preserving Food, Building an “arc”, Fun Meetings Together, Incorporating Art and Theatre, Getting schools involved, successful application of gov’t on transportation issues (ex. Bring trains back), What happens if communication lines break down-what do we do in emergencies, How do we close the waste loop?
COMMUNITY SMALL GROUP NOTES:
3. THE LARGE GROUP FORMED 6 SMALL GROUPS BASED ON INTEREST AND IMPORTANT TOPICS THAT WE FORSEE OUR COMMUNITY NEEDING TO ADDRESS AND UNDERSTAND MORE THOROUGHLY.
Steve Byers explains his group's thoughts on Food.
THE GROUPS ARE:
1) Education Process
2) Food
3) Local Currency
4) Transportation
5) Green Building& Energy
6) Natural Resources
EDUCATION PROCESS: 1. What Questions to ask? 2. How to help others gain interest? 3. Thinking within our group and outside of our group 4. Educating and Motivating 5. Marketing and Ideas- “ATTITUDES” –How to change them 6. Teach a new way of “living”-Consumerism to Community 7. Know our Purpose-This is Vital 8. What Skills will we need in 10 or 20 years? 9. Schools- Learning Centers- Consolidation of school districts 10. Exchange skills together
FOOD: Strengths: Apple Pond Farm-Calliccon Center Emerald Earth Organics-Hurleyville SARE grant- $20,000 7 Farmers Markets 2 Town Protection Plan Agri-tourism Needs: Local Food in the Winter-Year Round Market Winter Greenhouses Share Transportation to NYC Market Learn From Others-Food Bank Farm More leadership for Farmers Farming as a business – VISION for Sullivan County – Affordable, LOCAL, Healthy Food that is seasonally available from prosperous farms
LOCAL CURRENCY: Keep in Community, Close the Loop, Non-Profit Philanthropy, Barter Systems, LETS- Local Energy Transfer System, Workforce Relationships, Records of Green Dollars (Ithaca, New Paltz, Binghampton, Canada-Vistoria), Time Bank, Local Investment, Solari Circles (solari.com), Local Banks, Bring Money Into Community and Quick Overturn, Green Business Incubation, Non-interest bearing loans, SADIE-Survey-Analyze-Design-Install-Evaluate. ***We have to map and know where the money flows from and to and where it pools. When we learn how money works in our community then we can help to distribute it better to others. WHERE THIS COULD APPLY: Shift from Intangibles to Tangible Assets, CSA’s-Community Supported Agriculture, Contracts Insurance, Independent Small Business Development “Money is like manure. In big piles it stinks, spread it out and its gold!”
TRANSPORTATION: Walking Paths, Community Planning-Not focused on Autos, Vision for public county transportation, Rails to Trails/Canal Towpaths to Trails, Dual Mode Transportation(This could be the way of the future and we should look more into its ability to utilize electric cars and a system of “car pooling”) GOOGLE: TOWN OF CALLICOON NYC Ride Sharing – erideshare.com
GREEN BUILDING and ENERGY: Problems: Building Codes, Septic Systems Inadequate and Poor Soil, Lack of Knowledge by Officials about problems, Lack of Knowledge by the Public of Incentives/grants available for Green Building and Renewable Energy Solutions: Compost Systems, Meet with Enforcement Officials and educate them. Prototype Model of sustainable water systems, septic systems, and green homes. Reduce Building costs by working collaboratively (ex. Bulk Buying of materials). Learn about gov’t programs available for Green Building. Use natural materials from local community. Pool resources.
NATURAL RESOURCES: Protection- Especially WATER! Using our natural resources responsibly with accountability Personal connection needed to our resources (ex. Know where our wood, water, electricity, food come from…and more) “Preventive by Inventive” Experimenting with extracting water from air- INVENTING AND CREATING ways to do-it-yourself for securing clean water. QUESTIONS TO ASK: What are the present laws and how do we change them? Is this adequate? What really happens? What are the measurements for “clean” “sustainable” “safe”? Who really owns the natural resources? What is the CONNECTION between us all and our natural resources—We must see this connection. What groups are already present and helping? What do they need? Relationships-How well do we know the Catskills?
WEBSITES MENTIONED @ the meeting:
www.thecatskillchronicle.wordpress.com
GOOGLE: TOWN OF CALLICOON NYC Ride Sharing – www.erideshare.com
The Next Meeting of Transition Sullivan will be held on Monday, June 29, 2009 at 6 p.m. in Room C at Cornell Cooperative Extention in Ferndale. The meeting will start with a potluck dinner. Please be sure to bring enough tensils, plates and cups to accompany whatever it is that you wish to share. These are not provided. Afterwards, plates, eating utensils, cups, napkins will all be taken home and washed for other uses. This includes anything food is served in. All excess food can be shared with those present to take home or given to a neighbor or to your animals or into your compost.
Following the pot luck, at 6:30 p.m., there wil be a screening of the film, “In Transition”. The viewing of the film will be followed by a step-by-step description of the 12 steps to forming transition as layed out in the book “The Transition Handbook”.
Please come and enjoy.
I will provide a handout for the June 29th meeting on GLEENINGS. Green Liberty Energy Exchange Naturally IN Ground Springs. An idea for an Interest-Free Economic way of exchange in Sullivan County. The handout includes a way of using the GLEENINGS at a warehouse where there is a whole foods organic restaurant and farmer’s market and green building supply mart. A Green Business Incubation Room is in the center of the warehouse.
Thank you, Leni, for letting this be a ‘place to post’ for the group.