SELMAannarbor.org

SELMA is the Soule-Eberwhite-Liberty-Madison Affiliation

Summary of Pre-Kickoff “Idea Fest”, 7/13/08

POTENTIAL FUNCTIONS/ACTIVITIES OF SELMA
* Communal or shared gardening/food raising (perhaps by planting
volunteered lawn extensions with communal vegetable gardens).
* Socializing through neighborhood-wide rotating dinner parties.
* Maintaining a neighborhood “tool chest”, either centralized or
“virtual” and distributed across everyone’s properties.
* Maintaining a roster of the neighborhood’s “skill base”, identifying
the skills, trades, or specialized knowledge/training of those around
us.
* Collective purchasing of food (organic produce, staples, etc.) or
supplies.
* Promoting the sustainability of our neighborhood through
environmental initiatives.
* Fundraising for neighborhood initiatives (book drives for sale to
books by chance, etc.)

WHAT WE NEED TO GET STARTED
* Neighborhood map
* E-mail/contact list
* Two or three “starter” projects

ISSUES TO CONSIDER AS WE MOVE FORWARD
* Is the proposed (approximate) geographic vicinity appropriate?
* Should equipment/property held by the group be maintained in a
centralized location, or be distributed throughout the neighborhood (a
“virtual” collection)?
* The logistical complexity and need for management should be kept to
a minimum.
* The security/privacy of web-based member information is an important
issue.

NEXT STEPS
* Expand membership of SELMA Google Goup
* Spread the word about SELMA idea at upcoming neighborhood gatherings
* Schedule first rotating every-other-friday-night pizza dinner
* Set-up “tools offered” and “tools requested” for virtual tool shed
* Kickoff first lawn extension communal garden

This entry was posted on Monday, December 22nd, 2008 at 5:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Summary of Pre-Kickoff “Idea Fest”, 7/13/08”

  1. January 10th, 2009 at 8:48 pm

    Steve Hathaway says:

    Just stopped by to check the site–love the ideas!–here’s a magazine article that had a few maybe interesting ideas.

    http://www.sunset.com/food-wine/25-more-ways-to-make-your-neighborhood-a-community-00400000012804/