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