Meeting Follow Up

We had our most recent meeting on Sunday, Feb. 8th. The group came to a consensus that the best course of action at this time is to contribute to the efforts of other, established groups.

There is still value in West Seattle Change continuing to meet on a monthly basis to share what we have learned and consider future plans. Perhaps the role of West Seattle Change will be to attract volunteers for other organizations. Of course, there is still the possibility that we will recognize a need, or a gap, and come up with our own plan; however, it seems the best course of action at this time is to contribute to the efforts of other, established groups that are already doing things that we support.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Sunday, March 8th at Ama Ama.

Jan. 9th WSC Meeting Notes and Action Items

Thanks everyone for meeting at Coffee to a Tea today. Here’s what we discussed:

Overall everyone still likes the idea of 21st Century Victory Gardens, backyard wildlife sanctuaries, and other ways to green West Seattle. A lot of questions came up about whether there are groups that are already doing this work that we can support? Or are we trying to do something different here that we need to start from scratch? A couple of our action items will help answer those questions.

Teri invited Aaron who shared with us the work that CHOSS (Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle) is doing, and what they are trying to get off the ground. They are teaching people how to plant at their own homes, planting veggies in yards and containers; harvesting from fruit trees; teaching canning classes, and sharing harvests with the food banks. CHOSS is already working on getting volunteers from the high school and community college. Aaron is already working with CHOSS on planting three p-patch gardens in the community, and needs two more locations.

Nicole popped in after overhearing our conversation, and what a providential coincidence since she has worked with Seattle Tilth for years. She can help answer our questions about what Seattle Tilth is working on, their goals, needs, etc. For example she was able to share that Seattle Tilth has a coordinator matching volunteers with p-patches, and they offer compost bins at a subsidized price (answering a couple of our goals already).

Heather also popped in and told us about her work organizing Oh Mama, a group for moms with young children to volunteer, ages 3 and over – goal is to connect moms with other moms and teach children about service. She wants to work with us if we have volunteer projects for youngsters.

Other ideas shared:
Backyard sanctuaries – put together tour of West Seattle backyard sanctuaries
Work at the farmers market to share information with West Seattleites
How to make condos more friendly to birds and bees – how to pick plants for your sun exposure and patio size
Promote mason bee blocks
Native plant sale coming up – purchase and nuture trees until they are ready to be planted in a yard
Seattle Foundation – possible to get a grant for our projects (Community Grant Program)
Find a source for rain barrels (cheap or free)
Handouts for people we can help (for people who don’t have computers)
Can White Center Foodbank pick up food from containers at homes on a regular basis? (so we don’t have to deliver harvested food?)
Street tree coordination – Nicole is trying to get that started
West Seattle Christian would be willing to let us dump soil
Seattle Tilth teaching classes – need more spaces to teach/more gardens in the southwest Seattle areas.
If we decide to move ahead with plantings –
April 15 is last frost date –
But depending on the location you can plant peas, lettuce, spinach in February

Actions:
Kim will call Avila at CHOSS to see if we can volunteer behind their organizational efforts

Teri will talk to her neighbor, the president of the WSHS PTA, about volunteering parameters for school kids

Kim will talk to Barb about how to get school kids involved

Nicole will talk to Tilth (if there are any questions that she didn’t answer – but primarily, how can we help stretch their efforts into West Seattle?)

Nancy W. will talk to Farmers Market to see if it’s possible to get a booth to educate people about p-patches, backyard sanctuaries, etc.

Kendall will talk to Junction Association about getting a free booth at West Seattle Street Fair this year

Kim will see where you can get rain barrels and/or instructions for installation

Jasmine and Dan/Nancy will measure their yards so we know how much space they have for planting

Frances will talk to Ama Ama about hosting the next meeting

Next meeting at Ama Ama, February 8, 4 p.m.
At the next meeting, we should plan on coming to a consensus on a single first goal for the group. Please be thinking about this – what means most to you? What do you think we can accomplish? Getting your hands dirty with some planting, coordinating volunteers, community education – something else? Time to focus! Thanks everyone!

Inaugural Meeting – Ideas Shared

At the inaugural meeting of our group, we shared ideas for community service. Here are my meeting notes, rough and embellished as they are:

– recycling obsolete business supplies for use by schools and school teachers (like pens and paper from companies who have changed their logo or moved)
– planting fruits and veggies in parking strips for food banks (21st Century Victory Gardens)
– match people who have extra garden space with people who want it, and with middle school and high school children who want to do gardening for their community service hours
– germinate plants to give away for free – to give food to White Center Food Bank
– advocate rain barrels and solar panels
– create a public Web site where we can link all the resources that people need to create organic gardens
– become advocates for groups that are already doing stuff like this
– become advocates for green building techniques

Possible resources:
– West Seattle Nursery – can they take plant containers for us to re-use?
– Village Green Nursery
– South Seattle Community College horiticulture program – do they have students who could help us plant seedlings?

Other associated groups/ideas:
– Wildlife sanctuaries
– White Center Community Development Association
– Delridge Neighborhood Development Association
– Seattle Tilth

Since our meeting, Kendall and Kim also discussed another idea – the idea that we become advocates for groups that are already doing this work. Take the word to the people of West Seattle at the farmers market, at the street fair, at the Junction corner on spring weekends. This concept would be that instead of creating this work ourselves, we use our marketing talent and energy to promote the good options already in place for green gardening in West Seattle.

Or we may decide that no one is adequately doing this kind of community service in West Seattle. If that’s the case, we can form our own group, or we could look into creating a new committee of an existing group like Seattle Tilth.

We also think that we need to clearly define whether we want to support another group doing this kind of work? Or start a new organization? The goal set out by the Obama campaign was simply for our group to do some community service work. Not necessarily to create a grassroots movement from scratch. The projects we discussed last night are ambitious and exciting. Do we have enough time and resources to do something this big ourselves, right now? Should we take advantage of our own enthusiasm and dive in headfirst? Or should we start small and see where it leads? These are topics we need to discuss and decide at the next meeting.

Next meeting: Sunday, January 11th, 4 to 6 p.m. at Coffee to a Tea (we confirmed they are open), 4541 California Ave SW, Seattle 98116.

Goals for next meeting:
1. each of us should invite friends, with the goal of bringing one person to get involved so we can double the size of our group. Share this Website with your friends and ask for their feedback.
2. submit comments and suggestions on this Web site so we can bring all ideas to the table in the next meeting.
3. hone and refine our ideas into one achievable, measurable goal that we can accomplish by April 20 (Earth Day)

Thank you!
– Kim and Kendall, your group facilitators

Here We Are

On December 14th, 2008 a group of West Seattle residents came together to discuss how we could best affect positive change in our local, national and global community. We brainstormed and came up with some great ideas, primarily focused around the “greening” of West Seattle. Ideally, we would like to promote sound stewardship of the environment in a way that also helps local food banks and hungry families.

This Web site has been created as a place for us to share ideas and to help us organize and promote our efforts.