Meeting2007–03
Urban Agriculture Meeting
March 20, 2007, 4PM
Growing Power 5500 W. Silver Spring Dr.
Minutes: Nicole Penick
Welcome and check-in
Julilly Kohler Welcome by Will Allen: who provided fresh salad greens and grass fed beef bratwurst for everyone!
Present; Will Allen, Jan Christionsen, Nicole Lightwine, Sharon Adams, Nicole Penick, Ron Doetch, Jim Godsil, Mary Lou LaMonda, Julilly Kohler, Young Kim, Sandy Faloran, Linda Keane, Martha Kipcak, Margaret Bert, Susan Gravelle, Sally Callan, Janet Gamble, Ginger Lee, Stephanie Phillips, Ann Beier, Janine Arsericur, Howard Leu, Erin Kanuckel , (who are we missing??)
Mission/ Name Review
facilitated by Sharon Adams
- deciding on our mission and to be here to meet each other and to receive information- wideness of who we are is so impressive, network is a place to make connections and talk in a peaceful setting
- Mission and Vision- to be sure we are operating on that vision we need 1 sentence with less than 27 words.
- Still wondering if a number of us are interested in affecting policy — can we make that explicit in a short cut way?
- Not everyone is interested in policy so that may be an interest group
- Policy work is an urban food project- policy may be embedded in there as it is a huge issue for local urban food projects
- Power or leverage of resources - we are coming together which is powerful - create a central system with structure and people are drawn to it around the outsides
- Collaboration as a catalyst for change is a self organizing - the purpose for collaboration is change and it embraces policy education and advocacy - movement for change
MISSION: A resource exchange network that enables advocacy, community building and self organized collaboration for Milwaukee’s urban food projects/systems.
Goal: should be what our resources are and how can we use them?
We need to work on action oriented goals- a network exchanging ideas- with a lot of ideas what are our current resources?
- We will visit this mission again for another 5 minutes next meeting. We are doing really well
Tech Items:
facilitated by Mary Lou Lamonda
Green Map:
Nothing to report on map itself
- Volunteers are needed to help confirm gardens- 2–3 people to go see if gardens actually exist- with a list which can be split
- Also get names and phone number of people who are responsible for the gardens
Website:
Thanks to Jim Godsil for an initial page on the Milwaukee Renaissance website
- We would like to build a WIKI site for MUAN
- Domain name: www.MkeUrbanAg.org ( approved)
- Core group of people to volunteer to sit down and design the web pages- what we want: Mary Lou LaMonda, Nicole Penick, Nicole Lightwine, Howard Leu
- With a WIKI anyone with permission can edit and update the site
- We can train everyone is an hour or less
- The core group will organize the site, with the basics, access, elements like calendar, links etc.
- Biggest issue with a WIKI is that since everyone can do it- no one does it.
- Core group will be responsible for pushing other members to add their stuff to the site
- The core group will meet at Bucketworks to help and get started
- We will need to keep it updated and use it as a tool- a place where we can find out what’s happening
- 100 ways to use it including video, calendar etc.
- What would people like?
- Calendar of events
- Links to organizations— i.e. MMSD, UW Extension, regional, national and global links, farm related sites, green pages
- Private info for groups contact info- email lists- minutes/agendas
- Educational material
- Listed resources
- Way that people can connect and contribute
- Sharing of project dreams and how-to info
- Core group will provide a WIKI demo on how to add a pages and edit
- Core group will meet for a strategy session in the next 3 weeks before next MUAN meeting
Meeting Schedule & Proposal
facilitated by Sharon Adams
- Need to move the meeting to the second Tuesday of the month because the third Tues. conflicts with other meetings.
- Ok to still meet at 4PM
- Next meeting will be April 10, 4pm at Bucketworks
- We discussed meeting every other month and to form interest groups to meet during the months we are not meeting
- Self forming groups and free will offerings to support
- Is it agreeable to meet on the 2nd Tues. on alternate months to get steam going and settled
- Our main formal meetings will change places to get to know each other projects and places.
- Our social intervening meetings on alternating months will be in the same place, ritualized with social time, perhaps a presentation and that can take some planning from a person or a group. Proposed location is Club Timbuktu on Center St. - can have food and drinks and perhaps show films there.
DECISION: We would be meeting every other month with the formal meetings at different locations and meeting socially on the alternating months at a fixed location, perhaps Club Timbuktu, to be planned by a different group or person each time for a presentation on a subject of interest and social discussion.
Interest Groups:
facilitated by Sharon Adams
- Policy interest group including developing policy, changing policy that influences food systems, advocacy, we have the ability to wear different hats either as an organization representative or as an individual in order to decide the scope of our advocacy.
- Garden Clubs: an interest group that needs to be defined
- Education: for youth, community, life long learning, hands on learning and classroom learning
- Jobs: creating “Green Collar” jobs in the city
- Urban and rural connection of farming and food
- Renewable Energy, environmental design and sustainability
Groups need to form and get to know one another.
Summer Programming Idea
proposed by Jan Christensen:
Those in the group doing farming work may want to think of ways to document our projects over the summer- taking a lot of digital photos, video etc. and collect them- also keeping a diary/journal of the farms and gardens- we can then capture that information and in the fall pull it together and create a snapshot of what went on in urban agriculture in the 2007 season. We can catalog it on the web- how much of what crops and other # type data. Jan will gather it through out summer and help collect data.
Announcements:
- Sally Callan shared the “Building Community to End Hunger: a Blueprint for the future of Food Security in Milwaukee” a prescient report written over 10 years ago, co-sponsored by Second Harvest and Hunger Task Force, that she and Will Allen were a part of and that advocated public education and urban agriculture as some of the remedies that we are today trying to implement. She will try to get more copies.
- Ron Doetch talked about his and Julilly’s meeting with Joel Brennan, head of RACM (Redevelopment Authority of Milwaukee) to start the discussion of the empty City lots and how urban agriculture can be a part of the City’s policy for their use—and how they should be held and what insurance coverage could be used. Ann Beier is researching how other cities are dealing with this issue and we will continue to work with this with City officials and the North East Planning group.
- The group from Urban Ecology Center announced the resumption and expansion of their garden plots along the Oakleaf Trail, and that there is already a waiting list of 24 people.
- People attended a legislative hearing today at UWM for Senate Bill 89 “Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin”
For the many Event Announcements please see the calendar on the new wiki site, www.MkeUrbanAg.org/Calendar
Adjournment 5:30 pm—and tours by Will Allen
