Green Neighborhood Council - GOC - Recently Updated Pages

Green Neighborhood Council - GOC

Food Group

Community Garden Workshop

Farm 2 School

Green Living Workshop Handouts

GLW Green Your Eating

July Food Minutes

Green Home Tour

July 15th Meeting

Green Events Calendar

Growing Up Green

GLW Getting Around Green

Database/Resource List - working draft

June Minutes

May 27th, 2008 Meeting

Meetings

May Meeting 2008

Green Living Workshop group

Green Living Workshop 2008 Schedule

May Food Minutes

Green Neighborhood Council - GOC - Recently Updated Pages

Green Neighborhood Council - GOC

Food Group

Community Garden Workshop

Farm 2 School

Green Living Workshop Handouts

GLW Green Your Eating

July Food Minutes

Green Home Tour

July 15th Meeting

Green Events Calendar

January 2008

February 2008

March 2008

April 2008

May 2008

June 2008

July 2008

August 2008

September 2008

October 2008

November 2008

December 2008

January 2008

February 2008

March 2008

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

1

2

3

4

5

6

trilety — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:43:51 CDT

The mission of the Green Neighborhood Council is to promote a sustainable way of life in our neighborhoods.

NEXT MEETING
Tuesday, July 22, 2008

6:00 pm

Neighborhood Center for Greater Omaha

Look what's NEW!!

- Green Living Workshop - Handouts

- Green Events Calendar

- GNC Strategic Plan

Project Committee meetings:

Energy Committee

Meeting:TBA

Location: Neighborhood Center for Greater Omaha, 115 S. 49th Ave.

Organizer: Pam Gourdrian pamgoudriaan@gmail.com

Green Living Workshop group
NOTE DATE CHANGE: Meeting: Tuesday, September 9th, 3:30pm

Location: Sierra Club office 5170 Leavenworth (north side of Leavenworth, just east of 52nd St)

Organizer: Cammy Watkins camellia.watkins@sierraclub.org

Green Home Tour Committee
Meeting: Tuesday, August 12th, 6pm
Location: Neighborhood Center
Contact: Tim Hemsath themsath@gmail.com

Food Choices Committee: Contact Trilety Wade for information, trilety@hotmail.com

Farm 2 School Program Committee: 10 November 2008 at 11:30 am

Location: Collaborative Center 115 S. 49th Avenue

Organizer: Trilety Wade

Community Garden Workshop Planning Committee: 13 November 2008 at 6:00 pm
Location: tentatively to be held at Collaborative Center 115 S. 49th Avenue
Organizer: Jody Baines

Waste Reduction and Recycling Survey

Meeting: TBA

Location: Firstar Fiber Facility 10330 "i" St (north side of "i" St just west of 103rd)

Organizer: Steve Andrews and Dale Gubbels dgubbels@firstarfiber.com

The Green Neighborhood Council is a Council of the Green Omaha Coalition. This Council is a resource to homeowners, neighborhood associations, and anyone interested in improving the longevity of our city's most important areas. The council works to develop homeowner workshops, environmentally friendly remodeling guidelines, and assits in neighborhood programs to enhance or redevelop areas in need.

The council's objectives are to develop lines of communication with area neighborhood associations and provide basic green living information to the residential sector the Greater Omaha area.

trilety — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:24:38 CDT

The Mission of the Food Choices Group is:

Encourage the production, preparation, & purchase of local food through hands-on workshops, education, and networking events.

Projects
1. Farm 2 School :
2. Community Garden Workshop Planning CommitteeHow to Start a Community Garden Workshop
3. Database Commitee - the Food Group is working on putting together a comprehensive list of local community gardens, farmers' markets, co-operatives, resources, etc. See the "Database/Resource List" document page

Please contact Trilety (trilety@hotmail.com) w/ questions or to become involved.

Minutes for the Food meetings are posted on pages "February Food Minutes" and "May Food Minutes" and "June Food Minutes" and "July Food Minutes"

trilety — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:21:40 CDT

Committee Organizer: Jody Baines

See below for Minutes from First Workshop Planning Meeting - 9.18.08
Attachment below titled Community Garden Workshop Meeting.pdf

trilety — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:19:21 CDT

Committee Organizer: Katja Koehler-Cole

See below for minutes from the First Farm 2 School Meeting - 9.15.08 - Attachment is titled F2Smtgminutes.pdf

trilety — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:25:26 CDT

Stormwater Management (January 2008):

Green Homes: Stormwater Management
Rain Barrels
Rain Gardens

Green Cleaning (February 2008):

Green Homes: Green Cleaning
How to Make your own Green Cleaners
"Good Clean Fun: How to Clean Your House without Hurting the Planet"

Green Lawncare (March 2008):

Green Homes: Green Your Lawncare

Green Your Trash (April 2008):
1. Workshop Handout - Alternatives to Disposables & Where to Find Them
Getting Around Green
Activate Omaha Bike Commuting 101
MetrO! Rideshare
Omaha Community Bike Shop
Omaha Biodeisel Co-op
MAT
Growing Up Green
1. Backyard Composting
2. Worm Composting
3. Resource List, Activities, Projects, Eco-activities around Omaha & on the Web
4. Book List
Green Your Eating
1. Options for Buying Local Food
2. Seasonal Eating Chart
3. Short term Storage Chart
4. Long Term Storage Chart
5. Local Food Recipes
6. Preservation Information
7. Local Foodies Book List
8. How to Create an Instant Garden
9. Succession Planting

trilety — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:23:36 CDT

Please find the following handouts - distributed on 26 July 2008 at the Green Your Eating workshop at Village Pointe Farmers' Market
[All handouts are included as Attachments at the bottom of this page]

1. Options for Buying Local Food
2. Seasonal Chart - find out what's in season when in the Omaha area
3. Short term Storage Chart - How long can you keep kale? Find out w/ this chart
4. Long term Storage Chart - From canning to drying to jamming - find out the best way to preserve your produce
5. Local Recipes - 12 recipes featuring local produce from local foodies
6. Preservation - Find out how to find out more about the art of preserving food
7. Creating an Instant Garden Bed - High Altitude Permaculture handout
8. Local Foodies' Book List - 37 books for your local food library
9. Succession Planting - Learn how to extend your growing season

trilety — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:41:45 CDT

Food Choices Committee Meeting Minutes
14 July 2008
Neighborhood Center, 115 S. 49th Avenue

Mission of Food Choices Committee:
Encourage the production, preparation, and purchase
of local food through hands-on workshops, education,
and networking events.

Attendees: Alaina Hickman (Nebraska Vegetarian Society), Jody Baines (Flatwater Chapter USGBC), Vince Furlong (Omaha Main Streets), Mary Green (Sierra Club), Jay Leighter (Creighton University), Daniel Lawse (Neighborhood Center & GNC), Kathy Townsend (Permaculture student/teacher), Helen Deffenbacher (Green Neighborhood Council), Annette Artherton (Omaha Economic Development Center), Trilety Wade (GNC/NE Food Co-op)

Priority Items: Items on Agenda not numbered – prioritization of topics can be decided during the meeting – prevents one person from deciding importance/priority of items

Omaha Public Library:
• Based on Brian Smith’s idea, Wade will be meeting with Rivkah Sass (Director of Omaha Public Library) to discuss partnering with OPL on their Omaha Reads program, ie promote/suggest food-focused books like “Omnivore’s Dilemma,” “In Defense of Food,” and/or “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”

• Wade will update Committee after meeting w/ Sass/Smith

Monthly Green Living Workshop – Hosted by Food Choices Committee (Townsend Update)

• Summary of Workshop
o Green Your Eating Workshop - 26 July 2008 at Village Pointe Farmers’ Market
o Townsend and Green scoped out site - booth/workshop is in traffic pattern of market
o Workshop begins at 10 am w/ 45 minutes devoted to importance of buying, storing, preparing, and producing local food
o Local Food - complex and multi-faceted topic
o 10:45 Michael Braunstein (organizer/founder VPFM) speak to participants about the history of the market and specific stories of a couple of farmers
o Braunstein has 15 cloth bags to give away to participants – will be raffled off if more than 15 folks attend
o 11am – participants go to Metro Culinary Institute booth to view a public cooking demonstration by Brian O’Malley, et al

• Volunteer Needs
o Booth will need to be hosted from 8am to 10am and noon to 1pm (workshop runs from 10am to noon)
o Chairs, table, canopy will be collected at Wade’s
o If you have chairs for use contact Wade at trilety@hotmail.com
o Hickman – out of town but can help w/ preparation – ie handouts
o Baines to help volunteer from 8am to 9:30
o Leighter available to volunteer that morning
o Lawse – via Neighborhood Center – can print out handouts and staple – for reimbursement from GOC
o Need a Volunteer to direct participants to the booth – ie hold a “green your eating workshop” sign
o Decided raffle would be conducted after Braunstein and before cooking demo

• Group Education & Networking
o To keep Committee members “in the know” and provide networking opportunities - various organizations/groups with similar or complimentary missions will be invited to present/discuss their organizations at the beginning of monthly Food meetings
o Proposed – 3 groups invited to each monthly meeting to present for 10 minutes each – then GNC Food Group can present to visiting groups – remaining 30 to 60 minutes dedicated to Food Choices Committee business –
o Send contacts/names of potential organizations/groups to be invited to upcoming monthly food meetings – please send to trilety@hotmail.com

• October Workshop
o June meeting – it was decided October workshop would focus on preservation, canning, etc
o Feedback had been received that Aug/Sept is a better time for a preservation wkshp
o Green – preservation, ie apple butters, etc can easily be done in fall
o Townsend – workshop should be done early enough to allow participants time after to purchase materials, give it a couple tries, etc
o Lawse – thinks BIG Garden project also doing hands-on workshops – GNC could provide volunteer support and promotional support – Lawse to confirm w/ Mews about workshop
o In the case BIG is doing a preservation workshop – GNC can partner in that effort
o In the case BIG is not doing a preservation workshop – then GNC/Foods will host a preservation workshop – schedule for September
• Importance of and reasons for preserving – theory/concept
• How to make apple butter or salsa – or one activity – hands/on
• Possible locations – extension, Healing Arts Center, First Unitarian Church

• Workshop Topics & Forming a Committee
o Following workshop topics were offered at the June meeting, via email, and during today’s meeting:
• Local Food 101
• Annual Food Summit – bring together local groups, councils, representatives
• Starting & Saving Seeds
• Preservation, lactofermentation, canning
• How to start a community garden
• Permaculture
• Healthy vegetarian eating – Hickman can suggest speakers
• CSAs – how to join as a member & how to start a CSA
• Omaha land-use policy regarding local food, gardens, etc
• Food policy – Community Food Systems
• How to host a local Thanksgiving or Local Christmas
• Education in micro-enterprises and getting products in local convenience stores, business enterprise opportunities
• Producing/preparing products for sale/distribution
• Bring kids to the farm – see that food doesn’t come from stores

o All in attendance indicated interest in supporting efforts of workshops
o Artherton – most effective to end up with a workshop committee of only 2 or 3 people
o Email additional topics or priorities to trilety@hotmail.com

• Potential Partnerships for Workshops/Programs

o Club Possible – (collaborative effort among Visiting Nurses Association, Operation Frontline, Activate Omaha Kids) volunteer chefs teach low-income and at-risk youth how to prepare healthy meals – Food Choices could educate kids and chefs on importance of local food
• No action – Could be invited to one of the monthly meetings

o Activate Omaha Kids – Some of the projects AOK is promoting: 1) Conducting neighborhood audits it identify assets and barriers to physical activity and healthy eating, 2) Expand Club Possible, 3) Support policies to improve access to fruits and vegetables, and 4) Develop neighborhood projects to enhance physical activity and healthy foods –
• No action – Could be invited to one of the monthly meetings

• Next Meeting
o Next Monthly Meeting of the Food Choices Committee scheduled for Monday 18 August 2008 @ 11:30 am

o Location: TBD – May be held at Omaha Economic Development Center (24th & Lake) if OEDC wishes to be one of the invited guest presenters

o Location – if OEDC cannot present, meeting may be held at Neighborhood Center

Meeting Adjourned at 12:40 pm

themsath — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:56:50 CDT

Green Neighborhood Council

Green Home Tour
Food . Water . Waste . Energy . Transportation
for Neighborhood Sustainability

Meeting Minutes

July 15th, 2008

May 27th, 2008

May 5th, 2008

March 24, 2008

February 11, 2008

Green Home Tour
Planning Meeting Minutes
NEXT MEETING: August 12th, 6pm @ Neighborhood Center

Volunteer Orientation
August 23rd, 2pm at the Neighborhood Center, contact Cammy Watkins if you are interested in volunteering

Committee: Megan Leggit (City Sprouts), Daniel Lawse (Neighborhood Center), Trilety Wade (GNC), Tim Hemsath (Flatwater), Clayton Miller (Flatwater), Teresa Gleason (Omaha by Design), Cynthia Shuck (Gifford Park NA/ReTree Ambassador), Cammy Watkins (Sierra Club), Jack Phillips

themsath — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:55:54 CDT

Green Home Tour Planning Meeting. Tuesday, July 15, 6 PM at the Neighborhood Center, 114 S. 49th Ave.

1 Media: KOIS $200 spot and possible interview week of. Tim/Daniel and Teresa to write spot.
we should have our marketing strategy pretty much ironed out
by the end of this meeting.

Daniel and Teresa have list to distribute final flyer.

2 Sponorships: Thanks Daniel for all the MUD/OPPD items.
MUD - Free giveaways for Material and water home. Bags, water meters and water bottles. Daniel
OPPD - 100 CFLs for Energy House. Daniel
FOOD HOME FREE GIVEAWAY. Daniel has seeds?
ACE - Cammy to look at getting items on "shopping" list at discounted price
Home Energy Defense, $200 cash donation + home energy audit prize for Energy House. Daniel
Straws Stick and Bricks $100 gift card for Material house. Tim
Mulhalls donated rain barrel for Water House. Trilety
COOP members for FOOD House. Trilety

3 Graphics: final flyer completed by July 22nd.
All graphics done by next meeting for review.
Shopping list to be on back of each home flyer for hand-out

4 Volunteer Update: Cammy - Aug. 23rd volunteer orientation at neighborhood center, 2pm. Home Hosts to coordinate times of their home orientations and let cammy know. Cynthia has own volunteers for community garden and will contact the bike shop to make sure they are up to speed on this event.
All volunteers email Cammy.

5 Home updates: scripts, lists, final items
Jack Phillips Tree Tour - strike Jack from flyer and Tim to ask NSA Justin Evertson to conduct tour. Tim has list of tree on google map.
Each home to have individual flyers, explaining in more detail item in the home. Tickets provided (500) total and hand stamp at each home administered by home host with $5 fee. Kids under 12yrs old are free.
Tim needs to get cards done for homes, list of items, garden stands for plant labels. Graphic format for promotional materials completed.

6 Next steps:
finalize all graphic materials by Aug. 1st,
Promote and advertise event locally.

Thanks to everyone for their efforts and hard work.

megreen4 — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:28:19 CDT

Please Add your events to the calendar. This is a resource for all groups to use to advertise their "Green" events!

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14 Valentine's Day	15	16
17 First Unitarian Church of Omaha Interfaith Forum Series: Reconnecting with & Changing our Rural Landscapes 1pm First Unitarian Church 3114 Harney St	18	19	20	21	22	23 Green Living Workshop: Green Your Cleaning 10am 1013 Leavenworth St
24	25	26 USGBC LEED Panel Series: LEED for Homes 11am -1pm Scott Conference Ctr 6450 Pine St	27	28 Sierra Club Program: An Intro to National Outings 7pm First United Methodist Church 69th & Cass	29 Restore Omaha 2008 Reception For info: www. restoreomaha.com

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
						1 Restore Omaha 2008 Conference For info: www. restoreomaha.com
2 Restore Omaha 2008 Tours For info: www. restoreomaha.com	3	4	5	6	7	New Horizons Food Buying Club: Discounted organic groceries. 9-11 a.m.Corrigan Center, X Street at 39th. More info at eatorganicomaha.org Or, call Norma at 292-3036 8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15 St. Patrick's Day
16	17	18	19	20	21	22 Green Living Workshop: Green Your Lawncare - 10am Neighborhood Center 115 S. 49th Ave.
23	24	25	26	27 "ReTree Omaha: Creating a Sustainable Urban Canopy" Sierra Club Program 7 p.m. First United Methodist Church, 69th & Cass	28	29
30	31

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28 Sierra Club Program: Nature Walk at Allwine Prairie 7 p.m. 14810 State Street FREE More Info at 556-1830	29	30
31

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11 Veteran's Day	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27 Thanksgiving Day	28	29
30

trilety — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:20:51 CDT

See below for postings of the handouts distributed at the 12 July 2008 Growing Up Green Workshop.

Attachments at the bottom of the page include:
1. "worm brochure.pdf" - Worm Composting pamphlet
2. "backyard.pdf" - Backyard Composing pamphlet
3. "Growing up Green Handout.pdf" - List of local and web resources and projects and activities to help raise green kids
4. "Green Kids Booklist.pdf" - List of Green-focused Books for young and old readers

livegreen — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:28:37 CDT

MAT Omaha - get schedules, rates, routes, etc
MetrO! Rideshare
Omaha Biodiesel Co-op
Community Bicycle Shop Omaha
Activate Omaha's Bike Commuting 101 Guide and New Bike Map

trilety — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:49:18 CDT

See Attachment at bottom of page - "food database notes.pdf" for working draft of Resource/Database list including: 1) local farmers' markets, community gardens, etc, 2) local organizations/resources w/ activities similar/complimentary to Food Choices group, and 3) web resources for local food initiatives, etc

trilety — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:43:56 CDT

Food Choices Committee Meeting
09 June 2008, 5:30 to 6:45pm at Trilety Wade’s house

Attendees: Kathy Townsend, Kristin Czerminger, Darrel Czerminger, Alaina Hickman, Mary Green, Brian Smith, Trilety Wade

Partnering Discussion:

The Resource List (included w/ agenda email and posted on wetpaint site) provides information on local organizations conducting activities similar to/or complimentary to the Food Choices Committee.

Wade – partnering especially important if Food Choices Committee begins a long-term policy project, ie development of a Food Charter to be signed by various groups and submitted to City Council

Smith – need to be careful w/ promoting policy/legislation with 501c3 status

Wade – Green Omaha Coalition has a council specific to Policy – could work with them to facilitate focus

Smith – or promote policy change via networking/education, ie a Food Summit - bring public and organizations together for presentations and networking – invite Nebraska Restaurant Association, City Council, Co-op, NE Sustainable Agriculture Society, etc

Smith – Metro Food Net – local organization gathering excess prepared food and distributing to hungry, also have a nutrition education component

Wade – Omaha Food Bank initiated local Fresh Truck program – taken from model of the ice cream/ding ding man – the Fresh Truck distributes free fruits/veggies to local kids in Omaha. Goal is to reach 100 kids a day for three days a week.

Smith – check w/ Alegent Health/Activate Omaha Kids (Molly O’Dell) conducting a food shed project

* Smith – Work with Omaha Public Library to have one of the Omaha Reads books be a food-focused book, ie “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral” by Kingsolver or “In Defense of Food” by Pollan, etc

Project Discussion

What projects would support the mission of the Food Choices Committee and garner support from volunteers?

Hickman – workshops create interest and would educate

K. Czerminger – hosting workshops would also bring exposure to the group and bring more people to the possible Food Summit

Townsend – with all the interest in local food – what people don’t know how to do is grow their own – or why to grow their own – other groups aren’t addressing this issue

Green – make sure not to conflict with Green Living Workshops of Green Neighborhood Council

Discussion and Concurrence from group that Hosting Food Workshops will support the mission of the Food Choices Committee by providing education, networking, and hands-on workshop opportunities – all of which will encourage the purchase, preparation, and preservation of local food.

Hickman – Potential topics for workshops: buying local, how to start/maintain a community garden, How to preserve/store food ie canning/dehydration/lacto-fermentation, seed starting

Smith – Need to broaden focus to those “not in the know” with regards to food – those people that aren’t yet informed as to the why/how – cater to all audiences

Wade – Local Food 101, ie

K. Czerminger – Workshops need to educate as to the why – not just the how

Various expert presenters, as well as internal experts, will be invited to present at the workshops

Four workshops a year with an end of year/fall Food Summit

The Green Living Workshop – organized by the Food Choices Committee on 26 July 2008 – could be considered introductory workshop

October Food Choices Workshop – Food Storage/Preservation – specifics to be discussed at next Food Choices Meeting

Next Meeting
Monday, 14 July 2008 – at 11:30 am – location TBD – RSVP to Trilety Wade, trilety@hotmail.com

themsath — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:26:10 CDT

May 27th, 2008
Neighborhood Center
GREEN HOME TOUR
Planning Meeting Present: Trilety Wade (GNC), Tim Hemsath (Flatwater), Cammy Watkins, Shelagh Keleyhers, Rita Corell, Cynthia Shuck, Krissy Harbert.

NEXT, Green Streets Meetings @ 6pm – Neighborhood Center reserved
June 17th - graphic design draft due - sponsors identified

1. Identified next phase of planning, approved graphics, and established coordinators to divide and conquer!

Volunteer Coordinator: Cammy Watkins
- tentative volunteer meeting, August 27th afternoon. All house volunteers meet to get general training and then go to each house to review script and lean what is expected by each home owner.

Media Coordinator: Teresa Gleason
- lead contact and coordination of event dissemination and advertising. Working on developing a Media Sponsor for the event, in discussion with the Reader.

Sponsorship Coordinator:
- develop list of potential sponsors to contact after marketing package has been completed. DUE June 17th

Graphic Design: Krissy Harbert & Tim Hemsath
- combine graphical style with Fact Sheet and include logos for GOC approval and marketing package. DUE June 17th.

2. Reviewed homes, tour schedule/agenda, identified home tour site managers for each home.
Tim = Material House
Trilety = Water House
Daniel = Energy House
Cammy = Food House
Cythina = Transportation (Community Garden)

3. Identified free items and grand prize giveway for each home and the possible sponsors to solicit to provide items.

FREE Takeaway items:
One particular giveaway items at each house -
Sponsor House [Person Responsible]
HyVee MATERIAL - Canvas, or recycled plastic bags from [RITA]
Ace ENERGY – Free tube of caulk, foam outlet cover gasket thingy, little energy savor book [RITA/Daniel]
NSA FOOD –giveaway plant materials food producing plant seeds [TIM]
Briggs/Fergusons WATER – bathroom faucet aerator [Trilety]

BIG GIVEAWAY at each house:
Grand prize drawing - $100 limit - four larger prizes, separate have baskets at each house.
Sierra Club ENERGY – GRAB bag of energy improvement items (sealant, light bulbs, DIY items and book) [RITA w/ daniels help]
Straws/Sticks/Bricks MATERIALS –$100 gift card from Straw Sticks and Bricks (lincoln green materials store, Jen Carlson owner) [tim]
Mulhulls WATER – Rain Barrel [RITA]
Coop FOOD – Coop membership [Trilety]

4. Transportation

Trees for walking tour:
Human benefits:

*
Homes with maintained landscapes have property values 5 - 20 percent higher than non-landscaped homes, base on number, size and quality of trees in the landscape.
*
Tree canopiesshade to homes reducing heating and cooling costs by up to 25 percent.
*
Tree canopy shade increases the lifespan of roads and other hard infrastructure.
*
Trees beautify communities, making them more livable, more marketable, and moreprofitable to businesses.
*
Treesbring nature to town and provide homes for a variety of birds and other wildlife.
*
Trees inurban areaslikeGifford Park reduce crime rates and noise.
*
Views of naturecan help hospital patients recover faster and with fewer pain medication.
*
Interaction with nature and landscaped viewscanincrease concentration among children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and improve self-esteem in pre-teen girls.

Environmental Benefits:

*
Tree Roots help stabilize the soil and filter polluted surface runoff
*
This prevents soil and contaminates from entering our waterways.
*
Trees clean our air by absorbingpollutants and greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, and releasing oxygen back into the atmosphere.

5. Review

EVENT Date: September 6th,
Following Bank of the West - Neighborhood Summit in Omaha

Green Home Tours – 4 homes.
1-5pm on a Saturday. Ticket fee $5
GNC organized mission
Food – Water – Energy – Materials & Resources - Transportation

FOOD – John Pollock, 1412 N 35th St.
Edible garden tour w/ free samples.
[cammy, address, tour items, seed exchange]
Coop Membership giveaway [TRILEY]
Cammy Update:

ENERGY – Daniel Lawse – 350 N. 36TH Ave
Energy Items List, From here go on Green walking tour –
[RITA GIVEaway]

WATER – Trilety Wade – 5073 Jackson Ave
Inside and outside the house, water conservation, rain garden, rain barrel, aerators, toilet/sink. Make your own rain barrel list.
[RITA – Making Rainbarrel]

MATERIALS/RESOURCES– 1018 South 36th Street
Field Club Green Renovation
Architect: Eddy Santamaria
Contractor: Joel Holm
Landscape: Allen Jones
Painter/Owner: Eddith Buis

TRANSPORTATION - 33rd and California
Bike shop and walking tour of Community Garden

EACH HOUSE MAKE “shopping” LIST

Sierra Club sponsor – Cammy Watkins to look into discount list and ACE as sponsor for items on home lists.

Green Lifestyle – economical was to be green, learning from your neighbor

VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR: Cammy Watkins
Need at least for volunteers per tour area for entire time period - 32 volunteers needed

GRAPHIC DESIGN AND MARKETING MATERIALS [Krissy Harbert w/ Tim Hemsath]
committee approved logo look and appearance. May 27th.
Need Yard Sign for each house to advertise house.
Need admission map for event

ADMISSION
$5 Charge gets admission to all house the Map is the Ticket for entrance into each house

NEXT, Green Streets Meetings @ 6pm – Neighborhood Center reserved
June 17th - graphic design draft due - sponsors identified
July 15th - volunteers identified - scripts and signage review
Aug 12th - media blitz - all materials printed and done

trilety — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:46:49 CDT

Click on the links below to access the archived meetings of the Green Neighborhood Council.

May 2008
March 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007

trilety — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:44:10 CDT

See Attachment below - GNC Minutes52108.pdf - for May 2008 Green Neighborhood Council Meeting Minutes

SierraClubOma — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:58:56 CDT

Green Living Workshop Mtg 5/06/08 3:30pm Minutes
Present: Trista, Trilety, Cammy, Daniel, Andy S., Alaina, Kara H., and Kathy T.

Update on Upcoming Workshops
Bus Workshop: We need the projector for the event. Cammy will bring SC projector. Daniel cannot make this workshop, so he will arrange for someone else to open the door for us and be there. Cammy will purchase 3-10 ride bus passes. Bike Co-op is donating 2 helmets and water bottles. Confirmed presenters are Clyde Anderson - 45 minutes, then Bike Co-op 5 min., and Greg with MAPA 5 min. Cammy as contacted Activate Omaha and MAT, but no one has confirmed if they will be coming. Cammy will contact Kurt Simon to follow up if he can come as the rep for MAT.

Growing Up Green Workshop: There will be 5 stations at the Children's Museum - Green Toys, Green Art, Green book storytelling, Composting, and Gardening
Alaina said they need trash for the Green Art. Items could be bottle tabs, foil, shredded paper, etc. Also they need small and medium sized yogurt containers or other air tight containers to hold the homemade play-dough. At each of the stations kids will be able to take their projects home. Alaina and Julie are working on getting as many items donated as possible. Andy said he would donate dirt for the gardening station.
Give away items are as follows:
Green Babies book by Lynda Fosse - Cammy will get
Diaper Service Certificate - Kara
Children's Green storybooks - Alaina will look into
Certificate to used children's Clothing store - ?
List of Items still needed for workshop:
Air tight containers such as yogurt containers with lids
Trash items such as can tabs, shredded paper and foil
Volunteer to work the Green Gardening station

Food Workshop: Food committee is meeting on May 7th so they will discuss this then. Kathy T. is incharge of this workshop. Daniel will be out of town during the deadline for the article for this workshop, so Cammy will send notice out to media folks. Daniel will send an email to Cammy of all people he mails to and also email them so they know to receive article from Cammy.

Recylcing Workshop: Will be held at Firstar Fiber. We need article by July 1st Daniel will ask Dale or Steve to write it. We do not have any specific giveaways. Cammy suggested we ask Firstar Fiber to donate some of the toilet paper they make for us to give away.

Green Homes Tour: There is a committee working this. Cammy is the volunteer coordinator, so perhaps the Workshops committee can offer volunteer support for this event.

Composting: Andy and Trista will work together on this workshop. Daniel mentioned that Fontenelle Forrest has offered their facility for workshops, so we will use their facility for the workshop. Alaina suggested that we display the different types of ways that people can compost. Trilety will email a list to Andy of contact info for people locally that are composting. Give away item: Vermicomposter

We decided to change around some of the workshops. The Solar Cooking workshop will be held in November, this could be timely with Thanksgiving coming up. So now the Energy workshop will be held in January. We will partner this workshop with a Sierra Club program about Peak Oil. Daniel will focus workshop on resource depletion and ways people can midigate this via their own lifestyle.

Daniel requested that we host a movie showing of the Power of Community during the Summer, Cammy will try to set that up.

The next meeting will be July 8th 3:30pm at the Sierra Club office

Previous Workshop Committee Minutes

Green Living Workshop Mtg 2/12/08 2:30pm Minutes

Present: Andy Szatko, Daniel Lawse, Trilety Wayde, Helen Deffenbaugh, Julie Wasser, and Cammy Watkins

Basic Info for the workshops

Meeting date – 4th Saturday of the Month
Location – Should we do roving? We can do in different areas, would be nice to have simultaneous workshops in different locations eventually. Daniel has identified 6 locations that we can have meetings at if we would like roving locations. There are valid reasons to move it around, but for consistency keep it at one location.

Andy suggested we have one main location, but move around to different locations for on site specific events. Neighborhood Center – can comfortably hold 75 people and has 2 parking lots one on 49th Ave and 49th St. We will use this as our main location

Time – Late Morning, Early afternoon meetings would work best. Schedule 10 – 12noon
Length of meetings – 1 hour-ish of presentation, with a component of interaction. 2 hour max program with 1 hour speaker presentation. We will have an exception that if there are longer workshops, but those longer programs will be stated as such

Decide how many workshops we will do - Not do a program in December. Plan on having 11 programs a year

Meeting Topics

Bus Workshop/Transportation - Invite someone from MAPA to talk about their new RideShare Program; Invite Bill Moore to speak, editor of EV World (Electric Vehicle); watch "Who Killed the Electric Car" with Bill Moore leading discussion afterwards (he's interviewed in the movie); Invite someone from MAPA to talk about bus system; Someone from a scooter dealership to talk about alternatives to full-size cars; NRD to talk about trails. Learn the who, what, when, and how of riding the MAT bus
Tour Firstar Fiber Recycling Facility with a presentation from Dale Gubbels or Steve Andrews, or someone they know.
Local Food/Eating Local - would be good as a workshop or more as a panel discussion or have it be combined with a cooking/prep/storage demo. Bring in a speaker from one or more of the following: Nebraska Food Coop; Omaha Farmer's Market; a local farmer; and/or Whole Foods. Some of these could lend to additional workshops.

Home Energy - Daniel would be happy to present myself or co-present with Jon Traudt/Leon Komar. Could invite Garry Ruliffson from OPPD as an outside expert.
Waste Reduction: Could watch "The Story of Stuff" to stimulate conversation. Talk about thinking in a new way--Cradle to Cradle
Composting /Vermi-Composting: I think there are several local experts in our group who could talk about this. One who already volunteered (kind of) was Mike Schonlau's wife on Saturday. Composting: getting started and the pitfalls - I think Alaina (who is on the committee) composts as I am sure do a lot of other members - extension could help as well – add in someone addressing the OmaGro compost fears and facts
Organic lawn care - I know Paul Gilligan already has this topic covered as he will be presenting at Heron Haven at the end of this month - we could have him double with another member as well
Solar cooking – How to do it and how to build a solar oven
Growing up Green – a workshop about how you can teach your children simple and fun ways to conserve

Make sure when advertise workshps, to identify workshops that are kid friendly, that parents can bring children to.

Identify speakers and months for chosen topics

Oraganic Lawn Care – March: Paul Gulligan and Extension office person
Waste Reduction – April: Trilety and Rick Yoder speakers
Transportation – May: Tara Ryan and Clyde Anderson
Eating Local – June
Tour of Firstar Fiber – July: Dale Gubbels
Growing up Green – August : Christine Jacobsen (?)
Green Homes tour – September (will encompass Community Garden)
Composting - October
Home Energy – November: Daniel
Solar Cooking – January 2009: Trilety

Separate Program Permaculture – May 31st – extended 3 hour workshop perhaps in the afternoon cost $800 (talk to Green Omaha Coalition about hosting this event) – Helen Deffenbaugh had information about program

Assign tasks

We want to make sure that programs have a practical application to everyday life. Provide a template of what we want out of each program give to each speaker. – Cammy will do

Book locations – Daniel check on dates for Neighborhood Center
Contact speakers: Cammy – Clyde & Tara - Transportation Rick Yoder – Waste Reduction
Article Deadline March 1st – need article to Daniel 300- 500 - Cammy see if Rick can write article
Design marketing plan – Daniel will put together all of the resources he contacts to advertise events

EVERYONE - Think of speakers for the open activities, think of offsite locations, and think of give-a-ways for each program Next meeting will be March 18th at 3:30pm at Sierra Club office

SierraClubOma — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:31:23 CDT

This is the tentative working schedule for the monthly Green Living Workshops in 2008. This is for the planning team. These are not finalized. Please refer to the Green Omaha Calendar for a confirmed topics (http://www.greenomahacoalition.org/index.cfm?Page=events)

Month

Day

Topic

Location

Confirmed

Author
Newsletter Article

Door Prize

Organ izer

Speaker 1

Speaker 2

Speaker 3

MAR

Lawncare

Neighborhood Center

YES

Trilety
DONE

1. Reel Mower
2. 20# bag organic fert.

Trilety

Paul and Melissa Gilligan

DCExt. Person

APR

Waste Reduction

Neighborhood Center

YES

Trilety
DONE

1. Scale
2Reusable Bag
3Handkerchiefs
4 Compost bucket

Trilety & Daniel

Trilety Wade

Rick Yoder

MAY

Transportation

Neighborhood Center

Clyde Andersen
DONE

1. 3- Bus Ticket 10-packs
2. Bike helmets and water bottles

Cammy

Clyde Andersen

MAT, MAPA

Amtrack,
Bike Co-op

JUNE

Growing Up Green

Children's Museum

Alaina Hickman
DONE

1. Diaper Service
2. Eco-kids book

Alaina & Julie

JULY

Local Food

Farmers Market

DUE June 1
Food Committee
NEED

1. Coop Membership
2. Local produce

Food Group/ Kathy

Brian Smith?

Farmers' Market person ?

NE Coop person

AUG

Recycling

Firstar Fiber

Cammy & Clayton Miller (Flatwater)

DUE July.1 Steve Andrews
NEED

Trash compactor for recyclables

Cammy

Dale Gubbels

SEPT

Green Home Tour

Various Homes and Neighborhoods

DUE Aug.1 ??
NEED

Tim Hemsath/Daniel
Lawse

OCT

Composting

Fontenelle Forest Nature Center. 1111 N. Bellevue Blvd., Bellevue

DUE Sept.1 ??
NEED

Outdoor composting unit or worm composter

Andy Szatko

Mary B., or Mike S., or Alanie (?)

Kara and Nick (?)

NOV

Solar Cooking

DUE Oct.1??
NEED

Trilety

DEC

None--Holiday

NONE

JAN

Energy/Resource Depletion

DUE Dec.1 Daniel
NEED

Daniel

trilety — Sun, 11 May 2008 20:40:50 CDT

Minutes: Food Choices Committee of the Green Neighborhood Council of GOC07 May 2008 – 11:30 am to 12:30 pm – City Sprouts Community House
Facilitator: Vince Furlong
Attendees: Brian Smith, Andy Jameton, Alaina (Andy) Hickman, Jacquie Case, Vince Furlong, Kathy Townsend, Nancy Williams, Katja Koehler-Cole, Mary Green, Pam Berry, Michael Braunstein, Monica Erickson, Trilety Wade

1. Welcome & Introductions
• Wade explained the Food Group is a committee of the Green Neighborhood Council – one of Five councils under the Green Omaha Coalition (GOC).
• Jameton serves as liaison to the GOC Board for both the Green Neighborhood Council and Food Group.

2. Announcements
• Brian Smith – Village Point Farmers’ Market operates every Saturday from 8 am to 1 pm. Producers market – you buy directly from growers. VPFM does not sell any crafts, decorative items, or baked goods – strictly produce, eggs, meat.
• Jameton – City Sprouts is hosting a weeding party this Saturday
• Lauritzen Botanical Gardens is hosting a plant sale May 16, 17, 18

3. Mission Statements
Explanation of Statements
• Five potential Mission Statements – based on prior meetings/discussions – were distributed to the Food Group email list. The Five Mission Statements were handed out at the meeting and read aloud:

1. Encourage the production, preparation, and purchase of local food through hands-on workshops, education, and networking events.

2. Educate individuals and institutions on importance of eating local.

3. Promote the production and purchase of local food through education and networking events.

4. Promote organization among producers and consumers.

5. Promote local food through cooking/preparation classes and networking between producers and consumers.

Results/Discussion via Email
• Some members, not able to attend, voted via email. Wade read (anonymously) opinions received via email regarding specific Mission Statements:

o Vote for Mission #2 via email - “with the rational that it lends itself to a broad base of support, is doable, and I think the goals would flow fairly clearly from it.”
o Vote for Mission #3 via email - “I think it pretty much sums up numbers 1 & 2 and it would benefit the GOC to appeal more to consumers than to try to organize producers because there can be no producers without a hefty supply of consumers.”
o Vote for Mission #1 via email - “from my perspective on all this, it’s broad enough to include everyone’s passions/interests/goals. And I would see it as something that would help begin to address the food desert issues in North Omaha.”

Mission Statement Discussion Among Group
• Furlong – Does anyone “champion” a particular mission statement? – not a vote – just advocating to spur discussion
• Jameton –Mission Statements need tweaking - like a food menu, ie Menu A = “what to promote as a group” and Menu B = “how to promote it as a group”
• Green, Townsend, and Cole champion #1
• No champions for #2
• No champions for #2
• Jameton – in regards to #4 – could simply be stated as “promote & produce”
• No champions for #5
• Williams - #1 may address the glaring holes of “education” and “economic development”

Voting
Members in attendance circled Mission Statement of choice on their voting ballots.

Voting Results
Including the votes received via email – voting results are:
Mission Statement #1 = 12 votes
Mission Statement #3 = 4 votes
Mission Statement #2 = 2 votes
Mission Statements #4 & 5 = 0 votes

Mission Statement Chosen by Consensus: Encourage the production, preparation, and purchase of local food through hands-on workshops, education, and networking events.

• Jameton asked - “wordsmithing” of Mission Statement #1 be sent to Wade
• Wade - concerned any “wordsmithing” of the Voted-on statement could cause a false start w/ the projects/momentum of the group
• Jameton - against emphasizing shoppers/purchasing as an objective – wants to drop the word “purchase” from the Mission Statement
• Hickman - local producers can’t succeed w/out support of consumers
• Hickman and Jameton - words “organic” and “healthy”, respectively, were not included in any of the Mission Statements
• Group - those words important

 TASK: Email any clarifiers for the Mission, ie organic, sustainable, etc to Wade for distribution. Only to clarify – not to alter intent

4. Green Living Workshop – Co-organized by Food Group
Intro/Explanation
Wade & Townsend - background on Green Neighborhood Council’s Monthly Green Living Workshops – held 4th Saturday of every month – practical workshops to promote green lifestyles – July workshop organized/hosted by Food Group @ Village Point Farmers’ Market
Workshop Committee, Tasks etc
• Townsend – organizers of each workshop write an article about the workshop topic – this article is distributed to a variety of newsletters (Flatwater Chapter of USGBC, Midtown Monitor, Neighborhood Newsletters, Omaha by Design, etc).
• Article - due 27 May and can be a collaborative effort among the organizers.
• Townsend sent around a sign-up sheet for those members interested in helping to organize the July 26 Green Living Workshop – 5+ people signed-up

Discussion
• Jameton - “how to grow food for market,” or “how to start a community garden”
• Smith – Co-organizer of Market –great date to host a workshop because Brian O’Malley (Metropolitan Community College) and his culinary students will also be hosting a food prep/demonstration – using only foods purchased at the Market
• Discussion about audience – a mix among shoppers and growers – emphasis on shoppers likely at the market
• Smith – workshop could show people how to “adapt their shopping”
• Green – show shoppers “how to prepare”
• Cole – teach people “what is local? 100 miles? Etc.”
• Townsend – focus of workshop could be three-fold “how to buy,” “how to grow,” “how to prep”

Workshop – Planning
Townsend/Wade will schedule a Workshop Planning meeting

5. Database Update
• Wade – Green Omaha Coalition has a Database Committee – the Food Group can compile a database of community gardens, markets, organizations, etc to provide to Database Committee.
• Wade – Lawse (co-chair of Green Neighborhood Council) hopes to eventually have the database in a interactive/google map format as well
• The Database project – not necessarily a committee project – but an established project that will 1) be updated on an annual basis and 2) distributed to those in need of said information
Vince asked for discussion on the need for a database
• Databases already exist – ie localharvest.org, Buy Fresh Buy Local, USDA, UNL, Douglas County Health Dept, etc
• Williams/Wade – helpful to consolidate all this information into one place – so people can go to one place to find gardens etc
• Berry – at local level this will help people network and learn from each other

TASK: All members are being asked to send to Wade (trilety@hotmail.com) a list of gardens, markets, organizations, databases – after the initial round of information-gathering – the draft spreadsheet will be sent out to various members to fill in any gaps

6. Monthly Meetings
• Food group to meet on a monthly basis – vacillate between evening and lunch-time meeting times – Wednesday evenings are not feasible for most attendees
• June meeting will be an evening meeting. June meeting will not be held at City Sprouts house due to space limitations – Wade will look into availability of Neighborhood Center or another venue
• Wade will send out next meeting date

7. Executive Committee/Leadership – (New Item)
• Jameton - due to size of Group, leadership should be in the form of an Executive Committee. Due to Jameton’s position as Board liaison, he said he can’t serve on Executive Committee
• Wade - an Executive Committee is preferable - one leader not effective or creative.
• No interest was initially shown at meeting by members to serve but Wade will put out a formal request to the Food Group – may be best to have the Executive Committee comprised of people with varied interests – ie production, preparation, purchase, networking, education etc

8. Permaculture Update
• Townsend attended a Permaculture Workshop in Boulder – permaculture - term coined by Bill Mollison – meaning permanent culture – how to create a permanent culture via stewardship, land care, ag, etc – not just peak oil, but peak soil and peak water
• Much interest in permaculture – Group consensus - great workshop to be hosted by the Food Group – Townsend said the workshop coordinators, Bill Mollison, etc – could be sponsored to come to Omaha - need funding

9. What’s Your Focus?
Townsend – whose main focus/passion is permaculture and production – asked “what’s your one main focus/passion w/ local food?” - Answers below can be used to drive projects of the Food Group

• Furlong – Interaction on the Streets – People creating, eating, purchasing, food in public spaces
• Case – agrees w/ Furlong – also working on brining community together in vacant spaces to produce local food
• Hickman – backyard gardening and composting
• Berry – education on how to garden
• Williams – education and economic development
• Green – emphasis on growing local
• Jameton – block-based gardening
• Cole – garden in every yard
• Smith – develop a strategy – food group as facilitator – speakers bureau
• Erickson – block by block gardening – promotes community and discussion
• Braunstein – nexialize – incorporate groups – don’t reinvent the wheel – work w/ others

10. Adjourn - Furlong adjourned the meeting at 12:33 pm

1

New Year's Day

21
Martin Luther King Jr. Day