[ShareTompkins] Organizers' Meeting Notes

[Shira Golding]

Hey Folks,

A week ago a bunch of us met to talk about Share Tompkins' plans for  
the coming months. Ari was kind enough to take notes (see below). Stay  
tuned for a list of volunteer opportunities for the big swap on August  
29th:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=137490490026

Thanks to everyone who came to the meeting!

- Shira :)

Shira Golding
shiragolding at gmail.com
http://www.shirari.com

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share tompkins organizing meeting notes by ari
monday 8.10.09, 7-9pm
at shira and ari's place
shira facilitating
attending: kenzie and felix, travis, teresa, ari, greg n., shira

intros - who we are, what we've done w/ share tompkins, immediate  
needs and haves

shira gives an update of what's happened so far
- may 7th first meeting - 25 people, working groups
- swap meet group has been active
- original web group has kind of fizzled but the share tompkins site  
continues to evolve, ari is taking the lead
- good turnouts at past swap meets; we figured out to have free vs.  
bartering areas
- we've been doing outreach, postering around town
- we've been documenting what we're doing
- little blurbs in local papers, shira's getting up to speed on local  
press contacts, visibility seems to be pretty easy to get with some  
effort. greg might be able to get us press contacts, shira should  
email him.

discussion of how to improve swaps
- kenzie would like to see an alternative to taking home stuff we  
don't want. people maybe would like to donate or otherwise get rid of  
stuff at end. maybe some volunteers could take a load of stuff over to  
a charity shop. certain things won't get taken and will show up again  
and again, would be good to get it out of the cycle eventually.
- greg likes the photos - if you miss it, you'll see photos and they  
help you see positive stuff. the free/swap tarp with its labels helped  
people to learn about this useful tip, and helped them see what the  
swaps are like. teresa: good way to get new folks up to speed, group  
learning
- travis - maybe we could figure out someone at beginning of swap to  
volunteer to take a load to donate, announced at beginning
- shira - case by case basis, important to list intention, she has  
issues with some charity shops' politics; maybe we can have a place to  
donate that avoids that
- kenzie - if there's swapping that's harder, but if it's more of a  
free-for-all, we could organize by category, making things easier to  
find and easier to donate afterward to specific places (mama goose  
etc.). could be a subgroup in charge of this.

shira explains sustainable tompkins grant, letters of support from  
community (from teresa, jamie, matt)
- kenzie and travis and greg can all look at the grant proposal and  
give feedback
- shira's asking them for hard drive money, banner printing money
- ari thinks we should get road sign to point to parking, greg says we  
should save money to store stuff or rent space - a "sharehouse"!!!  
(we're all impressed with this phrase.)
- shira explains next swap's location at cynthia's warehouse. live  
music w/ PA system from the folks who run the poetry group, and ithaca  
underground might curate the music. also room for free area, share  
area, tabling. have / want boards w/ name and contact info.
- do we all want to talk about the swap meet, or should we table it?  
we all want to talk about it.

travis updates us on another swap coming up in october - we're running  
the swap meet at the bioneers sustainability conference in ithaca.  
we're a satellite city, people are coming for conference up at IC, but  
on sunday the 18th there's a fair thing on the commons, and they  
invited us to run a swap meet there. conference participants and  
public can all come. high-profile location, good time
- shira points out that rent money would be good but so far we've had  
spaces donated or paid for, which is good too
- shira points out we can hopefully get press for this

shira explains another upcoming swap planned for frank's place in  
lansing, good to branch out from downtown ithaca, but challenging.  
phone tree in lansing? carpool? kenzie says a rideshare board or other  
have/want area on site would be useful. greg has wondered if white  
hawk is too far out; ari says do it, it would be cool for folks to  
check out white hawk!

things we might need to provide / do at this big swap:
- make photocopies
- put fliers up around town - kenzie can put up fliers at cornell
- collect tarps, tables, canopy tent(s)
- childcare or a fun area for kids
- press connections
- press releases - already have a volunteer
- outreach strategy - how do we reach out to new folks?
- volunteers to hang out at the event to help people get how each area  
works
- day-of traffic direction volunteers
- music - hopefully ithaca underground, but we need people to play and  
help organize
- outreach - online - shira has done some but can use help. kenzie can  
help, maybe send something to cornell chronicle
- welcome table - ari volunteers to run it

greg would dig having a website up there so people can enter stuff  
right there, search for stuff. kenzie says search function would be  
good. greg says it would be cool to type up something people write.

ari explains that we could make our own thing, but maybe instead we  
can research existing networks, and promote them so people can join  
and make them even more useful. teresa agrees this sounds like a good  
idea, since share tompkins already acts like a clearinghouse. shira  
says we could integrate another site's search results into our site,  
make it a gateway to send people to whatever other network(s) are useful

shira says directory could be fleshed out, more stuff could be added,  
teams could add a lot more knowledge / reviews up there, do research

shira explains that our site could have more first-person sharing  
stories to give people ideas. kenzie is figuring out ways to share  
using the network, knows that people in the network are more willing  
to go that extra step - shira says she should write about this on the  
site.

greg wants to make sure we have a real-world function and face,  
shouldn't become too dependent on technology. others agree, some  
sustainability groups don't have a face. shira says swaps help, are  
very personal.

shira: how can we make sure this stuff gets done? greg - send periodic  
updates to the list with specific jobs that people could do. kenzie  
says a google chat or the email list are good ways to get people  
engaged. shira says she'll write up a list of tasks, can send it out  
to mailing list. ari says maybe people can list multiple things they  
would enjoy doing, so teams are easier to put together. teresa says  
people should say how long they can help for. kenzie says there should  
be a small group that gets together to make sure that everything gets  
done, plans and keeps things moving. greg says we could simplify and  
prioritize jobs so it's very easy and clear how much we can do given  
the number of volunteers.

shira asks travis if the farmer's market would be an okay place to go  
talk to vendors, encourage them to come do some swapping if they have  
leftover produce. kenzie can also ask a contact who goes to saturday  
market. shira wants to make sure we don't step on anyone's toes, if we  
put up a big sign, is that okay, and so on. kenzie says it's probably  
okay, saww composting workshop signs a while back.

greg points out we should avoid getting farmer's market parking  
happening at our event. clear signage.

shira points out some other issues that have come up, in the interests  
of transparency. greg - maybe we should decide how to handle possible  
conflicts between people in network. kenzie says it's important that  
we strive to connect people and not to foster divisions; maybe we need  
to express that we're a bridge in the community. teresa says we're in  
a small town, and as long as we're clear about how we make decisions  
and are generally open and peacemaking, we're probably okay.

teresa points out that the potluck might be perceived as too personal,  
exclusive, we should maybe skip that. greg points out this is  
competition w/ the farmer's market.

someone suggested we look into liability insurance, music permit?  
travis: ask city attorney. kenzie: music is probably okay, though if  
it's too noisy that's maybe something we should check in advance.  
kenzie says we could provide a blanket statement saying "we're not  
liable for problems caused by swaps or things swapped" - how should we  
say this? we can email list of questions to travis, and he can ask a  
city guy he knows. shira would want a lawyer to sign off on it, ensure  
it's legally enforceable. greg knows a guy too, if we need someone  
else to look. teresa says jeremy can also phrase stuff correctly, he  
was a legal assistant for a while.

greg wonders what share tompkins' take is on ithaca hours. greg says  
maybe we could provide a place where they can be used. we seem  
amenable to that. shira explains that she invited folks from ithaca  
hours etc. to planning meeting. ari says we could have partnerships w/  
other networks, give them more of a shout out, co-host swaps with  
them, they could help us w/ outreach. kenzie - ari could do a  
diagram / tree / web showing how share tompkins is part of web.

greg - we should have flier up online so people can print, could take  
photos of it up in their community too, greg and teresa have places  
they could put them up

shira says we should invite folks to table

teresa says we should have an info person wandering, she'd be willing  
to do it, give people info, help kids. kenzie - maybe we should have  
name tags or something so we're easy to find.

kenzie says we should be really positive and plan big, and then scale  
back if not many folks can volunteer.

greg is also into working on website stuff. we should forward our  
domain.