by Catherine Haug
The meal
A small but loyal group met Wednesday evening for a pot luck dinner and discussion. I didn’t take notes on all the different food offerings, but here’s what I remember – quite a feast!:
Lentil soup, tossed salad, fresh apple slices and caramel-nut dipping sauce, pickled beets and eggs, bear sausage on crackers, with various homemade pickles, lemon and carrot salad, eggplant parmigiana, homemade pumpernickel and white breads, banana bread, and applesauce cake.
Discussion
After dinner, Sally introduced the discussion topics: How are we doing, are we reaching the goals of our Mission?, and How can we reach people who would be interested?
The latter question evoked the most discussion:
- networking – telling friends and acquaintances about our events & activities
- notices through the media (such as we are already doing)
- participate in other public events, as we did with the cider press at Tamarack
- be interviewed by radio (and other media) people; or set up a radio program; or start a radio station. Someone joked that KGEZ might be available….
- posters (short and brief) that list a few months’ worth of upcoming events
- notices in Mountain Trader
- notices at churches
- phone trees to announce events and encourage attendance
- solicit individual members’ interests and skills via our website or phone calls
- through scouts
- participate in one of the enrichment clusters at school (later in the year), by doing one of our presentations at the school
The idea of participating in future public events drew more conversation. The next major events are associated with the Christmas holiday: decorating the village, art walk, Christmas parade, Santa Claus. How can we have a presence? The following suggestions were noted:
- Demonstrating a solar panel to power LED lights on one building;
- Be in the Christmas parade;
- Set up an old-fashioned ornament table where kids can make ornaments from found items such as pine cones.
The last suggestion brought the most interest. The ESP Core Team will discuss this further at our next meeting.
In a subsequent conversation, Sally suggests that the core team might discuss what response we desire from our various potential audiences. This would help us identify what we need to do to get the desired results.
Share your ideas
If you have ideas for this or other possibilities, send an email to cat(at)essentialstuff.org [email disguised for security].