Minutes from our general meetings (held every 4 or 6 weeks) will now be available here on the website.

Sustainable Maleny Meeting
Old School Building, Witta, 16/8/08, 10.30am
Attendance: 40

Mark - welcome & intro for new visitors.

Shivanii - report from the 'Going Local' conference held at the end of May attended by Barry & Shivanii with help from an anonymous sponsor (thank you whoever you are). Shivanii's notes from the conference will be available shortly here on the website. We have available copies of the Transition Towns Handbook (by Rob Hopkins) for sale at a reduced price.

John Muir - presentation on a new networking initiative (Small Farmers' Enterprise Network) to help local food producers, retailers, certifiers etc. better cooperate and market their products. An outline of this proposal will be available on the website shortly.

Robyn - reported on the group's fundraising activities and encouraged membership to support our projects. SM currently has an application in for funds for the community garden from the Maleny Credit Union Community Trust as well as an entry in the Channel 10/Telstra monthly environmental awards for the solar hot water drive we completed last year. There are also other grant applications in the pipeline.

Michael CK - Treasurer's report. We have a couple of thousand dollars in the bank due to a generous donation by A. Nony Mous. Our membership is up to about 35 single/families and we have over $400 in the IGA Community Chest. Membership forms and IGA CC forms are available if you'd like to support us.

Michael Towsey - reported on recent developments at Bridge Creek Gardens. Signs have been made and directions to the garden will be made more explicit. The garden is open every Saturday and everybody is welcome.

Steve Swayne - updated the electric wheels news.

Steve Swayne - updated the lates news on what's happening on the Precinct land. It's in council's hands & decisions should be made in the next few weeks.

Mark - PV bulk buy update. We've decided to source components & do the installations ourselves. Those interested will be contacted shortly to determine if they want to start the pre-approval application process for the rebate. You have 9 months to complete the installation from the time the rebate is granted. Final costs are still to be determined due to the variability of panel prices & availability.

Upcoming events - SM will be working with Morag & Evan from Seed International to run workshops focussing on turning Maleny into a Transition Town (dates to be decided).
A film & forum night is being organised for October 17. We'll be showing 'Australia Pumping Empty' with a forum afterwards to discuss local solutions to peak oil.
Paul Williamson asked if there was any interest in holding a sustainable building workshop with Trevor Berrill (a Brisbane sustainable building & energy consultant) at Crystal Waters in late October.

Meeting times - how do people feel about having the SM meetings at 10.30am on a market morning? Would 9.30am be better? To be decided.
We would like to continue having our general meetings to coincide with the growers' market so will see how that pans out.
Meeting finished 12.15pm

Next meeting September 20.

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Sustainable Maleny Meeting
Hinterland Learning Centre, Maleny, 28/6/08, 10am
Attendance: 40

Barry - welcome & outline of agenda.

Steve Swayne - presentation/slideshow on the Electric Wheels project. An in-depth look at what electric powered/assisted bikes/scooters are available at the moment, what the current regulations are regarding licensing and registration of these different vehicles, what would actually work around Maleny and pricing information. This presentation is now online at the Electric Wheels Google Groups page.

Mark G. - solar PV bulk buy update. SM are looking at two possible models to follow which were briefly looked at. Over 70 expressions of interest had been received so far from the local community. An FAQ page has now been posted on the website and all interested people are advised to check there first for information on this project.

Brian Germein - Bridge Creek gardens update. Our chief gardener Gary is away for 6 months so please come along for an hour or two to help in the garden on Saturdays as numbers are a bit low at this time. Liz informed us that we had a generous donation of $500 from Green Harvest which will go towards an irrigation system for the garden.

Barry - Morag & Evan from Seed International have said they'd like to work with us in presenting a Transition Town Maleny workshop, following on from Robina McCurdy's workshop earlier this month. We'll look at organising this soon.

- the Transition Town Handbook from Rob Hopkins will be available soon, we plan on buying 10 of them at a reduced price if anybody is interested in having one.

- re-skilling workshops are in the pipeline again. If anybody has a practical skill they'd like to teach others or maybe something they'd like to learn then let us know.

- movies. 'Australia Pumping Empty' (peak oil from a SE Qld perspective) will be available soon so we'll look at showing that some time. Maybe we can have a mini film festival showing other films as well or we could make an event of it by having a speaker present able to facilitate a debate after the screening.

- meeting attendees were asked how they heard about the meeting today (most from the mailing list or word of mouth).

Marcelle Holdaway then presented 'Making a Difference - Measuring the Difference' looking at the triple bottom line framework used in businesses and how that can help organisations be sustainable, foster social justice and economic and social progress.

Meeting finished 12 noon.
Next meeting at the Growers' Market at Witta, August 16.

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Sustainable Maleny Meeting
RSL Hall, Maleny, 10/5/08, 2pm
Attendance: 26

Barry - welcome & intro to SM, outline of meeting agenda. Notification of upcoming events.

Community Sustainability Forum at Cleveland, May 17 (maybe a model for SM organising something similar in Maleny – any volunteers to help with this?)
Going Local relocalisation convergence, May 24-25, Brisbane
Enterprising Communities with Judy Wicks, May 20, Brisbane
Changing the Dream, May 24, Noosa
World Environment Day, May 31, Sunshine Coast Uni (Barry will be taking part in the Transition Towns display)
Traditional food preparation at Flaxton, May 18

SM could have a presence at events if we had volunteers to organise and staff a stall e.g. Wood Expo, Environment Day, Maleny Show, Blackall Range Growers Market at Witta.

Mark – update on the bulk-buy grid-tie solar PV scheme. Still waiting to hear who has been accepted for the Qld gov subsidised scheme and if there will be any changes to the solar rebates in the Fed gov budget released next Tuesday. Don Woolard suggested the MCU would be willing to help finance systems (as a green loan). The Qld feed-in-tariff was explained and discussion held on how we could get the bulk-buy scheme happening. The general feeling was that we could easily get enough participants to make it worthwhile. Mark to continue investigations.

Shivanii - Bridge Creek Garden update & brief history, new people welcome, open all day Saturday in the cooler months, share lunch. Benefits of being part of the Seedsavers Network and the possibility of local sponsorship opportunities.

Barry – new project ideas:

Permablitz – a group of people helping each other in their own backyard gardens. Need somebody to act as co-ordinator & designer (anybody out there willing to take this on?). Some people already have established gardens that may just need maintenance. Suggestion of tracking work hours and doing the work on a Sunday so we don't take energy away from the community garden.

Waste removal – removing organic waste from town businesses for making compost. Need to look into some of the issues involved (legal, health etc) as well as finding a ute or trailer. Could check first with the Maple St Food Coop & Pomodoras to see what happens with their food waste.

Carpooling – Terri Bates would like to help get this rolling, Tony Ullman offered to help set-up a website for co-ordinating rides.

Barry – announcements:

Meeting venue change: we may be able to hold SM meetings in the old school room at the monthly Witta markets. Need to confirm with Barung but if OK our next meeting will be at 10am next market morning in June. Carpooling can be organised.

MCU has a scheme which rounds cents off your account balance each month and puts the proceeds towards their community grants allocation – notify MCU if you'd like to take part in this.

Hinterland bus trial ends this month (although there is talk of extending the trial for another 6 months) and more support is needed on the weekends (suggested weekend outing is to Mary Cairncross park & back again). Bus timetable will be made available on the SM website.

SM is now taking memberships ($10 single, $15 family) so please support us by becoming a member (this money helps cover our meeting expenses).

SM is part of the IGA community benefit scheme so notify IGA if you'd like to support us in this way.

Marketing – we have 100 Be Wise; Relocalise bumper stickers available & there is an idea to sell SM-branded organic T-shirts but need a slogan/by-line. Suggestion to contact Blessed Earth re organic T-shirts.

Email lists – quick overview of the different SM mailing lists available & their use.

After a 10 minute tea break Barry introduced Ian Meikle, the local distributor of Vectrix electric scooters, and Frank Papa, one of the owners of Vectrix Australia, who gave a presentation and demonstration of the scooter. More information can be found at http://www.vectrix.com.au/.

Meeting finished 5pm
Next meeting Saturday 10am, June 21 at the Growers Market at Witta (to be confirmed).

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Sustainable Maleny Meeting
Masonic Hall, Maleny, 29/3/08, 2pm
Attendance: 22

Barry - welcome & intro to SM for new people, outline of meeting agenda.

Gary - Bridge Creek Garden update, outline of grant spending & garden activity.

Shivanii - fundraising concert being held Sunday March 30 to raise money for the gardens, please support it. Overview of Seed Savers activity.

Barry - notification of upcoming events.

demonstration of electric scooters at the next SM meeting
Future Ready Expo at Kawana on April 18/19 featuring Roberto Perez (Cuban permaculturist featured on the 'Power of Community' DVD)
World Environment Day at the Uni on May 31
Maleny Wood Expo over the first weekend of May

Mark - overview of grid-tie solar PV systems & the possibility of a bulk-buy project similar to the solar HWS drive. Some people have their name down for the subsidised Qld gov 1kW systems & will know this month if they have been successful. A couple of other bulk-buy schemes elsewhere in Australia were mentioned as an indication of what pricing could be expected. Expressions of interest from a few members were noted & the idea will be looked into after the Qld gov allocation which will determine who might still be interested in a system.

Liz - SM is now taking memberships ($10 single, $15 family) so please support us by becoming a member (this money helps cover our meeting expenses)

There is an idea to sell SM-branded organic T-shirts so if anybody has any ideas for artwork please let us know

SM is also part of the IGA community benefit scheme so notify IGA if you'd like to support us in this way

Liz - project overview. There are a number of areas that energy can be put into this year so we're throwing these ideas out there and if anybody wants to take something on then let us know. Also if you have some other ideas please tell us. So far we have:

- solar PV buying scheme
- car pooling
- permablitz network (a bunch of people do a half-day workbee on somebody's garden)
- more community gardens
- community stall at the Witta Growers' Market (selling excess backyard produce as well as being a PR focus for SM)
- re-skilling workshops (what would you like to learn or what can you offer to teach?)
- energy descent action plan
- electric vehicles
- tool share group
- water refill station (to cut down on plastic bottle numbers)
- 'Tupperware' parties (spreading the word on peak oil & climate change)
- developing alliances & relationships (networking with like-minded groups)
- publicity & merchandising
- helping with the website
- fundraising

Shivanii - introduced the film from Seed International, 'Think Global, Eat Local', 15 years of footage, 15 countries, 15 minutes.

A tea break was held after the movie finished, with informal discussion about the projects discussed. A more formal discussion was planned but time ran out.

Meeting finished 4pm
Next meeting Saturday 2pm, April 26 at the Masonic Hall.