[SustainableTompkins] Group forming to focus on Global Warming

[GayNicholson at aol.com]

Hello Sigrid,
 
I would like to invite you to attend the monthly gathering that Sustainable  
Tompkins organizes.  (Next one is February 8.)  We have been offering  the 
local sustainable community movement a venue for coming together to  network and 
learn about the many initiatives in our area that will help us  adopt more 
sustainable lifestyles and create more economically and socially  viable 
communities.  We also are running several of our own projects or  spin-offs such as 
the Just Sustainability Initiative, Green Resource Hub of the  Finger Lakes, 
Design for Sustainability workshop, Health and Sustainable  Communities 
conference, etc.   We partner with many local organizations and  institutions to create 
change as broadly as possible, and many of us have  relationships with state, 
national, and global entities such as the US  Partnership on Education for 
Sustainable Development, Center for a New American  Dream, Apollo Alliance, or 
the US Green Building Council.  
 
We meet on the second Thursday of each month at GIAC from 6-8:30 for a  
potluck supper and learning opportunity on some aspect of sustainability.   It 
takes us quite a bit of effort to organize this, so we are always looking for  
dedicated souls to join our "operations" crew that tries to act as conveners and  
catalysts in our community.  The Ops crew meets every two weeks to  plan and 
coordinate our efforts.   Our hope is that we can find ways  to integrate 
local sustainability projects such that our community more  rapidly develops the 
awareness, infrastructure, and habits of mind required for  creating a 
sustainable way of life.
 
I don't know how long you've lived here, but may I suggest that you may  want 
to take time to look around and learn about what other groups are  already 
doing that is related to helping our community reduce its  greenhouse emission 
levels.  For example, Sustainable Tompkins, TREEA,  GreenStar, Ithaca Car 
Share, Ithaca BioDiesel, Cooperative Extension, Ithaca  Green Building Alliance, 
and the Green Resource Hub have all been offering  educational venues and events 
to learn about energy efficiency, alternative  transportation, and renewable 
energy.  TCLocal and Prepared Tompkins are  local groups specifically 
addressing coping with Peak Oil and climate  change.  The City of Ithaca and Tompkins 
County both have local action  plans on reducing greenhouse emissions.  There 
is a lot of local activity  around global warming.  
 
I am concerned about the rate of forming of new groups in Ithaca,  each faced 
with the struggle to achieve any kind of critical mass of  human and 
financial resources to create the kind of comprehensive  programming that is needed 
for rapid change.  I applaud the impulse to take  action, but I wonder how we 
can balance our tendency to fragment into small  groups (where the social 
dynamics and sense of independent action is  easier to manage) with the need to be 
united in our service to the larger goal  of rapid paradigm shift in our 
society.   And frankly, if we are  organized into a larger group, it is easier to 
find donors for specific projects  and fewer of us have to go through the 
process of becoming a 501c3 (which can  accept tax deductible donations).  
 
As your group comes together, I hope you all will consider how you can  best 
collaborate with others in our movement.   I think we all need to  be more 
strategic about identifying gaps in the work to be done, and agree on  who in the 
movement has the skills, resources, relationships, etc. to work  on what 
needs doing.  There are lots of specialized tasks, but somehow we  need to avoid 
redundancies and knit it all together, and be sure that our  work is thought 
through at the systems level.  
 
take care,
Gay
 
In a message dated 2/2/2007 5:11:36 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
flyingleaps at verizon.net writes:

Hello,

This is my first entry! I and a few other people are  starting a new  
group called "Taking on Global Warming" . We are  committed to  
decreasing global warming in our community by creating  educational  
and solution oriented events, find different ways that  people can  
take action, create a place to channel ideas and to  network with  
other local, national and global groups.

We are  looking for people who can:
- Be major organizers, who have regular time  and energy to generate  
and work on projects
- Don't have much  time or energy but can be called on for specific tasks
- Are so involved  with other things but want to know about events
-Have expertise in global  warming

We are meeting this Monday, February 5th at 12:30 at  Taitem  
Engineering on Albany between Green and State St.
For more  info, to network, to add your 2 cents contact Sigrid  
Kulkowitz @ 272  - 0407 / 262 - 0185 flyingleaps at verizon.net  
_______________________________________________





----------------------------------------------------
Gay  Nicholson, Ph.D. 

607-533-7312 (home office)
607-279-6618  (cell)

1 Maple Avenue
Lansing, NY  14882
gaynicholson at aol.com

Sustainable Tompkins 
Program  Coordinator 
w_ww.sustainabletompkins.org_ (http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/) 

Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities
Regional  Coordinator
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County
615 Willow  Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850
agn1 at cornell.edu