The Sustainable Community Action Network for Fairbanks (SCANFairbanks) is hosting, with support from Organic Valley Foods, a Community Earth Potluck. This is to celebrate sustainable living, agriculture & harvest, hunting, gathering, gardening everything! Everyone is welcome! I want to invite restaurants that use local produce (and those that don’t), Cold spot feeds, Alaska Feed and many others. Please spread the word! Games & fun for the whole family! PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN DISHWARE AND UTENSILS, CLOTH NAPKINS, if you have them, and lots of food.

GOT MOOSE? Anything in the freezer to share? Fish, caribou, bacon from a home-raised hog? I’m bringing quiche, courtesy of my happy egg-laying hens. Preserves from last summer? Canned, dried, whatever you can make to bring to a potluck. This is a community “kick – off” event for Earth Week at the UAF campus for SCTF (Sustainable Campus Task Force).

TIME/LOCATION

April 19th, Saturday 4:30 – 6:30pm at the Fairbanks Community Foodbank, 725 26th Avenue, off of South Cushman (traveling south, turn right on 26th avenue, the building is on your left).

Our Flyer provides additional information. Hope to see you there!

The Interior Issues Climate Change Task Force just had its second meeting this Wednesday morning, 9:00 – 11:00 am.  The Steering Committee includes Karl Monetti, Sarah Trainor and Luke Hopkins.  Many community members including some SCAN Fairbanks members were invited to join the process of determining the vulnerabilities of different sectors (transportation, energy, natural resources, etc.), develop recommendations and create an action plan.  Please see investfairbanks.org for more information, there are links on the FEDCO (Fairbanks Economic Development Corporation) sight.  This is some serious planning for the next 10, 20, 50 and 100 years!  Please don’t hesitate to ask questions of Karl, Sarah or Luke, or you can email polarsolar@gmail.com, and Suzy or Kraig can forward information to you.  We welcome anyone with a passion for these issues, can work collaboratively with the taskforce, and can make a commitment to meet with your sector subcommittee, as well as occasionally the main committee through September 2008 and potentially beyond.  We will have a public meeting soon;  the grassroots-public involvement part of this process is really important for the success.  Recommended reading is The Natural Step for Communities by authors Sarah James & Torbjorn Lahti, and see investfairbanks.org for links, more information and advised readings.  Please join us!

Sustainable Community Action Network for Fairbanks  (scanfairbanks.wordpress.com)                                                                                                                                                 Suzy Fenner & Kraig Smyth  479-2345                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         for more information email: polarsolar@gmail      

Everyone is welcome to attend

on Thursday, 7:00-8:30pm

Ken Kunkel Community Center

off Goldstream road, past Ivory Jack’s heading west

This is a working, action-oriented group – see agenda below

Questions:  After reading “The Natural Step for communities”, how has
this changed your perspective on defining sustainability?  How can the
FNSB use this framework?

AGENDA

7:00 Welcome and announcements — Interior Issue Climate Change Task Force

7:15 Please bring any ideas for action, projects or workshop that you
would like to work on

8:15 Decide on another free location, time and date for next meeting

8:30 Close & Clean up
See you Thursday evening!

SUSTAINABLE COMMUNIT ROUND TABLE STUDY GROUPS 

This is a public forum for education and work sessions created to meet the needs of the community and environment through sustainable practices in economic development, ecological preservation and social and public health.  

For the Goldstream Area              

February 13th, Wednesday evening 7:00 – 8:30 pm — Ken Kunkel Community Center Goldstream Rd, past Ivory Jack’s restaurant and Goldstream General Store look for the Goldstream Lions Park – or if you take Sheep Creek Rd, drive past R&R tracks, past Murphy Dome Rd and look for the park!                                                      

* AGENDA:

7:00 pm   Welcome & Announcements  

*Latest developments of sustainable practices in Fairbanks – grassroots efforts, borough developments, private & public organizations

7:15 pm  Presentation of “The Natural Step for communities”   by Suzy & Kraig

7:45 pm  Each table will have a topic (see below) for discussion – please take notes!  Questions for discussion:  How does the four systems conditions of sustainability apply to the topic at your table?  What is one action your table or you individually can take towards sustainability?  Please decide on a regular meeting time & date.

8:15 pm  Each table gives a very brief report, action to take and next scheduled meeting suggestion.  READ “The Natural Step for communities” by the next meeting. Books will be available to purchase from Suzy Fenner & Kraig Smyth.

8:30 pm  Closing comments, see you next meeting!

*******************************************************************************************

For the University Area, 3rd meeting – UAF, Gruening Building, Rm. 208 (near Signer’s Hall)

*February 17th, Sunday afternoon 1:00 – 5:00 pm   (free weekend parking)

AGENDA 1:00 PM Welcome and announcementsLatest developments in sustainable practices for our community1:30 Discuss “The Natural Step for communities” by Sarah James & Torbjorn Lahti *Available at Gulliver’s (order 5 or more for a 20% discount) 2:00 Focus on your table’s topic, consider 1 – 3 issues, and decide on a concrete action to take after the meeting (short-term and long-term goals for the visioning process).4:00 Table reports, action plan and decide date and time for nest meetings.

4:45 Closing comments. 

5:00 See you next meeting.                                            

 TOPICS

Transportation  Green building  Land use                                   Sustainable agriculture  Public education    Economics/business    Social concerns   Renewable energy    Clean air & water (protecting biodiversity)     Recycling & resource management 

contact: Suzy Fenner or Kraig Smyth   479 – 2345 / 460 -1130

email: polarsolar@gmail.com
blog: scanfairbanks.wordpress.com   has available the agendas for these study groups, directions and links

*S.Cushman & Lathrop residents Community Meeting (on sustainability)      Jan. 19th, Saturday 2:00 – 3:30 pm   JPJones Community Development Center 2400 Rickert St. 24th avenue and South Cushman

*Goldstream Sustainable Community Round Table Study Group                     Feb. 13th, Wednesday, 7:00 – 8:30 pm       Ken Kunkel Community Center       Goldstream Road, near Ivory Jack’s

*University Sustainable Community Round Table Study Group                       Feb. 17th, Sunday  1:00 – 5:00 pm         UAF, Gruening Building, Room 208 

Many thanks to the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, the Northern Alaska Environmental Center and the Fairbanks Community Foodbank for helping to publicize Jan. 13th and Jan. 19th’s Sustainable Community Round Table Study Groups.  All of you are helping making this possible! 

*South Cushman & Lathrop Community meeting (on sustainability) Jan. 19th, Saturday, 2:00 – 3:30pm, JPJones Community Development Center

*Goldstream Sustainable Community Round Table Study Group  Feb. 13th, Wednesday evening, 7:00 – 8:30, Ken Kunkel Community Center

*University Sustainable Community Round Table Study Group  Feb. 17th, Sunday afternoon, 1:00 – 5:00, UAF Gruening Bldg., Room 208

Future locations will be scheduled; co-facilitators are needed, please read the Natural Step for communities by Sarah James & Torbjorn Lahti

* The Sunday University Sustainable Community Round Table Study Group met from 1 to 6PM on Sunday the 13th.

*Some innovative ideas as well as some good old standards were brought forward. The notes will be posted here as soon as is possible.

*THANK YOU to all participants, special thanks to Mike and Ritchie Musick for the inspiring Natural Step presentation!

*We will start posting the amazing list of links we have planned ASAP, so please start leaving comments with your favorite sustainability related links to build it up!

 *The next meeting for the University Group will be February 17th, UAF location tba when it is properly scheduled.

* The first South Fairbanks Sustainable Community Round Table Study Group meeting will be held on Saturday, January 19th at the J.P. Jones Community Developement Center. We are excited! More details coming!

In October of last year, Torbjorn and Sara were keynote speakers at the Sustainable Northern Shelter Conference in Fairbanks. The Cold Climate Housing Research Center, who hosted the event, has posted the audio and video of their presentations. This is a great way to gear up for the meeting this weekend.

Click here to hear Sarah’s Presentation.

Click here to hear Torbjorn’s Presentation.

To watch the Opening Ceremony of the conference which includes presentations by both Sarah and Torbjorn copy this full address

mms://catstream2.cat.uaf.edu/cchrc/1_heringopeningkeynotes.wmv

paste it into the address bar of your web browser and press Enter.

We hope to see you Sunday!

*This Sunday, January 13th     1:00 – 6:00pm

*University of Alaska Fairbanks, Gruening Building, Room 208  (Between the Wood Center and Signer’s Hall)

*Agenda: welcome, announcements, brief presentation on The Natural Step, by Mike Musick, discussion & work session

*Topics: recycling & resource management, public education, green business & economics, transportation, energy, land use, transportation, building efficiency and others 

*Notebooks and pens provided.  Please bring dry erase markers for the marker boards, flip charts/markers, laptops

*Could someone please bring a  2 large coffeepots, tea, and condiments?  Please bring your mug!

*Contact Suzy or Kraig for more info: 479 – 2345 or 460 – 1130, polarsolar@gmail.com 

MEETING TIME UPDATE!!

Most everyone has said we need more time in our meetings, so here it is! Instead of 2PM to 6PM as originally planned, we have the Wood Center conference rooms C and D on January 13th from 1:00 PM until 6:00 PM !! The people have spoken… they always do, and it is up to us all to listen! A South Fairbanks meeting is also in the works, reply if interested.

Suzy is visiting relatives for a few days so I will be checking the mail and handling most administrative duties here for a bit. She will check the email though, so keep on writing! Thank you to so many for so much!!
-Kraig

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

FYI: There is already a petition for Clean Elections circulating. They need help, and their time is running short! I encourage your signature and participation! Diedre Helfferich (Editor of The Ester Republic) is working that for District 8, and we can all contact Alex Prichard aprichard@mosquitonet.com for more information. I just emailed him myself – I will be signing that one, and maybe even packing a signature list in a day or so…

A resurrection of the bottle bill is afoot, and anyone interested can contact us (Kraig and Suzy) with specific ideas for and necessary changes to the last attempted bill. I will soon have a copy of that bill, and we can re-work it into an initiative if it cannot be pushed by our representatives. just reply to this email (polarsolar@gmail.com).

The blog www.scanfairbanks.wordpress.com is up now! we will start adding links off to the side for everyone to use very soon. Notable comments will be posted as part of the blog, so feel free to add good stuff, ask questions, etc.! The actual transcription of the notes is taking longer than expected, but will get there soon also. We need LINKS to put on the margins of the blog, and in the soon to come website – please send us here at polarsolar@gmail.com any links pertinent to sustainability and other contact data outside the web so that we can consolidate this critical data for all to access! This is a wide net, and I urge you to go through your physical address books as well as virtual sources (like your ‘Favorites’) so that we can compile a huge access database! You can reply with these to our email, or send as a comment to the blog! This is only the beginning.

The time for ACTION has arrived, and the many dedicated individuals who have labored so hard for so long will begin to see real change in the days ahead – FINALLY! Whew! Frustration has almost claimed some of us, but in this time of growth, there is new hope! We need someone to operate an online sustainability discussion group, and some people to help build and operate the coming SCANFairbanks website. These tools will help us link up and stay connected, to prevent re-invention of the many wheels there already are, and to create momentum! There are HUNDREDS in this community who have waited, and WORKED while they waited, for this time of the turning point of change – do you know their names? Let’s stay connected and keep learning to work together!

A special thanks to all who have sent comments (via email or via blog) with suggestions and ideas for growth and forward motion! We are onto something very special here, and the time is now ripe when change can actually happen in our community at ALL levels! The writing is on the wall, and people are beginning to respond from all parts of the community, not just a murmur, but what I believe will very soon become a roar as we build the connections that drive momentum. Sustainability may have many names to many people, but we all live here in common, and the issues can no longer be ignored!

See you all on Jan. 13th at the Wood Center, if not sooner!

- Kraig Smyth