Present:

Jeremy O'Leary, Pam Leitch, Emily Pollard, Theressa Latoski, Robin Canaday, Jennifer Rueda, Gene Berk, Judy Barnes, John O'Brien

Agenda:

• Opening shifts at St. Francis for February
• New ideas for general meeting (2nd Wed.)
• Reports from working groups
• Neighborhood working group?
• PostCarbon Institute issues
• Finances update
• Goals for 2006
• Petitioning / drafting a letter to city officials

1. Opening shifts at St. Francis for the next few months:

Emily passed around the sheet for signing up for opening up St. Francis.  This will be emailed out to the business group soon.

2. General meeting on 1/11 - new ideas?

Small circles by topic seem to go pretty well

Small circles by neighborhood haven't been going very well

Topic - how bad will it have to get before we knock on the doors of our neighbors and get to know them. - Jeremy

Topic - how to stick to a low energy habit - Jennifer

Topic - local politics and influencing policy - Gene & Emily

Topic - Peak Oil 101 - Pam

We will reconvene at 8:30 to give a wrap-up of the various discussions and announcements.

3. Reports from working groups:

Jeremy talked about the prep group, i.e. the schedule for the first Wednesdays

Theresa talked about the upcoming outreach tabling efforts

Gene talked about forming a political/policy group, building coalitions

4. Neighborhoods working group?

Emily & Jeremy will get the data of sign-in contacts loaded into CivicSpace.  We’ll be able to sort all 250 names and info from there and neighborhood organizing (Pam).

5. PostCarbon Institute:

To become an outpost or not?  Emily still hasn't heard back from them re: political questions.  This results in present uncertainty.   

6. Finances update:

We have about $100.  Let’s pass round the donation jar at events rather than leave it on the table.  Take the ring off the donation jar.

7. Goals for 2006:

The community has called for more practical stuff/workshops

A new policy action working group (Gene and Judy will take point on this)

A new neighborhood working group (Pam will take point on this)

Each working group can set its own goals

8. Petitioning / drafting a letter to city officials:

Gene read a several line statement that will go into a new petition to start circulating at events. “We the undersigned request that the City of Portland appoint a task force to investigate the problem of the impending peak oil crisis and its implications for the citizens of the Portland metropolitan area.”  Emily will type this up.  

Gene was given permission to talk with environmental groups in the hopes of forming a coalition of concerned groups in Portland metro area.

9. CivicSpace / webtools:

Jeremy & Emily talked about migrating more features into CivicSpace (www.portlandpeakoil.org/cs).  This way we can utilize bulletin boards, have access to group business information, and plan projects more easily.