December 2011
Program Development
Agent of Change
Great news: Samira Zoofan, our intern, is going to be staying with us next quarter! This is very helpful for continuity. Chuck is meeting with Samira this week to talk about creating additional promotional materials, using videos & prior participants’ comments to recruit participants.
Although the final ok is still needed, it looks like the next Agent of Change course will be held at the Ohio Union, thanks to the sponsorship of an Ohio State group of students called Earth Center. The start date is Thursday, 1/25.
Communications and Membership
MemCom’s next meeting will be Tuesday (was Tuesday by the time this is distributed!). The most recent draft of the business membership will be presented to the MemCom team & then will be submitted to the board for approval. This had been on hold until after GTBS, & is now moving forward.
Also attending the meeting is a special guest invited by Chuck: Emily Breder. Emily is working under contract for SOLE as a content writer/social media strategist. MemCom is exploring possibilities of using Emily’s skill set around social media strategies for Simply Living.
Work on the website continues. Pat Collins is working on creating the proposed changes which include nesting in the upper right corner a section for quick links, setting up a blog section, and creating a forum for Q & A.
The December 2nd Friday Social, held as an open house at Simply Living, was a great success! Something like 50 folks came through the course of the evening, lots of kids, new people who found Simply Living on the internet, and members who were getting re-engaged. And the usual contingent was there as well! There was a white elephant exchange, YES magazines were given away, as well as copies of Edible Columbus, containing the recent story about Slow Money & SOLE. Congratulations on such a successful, fun-filled event!
In January, the 2nd Friday Social will be at the Consider Biking office, focusing on biking as an alternative, and February will be hosted at Brothers Drake. More details to come.
Earth Institute
Last month Sheila Fox presented Northwest Earth Institute’s introductory video on their programs. No takers this time ‘round, but she may explore if there is interest after the New Year.
Sue Green’s hosting of Menu for the Future is wrapping up Thursday, 12/22. There are 7 folks in the group. Sue says the course is well received with rich discussion & “practical changes around food.” Sounds like a great success!
A World of Health course in Westerville, initiated by Roberta Wyn, is likely wrapping up as well—but we haven’t reached Roberta for an update. Will do so for January.
The folks at Generation Green—the location for the 2nd Friday Social in November—have expressed interest in starting a course. Ellen has provided them with materials and the outlines for several courses. Ellen suggested they hold an informational meeting after the New Year & see if there is enough interest to begin.
Transition Central Ohio
TCO presented Transition 101 in November to the Board & some Sustainable folks. There was a Q & A session following that helped get a clearer understanding of TCO. Discussion about next steps will take place at the next Board meeting (this Friday, 12/16). Will SL be a hub for TCO? What does that mean in terms of staff support, committee, & next steps?
Meantime, Chuck and Richard Lamprey met with Joanne Dole, who leads the Sustainable Worthington group, & presented to that group November 30th. The emphasis is on SOLE—buying & investing locally as a means to support & be in transition. In February, Sustainable Worthington is sponsoring an educational forum around these themes.
On that note, check out this article about Sustainable Worthington and what they’ve accomplished in their 5 years running! Congratulations!
Lastly, in addition to Tom Lasik launching Sustainable Hilliard, Debbie Crawford has invited folks to come forward for Transition Clintonville! We’ll learn more about how that is progressing in the New Year.
Support Our Local Economy
The holiday buying local campaign is well under way with advertising on WCBE & CD101. Posters are going to the printers – 2 sizes (8 ½ X 11 & 11 X 17), promoting Share the Money (the $2 bill campaign) & Think Columbus 1st. There are posters for all 400 SBB (Small Business Beanstalk) members. SBB is contacting members to share with them the benefits of collaboration with Think Columbus 1st & SOLE, & encouraging them to hang the posters. Conversations are engaged around participating in the Round-Up program (displaying a card by the cash register of local businesses to “round up” to generate income for SOLE) & the $2 bill campaign (spend unique $2 bills locally).
By the time of December’s Board meeting, Chuck will have collaborated with ECDI and presented an informational meeting on investing locally through the initiative Invest Local Ohio. With a minimum investment of $1,000, community members can participate in this program, keeping their money local to support our local economy & community. Chuck introduced the meeting, talking about SOLE, and Steve Fireman of ECDI (President & General Counsel) presented the program.
There will be another event promoting Invest Local Ohio at Celebrate Local in Easton. Celebrate Local in Easton is a collaborative project of local businesses, including Global Gallery. It is a temporary store, expected to continue for 6 months, where locally made products (made in Ohio) are offered. ECDI will use that venue to invite people to another Invest Local Ohio event.
Your Money Or Your Life
YMOYL, led by Randall Loop, is being offered at the Maynard Avenue United Methodist Church beginning in January. Eleven folks have signed up & a few more are interested. Congratulations—a great turn out!
Organizational Development
Board Membership
No news this month!
Development and Fundraising
In addition to the outstanding success of GTBS, Simply Living participated in Columbus Foundation’s The Big Give. The Columbus Foundation reported we will be receiving over $4700--& this so soon on the heels of GTBS makes for a very exciting fall fundraising. Congratulations!
Simply Living is applying for a Comfest grant: $3,000 for development of shared resources (such as a shared web & calendar) with other sustainable organizations. This is part of developing a co-sustainable network, sharing physical resources for mutual benefit of the sustainability groups & Simply Living.
Carol, Jim, Chuck & Mary are the driving force behind next steps, & will be working towards reactivating this Action Circle more formally after the New Year. Under consideration: establishing goals and exploring donor cultivation.
Finance
Mary, Dominic, Joanne & Allison have been working on this year’s 990. They are also exploring how to define the bookkeeping so it is consistent. This work is in progress & will continue in the New Year.
IT (Information Technology)
Up through last month, only constituent information such as contact information of members was being entered into Groundworks. Now, all of the donations/contributions are being added as well. All of the information is being brought up to date in Groundworks so we will have accurate end-of-year reporting for 2011.
GTBS
We had wonderful results from GTBS. Over 300 people attended, &--although the expected give is 50%--we had about 65% make contributions! Out of those, 68 people were new contributors & 50 of those new contributors were new memberships. Woo-hoo!!
We had 21 business sponsorships, & 11 of those were first-time contributors to Simply Living.
Congratulations—all told we raised about $30,000!