Transition Town Manchester Notes

Monthly meeting;
We are meeting monthly now. Mark your calendars for the first Thursday of the month for our regular meetings. February 3 will be the next meeting in Manchester at the house of Lisa and Marc Williams. The address is 2434 Depot Street, on Route 11/30 just past the Eagles Club and before the Forest Service and The Perfect Wife.

Green Drinks;

Also mark your calendars for the 3rd Thursday of the month. We will be getting together at the Perfect Wife restaurant for "Green Drinks" which is basically getting together for some friendly banter about any environmental topic you want.... solar panels, Bill McKibben, 350.org... Everyone is welcome. No agenda. Amy Chamberlain has said she will have the back corner booth saved so we can chat away a few hours. Brings friends. (It is also $6.00 Burger night.)

Our notes from January 6 meeting: We had a great turnout at Peter and Annette Chase's house. We discussed better communications and will make sure we post on Transition Vermont site as well as our own. We will get notices in the paper and the chamber newsletter. Let's try to use the chamber to our advantage...

We discussed the next steps in our Riverwalk project. We need to get help making some signs and working with the town to have some directional signs put up. We also discussed what made the project work so well and how to duplicate that in the future. Discussion followed about perhaps a spring planting project of Hazelberts, an edible hedge that will provide food for us all with beautiful foliage in the fall as well.... People loved the 350 fruit trees and we may try to tackle this in the spring. It will require a major logistical event again but people are asking....

We are looking into non-profit status, whether we want to do it or have a fiscal agent.... We would love for people top be able to make tax deductible donations. We are also looking at applying for grants for some of our projects but we will do that independent of out tax status.

We also discussed the fact that we want to show support for our, at long last, environmentally friendly governor. Governor Shumlin is talking the talk and we need to help him bring those goals to fruition so we want to plan on hosting him hear in the southern part of the state. Stay tuned.

Upcoming Meeting - January 6, 2011 at 6:30pm - Potluck

Happy New year from Transition Town Manchester!

As we head into the new year we have resolved to make more regularly scheduled meetings so we can get the word out early in the papers and other avenues.... So we will meet on the first Thursday evening of each month. We will look for a central Manchester location for future meetings. The first meeting of the year will be this Thursday, January 6 (how's that for advanced notice?) at the house of Peter and Annette Chase, 176 Kent Hill Road in Dorset at 6:30 p.m., potluck.

We have joined the Manchester Chamber and will see if we can use their network to get out our message. We are also looking into non-profit status and working on the next steps for Riverwalk in Manchester, including signage and bringing in other groups to help make this a well known and used location in the heart of Manchester.

We hope you can join us this Thursday. Mark the first Thursdays on your calendar!