TRANSITION SOOKE GENERAL MEETING – Minutes 04/09/19

~22 people attending

GETTING STARTED

Acknowledgement of meeting on the unceded territory of the T’Souke First Nation. Agenda approved. Minutes of last meeting (July 3) accepted after 3 corrections. Alan moved, Sinclair seconded. Approved

After the introductions were made around the circle, the financial report was given by David, who moved to accept it. Bernie seconded. passed. A cheque to pay off the cost of updating our website was struck with thanks.

UPCOMING KEY EVENTS

Summer slowed a lot of activities. No table at the fall fair, no table in Metchosin.

GREEN NEW DEAL

The local GND Town Hall meeting is to be held 29 Sept. in the dining room at the community hall from 10 am to 4 pm. Lunch will be organized by Bernie (volunteers to help make sandwiches and/or help wash up are still needed). Next organizational meeting is set for 11 Sept at Alan and Sue’s. A budget of ~$250 was approved. Draft press release to Lily. Dianne pursuing endorsements from other local groups.

MEET WITH SOOKE BY-ELECTION CANDIDATES

Speed Dating event to meet Sooke by-election candidates at the Community Hall upstairs 2 – 6 pm on Sunday, 15th September. TS table needs volunteers to greet attendees.

(Federal meet-the-candidates event cancelled. Don Brown would like to set up another  meet-the-candidates event, for which TS expressed its support.

(See below.)

STRIKE IN VICTORIA

Global Climate Strike September 20-27 with gatherings all week. SeaParc sign announcement arranged for GVTA (Greater Victoria Teacher’s Association) Teach-In rally at the Legislature on Monday, 23rd September from 1-30 pm to 3 pm. No one from TS available to attend the organizational meeting in Victoria.

FEDERAL ALL-CANDIDATES DEBATE (part of “100 debates” all over Canada on the same day)

An all-candidates climate change debate for the Esquimalt/Saanich/Sooke Electoral District is being held on October 3 at the Metchosin Community Hall from 6-30 pm to 9 pm. It will be live-streamed. Can we put together a local live-stream watching event? Might be possible. Anyone wanting to help should contact Bernie.

ZERO WASTE SOOKE

October 16 there will be a crafting supplies swap event from 6-8 at the Sooke library during the Zero Waste Sooke meeting. The next Zero Waste Repair Cafe is scheduled for Oct. 20 at the Community Hall 2-5 p.m.  Christina, Dave & Carol have volunteered to help with greeting the attendees. Jo to put up signs. More volunteers welcome.

SOOKE MULTI-BELIEF INITIATIVE

Don Brown representing this initiative about making Sooke a more compassionate place wanted to see if it was possible for that group to hold a more respectful candidates debate focused on values and what it means to be a compassionate community.

Don was asked to provide a proposal to us which includes how the session would be facilitated and what the rules are. This event to be offered in October.

RAIN WATER HARVESTING WORKSHOP

Planned for early in November. Request to go to council for municipal sponsorship. Ken Nentwig charges $250/3 hours. $400 tentative budget approved. Sue Lidster and other interested folks encouraged to go ahead.

WEBSITE

Website update: status, done! Paid for at less than budgeted. ~350 people on TS email list, with a very high ~50% opening rate on emails.

PESTICIDE GROUP

Pesticide group has about 200 signatures currently on the petition. They are close to ready to present to council.

RIDESHARING – UPDATE

Rideshare exploratory group: looked into Kootenay Ride-share and found that their fee to run a website for Sooke Ride-share (connected with other Ride-shares across BC & Alberta) would be $1500.00 a year. That’s not an unreasonable fee for managing the website with all the rides being requested and offered by signed-in members. We could approach the CRD and District of Sooke to contribute to this fee in lieu of setting up a purely local website at about the same cost but with no connection to the Ride-share network. It could take about 300 rides a year to feel like Sooke was “getting its money’s worth.” We need to talk with users of Cowichan Ride-share to see how they like being part of this network. An alternative that involves no yearly fee is Poparide. That website pays its bills by taking a percentage from each fee paid when a driver and a passenger agree on a fee.

FINALLY

Monthly meeting name to be changed to something more inclusive so how about General Meeting with the tag “everyone is welcome to attend”.

Adjourned.

GMSept.19B