Local Action for a Sustainable Tomorrow

We will discuss our monthly face-to-face meetings and decide whether to continue these on a monthly basis or to meet more often. Our weekly web meetings using email or blogs have not been successful.

We will continue our focus on the LAST Action Planner. The Planner is an attachment at http://relocalize.net/last_action_planner .

Everyone is asked to select 1 or 2 Focus Areas and come to the meeting with information or ideas about that/those area(s). Wi-Fi is available in our meeting room, so bring your laptops if you have Wi-Fi connections capability. As a minimum, Sid & Laura will bring their laptop for us to use in this information gathering process.

We will decide LAST's next activities.

If we have new people to the group that night, Sid will meet with them separately to orient them to our LAST group and its mission/objectives. This way the group can focus on the tasks at hand while new people get information about our group and its direction.

A Locally-Grown, Online Food Coop
Imagine a place where farmers, growers, gardeners and processors can list their
locally grown or processed products. They can set their own prices and show
photos and provide descriptions of their products. They can describe their
growing practices and show photos of their growing areas as well as themselves,
along with their story. They can show what is available and how much is
available as the amounts decrease as ordering takes place. They receive the
online orders 1 time per week or month. They package the orders and attach a
pre-provided label. They deliver these orders 1 time per week or month to
centrally located distribution points where the orders are picked up and paid
for by the customers. They receive 95% of their asking price with 5% going to
support the online system.
Next, imagine you are a customer going online and reviewing what is available
locally from farmers, growers, gardeners and processors in your area. You can
place your order online during a specific time period each week or month. You
can then pickup and pay for your order at a specific location in your
neighborhood at a specific time each week or month. The product costs you its
listed price plus 5% to support the online system and 3% to support the hosting
of the system on the internet.

This system exists right now through 2 networks
http://locallygrown.net
http://www.oklahomafood.coop/local-food-system.php

Here are working online stores using their software
http://locallygrown.net/markets/list
http://www.oklahomafood.coop/otherstates.php

Here is the backbone of a potential online store for our area.
http://sequim.locallygrown.net
You can use my Username: sequim
and Password: skylocal
to check out more of the details.

I think this system holds much promise for our local food system and we should
discuss it at the next LAST meeting next Wednesday night May 28 at 7 PM at the
Sequim Library.

To discuss before the meeting, I can be reached at olylast@yahoo.com or
808-7300.
Sid Maroney