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Get Connected with Relocalize.net

There are lots of ways to get involved with the on-line community on relocalize.net. The website offers forums, personal blogs and polls as well as a place to post local events and news. Take a look at our keyword page and browse through the resource section to help you get started with projects in your community. You can also stay up to date with our monthly Newsletter, the Relocalization Network Newsletter, which will arrive in your inbox at the beginning of every month.

The best way to get involved is to join or start a Local Post Carbon Group. Search for one in your area and get active!

We have designed a webpage to help you use these features and are always happy to get your feedback about how the websites helps you stay organized and connected in your community.

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Update on Post Carbon Institute's Upcoming Guidebook for Local Governments

Post Carbon's new guidebook for local governments is about to go to press -- please help us make it as up to date as possible!

The Guidebook includes a list U.S. and Canadian municipalities that have taken some kind of action to recognize or respond to the changing oil and natural gas situation. If your municipal government has done anything that is explicitly related to peak oil and/or gas, such as pass a resolution, release a study, form a study commission, collaborate with a citizen's group, or make a policy change, please send a note to Daniel Lerch, Post Carbon Institute's Municipal Response Coordinator, right away.

For more information about what we are looking for, please visit www.relocalize.net/guidebookinput.

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Report on September Bay Area Networking Meeting

Bay Area Post Carbon Network Meeting – September 30, 2006 - Report

By Deborah Lindsay

The third Bay Area Post Carbon Network meeting on September 30th in San Francisco was a tremendous success, with 24 attendees representing 16 Post Carbon and Affiliate groups. The purpose of the BAPCN is to support, teach and revitalize the people who are doing the hard work of relocalizing, powering down, and creating self-sufficient communities as a means of mitigating the post petroleum and climate change crises. Currently, we meet quarterly for the whole day, charge only for the room, and have a potluck and make it a zero-waste event.

The morning was spent “Sharing our Successes” and “Pearls of Wisdom” and the afternoon had lively conversations on long-term food security in the Bay Area. We took time to discuss the direction of this group; whether or not to act in unison on state issues as well as give ourselves a broader reaching name and focus. At this time, we are officially the “Northern California Post Carbon Network” (NCPCN), with a strong desire to include as many groups working on the issues of energy vulnerability and global warming, as possible.

An evening session on Women in Peak Oil was led by a coaching specialist, Anne Oliver from Greater Ukiah Localization Project (GULP) and Janaia Donaldson from Peak Moments based in Nevada City, CA. It was an excellent session as we learned how the leadership roles of women are developing in this work, and how valuable the shared leadership of women and men in the emerging post-petroleum society will be essential. The Peak Oil and Men session included an evening of lively conversation, food and wine at Richard Katz’ home.

Please feel free to contact me, if you have any questions about joining the NCPCN, or about organizing a Network meeting in your community.

Our next meeting is scheduled for January 27th from 9:30 to 4:30 pm in the San Francisco area… cost and location TBA.

Deborah Lindsay
decal@deborahlindsay.com
Co-Founder & Director of Sustainable Monterey County, Coordinator of the NCPCN, and a Peak Oil Educator
Community Solutions Evangelist

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Funding Opportunity for Northern Californian Local Groups

Every month we hope to provide information on a funding opportunity for Local Groups. Because most foundations have a specific geographic scope, each month we hope to feature a funding opportunity in a different region. To look for a foundation in your area, please take a moment to browse through the Google directories.

Northern California Environmental Grassroots Fund with the Rose Foundation

The Northern California Environmental Grassroots Fund supports organizations and groups with an environmental mission, or strategies such as community-based advocacy, technical assistance, restoration projects, grassroots campaigns, and environmental education. The issues they provide funding for include, but are not limited to: environmental health and justice, land management and urban sprawl, habitat and wilderness protection, sustainable forestry, water resources, agriculture, sustainability, and pollution. The Rose Foundation does not require groups to have 501c(3) status or fiscal sponsorship in order to secure funds. Currently the Fund is giving away an average of $50,000 per quarter.

Geographic Scope: Northern California. This includes the entire Sierra Nevada Mountains, Bay Area, Central Valley, Central Coast, and North Coast.
Deadline: Submit the completed application and attachments by mail, postmarked by the deadline date: December 31, March 31, June 30 or September 30.

For more information about this funding opportunity and to download the application please visit the Rose Foundation website. You can also contact Karla James, the Managing Director at the Rose Foundation, by phone (510-658-0702) or by email (kjames@rosefdn.org.) We have recently been in contact with her and she is looking forward to receiving your applications.

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New on Global Public Media

Global Public Media has been formed to help existing public service information organizations give a broader, deeper and more interactive public information service. Click on the links below for the latest articles on GPM.

Andrews & Lawrence on ASPO USA Boston Conference

Peak Moment Television Episode Guide- new content

Heinberg & Holmgren Tour Australia

Rasmus Benestad talks climate change on "The Reality Report"

Prof. Peter F. Smith on Renewables

Dr. Albert Bartlett: Arithmetic, Population and Energy

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Interview with Mary Dalton, Post Carbon Santa Cruz

We spoke with Mary Dalton, the Coordinator of Post Carbon Santa Cruz, CA, about how she got involved with the Relocalization Network, the challenges she faced trying to get a group started, her current projects, and the importance of balancing time and energy.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced as a Local Group Coordinator getting started?

Getting started was the easy part, keeping the momentum going was harder. I assumed that it would be like blowing on embers and that once caught, would continue to burn on its own. The biggest challenges I faced as a group coordinator were around communicating Post Carbon Santa Cruz’s exact mission and vision. I hoped it would grow organically and define itself through the process but it was hard to recruit people on that basis. All I knew was that it would involve an of inventory assessment of Santa Cruz’s resources, a concept that became overwhelming very quickly. The initial meeting attendees were all from different neighborhoods, so defining the bioregional boundaries was the first hurdle.

Read the rest of the interview with Mary on www.relocalize.net. Mary has also recently written an article that will be published in an upcoming issue of the Ecozoic Reader, the quarterly publication of the Center for Ecozoic Studies. Click here to read it online or download the PDF.

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Help us Test Software and Receive a Year Subscription with Timebanks

Timebanks offers a way for you to get involved in your community by exchanging services with your neighbours by counting your contribution in time dollars. The organization has developed a software program that allows community members to track their time dollars. Each hour of time put into the time bank can be exchanged for an hour of someone else’s time. The mission of Timebanks is to create an economy that rewards caring, decency, and a passion for justice.
We are interested in offering a one year membership to one of the Local Groups to test the software associated with the program. In return we ask that you give us feedback on your progress and the usefulness of the tool.

If you are interested in taking on this project in your community, please send us a 400 word max explanation of why you would like to be involved and why your community would be a good place to take on the project. Please submit your response by October 31st to network@postcarbon.org. We will post our decision in the November issue of the Relocalization Network Newsletter.

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Upcoming Events

Have an event you would like to share with the Network? Please send an email to Sarah and Shelby before the last week of the month and we will include it in the next addition of the Relocalization Network Newsletter.

2006 Boston World Oil Conference, Boston, Massachussets

October 26-27, 2006 - Boston University, Boston, Massachussets

Time for Action: A Midnight Ride for Peak Oil
Co-Hosted by ASPO-USA and Boston University

ASPO-USA announces their second “Dialogue with the Experts,” a high-level conference to discuss impacts of and responses to a peak in world oil production. ASPO-USA has partnered with Boston University researchers to explore the critical role that net-energy analysis should play in future policy decisions.

Experts will provide the most current available information about the evolving peak oil and natural gas challenges. There will be speakers from all over the U.S. and Canada, as well as Europe, the Middle East and South America to offer a range of different perspectives.

For more information, visit their website for full details and registration at www.aspo-usa.org/fall2006

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17th Annual Bioneers Conference, San Rafael, California

October 20-22, 2006 - Marin Center, San Rafael, CA

The Annual Bioneers Conference is a hub of practical solutions for restoring the Earth — and its people. It’s a thriving network of visionary innovators who are working with nature to heal nature. The bioneers draw from four billion years of evolutionary intelligence and apply nature’s operating instructions in practical ways to serve human ends harmlessly. Bioneers herald a dawning age of interdependence founded in nature’s principles of diversity, kinship, community, cooperation and reciprocity.

For more information, download the conference brochure or visit the website at www.bioneers.org/conference.

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Green Festival, San Francisco, California

November 10-12, 2OO6 - San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center, CA

Green Festivals are a celebration of what's working in our communities, for people, for businesses and for the environment. Here, green means safe, healthy communities and strong, local economies. Green is the color of hope, of social and economic justice, of ecological balance.

The event will feature more than 200 visionary speakers and 400 green businesses in each city, how-to workshops, green films, yoga and movement classes, green careers sessions, organic beer and wine, delicious organic cuisine and live music.

For more information and details about the event, visit www.greenfestivals.org.

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If you have any comments about this Newsletter or suggestions for the next, please contact us.

Best,

Shelby & Sarah

Shelby Tay & Sarah Smith
Relocalization Network Coordinators
Post Carbon Institute
Tel. 1 + 604.736.9000
Contact Us
3683 West 4th Avenue
Vancouver, B.C., V6R 1P2, Canada
www.relocalize.net
www.postcarbon.org