WELL is very happy to announce they now have a small, but effective, staff!
A generous grant from the PCI has enabled them to hire a part-time office manager.
As part of my duties I will be writing a weekly entry here to let you all know what's happening here in Willits.

This week has been extremely wet, lots of heavy rain, high winds and some thunder. The water is gushing in our creeks and will perhaps bring even more salmon upstream - we have already seen large numbers coming home to spawn.

CITY GOING SOLAR
We are taking this wet weather time to have meetings! Our Congressman Mike Thompson recently came to Willits and met with representatives from WELL and the Renewable Energy Development Institute (REDI). He was happy to hear about the tremendous work already done by WELL and the city's adhoc energy committee on documenting the current energy use in our area. Everyone agreed that Willits could be a pilot city in renewable energy and Congressman Thompson has subsequently asked his staff to look into funding for us.
This week we had a very effective follow - up meeting, laying the groundwork for a proposal to put in enough solar to run all of the city's buildings, the water plant, the sewage plant and the street lights. There were several important people with expertise and creative ideas at this meeting and good progress was made.

SCHOOL FARM COMING SOON
Last week Jason Bradford went before our local school board with his proposal for a 1 acre school farm. He received approval for his concept and is now proceeding with detailed planning for the site. He hopes to begin work at our local elementary school, Brookside, in 2006. There are dreams of planting grains, vegetables, compost crops, berries and fruit trees. This farm will be a hybrid of sustainably inclined methods. We will keep you posted.

OUTREACH/EDUCATION
WELL members have often been solicited to share ideas, stories and experience about our localization efforts. Over the past year we have done much of this.
Recently Jason Bradford and Brian Weller gave a workshop entitled "Organizing Sustainable Communities" at the Solar Living Center in Hopland. Presentations were also given at the Green Festival in San Francisco and to a newly forming localization group in Pt. Arena, California.
Farther afield Brian Weller has been in Port Townsend where he gave an evening lecture, a radio interview and has enjoyed networking with the local organizers there.

We are all busy with our ongoing work, in the midst of holidays and local celebrations of light.

This is a wonderful opportunity for all of us to support our local businesses, artisans, craftspeople and community members.