Fourteen people attended the first Ruby Party. Eleven were guests; three were members of the host's family (all relocalisation advocates).

People came out of curiosity about what the host was 'into'; 'for the food' and/or because they 'were invited'. Only two people indicated they came to find out more about Ruby and/or Relocalisation. One reason I wanted to use this approach, was to access people who would not typically attend a public information session. I discovered that the flip side of that was that I wasn't talking to an audience that was necessarily overly interested in the topic, so in some ways it was more difficult to engage them. It's definetly easier to "preach to the choir".

I had wanted to include a 10 minute dvd presentation on Peak Oil, but hadn't gained authorisation from the relevant producers to create and use this aid. I think it would have had more impact than a verbal explanation and an audio/visual aid would have added variety in presentation format. Perhaps following a video presentation with a five minute small group activity to answer a question such as "what impact do you think PO will have in your life?" would have been more effective.

I included some information and discussion about climate change, hoping it would act to further build motivation for relocalising. This proved more distracting than motivating, and it was difficult to bring the group back from a debate about the validity of climate change concerns. In the next presentation, I will only briefly refer to the fact that relocalisation strategies also address concerns about our fossil fuel usage raised by climate change activists.

One member of the group was inclined to want to debate the validity of the topics, raising anti climate change and anti peak oil arguments. Interestingly enough, this person was the only one who had researched the links included in the invitation! Althouth it had the potential to spin out of control and mire the presentation in debate, being able to briefly address his points showed that I was aware of both sides of the argument and was also a useful opportunity to acknowledge that PO (and climate change) are contentious topics (just incase they were unaware of that! ;)). I reminded the group that my purpose was merely to raise the issues and what Ruby was doing so that we could find like minded people to join us in our efforts and that it was up to them to research it for themselves so that they could make up their own minds which side of the debate they agreed with. I reiterated that I was happy to debate the issues at length, but not as a component of the presentation, because it would blow out the time frame and that may not suit all present.

I'm wondering though, a 'debate the topic' as a separate 'event' could be a good opportunity to put information in front of people so that they can consider it more indepth without having to do a lot of research. This particular 'devils advocate' would, I'm sure, be up to the challenge and would no doubt prove a noteworthy opponent! It could be fun! Who knows, might even win him over as well!! :)

In the course of the relocalisation component, I raised that I was personally interested in establishing a LETs system in the local area as part of an overall strategy for the area. This opportunity for involvement in a project created the most interest and seemed to be the primary motivator for those wanting further involvement with Ruby.

The entire presentation (including group discussion) lasted about 45 minutes. People were ready to break at that point, but stayed on for a further hour to hour and a half enjoying afternoon tea. Much of the discussion revolved around the topics covered, from a range of perspectives.

Of the eleven guests, four were keen to get involved in Ruby, two of whom indicated they are interested in having Ruby parties in the near future. Two of the remaining seven guests were supportive of the concept and although they stressed that they didn't want to 'take anything else on', they are interested in following our progress. Four guests were noncommital and one (our devil's advocate) was openly 'sceptical' (but polite). At least three people made the comment that "I wish you every success, but I don't think it will work in this community."

Time and effort alone will tell.

One last point, Andi and Dean live over an hour away and couldn't make this event, which means I miss out on their feedback from directly observing the process, which would have been good. It also means that there aren't any photos! (oh I am so disappointed - hee hee)

Cheers

Ree