Intros:

Mark: Be the change. If you do it, people will notice. If you don't, they wont pay much attention. When people see behavior modeled by someone they trust, or even just seeing another human being accomplish it, they are likely to believe that they too can do it.

Sivananda: After Saturday's support team meeting that Charlotte arranged at Shanti's, Sivananda shared that he appreciated the fact that when he expressed some of his more scared feelings and the depressive effect that what we are facing has had on him, it was reassuring to know that others also had similar experiences which made him feel more connected, trust and less alone.

Cindy: Cindy participates in so many different groups she wonders how they can come together more.

Dan: Came up with an idea for a (future) May Day dance, outdoors, accommodating from 500 to 1,000 people. A party at which to have fun and where people can get to know each other.

Shanti: said that she likes the idea and in addition to enjoying music and dancing she would also like there to be quieter areas where people could sit and talk. Shanti also said that she would like to see a composite of the kind of short (10-15 min.) videos on different kinds of successful sustainability solutions found on the internet. ex: In India operation of a micro-loan group of Grameen Bank in action.

There were several suggestions put out at this juncture. - One was to check out the Northwest Youth Core as a possible place to show our movies. Another was the possibility that fire houses could be possible venues for showing films. The importance of trust, developing camaraderie and bonds of community and friendship were iterated by many of us.

Oleg: Affirmed "No trust, no successful action." He expressed that connecting with each other would enable us to find our source of optimism, joy and internal strength.

Doug: called us from our meanderings to our previously agreed upon agenda and the business at hand.
Three main aspects of this included: Our film project and its different areas - venue, format and accessibility. - Discussing the kind of presence Post Carbon would like to have at the public Sustainability Commission Forum. - The date, time and place for our next P.C meeting.

There was discussion by the people who attended the last Sustainability Commission Forum on impressions of the members the Commission. The consensus was that most of the (13) members appeared to be business people. Each made a short statement about themselves. One, Josh, said that he "wants to be a conduit for public opinion". Some said that they wanted to bring their business experience to share with the community. One who appeared to be among the older members said "What about survivability?"

Dan: expressed his perspective that when we attend Sustainability Commission meetings it would be helpful if we discussed before hand the different topics we want to bring up there, agree what each of us (3 to 5 perhaps) will address (so there will be no duplication) and, at the meeting each person will express hir topic clearly, taking maybe one to two minutes. This way we can get ten minutes of solid coverage of topics we think are important. We all seemed to favor this idea.

Doug: Based on his impressions said he had a cautiously optimistic discussion with Felicity Fahy, the City Sustainability Mgr. (who was on the Escape from Suburbia panel). Doug also communicated that Randy White (of the Portland Peak Oil Task Force) is developing an application called "Bright Neighbor". He and Daniel Lerch, who's finished a book called "Post Carbon Cities" and was involved with Portland "intersection repair" (which is about about creating physical structures that contribute to building community, social cohesion and community interaction and a Eugene example to be found at 22nd & Arthur), will tentatively be coming to Eugene to present in February.
At the Sustainability Commission public forum Rob Bolman urged them "to get Serious".
Mark brought up at the Forum what a serious post carbon problem that food will be and that it is already becoming one as he was informed by Kelly (Lynn) of Food for Land County.

Doug: brought up the subject of the "myth of sustainable growth" and sees it as a behemoth that even pounding away at is too big to bring down because most people desperately clinging to and trying to save this mind-set.

Mark: said that the reason for the attachment to the growth model is that managers have a choice between maintaining or decreasing the level of production or increasing productivity, in which, in the later case, workers are sacrificed to the profit that they (the managers) "scoop off the top". Since sustainability does not provide them with these "profits" they band together to keep the idea of growth going.
Dan: said the main problem with the growth idea is that we don't have an alternative model of growth to offer.
Oleg: said that the Prague group has a "concretizing" model they are working on but have not developed it far enough to present it.
Shanti: shared about her appreciation for the "Japan for Sustainability" newsletter http://www.japanfs.org/en/column/ishikawa.html and mentioned an example where a CEO actually choose to forgo fiscal growth for the growth of happiness ( with outstanding results). She made the point that whether growth is negative or positive depends on what is growing and what is not growing.
Cindy: offered that she heard that a solar electric company is being built in the North and that perhaps this is an example of positive growth. We then turned our attention to brainstorming how, when and where we intend to present our movies on peak oil and post carbon themes.

Movies:
Cuba Peak oil film - shows power of community & will have impact.
What a Way to Go; Life at the End of Empire

Shivananda: Hope stops actions, we need to get into despair!
Lots of films imply right tech fix.
Cuba movie, however will give people hope that they can do something themselves.
Cuba exported 1/2 million people over 2 decades.