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                Conversation Cafe'

As a follow-up to Helena Norberg-Hodge's talk on Nov. 18, 2004, we organized community discussion sessions, called Conversation Cafés.

What is a Conversation Café?

It is a one-to-two hour hosted conversation, held in a public setting, where anyone is welcome to join.  A simple format helps people feel at ease and gives everyone who wants it a chance to speak.  At Conversation Cafés, everyone is "the talk show"—and it's also fine for people to simply listen.

Our Topic:  What is needed to create a local and sustainable economy in the valley?  

The first one was held on:  Thursday, December 2, at 7 p.m. at Memories Cafe' in Corvallis...

The second one was held on:  Thursday, Jan. 6, 2005, 7 p.m,  Corvallis HS library        

The third one was held on:  Thursday, February 3, 7 p.m., Corvallis H.S. Library

The fourth one was held on:  Thursday, March 3, 7 p.m., Corvallis H.S. Library

The fifth one was held on:  Thursday, April 7, 7 p.m., Corvallis H.S. Library

The sixth one was held on:  Thursday, May 5, 7 p.m., Corvallis H.S. Library

        Notes from this meeting are below.

The seventh one was held on:  Thursday, June 2, 7 p.m., Corvallis H.S. Library

        Notes from this meeting are below.

The eighth one was held on:  Thursday, July 7, 7 p.m., Corvallis H.S. Library

        Notes from this meeting are below.

The ninth one was held on Thursday, Aug 4, 7 pm, at Leo Staat's home in Stevi. 

       We skipped Sept.'s meeting due to the Fair.

The tenth one was held on Thursday, Oct. 6, at 7 pm, at the Corvallis H.S. Library.
 

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The Process:   Conversation Cafe's are minimally facilitated.  Participants pass a baton to speak, are asked to respect one another and to be concise in their contributions to the discussion.  The facilitator makes sure that no one dominates the conversation and that everyone has opportunity to contribute.   Everyone who participates in a Conversation Café is asked to agree to a set of guidelines that set the tone of the gathering.

Café Guidelines:

Agreements for a Great Conversation:

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Notes – Conversation Café #8          July 7, 2005    Corvallis H.S. Library

 12 people present, 2 new people

 Passing the talking stick (owl’s feather) to introduce ourselves and speak about the issues that were on our minds, including:

            -food quality & local economy

            -seeds and rising fuel prices

            -sustaining the local economy through recycling & an environmentally friendly timber economy

            -building an eco-friendly home and having a community where people trade

            -Green Home tour

            -how to create a community farm

            -having a coop and living a simple life

            -we need to be aware of the seriousness of water issues

            -getting farmland to potential farmers is an important issue to

            -a program like the Ithaca dollars is easier type of alternative currency to begin with

Upon the second passing of the talking stick, participants elaborated on some of the above topics.

 -Steve Fain suggested stickers encouraging consumers to support local businesses

-Signe Shepherd is finishing sketches for the "Bitterroot Bucks" design

 -Gail & Bill Knox discussed the issue of water privatization: 46% of US water has been privatized

 -Bevan felt the Buy Fresh/Buy Local coop program could be a good way to get a local currency moving

-Corrine and Bevan visited the Montana Community Development Corp; a small loan bank would be possible to do locally

-Leo Staat pointed out that we need a community in order to live sustainably, and destroying the environment prohibits sustainability

-Diana Schmeling pointed out that we need to be a community to have world peace; and we don’t want a coop that would compete with smaller local stores

-John Seaver said we should live consciously and leave a small impact; the coop bylaws should make sure that it remains affordable

-Discussion concerning SLS serving as a central clearing house where scheduled building projects, that people could learn from and help with, would be posted on the website: a “simple living network”. 

-It was felt that a lending library of equipment would be a good idea.

-Bevan says, as usual, these great ideas take manpower

-The group was reminded to:

            Call your Senators to voice an opinion about our Supreme Court nominee

            Participate in True Food petition campaigns

            Help restore local democracy

            Care about the environment

While we are having beautiful summer evenings, the group felt it would be fun to have a pot luck meeting. It was decided that our next meeting would be at:

Leo Staat’s house, 4092 Stevi River Road, Stevensville

7:00 p.m. - August 4

(Call 961-4419 for directions)

Leo says that it’s one thing to talk the talk, but he will show you how he is living the ideal!

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Notes - 7th Conversation Café      June 2, 2005      Corvallis H.S. Library

14 people present, including 4 interns from SLS
 
Passing the talking stick (corn ear) to introduce ourselves and mention our primary interest re/ building a sustainable economy....topics included building a local food system, valley becoming self-sufficient, local currency.   

A few people questioned... WHY have another currency?
    Several people answered:  
        - helps create barter type transactions, supports and facilitates a barter system
        - gives flexibility to barter transactions when have items of differing values
        - lends a form of familiarity and legitimacy to the system
        - will help get trading going, a stimulus to trade
        - shifts patterns of consumption from dependency on far away producers to local producers
        - stimulates patterns of production to serve a growing local demand
        - could be very important if the current financial system collapsed
        
Steve mentioned that the Farmers Market already has their own "market dollars" for exchange among vendors.   We wondered if we could adopt, collaborate, or somehow augment this initiative.    Steve will discuss this with them at their next board meeting.

We also thought the ArtCity Co-op might be interested in being on board at the beginning.   Alice said she will talk to them and get a list of their members.
Someone (who?) will talk with Rod Daniel about doing an article in the paper.    (How about in the Star?)

Jill passed out 6 copies of a booklet to pass around among people interested in this initiative that gives the basic concepts, called "Economics of Peace"  from the Schumacher Society.   It includes 3 essays by E.F. Schumacher, Wendell Berry, and Susan Witt.   More copies may be ordered from their website:    www.smallisbeautiful.org   

PLAN OF ACTION:  The first task is to recruit people to be in the Directory of goods and services that people will offer for trade.   When we have a sufficient number of people for the directory (Susan Witt recommends 100), then we must print some currency and, following the lead of the Ithaca system, give 4 "B'root Bucks" (worth 4 hours of work or $40) and a directory to all who want to participate.    Hey hey, free money!    This is fun!  

We have written up a flyer that gives the basic description of how it works.    I have attached it to this email.   Please print it out, make copies, and help us to recruit participants.   It has a sign up form on page 2 that needs to be returned to the SLS office or to SLS's Farmers Mkt table.   (for website readers - just email me (Jill) and I'll reply with attachment)

We also will use the SLS table at the Farmers Mkt. to pass out the fliers, and talk to people.   Your help at that table would be much appreciated.    The market opens at 9:00 a.m. every Saturday morning in Hamilton, by the Museum..

Following the discussion of these things, we had a free flowing exchange of things people have to barter right now.   There was a lot of laughing and chatter.  Example:   Mac has a lot of glycerin that is left when he makes biodiesel.    It can be used to make soap and salves.   someone mentioned rhubarb juice, cooking with a Dutch Oven....etc.
   
See you all next month......meetings are the first Thursday of each month....Corvallis HS Library, 7 p.m. ...put it on your calendar

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Notes - 6th Conversation Café      May 5, 2005      Corvallis H.S. Library

14 people present, 5 new people
 
        Passing the talking stick (corn ear) – no new issues, reitteration of the peak oil issue, that we should get sustainable systems going in  the valley soon, as the economic bubble could burst anytime.   Bevan also urged that we support our locally owned newspaper (the Star) and be aware of the difference between a corporate owned and locally owned newspaper.
        We went around 2nd time getting people's questions regarding the talk and workshop coming up with Susan Witt from the Schumacher Society.   There were many questions about how to launch a local currency.
        Then Steve Fain passed around info from the Center for Food Safety, that is about the corporate hijacking of our crop varieties via patenting and GMO's.    Thank you Steve.

Footnote:   We are going to do it !
        On May 12 & 13,   Susan Witt, ED of the Schumacher Society (www.smallisbeautiful.org)  and a co-worker, Chris Lindstrom came to speak at the Corvallis Grange and work with us on the following afternoon at the Corvallis Methodist Church.    Their website has lots of information about various schemes to build a local economy, including a directory of 22 communities in the U.S. that have local currencies, model by-laws and papers on legal considerations, how to set up a SHARE program, and Community Land Trust, etc.     
 
        The sessions with Susan and Chris went well, we learned a lot, and the workshop at the church on Friday was well attended by people who are enthusiastic about starting a local currency.    We are going to go for it.     Our next meeting is this Thursday, May 19, at the Corvallis Methodist Church, at 2 p.m.    We will plan how to present our two related schemes to the community - one is a trade in services, the other is a local currency, modeled after the Ithaca Hours.  (See our Local Currency page for Notes from the first working group meeting.)
 

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