Organizational and Community Building Notes - August 18, 2009

Organizational and Community Building Meeting – Ecolocity, August 18, 2009

Announcements
- The movie Fresh will be shown next week, since we switched the organizational and community building and movie week – is about urban and sustainable agriculture

ECAC Garden Sign
-The 1st sign is completed – is general garden advertisement sign
-Have come up with general text/photos for 2nd set of signs – see attached files – will be decoupaged photos and text on tiles
-Sylvia would like feedback before the next meeting

Howard Town Center Development
-See attached file for information provided by the builder
-Will be a complex between 7/8th, and V/W – will take up an entire block
- Will be anchored with a grocery store, that will be between a Giant and Whole Foods in expense/tone
- Trying to do as much market rate as possible – not planning on doing any specifically affordable housing
- 400 apartment units, 650-1100 square feet – rent between $900-1350
- Is a Howard University project project – own land and just got land through the land swap – Howard is selling or developing most of the property they own
- Going to go for the LEED silver certification - is a sustainable building standard, but there aren't any particular financial incentives for it; probably going to be leveraged for marketing purposes though
- Can build by matter-of-right – don't have to come to the community for input or advice, but are choosing to anyway
- Should have an overall emphasis on energy efficiency – is the longest-term thing they can do to make a building green, often not expensive, is cheaper for the residents
- Roof options – rooftop garden where people can actually raise plants, green roof with a light layer of plants but not an entire garden, solar panels, or if nothing else paint the roof white (keeps cooling costs down substantially)
- Both rooftop gardens and green roofs extend the life of the roof – green roofs last 3 times longer than regular roofs because the UV lights normally break down the roofing materials
- Should incorporate rainwater run-off and graywater recycling into the construction
- We should present this as Howard University’s opportunity to look good, “redeem themselves” from a bad environmental reputation, and save money
- Sylvia would also like them to do some historic preservation, as the bread factory previously in the building was a major part of the community – would like them to describe the history of the old building somewhere in the new building, either on a display (preferable) or a plaque, could also preserve any interesting historical artifacts (pieces of the bread-making machines, etc.)
- Would also like them to recycle materials from the old building
- In the retail space, prefer to see small businesses, non-alcohol arts and performance venues
- Want to make it amenable and inviting to people coming up Georgia Ave.
- Community meeting at ECAC with the developer is on Monday, August 31, 6:30 PM

Potomac Potlatch
- The next date is Labor Day weekend
- Are not going to do it on the holiday itself, as people are often busy – will do it on Saturday instead
- Unfortunately, won’t have at the same time as the CSA drop-off this time because Azembo has changed his drop-off day to Sunday and the rooms are booked for other activities
- Will have from 11 AM – 3 PM, same amount of time as July 4, which worked out well
- Will do ice cream again – have both dairy and non-dairy options
- Need to invite as many people as possible, talk up the event, advertise – posters are available on the Ning site
- Want everyone to distribute flyers to the places they hang out the most at least twice before the event
- Will have more advertisements outside this time, possibly handing out ice cream samples if have enough to do so

Green Festival
- October 10-11
- Will be doing a panel – Larry, Shannon, Chip (Baltimore), Nadine (Takoma)
- Booth – can have a table with chairs $150, split a table for $250, full table for $400
- Larry will formally approach all of the transition groups – Baltimore and Takoma – to see if they will contribute
- Will send out an e-mail asking for money
- Need other fundraising ideas
- Could have a raffle – a drawing at the potlatch? Could auction off skills (gardening, computer skills, graphic design) but unsure if people would want to buy them
- Could have a donated things yard sale – but would again possibly have an issue with getting enough
- Could also sell our extra tickets that we get by being panelists – get 10 a person, so could potentially make more than $500 if able to pre-sell 50 entries for $10/each
- Could also ask volunteers to chip in $5 each because get a free pass in if volunteer
- Can use the potlatch to raise money, but need to really advertise it to attract enough people
- Can have a PSA on community radio – both to advertise ECAC in general and to advertise for specific events