Jan. 21, 2005

Dear DOERS members,

You’ve probably been wondering what happened to us! Well, after our traditional summer vacation, the board agreed to delay activities because so many of us were busy working on the election. Now that the Inauguration is over, we are ready to roll up our sleeves again to combat the forces that cause people to become refugees, and to help displaced people in need.

To that end you are invited to our yearly meeting, to be held on Friday, Jan. 28, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the home of Karen Carlson, 2215 Kendall Ave., Madison. You will know it by the big rainbow flag that says "PACE" (that’s Italian for peace) that hangs from the porch roof.

Sincerely,

Susan Becker, 231-1817 Karen Carlson, 233-7989 Phyllis Hasbrouck, 223-9571 Bonita Sitter 250-8805

I (Phyllis) participated in a 10 day tour of Sweden last August, to see and study Sweden’s Eco-municipalities. I learned about whole communities that have made drastic cutbacks in the amounts of fossil fuel used, waste produced, and toxic materials used. We saw a convention center that produced only one cubic yard of landfill waste in 13 months, a car-wash facility that used 70% less city water than a conventional one, and a Ford dealership that in 2002 sold 94% Flexifuel cars (they can run on ethanol or methane.) We learned about counties that adopted 4 principles of sustainablity (The Natural Step framework) as their guiding principles, and have benefited economically and ecologically from their decision and from the creativity that was unleashed through the training and visioning and planning process that followed.

In short, we saw the future, if our world is to have any future. Just before leaving for Sweden I read Boiling Point, by Ross Gelbspan, author of The Heat is On, both books about global climate change. I realized that unless the world drastically changes its energy habits, we will all soon be refugees, looking for a safe climate that no longer exists. Therefor, I propose that DOERS’ main focus this year be in educating people about the Swedish example, and working towards imitating their successes here.

Many of the refugees that we have helped so far are in the developing world. Presently, most in those countries are trying to imitate the Western model of development. If there is any hope of getting them to refrain from cutting down rainforests or burning coal, we need to set a good example here. Therefor, it seems to me that 1) learning how we can change our personal lifestyles and 2) learning how our bodies of government can adopt principles of sustainability and encourage new ways of living, are probably the best thing we can do for all potential refugees, which includes us.

But of course we do not want to neglect the enormous need there is now in the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunamis. And so we need to do fundraising around that too. And our dinner guests from Haiti Reborn, Joe Duplan and Melinda Miles, are asking us for support as they work for human rights in Haiti. And there are the women of Afghanistan, whom we have already helped with the handicrafts sales in the recent holiday season.

And lastly, there is the sustainable farming/orcharding issue we addressed last year. Everyone who attended last spring’s orchard trip to Turkey Ridge wanted to do it again, and so I propose offering this option to those who would like to help a sustainable, organic fruit cooperative in Wisconsin. And if Troy Gardens is doing pruning classes again, we should include notice of that in our newsletter as well.

1. Sustain Dane, the local group that works to promote sustainability in Dane County, is hosting 3 speakers on Swedish Eco-municipalities, from Mar. 3 to Mar.6. Phyllis is already on the ad hoc committee for the visit. Torbjorn Lahti, the father of the Swedish Eco-municipality movement, his American co-author Sarah James (they wrote the book The Natural Step for Communities: How Cities and Towns can Change to Sustainable Practices) and Michael Jalmby, president of ESAM, who helps business change to sustainable practices, will be making major public presentations in Stoughton on Mar. 4 and in Madison on Mar. 5. The committee is also considering organizing a catered dinner immediately after the Madison event (to raise funds to help pay for the tour) and a meeting for elected officials.

I propose that our first project be to cosponsor these events, and to work hard to make them successful. This would involve doing a newsletter in Feb., which featured stories on the tour and topic of sustainability, doing phone-banking to our list to increase turnout, working on publicity and media, and doing reminder calls to yeses and maybes. And also volunteering at the events. (Don’t worry, the dinner will be catered!!)

2. The book I mentioned above is a wonderful resource for inspiring people with its stories, and educating people about the methods used in Sweden and also in various towns in the U.S. and Canada. 5 study groups have already started. People who participate in these develop a greater understanding of both the problems and the solutions. I propose making recruitment for these study groups part of our newsletter, phone-banking and publicity. I suggest we set a goal of getting 50 people to participate between now and June.

3. A group from the Madison Mennonite Church is holding a bake sale, craft sale and silent auction on Sat., Feb. 12, from 2 to 4:30 at Orchard Ridge UCC to help buy water purification systems for tsunami victims. The funds will go through the Mennonite Central Committee. I propose that we advertise this in our newsletter, and that we commit, among our activists, to making at least 100 calls to friends to ask them to donate goods or to attend and buy.

4. Last March, just a week after the coup that toppled elected Haitian president Aristide, DOERS held a dinner to benefit the reforestation project at Gros Mornes. Since then, Haiti has descended into a nightmare of violence and poverty. Our Haitian dinner speaker, Melinda Miles, and her partner (our cook) Joe Duplan, are now living in Haiti, where they are struggling to help people who are refugees in their own land. Here are a few of the things they are requesting funds to do:

• Making grants to organizations whose members have gone into hiding or had their homes burned in recent violence:
• Assisting victims of recent floods recover important lost documents, like birth certificates and identity cards.
• Helping finance medical treatment for victims of violence.
• Setting up safe houses to provide temporary refuge to people whose homes are caught in the crossfire, and for women who have been raped.
• Giving small grants to individuals who have no safety net to turn to.

5. Helping to create and support institutions that are preserving, not destroying the environment is another way that we can help build a society where there will be no refugees, no toxins and no hunger. To that end I propose that we organize another expedition to Turkey Ridge organic apple orchard in April to help with planting, pruning, etc. This is an excellent "doing" activity that 20 people enjoyed last year. This year, with more advance organizing, I think that we can at least double the number of participants, especially among high school students.

I also propose looking into the possibility of doing a day’s work at Future Fruit, a struggling family-owned orchard that is the only local source for organic pears.

Feb. 5: Deadline for writing and editing and layout of newsletter.

Feb. 6: take newsletter to printer.

Feb. 6&7: Members send out emails to friends re tsunami aid relief event at ORUCC.

Feb. 8: Mailing party for newsletter

Feb. 9: Mail newsletter

Feb. 10 and 11: members make calls to friends to donate to or purchase from tsunami aid event at ORUCC.

Feb. 12: Mennonite Bake and Craft sale and Silent Auction for tsunami victims. Some members donate to, and volunteer at the event.

Feb. 14,15,16 and 17,18,19: Phonebanking for turnout for Eco-municipality events, for participation in study groups of The Natural Step for Communities, for Haiti donations, and for Turkey Ridge event.

Feb. 28, Mar. 1, 2: Phonebanking the yeses and maybes to remind about Eco-municipality talks.

All of Feb.: working on publicity and media. Phyllis will do weekly kiosk announcements on WORT, others can too.

March 3 –6: tour of Swedes, events in Stoughton and Madison.

March 9-31: organizing to recruit for Turkey Ridge event.

April 23 or thereabouts: planting day at Turkey Ridge

April or May: possibly a helping day at Future Fruit.

May and June: possibly continuing to recruit and maintain study groups, possibly organize for a return visit of the Swedes, to work with the county government on sustainability.