Agenda for Feb. Outreach meeting

Now's the time to start compiling points for the agenda for the February Outreach meeting on Mon. 2/27 7pm at 1236 SE Pine.

The Outreach group is engaged in projects having to do with spreading the word about peak oil. We identify and organize tabling opportunities, plan the third and fourth Wed. evenings of each month, address public presentation requests, and brainstorm creative actions we can take to get the word out to the public about preparing and conserving as the end of cheap energy draws near.

Here are a couple points to address at our upcoming meeting:
- Possible tabling at City Repair's Earth Day event
- Possible VBC peak oil workshop
- Fifth Wed. of March at St. Francis - potluck gathering
- Speakers for Wed. nights for April

There's room at the meeting for other ideas - please add them in the comments here. And please come to the meeting if outreach interests you!

speakers bureau?

Was the outreach or the policy group going to be handling the speakers bureau?

Jeremy O'Leary, Working to suport my biology habit.

in the neighborhood

I've gathered lots of great ideas from the "What do we ask our Neighborhood Association?" forum. I'd like to propose as an agenda item, the drafting of a 10-15 minute presentation OUTLINE that is concise and focused on soliciting a positive reponse from the neighborhood association.
My hope is that we can all be well-versed in presenting a short explanation, guidlines for solutions within our neighborhoods, and also be ready to deal with Q&A.

Education and outreach

This is actually from Nikki; I'm reposting it here:
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Emily & PPO members,

You know that my thing is the education angle; amplified, no doubt, by my son's presence. Every time I attend a lecture, I'll always ask the presenter about how to prepare kids for the future, since what post peak oil holds is vastly different from what kids have now, and are hence, been prepared for a life that will have little recognition to the one that schools anticipate and thus prepare for.

Since Dr. Deffeyes has clearly thought about this issue, I did not ask him; but I started thinking about how PPO's outreach could address this issue. And if someone has already mentioned this angle, then ignore the rest of this email.

What I envision is having the concept of Peak Oil introduced to every school aged kid in the greater Portland area. Pam, from the Permaculture Institue, did a presentation on permaculture for us last year. But that's not enough. I want kids to get a yearly introduction (re-introduction) to Peak Oil. Wouldn't this type of activity fall under the auspices of PPO's outreach committee? I would like to coordinate this with a group of PPO parents, educator and members who are skilled presenters to children of various ages. If we start now, there's a good chance that we can influence the future by targeting those who will shape the future itself. If we can give them information about where to learn the skills that they will need, well, things will be much improved. As we are preparing, so should our children.

What do you think? I bet someone's probably already covered this aspect, huh? If so, could you tell me who to work with on this so that this vision becomes a reality?

-nikki monacelli

Kids, Education, and Outreach

My friend is in charge of the Connections program at Nestucca high school. This is where they take all the high-strung, problem kids and Will (my friend) takes them out to clear land, tear-down buildings, or build something. I think this is one of the best programs in the school and wish it could be extended to all the students. He has helped many kids finish high school who normally wouldn't and gives many hands-on mentoring.
As regards peak oil, I think this idea can be extended to permaculture training and the needs of the community within this new culture we are developing. localizeit talks about a 15 minute presentation on peak oil. This could be extended to one hour and geared to a junior-high, high school audience. Past this initial session, programs should be available that will in fact teach the kids (hands-on) how to garden, how to prepare home-grown medicines, and how to build in an energy-efficient and sustainable way. I have also found that, in fact, sometimes it is easier to teach children who will, after a fact, teach their parents at home.