Minutes for Transition Point Chevalier meeting, 13 October 2015

1 Up-Markets: Heidi recommended the new market in Pt Chevalier, every Saturday, located between Meola Rd and Motions Rd, on the spare land east of the driveway/ tramway. It's definitely worth supporting. Stalls there include a shoemaker from Henderson who makes shoes using rubber soles and leather uppers, and which can be repaired; a couple who live on Meola Rd who sell things like pickled onions, piccalilli and tomato relish; a Mexican couple selling hot Mexican condiments; eco cleaners,; meat; cheese; artworks; etc. If you'd like more details you can google it or ask Heidi.

2. Repair Cafe: Jenny at the bowling club is enthusiastic about the repair cafe idea, and certainly didn't baulk at the idea of hosting it at the bowling club, even in the weekends. She imagined that some of the carpark and sheds would be required for some of the bigger equipment. While we would still need to discuss details with her, we can proceed with the bowling club as one possible venue for the repair cafe. Yay. At next month's meeting we will try to nail the details about the repair cafe so that we can organise a venue and time, and get it happening. For details, contact Walter.

3. Eco-Neighbourhoods: On the 8th November there is a get-together for eco-neighbourhoods to discuss their achievements and swap ideas. Other eco-neighbourhoods have run food swaps, diy cleaner workshops, rainwater harvesting workshops and tree planting working bees, etc. Feedback has been given already that it's a bad time of year for additional engagements and that a get-together in the new year would be more achievable. It would be great if members of Transition Point Chevalier would attend. Ellen has details.

4. Textiles workshop. Heidi has been researching options for running a textiles workshop next year. There is a screenprinting workshop offered at Western Springs College in November, and she doesn't want to saturate the market with more screenprinting workshops but may attend that one and see if the technology is appropriate for what she has in mind: learning skills in personalising second-hand clothing, with - as one option - slogans about eco issues. Several people expressed interest in attending the workshop. Yvette suggested a Transition Point Chevalier logo.

5. Cloth Nappies in maternity hospital: Ally gave an update of the project she initiated at her work, to get the prem unit to use cloth nappies. Unfortunately the bottom line was that laundering cloth nappies cost much more than disposables (transcriber's note: an example of the true cost of resource use and landfills not being reflected) so the project has been reduced to just providing new Mums with information about cloth nappies.

6. Next month we have two subjects: Repair Cafe (see above) and Yvette would like to give a presentation about the Living Wage Campaign.

7. Last and best part of the evening: Keren Rego spoke to us about her role teaching about Fairtrade (and other sustainability subjects) at Pt Chevalier School, her recent trip to Costa Rica - a prize for winning the Fair Trade NZ Supporter of the Year award, and to Ecuador, to visit the cooperative she has been corresponding with and supporting for more than 5 years. In both countries Keren stayed with FairTrade farmers and learnt about how Fairtrade has changed their lives by allowing them to plan their operations, and by giving them a fair price for their goods. Keren is a most engaging and inspiring role model, embodying the central Transition Town goal of having fun while making the transition to a more sustainable lifestyle. This was a wonderful presentation and if you missed it, you might like to look for another opportunity to see Keren in action. She will let us know if there are opportunities for us to support some of the school activities, many of which are fun fund-raising activities whose proceeds go to the communities she supports.

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