waiheke

2012 Great Waiheke plum Drive

James Samuel — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 20:27:12 +0000

A great time was had by all.

Looking at the challenges, square in the eye

James Samuel — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:54:00 +0000

My heart sang last night, to see members of my community look at the challenges of the future, square in the eye, and then with energy and creativity name some creative, and do-able solutions. Here's a six minute video I put together summarizing the evenings activities. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2WZHlCWQxY

Crash Course event

James Samuel — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 10:02:30 +0000

About 25 people came out to see the first of a three part Crash Course by Chris Martenson. www.chrismartenson.com

Waiheke Buyers Club & CSA

James Samuel — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 01:42:44 +0000

The crowd is building, down at the buyers club, which has only been open for three weeks now. A simple concept... get a group of people together, who know each other, and begin buying (in this case organic foods in the form of dry goods and produce), have some people run it like an enterprise (ie markup prices to cover costs), and have people come and buy at set times.

It's working well, and has already become part of our Saturday routine. It's open from 10am-noon Saturday and Wednesday.

Waiheke Heartbeat - A community conversation

James Samuel — Fri, 21 May 2010 07:43:05 +0000

Many important ideas and feelings were expressed into the circle on Tuesday night, respectfully. As people left the hall to return to their homes and whanau, I sensed a mood of possibility.

Finn MacKesy had come over from the city to facilitate the evening's dialogue, which began with a round of introductions and a quick presentation of global challenges as Finn and I have, along with many others, perceived them. You can view the slides and explanatory notes below.

The three key intentions Finn and I held for this gathering:

To create a circumstance to support people having the conversations that they want to have with depth of honesty - the conversations were people-led and everyone had ample opportunity to express their views, thoughts and feelings.
To model and showcase effective tools and processes that support and empower community dialogue - we had a plan to showcase the dialogue process called "Open Space" but the "dialogue Circle" was working and there didn't seem any reason to change that. Next time, we will try another form of dialogue.
To harvest something that can be shared with the wider community - this article is the harvesting from the event.

To read the rest of this story and view the presentation, please jump over to my blog (I wasn't able to embed the presentation here)

The Great Waiheke Plum Drive story with video and pics

James Samuel — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:33:18 +0000

By 9:45am the first pots were boiling on the stove and gas rings that had been setup in the community hall, water was boiling in the cauldren and the jars were being sterilised, and the fruit washers and cutters were already getting ahead of us.

The Big In Tent for sustainability

James Samuel — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:06:44 +0000

2 days of film and ideas to challenge and expand our worldview. There were several live video feeds bringing people in from all over the planet. We connected with people like Rob Hopkins of Transition Network in the UK, Andy Bichlbaum, half of the famous "Yes Men" duo, Mike Fincken, the skipper of the Rainbow Warrior - who were in the Thames River at the time, and others.

Some local personalities and some imports from Auckland made for a lineup of presentations that covered wide ranging topics, to compliment the diverse offering of (mostly) documentary film.

Gratitude

James Samuel — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:14:30 +0000

Two days ago I was speaking with a group of people on a Permaculture design course in Chile. Grifen Hope, an inspiring and energetic young man I met briefly at a LETS conference in 2006, has been in Chile for a couple of years now. He has been making good use of technology recently, and setting up Skype video calls for his design students.

When Grifen wrote and told me his students had been speaking with David Holmgren and Geoff Lawton (two people in the Permaculture world that I have huge respect for), I felt honoured that he was inviting me to follow in their footsteps. For an hour I fielded questions about Transition Towns and how it is growing in New Zealand, in which my video image from their side was a dark screen with a single bright spot from a naked lightbulb.

At the end, by way of hosting them in my place, I took the laptop out into the garden and onto the deck of the house we have been living in for the last few months.This was the view which greeted them, and I suspect from Grifen's comments part of what made him a little homesick.

12 Steps to creating a Waiheke CSA

James Samuel — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:10:04 +0000

Transition Towns has a 12 step framework, which I have adapted here to see if could be useful as a guide for how we might bring the Waiheke CSA into fully operational existence, and meeting its vision of "Waiheke Well Fed".

My additions are in italics. Your comments are welcome.

A Back of the Napkin look at CSA

James Samuel — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:47:48 +0000

After spending a few weeks working on the plan for the Te Matuku Bay property, and an overview of the Waiheke CSA project, I made a presentation to the Waiheke CSA Trust last week. I used a book called "The Back of a Napkin" to help create pictures to describe the What, How Many, Where, When, How, and Why of this project. Click on any picture to enlarge it. Your comments and feedback are most welcome.

VISION

This original vision drawing was done by Meriel, Eleanor and myself in early April.

Waiheke Waste and Recycle - a fight we should not loose!

everth — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:45:08 +0000

When it comes to the topic of the environment, sustainability and “green” issues in general, for many the most palpable connection to all this will be the green recycle bin at the back door. That’s where personal “environmentally friendly practices” began some twenty or so years ago. Now we are all seemingly used to the fact that some items in our waste have a value and can and should be put to some form of further use rather than ending up in landfills.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

James Samuel — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:17:55 +0000

Ongoing work is being done on the timelines. There are three, all accessible from the link above. Te Matuku Bay, Big Picture, First Draft.

The plan is available to be collaborated on. It can be viewed here. If you would like to help write the plan, please drop me a note on my page of the Waiheke CSA site.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

James Samuel — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:11:10 +0000

CSAs come in various flavours but essentially they involve a variety of partnerships between farmers and consumers, in which the consumers buy products directly from the farm, and pay for them in advance. Farmers do their best to produce food in sufficient quantity and quality to meet the consumers needs. Consumers in turn assure the farmers salary and in return receive a regular supply of a variety of fresh vegetables and fruits (in time we plan to include eggs, meats and possibly more).

A Video message to Auckland Councillors

James Samuel — Mon, 04 May 2009 11:45:39 +0000

Keep Your Wheelie Bins In Auckland Central from Scott Ewing on Vimeo.

I love this community!

Transition Talks - Waiheke 2009

James Samuel — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:20:59 +0000

There was a gathering in March, where a number of people came from all over New Zealand to share ideas for how to support the growing Transition Towns movement here. This 13 minute film is taken from 90 minutes of talks given on the first evening we were together. People were invited from all over Waiheke, and heard a wide range of viewpoints about where we are, and where we could be going.

Click To Play