As a result of @Jeff putting together a Morris Theatre Ad slide for the Climate Network, Barbara prompted a discussion on our group purpose/description. As we have not re-visited this conversation in a long time, we started brainstorming/discussing this topic at our November 2025 meeting.
We will have a meeting devoted to this conversation on Saturday, November 8th at 10:30AM online at bit.ly/climate-network. The goal of this meeting will be to come up with an updated statement that effectively describes the Climate Network to any newcomers/interested community members. We will not focus as heavily on creating a future “agenda” for the Climate Network at this meeting, but instead focus on defining how we see ourselves and the practices/values we are/want to be engaging in.
11/8/25 Meeting Agenda:
- quick check-ins
- recap on November Meeting discussion
- continue conversation on purpose/description
- what words describe what you take away from our meetings?
- do we have words that might define some sense of “community agreements”?
- what do we want our description to convey to people? to ourselves?
- what we are practicing, what to expect
- how do we feel here? how do new people feel here?
- how do we want to decide to do projects?
- put together a statement to share with the larger group
11/8/25 Notes:
- Quick check-ins
- Sue is feeling encouraged after this last week’s elections
- Anna is feeling more settled, more familiar
- Hunter doesn’t even know what he’s done this week, settling into doing nothing back home in KS, trying to find ways to get himself outside, and playing the bass
- Vern is feeling impatient, wants to chat about our topic
- Captain is interested in where this conversation will go
- Kim is feeling hopeful and excited for conversation
- Nic got his COVID and Flu shots at Thrifty and they made him sign a form saying he had
- Recap on November Meeting discussion
- Continue conversation on purpose/description
- Why are we thinking about our purpose or working on this statement?
- Group cohesion, clarity amongst ourselves and sharing with the community
- Knowing what our values are (us and outside members). We value…
- the fractal
- conversation
- connection/relationships
- learning/education
- encouraging change/growth/resilience
- facilitating/encouraging/building culture of possibility
- supporting counter culture values
- we are not static, nebulous
- practicing process
- led by the presence, motivation, and desire of those in attendance
- social support (in relationship, in project, in effort)
- fellowship and connection to something bigger than ourselves
- biological need for emotional processing
- What words describe what you take away from our meetings? What are some of our values?
- Internal community building for people who attend, spreading of sustainability awareness across community, community actions
- Do we have words that might define some sense of “community agreements”?
- Put together a statement to share with the larger group
- Future Ideas
- Event/conversation for envisioning ideal ecological community
- Promote organics program more
- Monthly letter to the editor
11/1/25 Notes on our group purpose/practice/culture:
- Revisit WCMNCN purpose
- Who are we?
- Current WCMNCN purpose: To promote individual and group action toward a resilient, equitable and sustainable community through modelling behavioural change, conversation and education.
- The word climate does not show up in our purpose, is that an issue?
- Barbara: Advertising works with simple messages that evoke emotional connections
- Neighbors, conversing, community, people view this group as “Syd Bauer” (we/syd does not want that)
- Barbara: From my experiences in the last six months: A supportive group of friends, who share some feelings about community”
- Anna: A short message for ad I would think is “creating conversation about climate and community”
- Is our group name something we should change?
- Sue says she calls this group the “Climate Network”
- Kim: The name is too confusing for any kind of good marketing because no one can remember it- that’s part of why it’s just “Syd’s thing”
- Captain: have we ever considered “Community Climate Network”?
- Are we trying to expand or are we content with who we are and what we are doing?
- Examining purpose/culture/explaining ourselves to others helps us shift and grow with time. Our group likes to practice effective and caring/connected group process. We practice relational work (examining our culture is relational work).
- What word can we use that defines both ecosystem and community? Is there a word that people associate with both humans and non-humans?
- In being small we can know each other and work together, in growing we might be able to “achieve more” but might know each other less.
- Lots of our efforts are longer term, cultural shifts. When people talk about “doing something” they seem to mean they want a project they can check off and achieve. How can we strive to do both long term cultural work and have some short term achievable/feel good tasks?
- Something that might help people feel “achieved” is if we document the things we do during the year more. It might be nice to have a list of things that the Climate Network participated in to showcase that we are active in ways beyond conversation (which is still very, very valuable activity).