February 2026 Meeting (7 Feb 2026 @ 10:30AM)

Monthly Meetings & Notes
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February 2026 Meeting: Saturday 7th February 2026, 10:30am. This will be a hybrid meeting, meaning that you can join us in person at the MPL Community Room or online at bit.ly/climate-network. We will use the new MPL Media Cart and test out its tech capabilities!

Meeting leader: @Stardrop
Note taker: @syd

With agenda items, upcoming events, or more email wcmncn@googlegroups.com

Agenda:

  • Community Check-ins
  • Group photo!
  • Updates
  • This Month’s Main Conversation Topic: Finalize wording & pick some favorite photos for the Movie Theatre Slide
    • Timeline: Send final language for slide to @jeff by February meeting, ask Jeff to get us a draft/finalized slide to share with the group at the March meeting.
  • Future plans/Upcoming Events
  • Next Meeting
    • Saturday, March [ ] at 10:30AM
    • Online or Hybrid?
    • Meeting Leader:
    • Note Taker:

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Notes:

  • Community Check-ins
    • Joel: Looking forward to nicer weather and activities to do in the nicer weather. Looking forward to doing more this year, feeling hopeful about physical health!
    • Garrett: if anyone wants garden help, let Garrett know! Getting back into headspace of knowing what time it is. Freaked out by everything going on in the world. Plans to watch olympics and do chores at home.
    • Nic: Sue will join us at some random moment, they are doing art currently. This point in the semester is tricky! Found out that a good friend died back in December, tough week.
    • Jeff: Open Mic Night fundraiser inspired Alexandria to hold an Open Mic Fundraiser!! Friday March 13th! Feels all the way awake after learning this!
    • Barbara: Condolences to Nic. Nic invites her to extra meetings, thats partiallyl why shes so busy!! Open Mic felt great. Busy time of year, lots of people care about things and are making things happen.
    • Lex: Wanted to come to more community type things, doing lots of school, wants to be doing more community type things.
    • Kim: Is weirdly happy, yeah the world is burning down, but there are some great people in this town. The sense of belonging is huge, and it makes everything bearable. Kim persists along with the horrors.
    • Talitha: This week has been super busy, its been really nice to be in community considering the past month has been the worst. Talitha went to her first caucus, and is excited to be taking on a new DFL role. January has been a lot, so is looking forward to February!
    • Nuzhat: Resonates with lots of folks’ feelings, strange to experience a past home on the news in a terrifying way. Blown away by how much people have stepped up to protect each other. First time seeing community at this scale, she wants to focus on that part. Is grateful that she chose MN when coming to the US. Is trying to spend more time around people, which feels good.
    • Eirnin (he/they): Definitely been a time, trying to move out back to Morris. It is a tough time operating in the world and doing big life things. Eirnin recently saw an article about how much food shelves prevent waste, they are an environmental issue as well as a social issue.
    • Arden (she/they): is also managing mental health stuff and a big transition.
    • Syd (she/they): Is thinking about connecting with people. Is thinking about how that is what matters and how they have connected with all of the people at this meeting multiple times in the past few weeks. Its exciting to know friends and practice engaging with them in ways that create resilience.
    • Captain (they/them): What aren’t they thinking about? Thinking about all the people in their life that have passed through. They are thinking about how current events connect to their own beliefs, and which values have been instilled in them and which ones they want to re-examine.
  • Updates
    • Container Farming Project
      • Container Farmer has been hired. Christina Helseth (Tina) has a PhD in plant science, but not a lot of experience with hydroponics. The team is touring Frisk Fra Boksen - Mini Micro Farms LLC on Tuesday this week.
      • Start testing farming in March sometime. It will be pretty cool, they are testing a lot of different things. Looking at economics, which crops, how much energy. Could we share the produce at the Farmers Market?
    • Pollinator & Resilient Lawn Crew
      • Resilient Lawn people had a short meeting to determine where they want to start from. Next meeting will be on February 21st after folks review notes and come with a takeaway.
  • This Month’s Main Conversation Topic: Finalize wording & pick some favorite photos for the Movie Theatre Slide
    • Jeff can put together three slides with some bullet points and some wording.
    • No names from screenshots. We will get consent from people in photos.
    • We will make sure to use SWELL/Niemackl photos
    • If the spirit moves Jeff to do some climate network branding, we trust him.
    • We will use the bullet point wording that Captain and Syd put together, Jeff can pick and choose which ones work well.
      • Casual community togetherness
      • Informal citizen network
      • All backgrounds welcome
      • No experience or commitment needed
      • Positive, refreshing atmosphere
      • Communication and conversation-focused
      • Broad focus on climate resilience and its many connected topics
      • Neighbors knowing neighbors
      • Resource and knowledge sharing
      • Inter-generational community of conversation
      • Discussing and dreaming a better future
    • One slide with projects and examples of things we have done: Community Garden, SWELL Field Trip, Neimackl, Farmers Market, Container Farm, and other things.
  • Future plans/Upcoming Events
    • Field Trips
      • Glacial Lakes Candlelight Hike Feb 14th
        • Syd, Nic, Joel, Nuzhat +1, Garrett & Julian (?), Kim & Isaiah, Captain, Syd, Barbara & Ted, Lex, Tony, Talitha and 2+, Louie.
        • Syd will reach out to coordinate rides next week!
    • Things to think about when we want/have space for a new agenda item:
      • West Central Initiative Grants
        • We aren’t focused on money right now, and this project might not be available to us, but thinking about projects that we could get funding for seems like a good long term plan!
      • Book club/study group/video screening?
        • There is a book, “The Solutions Are Already Here”, and video series from SubMedia about Green Capitalism, grassroot organizing across the globe, and ideas for building solidarity across climate initiatives. The three part video series has screening resources and Syd thinks its kind of radically cool. Maybe we can plan an event around this?
  • Next Meeting
    • Saturday, March 7th at 10:30AM
    • Hybrid meeting
    • Meeting Leader: Nuzhat (?)
    • Note Taker: Syd
    • We will invite Henry and the Sustainability students from UMM to join us to see if we can participate in helping out with Earth Month events and activities. Can we promote making the event more community based and less UMM based?