Gearing up for the next Financial Permaculture Summit

The Financial Permaculture Institute is gearing up for the next Financial Permaculture Summit to be held in Hohenwald, TN September 22-26, 2009. Registration for the event is now up and running on www.financialpermaculture.com.

Just like last year, we're making our preparation a participatory community process. For the past four months the Sonnenschein Green Initiative has held bi-monthly meetings with 20-60 minutes at each meeting devoted to break out groups on local economic development. We've been harvesting these conversations and those from our monthly Green Evening Cafes to determine the focus of the next Summit.

On Tuesday May 26 the Financial Permaculture Institute Team met for our monthly design day. We've decided that we'll likely have the following threads throughout the September Summit: food and farming, building and housing, energy and fuel, solid waste and recycling, green business, community development and mapping financial ecosystems.

Later that day, we had a Green Evening Cafe on Green Business. At the Cafe we did a short breakout on topics for the September Summit. We asked people what instructors they would most likely want to have attend and what conversations they would like to have - click here to read a full report.

Our goal is to continue this conversation with local residents and have our content instructors confirmed and proposed itinerary released on www.financialpermaculture.com by the end of June. We'll spend the rest of the summer preparing content and organizing the Financial Permaculture Certificate and Green Business Degree Pathway.

Reflecting on the 2008 Summit:
The two greatest success of the 2008 Summit were that it: 1. Ignited the interest of our local residents, thus catalyzing our transition efforts, and 2. Brought together an interdisciplinary coalition of individuals from the government, business, non-profit and education sectors.

Local catalysts: Firstly, we had about 14 local residents, aside from the organizers, attend the Summit and that we secondly, did well in our documentation of the event and post event process. This was like a mycelium effect. As these 14 people went back into the community, just two months later the word Permaculture and Transition Towns had permeated the culture and my friend heard people using the words as she got her hair cut at the local beauty salon. Overhearing conversations like these are a telltale sign of cross-pollination. On documentation, we had about 12 people live blogging the Summit, Byron Palmer graciously volunteered to make a 30 minute documentary about the event and after the Summit I and others have been blogging about our local Transition efforts. This documentation toolbox has really helped catalyze our local transition efforts. We’ve given about 200 copies of the documentary to local residents and have shown it several times at public events. The documentary which can be viewed on www.financialpermaculture.com has been like a huge business card or portfolio that locals are using to gauge our worth. The results are in and folks who see the documentary generally want to either get involved or find out more.

Interdisciplinary Coalition: We know that many people have different opinions on core issues like politics, religion, climate change and the economy. To us, diversity of opinion is very welcome and encouraged. We appreciate working with diverse demographics of age, gender, level of education and income – plus a wide dissimilarity in our shades of green. Our aim is to collaborate with as many types of people as possible. We also seek to bring as many conversations to the table as needed to move forward with our own unique transition efforts, while looking for key crosscutting patterns applicable to other communities. We are very humbled by the diversity in the people who attended our last Summit and who are involved with our local initiative. I always tell people that this is one of the most rewarding aspects to our work - bringing diverse people together who may not usually share conversations. I love the dynamics when green meets business and business meets green! I'm certain that we will continue to bring together an interdisciplinary coalition of individuals from the government, business, non-profit and education sectors and people from the full spectrum - representing the different shades of green.

It continues to be a very exciting participatory process and we hope that you'll get involved!

Financial Permaculture from Greg Landua on Vimeo.

Regional Sustainability Forum

Green Business Expo, Speakers, Forums,
Music, Arts & Crafts
Sonnenschein Regional
Sustainability Forum
June 5-7, 2009

June Forum Schedule
Friday, June 5 - Participate in a tour of The Farm Community Green Businesses, Community Dinner and an Evening Talk about the future of Eco-Entrepreneurialism and Bioregionalism.
Location: The Farm Community Center, Summertown, TN

5-6:30 Tour of Farm Businesses with Doug Stevenson of Village Media
- Donations Welcome, Must pre-register by contacting Doug at 931-964-2590 or Douglas@villagemedia.com
6:30-7:30 Dinner at Farm Community Center - meal by Roberta Kachinsky - MEAL $8
7:30-8:30 Green Business and Bioregionalism
8:30-9:30 Continental Bioregional Congress

Saturday, June 6
Join us for a Green Business Exhibition, presentations and forum discussions on important
issues related to the environment and economy of Middle Tennessee. Free - Donations Welcome!
Location: Lewis County Middle School, Hohenwald, TN

9-9:15 am Welcome - by Mayor Don Jones on Faith
Overview of Sustianability Forum by Debbie Landers

9:15-10:00 Fuel and Energy
Chris Gibson of Green Driving Solutions and Erik Daugherty or other member of E3 Innovate

10:15-11:00 Food and Farming
Tim Bodner of Avalon Acres and Bethann Easterly of Middle TN Food Security Partners

11:15-12:00 Building and Housing
Jerry Risner of Buffalo Valley and Fred Lawrence of Lawrence Brothers LLC

12:00-3:00
Lunch on your own, Music, Exhibitors, Kids Play shop, Auction
Silent Auction: 9 am - 3 pm - You may pick up auction items between 4-6 pm
Live Auction 2:30-3 pm

3-3:15 pm Forum Overview with John McFadden of Tennessee Environmental Council
Faith and Sustianability with Dodd Gallbreath of Lipscomb University

3:15-3:35 Solid Waste and Recycling
Van Ward of Lewis County Solid Waste

3:50-4:45 Green Business
Catherine Austin Fitts of Solari Inc. and Dodd Gallbreath of Lipscomb University

5:00-6:00 Break Out in Classrooms
- Fuel and Energy
- Food and Farming
- Building and Housing
- Solid Waste and Recycling
- Green Business
- Faith

Saturday - TRANSITION CELEBRATION - Join residents of Hohenwald, TN at the Emporium Cafe in downtown Hohenwald to celebrate their unleashing as a Transition Town. Hohenwald will join hundreds of other towns across the world in this Movement towards Re-Localized Economies. The event will feature local food and music, and will be aired live on-line. Dinning space is limited so please reserve dinner reservations 3-5 days before the event by calling 931-796-6965. Dinner and Music will be $15. There will be standing room and possibly extra tables for those interested in attending the celebration who do not want to eat dinner.

6:00-7:30 Transition Dinner, Music and Networking - Dinner and Music $15, Reservations Required
7:30-8:30 Speakers, Awards, Celebration - Free and open to the public without reservations.

Sunday, June 7 -- Sonnenschein's Sunny Sunday
Tour of Alternative Homes 9 am - 5 pm - View off-grid and grid-tie Solar Electric Homes, Passive Solar Designs, Windmills, Solar Hot Water Heaters, Natural Buildings, Permaculture Landscapes and more! Tour 5-7 homes, start location TBA. You can register and find out about the start location at the Saturday Sonnenschein Information Booth or by calling 888-878-2434 x5 or e-mailing info@holisticecology.org. You must pre-register by 6 pm Saturday, June 6. The tour is a caravan. There will be two start times at different locations to accommodate people who can only attend a partial tour.

GENERAL OVERVIEW
Exhibitors set up by 9 am and take down after 6 pm.

LOCATIONS:
Friday - Meet at the Farm Community in Summertown, TN
http://maps.google.com/maps?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hl=en&tab=wl
Saturday - Lewis County Middle School - Park Ave South, Hohenwald, 38462 - http://maps.google.com/maps?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hl=en&tab=wl)
Sunday - Start location in Lewis County to be announced - must contact 931-796-4874 or get information at Sonnenscehin information booth Saturday June 6.

Contact for event details:
931-796-4874 or 888-878-2434 x 5 or info@holisticecology.org

Contact for exhibitor details:
931-729-3694 or jmiller312@gmail.com

Contact for sponsorship and donation details:
931-628-1953 or sharprealtor@yahoo.com

Contact Information:
Friday events - contact:
Douglas Stevenson, 931-964-2590, Douglas@villagemedia.com and visit www.thefarmcommunity.com
Saturday and Sunday events - contact:
Jennifer Dauskha-English, 888-878-2434 x5, info@holisticecology.org and visit www.sonnenscheingreentn.org

This event is co-sponsored by:
Tennessee Environmental Council,
Greener Tennessee,
Cumberland Green Bioregional Council
and Tennessee Conservation Voters

Get Involved

Interested in getting involved with the Sonnenschein Green Initiative?
All that we ask of you, is that you sincerely care about supporting local economic and community development and that you have an open mind to diverse opinions around ‘green’ strategies and the integrity to follow through with volunteered tasks. We also encourage you to be proactive. We prefer to focus on opportunities and solutions rather than problems.

What is local economic and community development? This means that we strive to support the following areas: local business owners, farmers, artisans and service providers; the creation of quality and long-term local employment opportunities; community networking opportunities and social events; creating an economy that has a total and sustainable economic return; and increasing our goods and services exported rather than imported. We also focus on ‘green’ development, as we see that creating a ‘green’ economy and ‘greening up’ our production and consumption will be the quickest and most effective way to achieve sustainable economic and community development. To us the word ‘green’ equals efficiency and less waste.

Here’s how the Sonnenschein meetings function: The working group leaders report about their group’s progress at bi-monthly meetings. Whenever a group is active on a project they get included on the agenda. These working groups all meet separately, some meet monthly, bimonthly, weekly or as needed. After project updates, the group usually breaks out into planning and development sessions. The group decides which topics they want to discuss. Sometimes these discussions are very significant in creating new projects and other times they are useful conversations about a particular topic.

The group makes decisions by a combination of consensus and majority voting. Most decisions are made at the level of working group. All of our meetings are open to the public. We respect the voice and opinions of all who attend our meetings. Any ideas expressed by a new attendee are placed on a contemplanda. We do this so that new attendees have a few weeks or months to find out about existing projects before we create new ones. Once a new attendee has been to 5 meetings or primary events they are considered part of the group or working group. As part of the group they can help make decisions, start new projects, request support and funding from the group. Any new idea that supports local economic and community development and brings life to the group - could become a potential project or think tank. We like having multiple working groups and projects because they provide numerous portals of entry for new community members to become active.

We know that many people in our group have different opinions on core issues like politics, religion, climate change and the economy. To us, diversity of opinion is very welcome and encouraged in our group. We also appreciate diverse demographics of age, gender, level of education and income – plus a wide difference in our shades of green. Our aim is to collaborate with as many types of people as possible. We also seek to bring as many conversations to the table as needed to move forward with our own unique transition efforts. This said, we often look at tools and models used by successful communities from around the world. Our goal is not to mimic other communities, but to learn about working solutions and adapt our findings to our own unique circumstances. This process of design from pattern to detail moves us forward, with occasional trials and errors. With every problem that we encounter we strive to find a useful solution. To stay proactive and effective, we regularly check in with the group to discuss our core vision, objectives and to evaluate our process.

We encourage you to attend one of our meetings or events. We also welcome your feedback and ideas in the form of typed informal proposals. If you have a project you’re interested in initiating or some positive or constructive ideas for how we should move forward – then please send us a 100-700 word proposal to info@holisticecology.org or give us a printed copy at one of our meetings. We hope that there is some way that our efforts can serve your family or business.

6th Transition Update

Public meetings were held on Wednesdays April 15, 29 and May 13. Items discussed:
Transition Initiative
Food and Farming
Building and Housing
Technical Trainings
Green Business Development
Leadership Training
Stalled Projects
Completed or Upcoming Projects
Upcoming Events

Transition Initiative
On Tuesday, April 28, 2009, the Sonnenschein Green Initiative hosted the 4th Green Evening Cafe. The public event was held from 6-8:30 p.m. at the Emporium. Transition Town Hohenwald was the theme for the April Green Evening. Speakers at the event included: Former Sonnenschein Chair and current Editor of the Lewis County Herald, Becky Newbold, Chamber President Mark Graves, City Vice Mayor Dustin Flowers and others.
Please click here to read the full report.

On Friday May 8, 2009 we received official acceptance into the Transition Town Network. We were granted approval from the network to do our Transition Unleashing on June 6, 2009. Please click here to read more.

Food and Farming
The Food and Farming Working Group has been meeting twice a month. There main project is the development of a Community Garden.

Click here to read about their ground breaking event and to read about Community Gardens.

The Food and Farming Group is looking for donations of the following items for their garden:
mulching materials: newspapers, cardboard, shredded paper; framing materials for beds; peat moss; vermiculite; natural fertilizers; wood chips for paths - Contact Bob Ogden at zoldfartz@yahoo.com

Lastly, an update on the Farmer's Market and Community Kitchen: There were about 4 meeting held regarding the development of a Farmer's Market. There were two other initiatives within the community also discussing different types of markets, all complimentary to our ideas. The Sonnenschein group decided in early May to table this project for two reasons. First - the group wanted to focus their attention on the Community Garden and second, the group saw that the other initiatives were moving forward and we hope to give our support to those efforts.

On the community kitchen front - we're moving slowly in finding funds for such a project. We have a few ideas about locations for the kitchen.

Building and Housing
Jerry and John Risner of Buffalo Valley Inc., have given several presentations to the group on a new green home that Buffalo Valley with support form Sonnenschein, is building on the corner of Walnut and Second Street. Construction may begin as early as this month. The building will incorporate energy efficient materials, solar hot water, water catchment and a Permaculture designed landscape. Click here to read more. Jerry is also applying for grants that would potentially enable green retrofitting in Middle Tennessee.

Technical Trainings
The Tennessee Technology Center at Hohenwald has partnered with the Sonnenschein Green Initiative in the development of a grant for a Green Jobs Technical Training Program. If the training is funded it will hopefully begin in September of 2009 and run through August 2010. The curriculum would include technical trainings in Permaculture, Agroforestry, Sustainable Design, Energy Analysis, Green Building, Weaterization, Solar Hot Water Installation, Photovoltaic Installation, Geothermal Installation, BioChar, Vehicle Conversions to Electric and Vegetable Oil, Ethanol, Biodiesel, Green Business and Career Development.

Green Business Development
One of the primary goals of the Sonnenschein Initiative is Green Business. We hope to help green existing businesses and to develop or attract new businesses. To this aim, Sonnenschein is gearing up for the second Financial Permaculture Course and Green Business Summit to be held September 22-26 in Hohenwald, TN. At the course in 2008, local stakeholders helped design business plans for ethanol production, a green incubator, a green marketplace and several farming initiatives. To prepare for the 2009 Summit, we're creating allies with potential green business stakeholders in the community. Keeping the same themes from 2008: food and farming, building and housing, fuel and energy and green business - we hope to identify opportunities within the community to either build on last years designs or to create effective designs that support he interests of potential local stakeholders. Once we determine our needs, we'll look to invite national experts in that field to attend the event as content instructors. We hope that the community will help guide us in preparing for the Summit. The next Green Evening Cafe on May 26 will partially focus on what green businesses Hohenwald and Lewis County could most benefit from.

Also, related to Business Development, Mark Graves, as Chamber President, recently formed a Green Business Development Committee for the Chamber, as a result of a recent Chamber retreat and strategic planning with the state of Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. The goal of this new Development Committee is to educate current businesses to capitalize on green energy and efficiency. There first meeting will be June 4. City Vice Mayor, Dustin Flowers stated that the city realizes the opportunities for a green economy and that is why the City supports becoming a Transition Town. Their first true step in support of this effort is renaming the industrial park on Swan Avenue the Hohenwald Eco-Industrial Park and in targeting new Green Industry.

Leadership Training
Our group decides that we wanted some leadership training at each of our meetings. We asked Debbie Landers, alumni and instructor during our local Leadership Lewis Trainings has been giving 10-15 minute presentations on leadership development during each of our public meetings. It is our aim to train up leaders within this initiative. So far we have received very positive feedback from the group regarding these presentations.

On a slightly different note, our group has put together a statement on purpose and decision making processes. Here is what we've come up with so far. Click here for details.

Stalled Projects
Green Sewage Treatment Facility: We found out in early May that the proposal for the constructed wetlands for the new Sewage Treatment Facility in Hohenwald were presented to the facility engineers. It was said that they liked the idea but did not approve the design because they feared that it would stall or impede the flow of federal and state funds into the project. The city has decided to table the 'green' design and move forward on the original design and time line proposed by the engineer. The City Recorder, Mark Graves stated that the city was still interested in potential 'green' designs once the facility is constructed. He noted that there may be additional grants available specifically for constructed wetlands or other green projects that could be applied to the Sewage Treatment facility in the future.

Complimentary Currency: In 2008 the local Chamber of Commerce started a complimentary currency called a Chamber Buck. Similar programs are being run elsewhere in the state of TN, in the city of Lebanon for example. Click here to read a previous post about Chamber Bucks.

There was so much interest in the program that the Sonnenschein group decided to have a few conversations about it during our bi-monthly meetings. Every time it got brought up people were very interested in learning more about the topic and the useful success stories from other towns and cities using complimentary currencies around the world. To find out more you can do a search for Ithica, New York, Totnes England, Damanhur Ireland. There are many many more but these are the ones I've personally experienced or read about. As Sonnenschein started learning about these successful case studies we decided to arrange a more formal discussion around the topic by organizing a 3-day Complimentary Currency workshop in September. The goal for the course was at the very least to educate the public about these successful case studies and to make the local Chamber Bucks program more effective in creating a local multiplier effect.

As word spread through the community about our interest in having this conversation around increasing local wealth through a local complimentary currency, a number of people in the community and some in political office immediately opposed the pursuit of any such effort. Comments ranged from fear of socialism to fear of isolation from the global market and concern over replacing the federal note system. In our research (and by no means do we consider ourselves well educated on the subject), we have not found anything suggesting that these concerns are valid - on the contrary we found that complimentary currencies are just that - complimentary, and that they have most often added value to and stimulated local economies. Although our group is still interested in finding out more about working solutions from around the world, we've decided to table the 2009 Complimentary Currency Course and also the Complimentary Currency working group. Our main focus right now is Local Economic and Community Development, Green Business Development and Outreach Education and we have enough to work on right now to keep us very busy. We don't see it strategic or effective for our group to be working on something that has caused such controversy in the community.

Completed Projects
The Lewis County Green Guide was printed and distributed. Please click here to read more.

The Sonnenschein Initiative has a new website this week.
Please visit www.sonnenschiengreentn.org.

Upcoming Events
May 26 - Green Evening Cafe on Green Business Development.
June 5-7 Sustainability Forum - Please click here to read about the Forum
June 13 - Start of Summer Permaculture Series - Please click here for details.

4th Green Evening Cafe

As reported in the Lewis County Herald by Jennifer Dauksha English:

On Tuesday, April 28, 2009, the Sonnenschein Green Initiative hosted the 4th Green Evening Cafe. The public event was held from 6-8:30 p.m. at the Emporium. Transition Town Hohenwald was the theme for the April Green Evening.

To start the evening, former Sonnenschein Chair, Becky Newbold, gave an overview of how Sonnenschein started in 2006 and how the group felt that the green portion of the Sonnenschein festival was the most successful and beneficial to the community. Just after the June 2008 Sonnenschein Festival, the group had organized a Green Chamber Mini Conference. It was at this conference, Newbold pointed out, that the Sonnenschein group decided to move forward with its current green initiative. Newbold expressed that the group had been discussing giving out Green Awards for several years and that she was happy to finally be moving forward on the project. Newbold presented the McDonald Farm with the first Sonnenschein Award. The award was signed by City Mayor Don Jones, Chamber President Mark Graves and Newbold. The McDonald Farm, a free range chicken farm located just outside Honewald, noted in a previous interview that they were implementing many green strategies on their farm.

After the award, Graves gave his support and encouragement for the local Government and Chamber to partner with the Sonnenschein Green initiative in developing a local green economy. Graves, as Chamber President, recently formed a Green Business Development Committee for the Chamber, as a result of a recent Chamber retreat and strategic planning with the state of Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. The goal of this new Development Committee is to educate current businesses to capitalize on green energy and efficiency. Graves stated, “Our current environmental situation can become our greatest economic opportunity, if we seize the moment.” He shared that his definition of Green equaled efficiency, hope, invention, ingenuity, entrepreneurialism, capital markets, commerce and profit. “There is a global investment to reinvent most of the things we do to become more efficient,” Graves said. He ended with words of encouragement: “ My hope is that the Chamber of Commerce become a key force in inspiring Lewis County to embrace a new, exciting and prosperous economic environment and not be afraid of it.”

Vice Mayor Dustin Flowers spoke next. Flowers also shared his excitement to be part of the green initiative. “In the past, green tended to cause fear. Green meant taking away our toys and telling us what to do. “Now,” he said, “Green equals gold.” Flowers shared a number of opportunities for economic development, concluding, “strategies for municipal and ultimately global sustainablity require addressing our current unsustainable forms of energy and industrial processes by technical innovations that shifts us to renewable energy - in short, now environmental sustainability also equals economic sustainability - go green to make green.” Auto-makers, Ben and Jerry’s, GE, McDonalds, Sony, Phillips, Sanyo and Wal-Mart are all benefiting from green opportunities. Flowers stated, “We are not the first to realize the beauty of a marriage of a sustained environment with the boost of opportunities from a green economy. We as a city realize these opportunities and those are a few reasons why the City supports becoming a Transition Town. Our first true step is renaming the industrial park on Swan Avenue the Hohenwald Eco-Industrial Park . . . In a green economy we’re all doing the right thing.”

Next, Debbie Landers gave an update on the Transition Initiative. Landers said that she liked to break things down so they were simple. To her, transitioning meant identifying local business: the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. Landers explained that the Transition Initiative, a world-wide initiative, started in Ireland and England in 2005. There are hundreds of Transition Initiatives in Europe. It has since spread to the USA, where there are now 24 transition towns: Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle, Santa Cruz, Berea Kentucky, Portland and Ashland Oregon and Sandpoint Idaho, to name some. On June 6, 2009, Hohenwald will become the 25th Transition Town in the USA. The Emporium will host a Transition Celebration from 6-8:30 p.m. Saturday June 6.

Jennifer English, chair of the Sonnenschein Green Initiative, shared in a recent report that transitioning supports local economic and community development. The initiative strives to support the following areas: local business owners, farmers, artisans and service providers; the creation of quality and long-term local employment opportunities; community networking opportunities and social events; creating an economy that has a total and sustainable economic return; and increasing our goods and services exported rather than imported. English states, “We also focus on ‘green’ development, as we see that creating a ‘green’ economy and ‘greening up’ our production and consumption will be the quickest and most effective way to achieve sustainable economic and community development. To us the word ‘green’ equals efficiency and less waste. We appreciate a wide difference in our shades of green among the group and within the community. “The Initiative aims to collaborate with as many types of people as possible. We also seek to bring as many conversations to the table as needed to move forward with our own unique transition efforts. This said, we often look at tools and models used by other successful communities. Our goal is not to mimic other communities, but to learn about working solutions and adapt our findings to our own unique circumstances.”

During the Green Evening Cafe, Connie Sharp also gave a brief overview on the current projects on which the Sonnenschein Initiative is working. She gave a report on the Community Garden, the recently printed Lewis County Green Guide, the Summer Permaculture Series that begins June 13, 2009 and the June 5-7 Sustainability Forum. Sharp explained that the June Forum will consist of tours of sustainable homes and businesses in Lewis County Friday and Sunday, and that Saturday’s event will be held at the Lewis County Middle School. Saturday will contain speakers on food, farming, energy, fuel, green building, green business, solid waste and faith. The day will also have music, arts, crafts, a green business exhibition, auction and kids craft session. John Risner of Buffalo Valley Inc., sponsor of the Green Evening Cafe, gave a presentation to the group on a new green home that Buffalo Valley is building on the corner of Walnut and Second Street. Construction may begin as early as this month. The building will incorporate energy efficient materials, solar hot water, water catchment and a permaculture designed landscape.

At 7:30, there was a showing of the 30-minute Hohenwald Financial Permaculture documentary. English and Landers announced that the next Green Evening Cafe will be held May 26, 2009 from 6-8:30 p.m. at the Emporium Cafe. The topic has been changed from Complimentary Currency to Green Business Development. English stated, “Since the Chamber of Commerce started the Chamber Bucks program in 2007, there are a number of people excited about having conversations on Complimentary Currencies. There are also a few people in the community who feel as though that is not where our group should be placing its attention. As we are so proactive, we want to put our energy where it is most needed and effective. Thus we changed the topic, also because our priority is to gear up for the September Green Business Summit. ‘We hope that the community will help guide us in preparing for the Summit. The next Green Evening Cafe will partially focus on what green businesses Hohenwald and Lewis County could most benefit from.”

The public is encouraged to attend these planned series of free, once-a-month evening events building on Hohenwald’s efforts to make Lewis County greener, safer, and more economically viable. The Green Evening Cafe series will be the last Tuesday of every month. Call 931-796-4874 or e-mail info@holisticecology.org for more details. The community is also welcome to attend the Sonnenschein Green Initiative public meetings, held every other Wednesday. The next public meeting will be May 27, 2009 at the Career Center, located on Smith Street, from 11:30 a.m. -1:30 p.m.