Members’ night at the Box Factory

On Thursday 23 October 2014, Sustainable Communities SA held a members night at the Box Factory Community Centre.

We started with a presentation by Sharon Ede about the interactive website she and others have developed called Share and Save: ShareNSave.com.au This site aims ‘to provide the information and links to assist South Australians to find and share services, resources and events in their local community to help with the cost of living and improve neighbourhood networks’.

It lists community gardens, swap and share events, men’s sheds, toy and tool libraries, local markets and other opportunities for people to connect and share resources. They are looking for more organisations to list and are working to make the software open source so that it can be taken up by other interested groups around the world.

We broke for a shared meal. Thanks to Sue Andrews took advantage of Sustainable Communities new membership of LETS to provide additional delicious vegetarian food.

Robyn of LETS played her violin to call us back to the meeting room for reports from local groups. SCSA is organised with local community groups in which members meet monthly to support each other to reduce their impact on the environment and to work with their local community. Most of the groups took a turn to report:

• McLaren Vale Group told us how they work with other local groups on various projects like share and swap in the main street. They also participated in Plastic Free July to reduce the use of one use plastics.
• Sue from LETS told us how many varied and useful services and goods are available using units.
• Unley Group reported on their project to increase gardening in their suburbs. They are working with Unley Council to plant more fruit and nut trees in public parks, distribute planter boxes, soil and seedlings, and providing some tuition to people who would like to start vegie gardening. This year they had many workshops teaching people more about growing food.
• Essential Edibles Group reported on their monthly Share and Swap at Joslin Reserve in Third Ave, Royston Park on the first Sunday of each month from 9am till 10am.
• Margaret reported on One Planet Market, which is continuing strongly with regular stall holders, clothes swap and workshops on various topics.
  Mitcham and Blackwood Groups reported on their activities in their local fair and canvassing residents standing in local government elections.

We closed the night with a gathering of energy of meditation and sharing about future directions and activities.