Friday, September 26, 2008

Minutes of September 25, 2008 Meeting of Sustainable Glasgow Board

The second regular meeting of the group seeking to promote localism and a sustainable local economy convened at 7:30 p.m. at the home of William Ray, 107 Brookdale Drive, Glasgow, KY, on September 25 2008. Those present were William Ray, Rhonda Trautman, William Travis, Joe Trigg, and Jerry Ralston.

The first item of business considered was a name for the group. Many ideas were discussed but finally everyone agreed upon using the original working name, Sustainable Glasgow, as the name for the group, and the movement.

The next item of business was the consideration of an offer from John Rogers to go ahead and file articles of incorporation for the group and to establish it as a registered corporation. The group agreed to ask John Rogers to accomplish this and also agreed to exchange ideas on a mission statement and other information needed to incorporate via the Sustainable Glasgow blog site. There was also consensus that the fourth Thursday of each month should be the regular meeting time for Sustainable Glasgow.

The next item of business was the discussion of a list of desired outcomes for the movement. Lengthy discussion ensued and the consensus was that the short-term goals should be:
1. Establishment of a physical retail market facility where local food producers could rely upon access to a retail sales environment so they can concentrate on production of food and not have to also be responsible for manning a retail presence.
2. Establishment of trade relationships between local producers and local institutional facilities as well as local restaurants.
3. Establishment of databases and a web site which collects information about local producers, local consumers and local consumer desires, the benefits of localism, and other methods to educate the local citizenry about the values and benefits of shopping, eating, and living local.
The discussion of the desired outcomes continued and the discussion of dates and methods to achieve the goals within the desired time frames was discussed. The general consensus was that the retail marketplace should be in place by May 2009 and there was also general agreement that South Central Bank should be approached because the parking lot area in front of their new Operations Center at the corner of L. Rogers Wells Blvd. and Cleveland Avenue is a very attractive site for such a facility. It was agreed that a couple of the members of Sustainable Glasgow should ask for a meeting with Owen Lambert to open the discussion.

Other business was discussed as well as longer range goals and ambitions for Sustainable Glasgow. Another consensus developed that both Mayor Pickett and Judge-Executive Greer should be briefed on the development of Sustainable Glasgow such that they are not blind sided by the existence of the movement. William Ray agreed to attempt to schedule these briefings.

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