INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE



Hello Green Community Philadelphia from [greendrinks] + o2 Philadelphia!

That's right - due to popular demand and tight meeting schedules,
we merged these two like-minded groups recently! We'd love your
help in re-activatingour local sustainable living, design, and info
networkby focusing on spreading the word that we are 're-booting'
our local meetingschedule, info access point (a hybrid blog), and
local businesssupport activities.

We are planning the OCTOBER 4th meeting to be a
WORKING MEETING (with a local beer or non-alcohol refreshment
in hand!) to rebuild our local chapters of these two great international
grassroots green culture monthly networking meetings.

Date: Wed October 4th, 2006
Location: fergie's pub upstairs
1st wednesday's 6-8pm or so
1214 sansom street
philadelphia
http://www.fergies.com

Time: 6-8pm-ish

note: greendrinks is a casual CASH BAR protocol: no dues,
no entry, just your bar tab + a positive attitude!

www.greendrinks.org
www.greendrinks-o2philadelphia.blogspot.com

www.o2.org
www.o2-usa.org
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/o2mailinglist/


Background:
After 2 years of some really great meetings discussing
a lot of sides of what is 'green' in, around, and connected
to Philadelphia over some drinks, we at [greendrinks]Philadelphia
are ready + interested in are-launch/re-boot to make things better.
We started this local meeting to find an evening when all types of
green thinkers and doers could come out and meet over some drinks.
The greendrinks phenomenon is a world-wide success; we want to
make it a local success!

Relatedly, we simultaneously started a 'green design' meeting called:
o2 Philadelphia. This is a local chapter of the o2 Global Sustainable
Design Network (this meeting was an hour before greendrinks started
andfocused specifically on green design by artists, architects, designers,
multimedia people etc....)

We met a lot of you and made some wonderful new friends. Some came
back every month (thanks so much!) and some of you we saw once and
never again...(this always left us wondering what we could have done to
keep you coming back...). Our goal was and is to create a form of an
casual,very social, green 'salon' (as UTNE reader calls them) in the spirit
of so many previous artist + intellectual get-togethers, networking, etc....
the only difference is ours focuses on green living, topics, opportunities,
etc. over some drinks.

Here is some of the thinking:

Format
We discussed many times whether we should change things up a bit:
i.e. add 'green content' (lectures, films, demos, etc.) to the evening or just
leave it a casual agenda to just socialize. Most folks said just leave it a
socialevening. We appreciate this directness (yet we also know that
many folks really DO want something a bit different each month to keep
you all coming back!)

Relatedly, we wondered if coming out for a beer once a month is really
'enough of a draw' to get folks out and talking + sharing green
issues/ideas/events as many of the local blogs/mail lists also do...
and many of you do daily...


Personal Schedules
And...of course...we totally understand the whole balance of time,
home life, work,other events, etc. - no question about this! This is why
we tried to get the idea of 'One Green Nite a Month©' idea/slogan going
to give you a target night...

Question:
Is there another night/time that folks would prefer over
'1st Weds of the Month'? (we have heard several times of other groups
wecould merge with on other nights...do we want to do this?
Shall we give it a shot? See next topic)


Attendance Critical Mass
Our attendance varied monthly-sometimes wildly-and we continually
worked on how best to make this local chapter of greendrinks work while
not quitting our day jobs to do this casual networking project...it was
always better when we had more folks there. Also, we recently closed the
earlier o2 meeting time and just merged it with our greendrinks meeting.
The more the better we figured. There are several local groups we
appreciate and would like to join with perhaps. Also, we are SERIOUSLY
evaluating if there are local green/sustainable collaborations that we can
forge who can offer a bit more PR/administrative/infomation management/etc.
collaboration with: ideas are welcome. We would welcome coordinating with
other like-minded groups to have a monthly place/time to meet and discuss
ideas instead of just emailing each other!

Question:
how can we get a more people to come out and share their green
ideas, discussion, etc. once a moth on a regular basis?
What groups could merge?



Well, we hit our 2 year milestone happily and would like to offer
some of the new ideas we are working on to get you all to come
out and get social with your green energy and ideas. Most of these
ideas are from discussions at greendrinks and ideas offered randomly
in emails etc. Although it has been a great beginning, we certainly also
learned of a few issues that made the first years a bit bumpy for some of
you all to participate as well. With this email we invite your input + help
in making this next chapter of our short history so far work even better.

Some issues we would like to work on with you:

Location:
As many of you know, we have met 'regularly' at Fergies on Sansom
in Center City Philadelphia. It is a great institution in downtown
Philadelphia. All in all, it has gone pretty well there- all our great new
green friends had a nice time meeting there. Sometimes-though-
we had a slightly less than stable reservation (i.e we got bumped
downstairs from our regular upstairs meeting spot a few too many
times to some of your liking-we totally understand: Fergies is a popular
meeting place locally!- but, it was difficult for many to know if we were
even meeting sometimes due to last minute rearranging to downstairs
location that had to happen- we apologize for this non-intended confusion
and are working on a more stable meeting arrangement!).
Also, we definitely heard + felt as well some critical thoughts about the
air quality issue. We've heard this will subside as of Jan 07- but we totally
agree that we would all LOVE a more healthy fresh air experience + space
while meeting.
Note: other cities sometimes move weekly/monthly to new locations
to keep things fresh- we opted originally for consistency. We recently got
access to a local art gallery not far from Fergies which is VERY spacious,
welcoming, great for AV presentations, etc. IF we wish to use it on a
continual basis-it could be a more conducive space to dialogue perhaps.

Question:
Any ideas on an appropriate space / location
that is central + public transit/bike/walk friendly?


Web Presence:
We started out with a website and then...
we let it go because of opportunities for a blog format got our attention.
We plan to use a modified blog format which has our vital information
and some updates/links, but will keep the blog chatting to a MINIMUM
(i.e. just facts about upcoming events heard about, etc.).
The price is better also.

Question:
What would you LIKE + NEED at our new + improved
hybrid 'blogsite' ?


Local Approach:
We are VERY VERY interested to spotlight and encourage enjoying
LOCAL breweries, etc. together with local light fare (i.e. munchies)
during our get togethers. The issue is how to get to these
OR get them to us...

Question:
Would folks appreciate more of a 'local beverages tasting' type
get together to start the evening (perhaps with a local beverage
makers representative there?). We can extend this to local fresh healthy
munchies type foods as well...



Content:
This remains open. Many folks really do appreciate a bit of a 'prompt'
in the way of a SHORT film/video, or a lecture by a local or
visiting specialist,even a green materials vendor stopping in to show
what is 'new + notable'...

Question:
What kind of new format can we create that allows for 'some' info provided
to focus on (a topic headline, a new movie, etc.) but still allow for folks
to just meet casually and discuss topics in a non-pressured manner?


Dues/Membership:
We have never had a formal system for this based upon what
we saw happening in other locals. We would like to keep the administration
and especially costs to everyone at minimum to zero.
So far this has worked out.
If folks have other ideas on IF we should start this and what it could provide
us with, we ARE open...ultimately, we just wish to keep this a really
alternative approach to social meeting/networking.


In closing, this email is the first step in making some changes at
[greendrinks]Philadelphia to improve things to everyone's liking (hopefully!)
We would sincerely appreciate feedback and your comments on how
to get more momentum happening with the great group of green thinking
people around the Philadelphia area...we need your input + help
to make it work.

Thanks much in advance for your participation!

greendrinks_o2 philadelphia

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