Peak Oil Study/Action Group
Minutes from Planning Group Meeting - Sept. 6, 2006
Doug Welch, Brad Clements, Richard & Aime Douglass, Bill Hull, Dan Kelleher, Patricia Greene, Ann Heidenreich
THE CIRCLE OF SIMPLICITY - Doug presented print-outs from a book called The Circle of Simplicity which deals with guidelines on how to form the discussion parts of our group (and indeed our whole group structure!). A summary of this hand-out follows:
-have coordinators, not leaders and rotate the position
-everyone's ideas are important, all are equal
-discussions can be barn-raisings instead of battles, ie. goal is not to win or prove anything but to help each person build their ideas and come up with their own truth.
-persuasion is not the goal
-questions are useful parts of conversation but challenges are not
-fear and anger inhibit thinking, therefore arguing does not help
-wisdom is buried in each of us and just needs good listening to bring it out
-everyone must feel absolutely safe to speak up; no attacking, dismissing, denigrating or playing devil's advocate
-we want to strive to be real, speak with emotion, not censor ourselves or try to sound sophisticated
-this is a place to learn through people's personal stories which show the universality of our experience
-seek alternative views and ways of thinking that challenge the "master narrative" of our culture
-use small groups of 6-8 people (or smaller) as much as possible which promotes intimacy, gives each person time to talk and allows more depth
-use check-ins, but very short and people should feel free to pass, check-ins are a report on what people committed to at the last meeting; use commitments at the end of the meeting with each person saying an action they will take to simplify their lives and reduce oil use
-have a social period at beginning and end of meetings
DVD'S - Bill suggested that we consider showing the DVD The End of Suburbia (which he owns) at one meeting. The DVD The Community Solution on what Cuba did after being cut off from its oil supply is another good one.
PUBLICITY - Discussion of whether to publicize this meeting ended with the decision that we won't publicize until after the first meeting. We have 40 people signed up on our lists and the experience of Richard and Aimee in their Peak Oil group was that bringing in uninformed people who question whether there even is a problem was extremely frustrating and caused the groups demise.
GROUP EDUCATION - Agreed that one of the purposes is to encourage people to educate themselves on Peak Oil and related issues, especially through reading Richard Heinberg's books The Party's Over and PowerDown?. Brad agreed to secure the domain name, NCPeakOil?.org and start a website for the group, which will be linked to the Community Energy Services website. Bill said he would get together a suggested reading list (not too extensive!) to post on the website, as well as other websites to consult such as the Post Carbon Institute, etc. We would like to create a power point presentation that certain members can give to community groups and schools.
GROUP ATTITUDE - Brad questioned whether we will be a doom and gloom group or a hopeful group and someone added maybe a hopeful panic group. Discussion was not entirely conclusive, but the general attitude seemed to be that why would we be forming if we did not have hope? Idea of change things now to lessen the chaos later and if it never happens, well great.
STRUCTURE OF THE MEETING - Agreed that Ann would coordinate this meeting. That Bill will supply an easel and large newsprint pad to write on and play time keeper; Patricia will write the ideas in a brief format.
We will begin with brief introductions, then break down into small groups of about five people. One person from the planning group will go with each group to keep things moving and on time. In these groups, people will individually speak to three questions which will be sent out ahead of time and a group coordinator will take notes and agree to report back a summary to the large group.
Questions to be considered (wording may change slightly):
- How would your life change if gas and heating oil cost $6 a gallon?
- What do you want out of this group?
- What are you going to do in the next month about Peak Oil?
It is expected that the larger group will meet monthly and the coordinator will take a consensus of which nights are best for the group before we establish the October date. Also, people will soon be focusing on areas of interest-ie. Agriculture, education, localization, etc. and smaller focus groups will begin to meet to go out to the community and to make reports and proposals to larger group.