Alleycat Acres Fund Raiser

TUNES BY DJ COLBY B and BETT LAW! DRINKS! NEW FRIENDS! RAFFLES! AND TONS OF FUN! ALL FUNDS RAISED WILL SUPPORT ALLEYCAT ACRES, AN URBAN FARMING COLLECTIVE WHOSE MISSION IS TO CREATE URBAN FARMS ON UNDERUTILIZED SPACES.
$5 - $20 suggested donation @ door

Non Profits and Motivation

In the non profit world one of the leading causes of problems is retention of qualified, well trained, and skilled employees. Non profits have to compete with not only each other, but with the for profit world in keeping their pillars of their organization.

One of the lessons we have learned in the past few months has been the importance of motivation in keeping employees, staff and volunteers satisfied to continue doing the hard work that is so necessary. We have had numerous ideas thrown around about what is most effective, but I think i can sum them up here quite succinctly.

First, get to know your staff. Your staff are more than the skills they bring to the office or organization. One of the most successful ways is to do an activity outside of the workplace that is purely for entertainment. Sustainable Seattle just had an event this last Saturday that was at Gas Works park. We played Soccer, Frisbee, and mostly just sat around and ate picnic foods and watched all the various wedding parties, family groups and a particularly large group of adult "Nerf" gun-players.

Second, find out what little things a staff member really enjoys either directly or through observation. I can't tell you the amount of loyalty is garnered when someone makes some cookies that are nut free in response to my asthma inducing allergy. Little things that speak to the importance of a person's presence can be as simple as a food product, small compliment, or even something like sharing a lunch break.

Thirdly, constantly let the staff and volunteers know that their time is appreciated. Nothing says to someone that you could care less about their dedication than either ignoring them or never giving them acknowledgment of their efforts. Do not waste volunteer's time. If you cannot find anything for volunteers to do that requires a bit of brains and elbow grease, then thank them for their commitment and send them home. Stapling papers or taking out trash does not a satisfied volunteer make.

Sustainable Belltown May Events

Sustainable Seattle offers up this space for event coordination amongst like minded organizations and our fiscal sponsorees. For more information on getting your event posted or our fiscal sponsorship program please email info@sustainableseattle.org. The following is an announcement from Sustainable Belltown, a fiscal sponsoree.

Jump into a Sustainable Spring! These are the dates to hold and the events to attend for a really socially sustainable experience in Belltown!!



May 8th: 'Spring into Bed' garden party celebrating the year of urban agriculture. The City of Seattle has dedicated this day for each of the urban agriculture projects to relax and enjoy the company of our neighbors. Our garden party will occur at the site of our rooftop garden project at The Centennial Luxury Apartments!! In it's second year, these gardens bring sustainability and beauty to The Centennial. Bring your children or parents: meeting each other over refreshments. For all who enjoy the idea and practice of downtown/belltown gardening.

When: May 8th 1pm-4pm
Where: Centennial Apartments: 2515 Fourth Ave.
Who: Hosts Sustainable Belltown and Centennial Apartments
celebrating the grace of City gardening and our success in connecting food systems with social justice. (please see attached invitation).

May 18th: NMF open house: Friends of Belltown Gardens presentation of 'Large Project' proposal: restoration and preservation of the Three Landmarked Historic Cottages of Cottage Park.

When: May 18th 6:00-8:00pm
Where: Asian Resource Center: 1025 S. King Street 98104
Who: Department of Neighborhoods: City Review Team
With beautiful visual presentations and a brief informative presentation, we need our supporters to join us this evening: the turn out of broad community is crucial to our success. For more information on the project itself, please contact elizabeth (elizabeth@campbellcentral.org) or Liz Sheets of Friends of Belltown Gardens.

Dream Launch Tonight! 4-29-2010

Party Tonight at Golden Garden's Bathhouse! 4-8 pm. Come enjoy local talent and local treats, a sweet silent auction and join a game of design charrette for Dream a Sound Future's Launch Event! Bring your friends and your imagination.RSVP optional. The sun sets at 8:19 tonight, and the view from the public beach is something else! www.sustainableseattle.org

The gathering is going to be loads of fun as we have entertainment, food, and local musicians getting ready to rock the night away. Wow, this sounds like a lot of fun and I just said "rock the night away." Okay let's try this again.

Head over to the Golden Gardens and bring your friends. There is no cover charge unless you feel the need to give and of course we would welcome that. The Golden Gardens are a gorgeous building held by the Parks and Recreation Department that overlook the water and give a sunset view that will remind why we like this planet so much.

April Events in Seattle

Sustainable Seattle uses this space on the blog for promoting events that align with our overall mission. If your organization has an event you would like to see us promote that is based around the core beliefs of Sustainable Seattle please contact us.

Please join The Compassionate Action Network, Seeds of Compassion and the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education on April 24th for: Compassionate Seattle: It’s Up to Us!

Date: April 24th 9am – 7:30pm.
Main Event: 9am – 5pm: Compassion Showcase and Exchange
Evening Celebration and Performance: 5- 7:30pm.
Location: Center for Spiritual Living, 5801 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, Washington 98105

Religious scholar and popular author Karen Armstrong will be the keynote speaker along with James O'Dea, and Courtney E. Martin.

Tickets are available through Brown Paper Tickets and can be purchased: for the day/evening (9am – 8pm) or just for the evening celebration (5pm – 8pm). Lunch can also be purchased in advance (or bring your own).
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/104534

If you can spare a few hours to volunteer before or at the event, please join the Compassionate Seattle Campaign group.

Thank you & see you on the 24th!

Dream a Sound Future Launch Event

JOIN US on April 29th from 4-8 pm for
Dream a Sound Future Launch Event at Golden Gardens' Bathhouse!
Dr. Sharron Sutton is the guest speaker. Click here for a poster.

Launch Party!! Goodies & entertainment! You decide what the cover charge is. Click here to donate. Save the date April 29th from 4-8 pm!!! The Bathhouse at Golden Gardens! Map

Dream A Sound Future: A design and dream competition

Imagine Seattle and Central Puget Sound in the Year 2100.
-What does it look like?
-How do you get to work?
-Where do your children play?
-What do you love about your community?

A vision of the future can be a powerful means to intentional fulfillment of a future that meets the needs of future generations.
The purpose of Sustainable Seattle's Fast Future Seattle program area is to create the vision of a truly sustainable future for the Seattle and Puget Sound area and to bring about effective and lasting collaboration among non-profits, initiatives and individuals with the common goal of sustainability. Fast Future Seattle is a collaborative effort engaging cultural, economic, and environmental leaders of all ages and all walks of life in both the dream and design of a sustainable future for all. One key element of this program area is our annual Dream a Sound Future Competition. CHECK OUT our Dream a Sound Future Blog!

Far from a standard design competition, Dream a Sound Future will engage diverse individuals and teams each year in envisioning the Seattle and central Puget Sound area in the year 2100, as well as defining key transition steps in achieving their vision. The program encourages all to think light-years outside the box in terms of what and how they present their ideas, ranging from paintings and performance art to architectural models and artificial intelligence.

Sustainable Seattle's Dream a Sound Future Competition invites visionaries to lay the path to our future where Seattle and central Puget Sound communities, economies, and ecosystems. For K-12 contestants, please check out the K-12 Dream a Sound Future Challenge!
Questions and Comments please email us at dream@sustainableseattle.org

Dream a Sound Future - Competition Guidelines & Registration >> Click here

Feet First Event

Sustainable Seattle offers up this blog as an events announcement for organizations that are doing the work of sustainability, education or outreach. The following is an announcement from Feet First a non profit organization based in the Seattle area.

Dear Friend of Feet First:

Do you like to explore? Can you travel by foot, bike, wheelchair, skate or scooter? Can you follow a street map? Do like the natural surroundings? Then join this year's Street Scramble in Alki supports Feet First.

Please use this registration form instead of the one provided in the previous email. This healthy, family friendly event, provides you an easy way to have your $10 matched dollar for dollar. http://www.streetscramble.com/charity-partners

Alki Street Scramble
Saturday, March 20, 9:30 a.m.
Alki Beach, 62nd Ave SW & Alki Ave SW, Seattle

Thank you for being a supporter of Feet First. We look forward to getting more people walking every day for their health, transportation, environment, community and pleasure. Are you unable to join us? Consider becoming a member today by visiting: http://feetfirst.info/join

Hope to see you this month at Alki! We'll also have information available at this event about our progress on our wayfinding and kiosk project in West Seattle.

Sincerely yours,

--The Team at Feet First

What if we give it away?

I recently read a fascinating article about the Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy. You should read the whole article yourself, but in short it's a foundation in San Francisco that gives grantees $100, on the condition that they use it to do nice things for strangers. It made me wonder about a few things:

It can be surprisingly hard to give away money.
I suppose I shouldn't have been shocked by this--after all, the film based on this premise has been made at least 4 times (1921, 1935, 1945 & 1985)--but the reasons behind it are rather sad. It's all about trust and the complete lack of it between strangers in a city. Perhaps the people turning down free umbrellas in the rain really didn't want one, but I can't think of any other explanation bar suspicion for the people turning down dollar bills that were just being handed to them. It's understandable how this happens, when we live in a society where hardly anything is ever given without hope of something in return, and where almost everyone who approaches strangers in the street does want something, whether its signatures for a petition or money for their next meal. It becomes easier to just ignore everybody and retreat into a little bubble. No-one is a bad person because they do this, but as a whole the community of the city loses something when we get so stuck in mistrust. I always appreciate attempts to break this down a little, like the free hugs people or the Creative Philanthropy group.

Could we replicate this in Seattle?
$100 at a time is not a prohibitive budget - are there people in Seattle who might want to put a counterpart of this society together? If you think this is a great idea, why not try it yourself? And if someone gave you $100 to do nice things for strangers with, what would you do? I'd love to see some creative ideas in the comments.

What can Sustainable Seattle give away?
Unfortunately we have no spare money whatsoever. In fact we're entirely volunteer run while we try to secure stable funding, so one thing that the individuals who make up our organization have been giving away is our time and skills: 1500 hours so far this year. But as an organization, we do have some resources - we have a reputation, a website, a mailing list and a network of contacts. The great thing about resources like this is that we can give of them without diminishing them in any way, so we can keep doing it (a very simple kind of sustainability) and here are some of the ways we do that:

• Featuring other groups' work on this blog (please contact us if you'd like to be featured!)
• Adding other groups' listings to our advertising materials; for instance the STARs program mailshot that's going out tomorrow will include links to some interesting classes at Southside Commons.
• Referring people to the right place; for instance a prospective volunteer came to our office today, and when he described his interests it became clear that Northwest SEED are a much better fit, so we sent him their way (conveniently, up a few stories in the same building).

And finally, what can you give away?
Very few people have spare money these days, but if you think about everything you do have--time, contacts, skills, ideas--I bet every single person who reads this post has something they can give away, at almost no cost to yourself but great benefit to someone else. Take up the challenge, and let us know what you gave away in the comments.

Sustainable Wallingford Events

The aim of Sustainable Wallingford is to build a more sustainable town in Wallingford.



Sustainable Seattle in collaboration with other sustainability groups will bring you news of events in the greater Seattle area.

What’s up this month with Sustainable Wallingford groups?
Next week is Wallingford Community Preparedness week with ham radio training Feb 18 and a SNAP workshop Feb 20.
Growing Food Growing Community is growing vegetable starts for food banks this year with 25, count em - 25!! volunteers (last year they grew and gave away more than 3000 baby plants with just 6 volunteers).
Community Kitchens are holding a delicious winter salads and chocolate dinner to celebrate Feb 26 (rsvp early)
Climate Dialogs continue to take political action to inform, educate, and lobby.
Wallingford Solar has a vision of putting solar panels on 1000 Wallingford houses and is making a presentation Feb 17 at Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell Energy Committee (getting local energy generation is part of the Sustainable Wallingford Energy Efficiency Team Plan - the SWEET Plan).
Meaningful Movies shows Food Inc Feb 13 and celebrates its 7th birthday, Meaningful Movies partners with us on a monthly Transition movie series starting March 13.

And check out our 2009 accomplishments!

Sustainable Wallingford is blessed with amazingly knowledgeable and dedicated people. Take a look at our member pages: we’ve got systems planners, communication consultants, toxicologists, nutritionists, gardeners, artists. (Make sure you update your page if you’ve got new interests and skills or a new address.) We still need more - writers, social media folks, painters, photographers, engineers, musicians, babies, cheesemakers, nurses, teachers, carpenters, tool bankers, businesspeople, students, yogis, chemists, biologists, plumbers, shoemakers, bakers, bikers, dancers, architects, computer scientists, ham radio operators, psychologists, pruners, electricians. We need you. We can build a better community and a better world with your unique skills and passions.

Sustainable Seatte's Environmental Film Festival

February 11, 2010

This is a reminder about the above referenced event. Spaces are still available so we encourage you, your friends and colleagues to attend this "feel-good" event celebrating positive action in our community and other regions of the world.

What: Five compelling films by local biologist/filmmaker Shelly Solomon, panel discussion (featuring Jeffery Cordell, Principal Research Scientist of School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and Don Rothaus, Shellfish Biologist), and free oyster tasting bar.

When: Thursday, February 11th, 2010 - 6:00-9:30pm

Where: The Chapel at The Good Shepherd Center (Wallingford). 4649 Sunnyside Ave. North, 4th Floor. The Center is served by Metro buses # 16, 26 & 44. Ample parking available if driving required.

Why: Support Sustainable Seattle, local filmmakers and learn how a difference is being made and you can increase your impact.

Donation: $20 public and $5 students, under- /unemployed. Register at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/95063 Cash only at the door!

We look forward to seeing you on February 11th!

Sincerely,

Sustainable Seattle

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email: info@sustainableseattle.org

web: http://www.sustainableseattle.org