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8 Comment
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Promoting Naturescaping
2015-01-30 17:15:10 UTC
We are planning a campaign to introduce homeowners and community groups to Naturescaping. I would love to hear suggestions about the best messages to get people interested enough to come to a one-hour introductory session.
From our POV, the benefits to participants are: low maintenance needs, including chemicals and water; attracting and nurturing wildlife; a feeling of making a difference and sense of community.
Of course, from the conservation POV, it's: less or no chemical use; less water; wildlife habitat; and an opening for further awareness of watershed issues for those participating.
Are we missing something really sexy and exciting that would get folks to the short workshop?? Has anyone done this kind of outreach with success? Any info and/or materials you can share would be very welcome. We're just a couple of volunteers, but we'll be working with a variety of local agencies.
Virginia Bruce
Vice-chair
Citizens' Participation Organization #1 (Portland, OR)
United States
http://cpo1friends.org -
Re: Pet Waste
2011-12-01 11:10:02 UTC
Can you share some of the information you received please?
Virginia Bruce
Vice-chair
Citizens' Participation Organization #1 (Portland, OR)
United States
http://cpo1friends.org -
Re: Workplace Active Transportation Initiatives
2010-12-11 11:06:52 UTC
Has anyone ever tried incentives for workers who live close to their workplace? Isn't part of the problem that people live far away and have to cross whole metro regions to get to work?
I've been thinking about a plan where businesses are somehow rewarded for the proportion of their employees who live within a certain radius. The business would be incentivized to hire more-local people. The subsidy would help them train local people who might not have exactly the skills they'd get from someone across town.
Higher-skilled workers could be rewarded for moving closer to their workplace. And it could all be combined with greater emphasis on working from home at least part of the time.
Not only would active travel be easier, this would help build the connection between a company and its neighborhoods, because a larger portion of its employees would live nearby.
I'm not in any position of responsibility for such things, but I am working with a newly-elected county commissioner, and we're looking at ways our county can begin to move toward sustainability.
Virginia Bruce
Vice-chair
Citizens' Participation Organization #1 (Portland, OR)
United States
http://cpo1friends.org -
Community Garden in Affluent Suburb
2010-02-08 11:06:21 UTC
We are beginning to organize a community garden in a neighborhood of mixed housing: smaller, older houses on larger lots with lots of infill subdivisions of large houses with small yards. We have a one-acre centrally-located space and we're planning to begin permaculture development of orchard, and some crops that are more suited to a large space (corn, squashes).
The challenge is to engage some of the neighbors in the subdivisions: busy people with no perceived need for food gardening; perhaps some awareness of "local food" but little contact with neighbors. Some of the subdivision residents are Asian immigrant families.
We're already planning to bring in school groups, and try to appeal to neighbors to get involved for the sake of their kids. We're also offering it as a way to learn about food gardening.
Any other suggestions or reports of similar experiences would be welcome. Our goals are primarily community-building along with learning more about permaculture.
Virginia Bruce
Vice-chair
Citizens' Participation Organization #1
United States
http://cpo1friends.org -
Re: Feedback on New Site and Digest
2009-03-09 15:33:34 UTC
FYI:
Specifying type size in pixels (px) is a common practice, however, it makes type tinier on high-resolution displays.
Specifying type size in points (pt) gives a more consistent product to more users, because it renders the type closer to an absolute size rather than rendering it dependent on the users' display.
Virginia Bruce
Vice-chair
Citizens' Participation Organization
United States -
Re: Feedback on New Site and Digest
2009-03-02 11:37:14 UTC
On a Mac, it's command (flower key)-shift-plus. For both platforms, you have to press the shift key to get the plus. It's the "=" and the shift key.
But in general, if you let people with young eyes do the layout, they use tiny fonts. The rest of us have to accommodate and then the layout falls apart. There is a middle ground, people.
Virginia Bruce
Vice-chair
Citizens' Participation Organization
United States -
Re: Feedback on New Site and Digest
2009-02-01 09:52:00 UTC
I get the digest email, and I keep graphics turned off unless I want to see them. So I really miss the text at the top of the email listing the topics. I usually don't bother to load the graphics and scroll down any more.
If it's not too difficult, I'd recommend putting that back!
Virginia Bruce
United States -
Re: Important Proposed Changes to Listserv
2007-03-26 13:31:36 UTC
This change would make the list much more usable for me. The long spaces, funny formatting and preponderance of un-snipped quotes make the list a pain to read sometimes. Also, the availability of non-text material will be a big improvement. Great solution! Go for it! I will continue to monitor the digest and then click on any topic that looks interesting. And I may look into it for a site that I work on!
vb
Virginia Bruce,
board member Rock Creek Watershed Partners
503-629-5799
http://rcwp.org
Messaging 0 colleagues
