WELL NEWSLETTER February Run for the Coordinating Committee Details

							                        WELL NEWSLETTER – February 2, 2007
                         Run for the Coordinating Committee!
                                    Details below.

Calendar of WELL Events
February 5 – WELL Plenary Meeting
6:00PM, Willits City Council Chambers - 111 E. Commercial St
On February 5 WELL will have a plenary meeting devoted to what you, the working members
are doing and how you would like the Coordinating Committee to assist you in doing it. We
invite each of the sixteen teams to tell us all what you have been doing, who any of us in
WELL should contact if we have questions or want to get involved, a list of the goals you are
planning to tackle this year (hopefully including the ones set for your team in the Strategic
Plan), and any requests for assistance you may desire from either the Coordinating
Committee or another team. Please come to tell us what's going on, and to hear what other
people are doing to localize our town.

At 6:00PM Jason Bradford & Brian Weller will give an “Introduction to WELL” presentation.
The rest of the program will begin at 6:30PM.

At this meeting we will also conduct a straw vote regarding WELL’s change in structure.
Please come and express your opinion. See below for more details.

February 12 – WELL Coordinating Committee Meeting
The next WELL Coordinating Committee Meeting will be held on February 12 at 6PM at 121
West Commercial Street. The agenda will be posted on the WELL website by February 9:
http://www.willitseconomiclocalization.org/node/69. The agenda will include Coordinating
Committee discussion and recommendation on the WELL’s organizational structure. We
welcome people interested in this important issue to attend.

February 19 – WELL Speaker Event – Carol Cox – Preparing Your Garden for Spring
6:00PM, Willits City Council Chambers - 111 E. Commercial St
WELL is pleased to host an evening with Carol Cox, Garden Manager at Ecology Action.
Topics she will cover include starting a new garden, double digging versus single digging
garden beds, compost & soil testing, seeds & seedlings, timing and watering.

At 6:00PM Jason Bradford & Brian Weller will give an “Introduction to WELL” presentation.
The rest of the program will begin at 6:30PM.

March 12 – ElderTalk 3
6:30PM, Little Lake Grange – 291 School Street
WELL and the Little Lake Grange present ElderTalk 3, an evening where we explore with
Willits’ elders what life was like here in town in the old days. Our guests for this event will be
Pat Rennick, a Pomo elder, and the Persico family, members of the Willits community for 80
years.

March 19 – WELL Quarterly Meeting – Coordinating Committee Elections & Structure
Vote

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6:30PM, Location to be determined
At this event WELL’s working members will vote to elect five Coordinating Committee
members to a one year term. We will also vote to select a new organization structure for
WELL going forward. Please see below for more information regarding both of these issues.

At 6:00PM Jason Bradford & Brian Weller will give an “Introduction to WELL” presentation.
The rest of the program will begin at 6:30PM.

Other Events
The Now and Then Film Series – Winter 2007 schedule:
All films start at 7PM at the Little Lake Health Center, 45 Hazel, Willits
Suggested Donation: $5.

       February 15th – “Taken for a Ride” – PBS award winning documentary about the
       intentional takeover & dismantling of America’s interurban short line rail systems by
       General Motors, Firestone Tires, etc. 60 minutes

       March 15th – “Global Gardener” – Permaculture with Bill Mollison. Learn how
       permaculture weaves together microclimate, annual & perennial plants, animals, soil,
       water management and human needs into intricately connected productive
       communities. 120 minutes

       April 19th - "Fed Up" - Overview of our food production system from the Green
       Revolution to the Biotech Revolution and what we can do about it including historical
       footage of Monsanto’s development of GMOs and interviews with farmers, scientists,
       government officials and activists. 58 minutes

February 3 – Permaculture Workshop – Boonville
Mendocino Permaculture is hosting its 2007 Winter Abundance Workshop: Hands-on Fruit
Tree Grafting, Seed and Scion Exchange Learn Grafting, Budding, Topworking, Pruning,
Garden Seed Saving. Admission is free and the workshop runs from 10AM until 4PM rain or
shine. The workshop is located at the Anderson Valley High School Domes, just south of
Hwy 128 on Mountain View Road, at the west end of Boonville. Please bring a bag lunch &
labeled scions of your favorite varieties - scions of old local gems are also needed. For more
information please call Barbara Goodell 895-3897, Mark Albert 462-7843, or Richard Jeske
459-5926.

February 10 – WELL at Sip Some Soup
On February 10 Willits Daily Bread will hold its annual Sip Some Soup fundraiser at the Willits
Community Center at 5:30PM. A group of WELL members will enter a soup made from local
food. If you want to help us create an amazing pot of soup, please contact Suzie at the
WELL office. For more information on the event itself, please call Kathy at 459-9547.

Of Interest
San Francisco Hosts Successful Car Sharing Businesses
Last week the San Francisco Chronicle highlighted successful car sharing businesses
operating in San Francisco. Here is the link to the story: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-



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bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/22/MNGDANML2T1.DTL . Could something like this work in
Willits?

Michael Pollan, Author of “Omnivore’s Dilemma” Explores Nutritionism
In last week’s New York Times Magazine Michael Pollan expressed his views of the
limitations of focusing on nutrients in our food as a pathway to good health. He instead
advocates eating a wide variety of whole, natural foods emphasizing fruits and vegetables.
You can check out this informative article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&ore
f=slogin .

Office Notes
WELL Structure Change Update
As I mentioned in December, REDI has requested that WELL find a new Non-Profit Sponsor.
Michael Hackleman generously offered WELL the use of a dormant 501(c)(3) organization
named Earthmind. The WELL Coordinating Committee determined that Earthmind and
WELL are a good fit. Earthmind has been reactivated. Michael Hackleman, Mary Zellachild,
Freddie Long, Rachel Olivieri, and Liam UiCearbhaill are the Board of Directors. On Monday,
January 29, WELL signed a Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement with Earthmind. This agreement
allows WELL to receive grants such as the Wallace Global Fund grant which has already
been awarded. The agreement is available for review at the WELL office.

On February 12, the Coordinating Committee will discuss and vote on a proposal for
structural change to WELL. This proposal will be presented to the Working Membership for a
vote at the WELL Quarterly Meeting on March 19. We are considering whether or not to
merge WELL and Earthmind into a single organization and thus take advantage of the liability
protection afforded by incorporation as a 501(c)(3) organization. During the course of our
research we discovered that all WELL members are currently collectively liable for whatever
WELL does. At the plenary on February 5, we will conduct a Straw Poll to discover the sense
of the Working Membership as to whether this direction is a good one and to provide
information about the actions we have taken so far. This is not a binding vote; that will occur
at the meeting on March 19, but we want to expend our efforts in a way that is generally
agreeable to our Working Members.

If you have thoughts or questions about WELL’s structure, please call the WELL office,
contact a Coordinating Committee member or attend the Coordinating Committee meeting on
February 12 at 6:00 pm at REDI Haus.

WELL Seeks Coordinating Committee Candidates
On March 19 WELL will elect five Coordinating Committee members to a one year term. If
you are interested in holding this important position and you want more information, please
call me at the WELL office. If you would like to run for a position on the WELL Coordinating
Committee, please send me a candidate statement by Sunday, February 18. You can
download the candidate statement here
http://willits.postcarbon.org/files/well/CandidateStatementFormMarch2007.pdf or come by the
WELL office to pick one up.

If you would like to be taken off this mailing list, please let me know and I will gladly oblige.


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Cheers,
Suzie

Suzie Gruber, Office Manager
Willits Economic Localization - WELL
Renewable Energy Development Institute - REDI
75 N. Main St. PMB 234
Willits, CA 95490
707.459.1256
well@redinet.org




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