Venue / type of October meeting

despina

CRAGger Leeds

Hi everyone

Just moving the conversation we’ve been having already here.. Messages are posted in the order we sent them (older ones first).

Despina

___________________________________________________

From: Bill Phelps
Date: Sep 20, 2007 5:54 PM
Subject: Leeds CRAG meeting

Jonathan Lindh,
Leeds Enviromental Design Associates

Jonathan, hi

Thanks very much for agreeing (somewhat guardedly!) to come and talk to our Carbon Reduction Action Group. Subject to confirmation, the meeting will be at 7.30pm on Wed 31 October somewhere in the School of Geography at Leeds University. We’ll firm this up nearer the time.

The group was initially set up by Colin Challen MP and we’ve been meeting every month or so since February. We’re a mixed bunch, with a range of carbon footprints which we’ve been monitoring for several months now. We’ve now reached the stage where we’d like to see how we can start making some significant cuts in our energy consumption – particularly domestic energy.

So, we’d really like some pointers to the most cost effective ways to make our existing houses more energy-efficient. We know about EST/Fuelsavers online surveys etc. The sort of questions we’re more likely to be asking are…

• How do I get independent advice on what sort of double glazing to use? Should it be triple glazing?

• What’s the best way to track down draughts? And stopping them.

• How easy and effective is it to retrofit a heat exchanger ventilation system?

• Is it worth paying for an energy survey and how do I find a consultant who knows what he/she is talking about, rather than someone who’s just “done the training”?

• What are the best sources of information for would-be domestic carbon cutters?

• If I get a condensing boiler fitted, will that limit my future options for solar thermal?

• Where do I find a good plumber/electrician/joiner/builder?

• Is it now impossible to experiment with 12v / LED / PV / pedal-powered lighting without breaking the law?

• Is there a cheap/easy way of measuring air changes per hour?

• Should I keep the fridge in the (uninsulated) garage so that it doesn’t have to work so hard, or in the kitchen so that we’re using the heat that it puts out?

(Please don’t feel obliged to answer these! This is just to give you a flavour of where we’re at. And some of these questions may anyway be encroaching too much into the professional area where it would be more appropriate for us to be paying you for the answers.)

Until somebody suggests anything better, I suggest a working title of “How do I make an old house more energy-efficient?” Can you work with that?

You can find out a bit more about us at http://www.leedscrag.org . We’ll also be advertising this meeting via our partner organisation Stop Climate Chaos Leeds, who tend to concentrate more on the campaigning aspects. We’re seeing this as a bit of a recruiting opportunity – and we’re aware that we need to be enticing lots of high emitters into the group rather than becoming a small mutual back-patting clique of carbon holies.

Once again, thank you for agreeing to do this. We have virtually no funds, but we’d be delighted to give you a plug on our website somewhere.

Best wishes

Bill

___________________________________________________

From: despina
Date: Sep 23, 2007 12:25 AM

hi everyone

we got a few people interested/joining the list today at the schumacher lectures – maybe even a third of the people stopping by the stall.. the lectures were really inspiring by the way, if you weren’t there don’t miss the next ones!

as concerns our next meeting, bill – thanks for contacting jonathan as discussed. i had a chat with him today and he thinks a discussion-type meeting would work well (as in he gives a brief talk followed by a discussion). which fits in well with my idea that the next meeting could be combined with the next climate chaos cafe.

this is something we’ve discussed (maybe in the previous meeting or just in private with bill, i don’t remember), and it’s not clear to me where we should have the next meeting and what type of meeting it should be.. so i suggest if you’re interested read on, and then the next person can move the discussion to the forum. then we can discuss it and make a “consensus” decision or as near there as possible.. saying that i won’t have access to the internet for the next couple of days.

climate chaos cafe’s started last year, they’re a cafe scientifique type thing (where an expert of sorts gives a brief talk in lay mans language followed by a discussion with the audience in a relaxed atmosphere). last year they worked really well, attracting lots of people and hosting some stimulating discussions. they happen at the common place, which i think is good, because (i) it’s a great space where lots of good things happen and, as was discussed at great length at the schumacher lectures, achieving “sustainable living” is multidimentional and has to do with the way we approach our lives, other people and the environment as well as with understanding technical issues, (ii) there’s cooking facilities there and free organic veg, so I could go down and cook a nice, cheap communal meal to go with our chat, and (iii) we’d get the extra publicity/people coming down for climate chaos cafe attending.

on the other hand, bill pointed out, as has been discussed before when we decided not to have the common place as a regular meeting space, that it might seem less accessible to some people (possibly high emitters).

i think we seriously need to challenge this, but if other people disagree i’m happy to book a room at the school of geography or the civic hall instead.

to help inform people of what the common place is about, this is what i wrote to a new common place member about why i like the place and what it’s about a few days ago:

in the last common place general meeting a couple of weeks ago we went around the table and each person said what it is they like about the common place.. there’s all sorts of types really, and different people like very different things.. i like that there’s always something good going on, it keeps me pleasantly busy and a lot of it was news to me when i started going.. eg. there’s good films about all sorts of social and environmental things, there’s practical things like conversational english classes for asylum seekers, fun things like gigs, good food, lots of people of my liking for unexplicable reasons.. in short, lots of interesting people doing interesting things. and all in an environment that doesn’t offend my ethics in any way (inclusive, unpretentious, sound environmental approach, not money oriented, definitely people oriented..).. when i found it i just immediately felt better about living in leeds, and i still do.

maybe it would be better described by all the activities that go on there, though i’m not sure i know about everything.. there’s the volunteer-run vegan cafe, a cinema collective (currently not very active, but always something going on..), the english classes, a well attended women’s group on thursdays where lots of asylum seekers go, who are very enthusiastic about it as they don’t get much other opportunity to socialise and create a community, the freeshop (well in need of attention!), gigs and fun events, general meetings twice a month to discuss things to do with running the place and make decisions by concensus of all members, brunch on sundays and sometimes a film.. plus the place is used by lots of groups for their meetings / activities, like a theatre group, a self-defence training group, manifesta who put up gigs, ladyfest used to meet up there who put up events mainly by female artists, no borders leeds (group mainly helping asylum seekers with their claims for asylum), the permaculture association, leeds ecovillage (trying to set up an ecovillage in leeds), groups that work on health and mental health.. and i’m definitely forgetting some!

let me know what you think..

best wishes
despina

___________________________________________________

From: matt
Date: Sep 23, 2007 4:54 PM

Hi

I’m not sure the Common Place is the right place for all CRAG meetings, but
for a one-off I can’t see any problem. But does this mean the date is
changing? I told lots of people yesterday it was 31st and some seemed
interested…

Matt

___________________________________________________

From: Bill Phelps

I think we need to try expanding on both fronts – high emitters and
the already-convinced (and these groups overlap anyway). So, I’ve no
major objection to occasional meetings at the CommonPlace, provided
we sometimes pick venues more suited to the less-radical.

So, to the immediate question of where to have the talk with Jonathan
Lindh… If we’re more likely to get a larger audience, let’s try
the CommonPlace for this one?

Bill