These lists were generated at the beginning of the afternoon session of the Open Space, by the participants. (Notes taken by Marilyn Ferguson-Wolf, thanks!)

What can SWS give to its members and to the community?

• Marketing of its mission
• Affordable green housing
• Make it happen to have a green MBA
• Grassroots, community events
• Community cohesion
• Information on how I can be sustainable
• Connection with others who are sustainable
• Fun X 2 or 3
• Community
• Make a sustainable difference in West Seattle
• A concrete action for building the change I want to see
• Build a better model and share it
• SWS is seen as a strong local resource
• Connections with like-minded people who take action on their environmental community values
• SWS as a hub of services for other groups and promotes cultural change
• Community action, so that all West Seattle residents know of SWS resources
• Provide me with peace of mind
• Concretely engaged community
• Energy
• Community and networking

• Humor, teamwork affinity, big picture thinking
• Hosting of pot lucks (Ann Morrow, 938-0595)
• Passion
• Hosting of pot lucks (Moreah Vestan 938-8385)
• Non-violent communication training
• Finding of resources and sharing those resources
• Commitment to SWS
• A dreamer
• Bureaucrat
• Hope for the future

   

NOTE: If viewing with FireFox, the sentences may be truncated. Use IE.

The same document is also saved as a google document:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgr5dzgm_0cgc2dh

At the 8/20/2007 meeting, I proposed a vision, mission and goal statement and

then led the group through an exercise to refine the mission statement.

Below are the notes from the meeting as well as my own exercise in organizing

these thoughts and refining the mission statement.

Mission Statements (as of 8/20/07)

1. Sustainable West Seattle promotes a sustainable community in the
   
   neighborhood of West Seattle through education and advocacy of
   
   urban sustainability.
   

2. Sustainable West Seattle promotes and creates a sustainable West
   
   Seattle community through education and advocacy of urban
   
   sustainability. [but there is no mention of doing projects]

3. Sustainable West Seattle creates a community empowered to live and enjoy locally with careful use of resources through the education and advocacy of urban sustainability.
   

Vision (as of 8/20/07)

We seek a community that thrives on a lifestyle of nourishing foods, clean

water, abundant natural resources, safe and convenient transportation, and

healthy homes and that will remain an achievable lifestyle for generations

to come.

Goals (as of 8/20/07)

• We partner with West Seattle organizations to create a network
  
  of knowledge in the area of sustainability.
  

• We advocate for policy and initiatives that support building a
  
  more sustainable West Seattle community.
  

• We educate the West Seattle community on topics aligned with
  
  our vision.

• We lead projects that build community around the goal of a more 
  
  sustainable lifestyle.

From the SWS General Meeting 8/20/2007:

SWS will promote:

SWS __________ for the community:

Other: Work(s), Questions, Creates**, Facilitates values-driven actions **

** fits in with the theme above related to tangible products.

Laura’s take on this exercise:

I split the words that the group offered at the last meeting up along some themes which fit more-or-less into some of the themes we were talking about on email. It seems to me there are 3 or so main actions that I can see this group engaging in: Advocacy of sustainable practices, Motivating the community to participate in a sustainable lifestyle and providing a support structure for those in the community willing to engage. Further, the “products” that we’d get from these are real-life examples of sustainable practices (i.e. bus maps and local food resources) as well as an environment that will allow the community to succeed in their sustainability endeavors.

From here I think we can derive a mission statement that captures this essence. My first take is:

SWS is dedicated to reducing our community’s use of natural resources through advocacy and education to promote awareness about consumption, facilitation of projects and events that foster conservation and by providing a support network of like-minded individuals, families and organizations.

I believe this is still consistent with the goals and vision that I wrote above.