Freedman’s Town Project House; 1st Official Meeting
12/4/11; 2:00 pm
Present: Shamus, Amanda R., Amanda H., Jeremiah, Vera, Taryn, Adam, Ben
1. Review of Rules, House Procedures
- Hours are Mon-Sat, 9a-6p; Sunday is day off from construction and manual labor.
- Meetings are Wednesday at 9a, Sunday at 1pm; weekly brunch on Sundays at 1pm meeting.
- Revise rule 7: To be staying here for an amount of time, you must be working on something productive.
- General Brainstorming, Discussion of Ideas for House
- To be able to feed occupiers who come over during the day, we need to look into organizing regular food pick ups, and showing a presence with the team that goes to Last Organic Outpost.
- Container garden in side yard is preferable as it is very likely there are dangerous chemicals contaminating the soil here.
- Need to establish dishwashing stations and signs explaining protocol of the house for things like dishwashing, disposal into compost, etc.
- Possible use of the roof space for sustainability efforts.
- Facebook page with regular updates on hours, events, and progress.
- Plan to schedule individual projects and post online so that volunteers can come on days relevant to their interests.
- Amanda H. volunteers to monitor freecycle/ habitat for humanity thrift store for raw materials.
- Establish recycling efforts outside of Tranquility, including possibly collecting and recycling cans to earn extra income for project.
- Planning on drafting project mission statement and explaining work’s relation to occupy in an email this week. Will be drafted over the week during office hours.
- Consider offering location as a second location for receiving and processing non-prepared food donations.
- An occupier has offered to pay for our internet. Hopefully will be up within the next week, and we will be able to stay in close contact with main camp.
- Need carbon monoxide detectors, Amanda H offers to get them.
- Top priorities for repair are the bathroom and kitchen.
- Want to start construction by Wednesday; be painting kitchen by Friday
- tile floor for bathroom
- toilet
- Could utilize space to host screenings of movies like Inside Job; really important everyone is as informed as possible before Foreclosure Solidarity event.
- Jeremiah has a contact with Amigo Wind, will have him call the house phone tomorrow to talk about turning on electricity.
- Need to talk to Tran family about applying for weatherization assistance.
- Jeremiah can help with website
- Get a barrel for rainwater.
- Contact other similar organizations like HOUSE project for advice and insight.
- Also Japhet Creek in the 5th ward
