Annual Report 2007/Communication Steward

From EcoReality

In September of 2005, a dozen people met, dreaming of a sustainable future in community.

By April 2006, four of us decided to pool our financial resources, form a legal entity, and buy a small farm on Salt Spring Island. We had our first co-op general meeting on May 6, 2006.

Following are some highlights of the past year, some problems we've faced, and some future plans.

Contents 1 Duties 2 Accomplishments 2.1 Website 2.2 Correspondence 2.3 Organizational History 2.4 Other Outreach 3 Improvement Opportunities 4 Challenges 5 Future Plans

Duties

The Communication Steward takes care of organizational aspects of the co-op, including tasks that would normally be handled by the "secretary" of the co-op.

Accomplishments

Website

Our website has, by most measures, been a successful communications vehicle for EcoReality:

• 13,312 distinct hits on the home page
• 12,970 hits on the meetings page
• 3,190 references in Google
• information pages and links in major registries of ecovillages and intentional communities, such as Federation for Intentional Community and Global Ecovillage Network.
• entries in major outreach registries, such as Good Works Canada.

Correspondence

• There have been 2,319 separate emails to all members or advisors
• We've added 72 people to our Advisory Council
• Since November 2006, we have published four monthly email newsletters
• Weekly video conferences between members
• Contact with 16 volunteer workers

Organizational History

• We have had 19 documented meetings in the past year, all with minutes recorded on the website.
• Besides meeting minutes, we have structured facilities for tracking:
  • decisions
  • events
  • news
  • projects
  • proposals

Other Outreach

• We have business cards
• We have published articles in Communities Magazine and Permaculture Activist
• Our first open house is tomorrow!

Improvement Opportunities

A number of planned initiatives have yet to be accomplished:

• logo (in progress)
• brochure
• on-line resources:
  • library search
  • resources inventory and tracking
  • time logging system

Challenges

• labour for doing things is limited -- less than a few person hours a week
• members being split between two locations causes misunderstandings
• seeming lack of interest and involvement in our Advisory Council

Future Plans

• In the next year, I'd like to concentrate on more public outreach efforts on Salt Spring Island. Our strong Internet presence is not bringing us new members nor investors, and so perhaps our efforts need to be more localized.
• More web-based formal mechanisms for project tracking, time logging, etc. will make life easier for all of us.
• Continued monthly publication of our newsletter, which has generated good feedback.
• Working together with the Program Steward, more publicity for local events that we sponsor.

Respectfully submitted, Jan Steinman.