Bowen Agricultural Alliance

If you were with us on November 1st, have talked with someone who came, or have read any of the glowing news stories, you’ll know that our first workshop was a great success and the source of a lot of enthusiasm. We had an estimated 70+ people join us through the day and a core group of 40 or more that were there from start to finish. Out of that great melange of people and backgrounds came an extraordinary 15 or more initiatives in various stages of development.

This Saturday we are coming back together to do a couple of things:

• Take some time for the conveners of the November 1 groups to share their initiatives, progress — and/or challenges! — with the community. We hope there will be some new faces on Saturday and we’d like to give them an opportunity to come up to speed and get onboard.
• Explore the role of BAA. A recurring theme on November 1 was the potential of an umbrella organization to unite and support group initiatives as well as individual farmers, food growers and producers. On Saturday we are inviting you to explore these questions: What collective needs could be served by a Bowen food & agriculture umbrella group? What form should such an organization take? Check out the BAA About page for more thoughts on this evolving topic.

Some workshop details:

• We start at 9:30 am and will go into the early afternoon (no later than 4pm).
• Chris Corrigan has graciously offered to facilitate the session. (Thanks Chris!)
• The previously TBA location is now officially confirmed as the BICS Multipurpose room aka music room (down the hall and on the left from the school office). It may be a bit of a squeeze at first, but we will have use of neibghbouring classrooms for breakout sessions.
• Glorious Food: We had some wonderful contributions from the community at our last session. We’re making the call again: Can you bring a batch of muffins, some fruit, apple cider, veggies, or some other simple refreshment? It may be harder to come up with local foods at this time of the year, but the effort itself will be both appreciated and informative!
• If you know someone who would have something to contribute to our discussions or work going forward, give them a call and invite them to come. Know someone who needs a lift? … you get the idea.
• Raffle winners: We had a handful of raffle winners from the October Food & Ag survey whose names were announced at the November 1 workshop. Surprisingly no one came to claim their prize! If you receive an email indicating you’ve won, please come to the Saturday workshop. Unclaimed prizes will be “re-raffled” to attendees on November 28.

Did you convene a session on November 1?

• Thank you to all of the terrific initiators for stepping up at our workshop earlier this month. Lots of great ideas and concrete action plans! In some cases groups got busy right away (community gardeners met the next week and the fruit tree project team helped in an orchard within a few days of the workshop). Whether or not you’ve done anything since our last workshop, we’d like someone from your group to provide a short overview of your idea and/or objectives and some next steps. For instance, is your group meeting to continue discussion or kick things off? Do you have a set of activities that people are working on or that you need to recruit help for? Have you hit some stumbling blocks that potentially someone in the wider audience could help you to overcome?
• If you convened a session but cannot make it on Saturday, please see if you can find someone else in your group to speak for a few minutes.
• Further to this website update, you should be able to get some info online ahead of the workshop.