Minutes from Board Meetings & Committee Meeting

May Board Meeting Minutes

Tim and Kim's house,May 3, 2008

Garden workshops & work days:

Establishing an herb garden - May 12th ( Martha, Kim, Tim & Lobie) Perennial garden - DONE

Vegetable Garden Planting - May 17 & 18th Hwy 54 garden

Vegetable Garden Planting - May 31st & June 1st hwy 54 garden

Wild women's weekend - June 6, 7, & 8 th

Creating a Medicine Garden - June 14th & 15th, perennial garden

Energy Fair - June 20, 21, & 22nd

Creating a flower garden - June 28 & 29th, perennial garden

Does this schedule meet with everyones approval?

I think everyone can see that we are pretty busy this summer. We had previously talked about not planning any trips or events for the summer because the garden is so time consuming for us but I just can't pass up the women's weekend and the opportunity to bring all of our women together. And if there is anyway a couple of us could make it to the energy fair that is always a magical event for me. Greg, you talked about seeing if we could stay at your sister's place. It would be great if we could drive up one day and then spend the night one night. Or camping is always great too...but that old camp site just is not the same. I think we could try camp emilie. Anyway, let me know. I think we should send out an email and let people know what we have planned so that perhaps we could get people to join us and to help. The women's weekend is by invitation only because space is limited but Margaret will let us invite soup council women, I would like to invite....Lobie, Terra, and maybe Juniper. I think we should go back to our original plan of visiting Mike & Tony's place in July or August...(with the understand that it could sell any day)

I suggest that we put together a flyer with the dates for the garden workshops so that we can generate some interest. If we start to get people coming....then we will need to do things like a workshop with a presentation. Act like we actually know what we are talking about. Do our homework on some of these plants.

We have tons of planting to do....we should be out there in the garden on every nice day that it is not raining. We have tons of potatoes that need to get into the ground. And seeds that need to be planted. Today we did rosemary, thyme, cilantro, chives....and I had onion sets and potatoes in the car that we did not get in because I was done. The asparagus is doing great!!! I have strawberries and raspberries that need to get in the ground. Hopefully Chris will still give us some of his everberries.

Martha, I think it would still be nice to call and find out about that Rhubarb. I think we still have a week or two to get that done.

And I have not forgot that I have to work on 501c3 & by laws. This means keeping better records, minutes & books. Everyone please save your receipts for things. I found out from Juniper that we need to keep not only books but receipts for everything that we claim that we spend money on. So, Martha I need a copy of your invoice for the soil, Tim a copy of the seeds invoice. And from now on, everybody just remember to get a receipt for everything. We really need a scribe and a keeper of the keys so please lets put that out there and hope someone comes along with those skills.

We did give the schedule to shelter care so we might get some kids out into the garden but I would like to make a contact with the schools. I think we should start with Aldo Leopold. We can talk about why it so important for people to start growing their own food and buying local food. and why organic is so much better for them. We could put together a curriculm for presentation to school kids. Getting kids connected to the earth and to the source of their food. We can get grants for this kind of stuff. But we have to build up our board, get a scribe and keeper of the keys and start keeping better records.

That's all for now folks. I'll send out an email with the schedule to folks when I hear back from everyone that it is ok.

Update for April Kim Diaz

Helfenstein Soup Council

April 5, 2008 meeting minutes

Kim & Tim's house

Present: Kim Diaz, Tim Torrez, Martha Haugen, Pat Parmenteir, (Chris Vandersteen & Tom Manthe showed up during meeting)

Spiritual Opening: Tobbacco & Sage burning/ Garden blessings / Seed Planting during meeting

Environmental Hero Award:

Nominations for the award included, Michael Finney, Teddy Skenandore, Juniper Sundance, Michael LaForest, Chris VanderSteen, (Margaret sent an email nomination for Mr. Moran during meeting)

Juniper Sundance was selected as the winner of the 2008 environmental hero award and accepted. The award will be given during eco Jam on April 26^th , approx. 5:30PM.

Earth week events -

HSC is a sponsor of this years earth week events for the third year. Email was sent out with a list of the events.

Bringing America Home

- Martha, Tim & Kim attended portions of this conference for the homeless. Martha asked for the soup council to become involved in the task force. Martha & Kim have been very active in this issue while working and volunteering at St John's Homeless shelter. HSC volunteered during their Christmas celebration & donated recycle bins and set up their recycling program at the shelter. Martha also brought information regarding CVIA (community voices in action) & Joshua and asked if we could be a part of that. Need to have more discussion on how we can become involved in this. Talked with Karina and she suggested we be a sponsor of CVIA.

Garden Committee -

* We agreed to begin meeting at noon every Saturday now to work on the garden and that we will have two gardens, Hwy 54 garden for annuals and Brian's for perennials. Kim presented a diagram for garden design for perennial garden with ceremonial center and gardens in the 4 directions, A fruit & vegtable garden in the North, Medicine garden in the west, flower garden in the south, and a herb garden in the east, walk paths between them. Berries along the fence and squash around the perimeter to try to kill invasives.

* Started seeds

* Plant stand & windows - we still need to pick up the plant stand from lodge and windows from Juniper.

* Martha ordered top soil from willems landscaping-should be delivered to Brian's in a couple weeks. Brian said we can have it put in the circle but avoid Tony's trees but still he thinks we can drive a truck in there if he removes a fence post and we move the pile of wood.

* Called Uw EXT and talked with Bill Wright and he suggested that we test the soil first but we know that it is all clay and it will change when we bring in the top soil.

* Need to get Garlic and Jeruselum artichokes from Harvey

* Kim will check with On Broadway about having a non profit date for farmer's Market.

* Shelter Care Kids - Kim will call Jeri to see if the kids want to do community service in the garden and if they want to do the earth week events again this year and a make a difference project in Chris' garden.

Grants

- Martha presented two grants that she would like to see us work on getting to support the garden and the work at the soup council. The deadlines are passed for this year but we can work on it for are passed for this year but we can work on. We need to work on getting 501C3 for this to happen.

501C3 -

We need to update our bylaws, Get our minutes of meetings in order, We have started a financial journal for this year. We need a scribe and a keeper of the keys. Kim will do these things for now. Tim will remain the keeper of the keys until we can find a replacement. Kim will check with volunteer center and Greater Green Bay Community Foundation about getting our 501c3. Then we can talk about grants.

Mike & Tony's

- Trying to find a date to go to Mike and Tony's. April is really full now, try for something in May? This is an opportunity to see a earth berm energy efficient home with an organic garden. Nice working vacation.

Energy Fair -

In June the weekend of June 20^th. Greg will see if we can stay at his sister's place.

Website, communications, newsletter -

Per Martha, her son has got the website up and running. It has more limited functions but is available. We need a communication person to send out emails, manage the website and maybe even revive the newsletter.

Minutes from Board Meeting, December 12 & 13, 2008, Milwaukee WI

Present: Kim Diaz, Greg Banks, Martha Haugen, Lobby Metoxen (Adam, & Mike Laforest)

Saturday - Review of the year

Sunday

Spiritual Opening: Visit to Milwaukee River & local coffee shop, spirit calling song

2008 Short term goals: to get our 501C3, start a financial ledger, minutes in a binder and on the website, a wrap up report on dvd, update by-laws to be 501C3 freindly, listserv for email, mailing list with labels on a dvd, learn to send pictures via email.

Long Term Goal: Continue to build healthy intentional community

Board Nominations: Kim Diaz, Greg Banks, Tim Torrez, Martha Haugen, Pat Parmentier, Jim Olmsted agree to stay on the board. Jeri Fioramanti would like to stp down from the board.

Additional nominations included Margaret Gerhart. Advisory board nomination Gina villa-grimsby.

Jim recommended that we call the Board of Directors stewards and we all agreed that we loved this the word and concept but we need to do research regarding the the 501c3 to make sure that it does not conflict with the requirements.

Bylaws: Work on changing the By-Laws this year to better reflect the organization and to make it 501c3 friendly

Jim recommended changing the name to Helping Stone Family. We had discussed this last year and this would be a problem because the web site domain name is soupcouncil. org and the brochure was printed and designed which was a significant monetary investment with the current name. It was decisded that we could add the name Helping Stone Family to the website but no name change at this time.

Bookkeeping: Kim will keep a ledger

501Cs tax status: Kim will research the process and work on getting this done this year

2008 Clandar:

January Vision Quest at Greg and Adam' house in Milwaukee. Walk by the Milwaukee River, shop on Brady Street Coffee at Smokes at Food at Del Ray Grocery address Polish food cooked by adam..we would like to put some of those recipes on the website..they are sustainable, and very interesting and useful information for us all

February Valentines Day Feb 14 Martha and Trish Pooles Class Aromatherapy for Lovers see Aro

March

April Patricks Birthday Dinner, where he cooks we eat and celebrate his birghtday also bring something wonderful for the pot luck. Greg and Adam Tony and Mike from Milwaukee invited to attend

May

June

July Oneida Pow Wow

Gathering of ations ...indian Summer in Milwaukee

Renewanble Energy Fair in Custer WI Camp Out, Pot Luck, maybe a bon fire

August August 13 Taku Ronsman music invite the deaf kis, have to have a deaf intrepretator, will cost $30 an hour, and we will have to plan this ahead of time Learn some sign language

September Peace and Justice Dinner...Present the Peace and Justice Awa

Learn some sign language. Have this dinner in the St. John the Evangelist Church Basement in Ggreen Bay start at 10:00 am over at 3:00 pm 4:00pm mass at St Johns for those who wish to attend

October

November Annual Harvest Meal at Tim and Kim's House, now that they have a real stove..Pot Luck

December Our Third Annual Holiday Harmony Healing Festival at the Brown county Library Pine Street Green Bay in the Auditorium with Taku Ransman, vendors invitation, program speakers, pot luck snacks, cider proved d by the Soup Council Outreach..advertise in the Green Bay Chamber of Commerce, Green Bay papers, TV Community listings and Healthy Thoughts Magazine, Scene Magazine and other places

with Musical Sing-alongs everyone...maybe have a song book of favorite carols

invite the deaf kids, have a deaf intrepretator at $30 an hour. Learn some sign language

Vision Quest for 2009

Minutes from Board Meeting Sept 20, 2007 at Teaocity, 2621 S. Oneida, in Green Bay. In attendance:Tim and Kim, Jim O, Don T, Jeri F. Martha, Patrick Started at 11:00.

We began with discussion and updates about the homeless shelter, St. John the Evangelist Church, Father Blair, the Brown County Homeless Taskforce, N.E.W Shelter Churches Offering Temporary Shelter (C.O.T.S)

Jim asked "what is the council's position about C.O.T.S?".. We are sympathetic to the issue, but the council (at this time) cannot be involved until this goes to the Board of Directors agenda item at the vision quest. People can become involved individually. Proposed that the council form a committee to make some decisions on how we can best be active, as this situation evolves. Maybe someone would be on the Brown County Homeless Task Force Jeri said we need facts-- We can gather facts, write informed editorials, talk to aldermen Use the council as a mediator....Kim had a counter proposal

Jim--propose we attempt to form a committee if committee is not formed make effort at the very least have a liaison person report directly to the board..we asked Jeri F. She said she would. I(Martha) am not sure if Jeri is going to go to the Homeless Task Force Meetings...I need some more comments on this proposal...thanks, m

Point of information: the city subsequently has opened up a homeless center on Mather St.

Annual Report by Facilitator Kim on activities in the last year.

January Vision Quest Meeting the calendar for this 2007 year was set. Feb Meeting was the stone soup meeting, where we make soup at Tim and Kims house,made Valentines Day cards, house plants were potted. The March m eeting was at the Wild Women's Weekend, Fence, WI, where Kim,Martha Rebecca, Nancy Hacker, attended. Kim gave a presentation about H.S.C. to the women, and Margaret donated house plants, we sold some plants to the WWW. We encourage more women to attend this event next year. April Earth Day with many activities.Kim was on the county wide Earth Day planning committee She wrote grants which raised and received money for the entire event, HSC co-sponsored event Thankyou to Kim for her donation of time and money. We had a booth On Broadway for the Environmental Bingo. Miriam O., Margaret, Patrick, Kim and Tim helped at our booth, where we sold house plants, Green Arts items, buttons, We presented Margaret Gerhart the HSC Environmental Hero Award at the Eco-Jam In we took a trip and tour to Kuehne's Authenic Foods in Seymour WI. April Garden Committee Meeting. We volunteered at the UWGB plant sale. June,the Alternative Energy Fair in Kuster, WI. July, the Oneida Pow Wow. July, August September We sold plants at the Farmer's Markets: On Broadway (Sylvia has helped at the booth), and the Oneida Market. We were so busy doing the market and garden that other events, meetings trips were unfortunately cancelled. We should remember this for the planning next summer. We recommend that we plan to have more garden planting days--before Labor Day. Our goal this year was Health. our own and our family and friends. Garden keeps us active and healthy, it is also a Peace and Justice issue. Tomorrow will be the September Peace & Justice meeting. Kims annual report.

Other business

Don volunteered to buy a load of manure for the perennial garden. And he has seeds from a purple flowered vine to bring to garden.

Farmer's Mrket--a chance for community out reach

Jeri--Farmer's Market--her Srouts program (name?)

Don volunteered top help us do a raffle at some event. He can ge some prizes from Oneida Casino, Martha-maybe we can do something for the Healing workshop in Dec. or prizes for Earth Day Enviro-Bingo,

We need to get our paperwork up to standard. We have a offer from Greg to fund the updating of paperwork and hiring someone to write grants.

Meeting ended at ??? _______________

Martin has donated some lights and shelves for starting plants and two dehydrator cabinets to the HSC. The shelves are at Kim and Tims and the dehydrators at Martha and Patrick's house.

Minutes from Farmers Market Meeting, May 2, 07 at Kim's house. Kim, Margaret, Martha ..We will further talk with ON Broadway about their committee decision. Margaret bring in her Green Arts products and Martha take photos of the specific items she will be selling at the Broadway Market.

Ask Lenny if he will sell some of our heirloom plants.

We will do the Oneida and Broadway Markets. Work Schedule is on the Garden section of website. Oneida Market is first come first serve, they have ten tents,

We three will be making the decisions about the Farmers Market, as it is our $ and time. We will be the Team leaders. We will try to schedule the markets so that at least one of us will be there at all times.

We have many house plants left from Earth Day. going to try and sell them at Aldo Leopold school, library or?

Margaret Aug 7 & 8 Sheboygan Aug 11 Sept 4 & 5

Look on Craigslist.com and freecycle.com for a tent and scale

Minutes from Garden meeting April 30, 07 at Brian's house. In attendance Kim, Tim, Mary L., Brian, Martha Heirloom Plant Sale May 19 at UWGB--we need volunteers from our group. Mary and her sister Cindy, Martha volunteered to be there. Mary to bring back plants to her house . Starts at 7 am

Kim and Tim staked out a garden plot for us last weekend at the Oneida-Hwy 54 Community Garden. We will be at the same place as last year, last plot on the left, #29. Thanks, to them for going there and procuring this plot for us.

We will start planting in the garden, Sat May 26at 8:00am Everyone is welcome and encouraged to help. Call Tim or Martha for more information. We will post a work schedule for the garden and for the Farmers Markets on the Garden section of this website.

Broadway Farmers Market, Kim has been dealing with them. On Broadway committee suggested that AromAmora gets its own booth and that Margaret's Green Arts sell only the rag rugs. we are OKed to sell houseplants. the heirloom plants from UWGB and garden produce. We decided to have another meeting on Wed. to consult with Margaret and maybe go to the On Broadway and negotiate. We will need a scale and a tent and a money box, with change and we must use new bags (Martha has some new plastic bags to get us started)

The Oneida market is Tuesday 3-8:00pm--no vendor fee--and there are free tents. This market starts on June 26

We all decided that we should try to do both markets and also look into the market at Festival Foods (Which is free)

Work schedule is being developed...so far Martha and Pat are working on Saturdays in the Helping Stone Garden, Kim and Tim during the week, and Mary L. and Cindy during the week

We talked about the best way to get the food picked and collected from the garden, washed and prepared and then taken to market...still being discussed.

The garden at Brian's house will be for perennials. We discussed many options for composting, and Brian volunteered to put down some tarps to keep the weeds down. We will compost and begin to put in plants that can grow in clay soil. We will start by planting raspberries. Perennial List: lavender, tobacco, sage, horseradish, rhubarb, aspargus, jerusalem artichokes, berries, bergamont, yarrow, garlic, clary sage

Mary volunteered to start some seeds at home. We ended by taking a walk out to the garden plot.

We need newspaper to put down in the garden to keep down the weeds (not the shiny kind)

------------------------------------

Meeting Monday April 2007

Attic..in attendance, Kim , Tim , Greg , Martha , Patrick , Martin , Jeri F

Helping Stone Garden 2/12/2007 meeting notes:

Present: Tim , Martha, Kim , Juniper , Lucas , Brian, Margaret Maryary L

Margret came with her mother earth outfit which she will wear to receive her

Environmental Hero Award and Brian took pictures for the website.

Margaret, Martha, & Tim will pay $30.00 each for the booth with the understanding that they will receive that money back out of the profits. It is understood that Margaret will receive the money made from her artwork and Martha

Expectations: Just a reminder that the purpose of this project is for our good health and well being, that it is a volunteer effort and that hopefully we will make some money but remember that this is our first attempt at market so expect the unexpected!

Farmer's Market:

The group decided to go with the Broadway market rather than the Oneida market.

Beginning June to Sept, Wednesdays from 3 - 8 PM. Approx. $ 90.00 for the year.

Will sell produce, plants, art, & aromatherapy. All artwork must be approved by On Broadwaywill receive the money from her aromatherapy and hopefully they will make a donation of some of those profits back to the soup council or whatever they feel is fair. If someone brings vegetable to the market they will receive money that is made but will hopefully make a contribution back to the soup council. The money that we make from the vegetables from the garden. I ask that some compensation goes back to the people that work in the garden to make up for their time and expenses. We will do our best to divide things fairly but we ask that everyone do this as volunteers without expectation of compensation and you won't be disappointed. We agreed not to go with complicated book work to keep track of time but to try to keep things as simple as possible. In the end we will figure out what we need for the soup council and split the profit with those who contributed to the effort as fairly as we can.

We need tables, tents, scale, bags, buschel baskets. Martha has a table & Juniper has buscel baskets. We will take turns working the booth but everyone needs help with setting up the booth and taking it down. We will need some where to store the things. Need a cash box and petty cash to start out.

Plants:

UWGB has offered to donate their leftover heirloom plants to us to sell at market for fundraiser and also to plant in garden. This will be in early May. We need to figure out where to store them and if they are ready to harden off. They ask that we help in the green house and at the plant sale in exchange.

We are going to pot houseplants from cuttings that Margaret has and containers that she is gathering. We only need to get the soil and come together to do the potting. Mary said she has room in her basement and grow lights to start seeds...and maybe to keep plants between the time we get them and the market starts.

Garden:

Location:

Brian offered us the use of land at his house for our garden but the soil needs a lot of work, it is very clayey. Mary felt that she could fix the soil with compost but we need to get toxic free compost...not from the land waste site. Brian was going to call a friend to see if he could get a couple truck loads of organic compost. It will take a lot of work...there are tons of invasives on his property. We will have dig out all the current grass and till and then work in the compost. We talked about doing some perennials here. Artichokes, Rebecca's rhubarb, herbs.

We agreed to keep the garden on hwy 54 for this year and work on Brian's soil.

Seeds & plants:

UWGB has agreed to donate their heirloom plants that are left over from the sale to us. Last year there were a lot so we should be able to have some to plant and some to sell at the farmer's market which is great to have for the early season.

Juniper was able to save some seeds from last year's plants: (zebra, stuffing, chocolate) Tomatoes, Hopi ? winter squash.

there is $50.00 in the account for seeds that tim put in, we will order seeds and combine our order with Juniper to save shipping costs.

Work Schedule:

There are certain times that during the season that require more effort & cooperation. we need to work together during planting & harvest time. Hoping to do a better job of food preservation and seed saving this year.

Then we can split up during the season for weeding & watering. Martha & Pat agreed to work on Saturdays when they can. Tim & I will work on Mondays and Wednesdays. and probably more as needed. Mary committed to getting the soil at Brian's ready for planting. We will need lots of help and work for this project. Jeri from Shelter care got permission for the kids to work in the garden and on the clean up. We need to figure out when we can get started and get back to them.

It's almost Maple syrup time also. Juniper has invited us to her house again this year to make maple syrup so if anyone has any time I'm sure she needs help tapping trees.

Next Step:

Brian: Call to find out about organic compost.

Tim: Order seeds

Kim: Get farmer's Market Info.

I'll organize another meeting in early march to do seed planting when they come in.

Feb. 4, 2007 Meeting at Kim and Tims house, In attendance: Kim Diaz, Tim Torrez, Brian Pierce,( Greg & Matt) Martha Haugen. Kim had a beautiful heart shaped St. Valentine's Day box full of loving sayings that she had prepared. We passed the box to everyone and each picked a quote out of the box. And then we read them out loud and as our Spiritual Opening. ( Later some of us made Valentines with our special "love"ly quotes). We added our "pot Luck" ingredients to the soup pot then started the business meeting.

Mission Statement:

Helfenstein Soup Council INC. is a non profit educational, charitable grassroots organization founded in 1993 to support the Helping Stone Soup family physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally through gathering, sharing, and networking to create a peaceful community with a deep respect for social justice, diversity, equality, sustainable living and belief that everything on Mother Earth is connected.

This is it the official mission statement of the Helfenstein (helping stone) Soup Council which was voted on in the February 2007 meeting and is now up on the website under the menu page ORGANIZATION (Mission Statement)

Keith Watt is designing the HSC brochure & Kim is editing the text.

Earth Day--Kim is on the Brown County Earth Day Committee (for which she wrote 3 Grants). HSC is one of the sponsors of this Earth Day event will have a booth there. Earth Day Events will be posted on our website. Margaret Mary Gerhardt, is the recipient of our HSC 2007 Environmental Hero Award. Which will be presented to her on Earth Day during the EcoJam at the Holiday Inn. See our EarthDay webpage for her bio.

IN THE LIGHT SHOW Keith is putting the In The Light Show, hosted by Jim Olmsted onto DVD's.

PeaceOWL Award 2007 recipient is Martha Haugen. Jim and Martha are planning a Peace and Justice Day (Int'l Peace Day) Dinner for Saturday, Sept 22 in the early afternoon.

March meeting, Celebrating Women, will be at Full Moon Bog, Fence WI.

March 25th will be at Keune's Authentic Foods Farm Sunday March 25, 2007 Seymour, WI. Tour will start at noon. Steve Keune received our 2006 Environmental Hero Award.

May Meeting Program Idea Kim arranging potential speaker, Ken Damero, wrote book A Northwoodsmen's Guide to Compassionate Living, possible location, The Attic Coffee House for our Spring Garden Meeting.

Garden Committee Report Tim Torrez report. The garden is frozen. UWGB is going to donate plants, and they want greenhouse volunteers. Dr Vicki P____of UWGB Environmental Sciences, is getting back to us with a list of seeds that are going to be started in the greenhouse, then we will order seeds.

Brian Pierce offered some of his land for the community garden. We are going to plan a meeting there to look at the site. GArden Committee will meet soon.

Broadway Farmers Market and Oneida Farmers market, Kim researching and looking into the feasibility of having other people selling their products at the booth, to share in the responsibility of setting up and manning the weekly booth. Margaret Gerhardt's Green Arts (Recycled arts) and Martha Louise's Aromamora, aromatherapy products, have been suggested. For more info or to participate contact Kim. Broadway Farmers Market will be Wednesday, (set-up before 3:00)Hours 3-8 PM. Oneida Farmer's Market. Day______Hours_______.

We need a scale for the Farmer's Market.

Website Report Martha, Working on getting photos up on the website. Any information that anyone wants on the website can be emailed to Martha at aromamora@tds.net this email gets checked more often than the website email, but both emails will work.

Newsletter Report Kim will be doing the Newsletter as Marty has retired. We thank him for all his hard work getting out a very professional looking newsletter.

The newsletter deadline is Feb. We will still have Pip do the printing.

Make a Difference Project in October..nomination for 2007 is Juniper, Kim is going to check with her.

Next "Business meeting" Gathering is May 6th. Spring Garden Meeting with Plant and seed exchange. Pot Luck. Location TBA..in the mean time, there will be lots of committee meetings, for Board of Director nominations, for the newsletter and planning and printing the new HSC brochure, for the garden planning , and of course all the festivities and activities of Earth Day. If you are not already involved, and have something that you want to do, please get in touch with some one of our board members they will happily get you in touch with the right person.

So, at our January vision gathering and from conversations with all of you the following people have been nominated to the 2007 board of directors:

2007 Board of Directors

Kim Diaz, co-facilitator

Greg Banks, co-facilitator

Tim Torrez, keeper of the keys

Martha Haugen, Scribe

Pat Parmentier

Jim Olmsted

Jeri Fioramanti

Elder Board

Lenny Larsen

2007 Vision Quest

Minutes for Dec, 22, 2006

2007 Vision Gathering Meeting Minutes December 22, 2006

Present: Kim Diaz, Greg Banks, Tim Torrez, and Jim Olmsted, (Martha & Marty send their love and support) Plus earlier gatherings and conversations at Kavarna with Jeri, Rebecca, Phil, & Lenny,

Spiritual Opening Divination Tea

Annual Report - attached

Treasurer's Report - $150.00 in bank

Communication committee report Newsletter & website are both wonderful!!! Good job to Martha & Marty for all their hard work to make them so nice and well done. Marty has declined to continue doing the newsletter in the coming year. Kim will pick that up for now. Martha is in Ohio and has limited computer access so she is unable to update the website at this time. We will work with her to get access so that we can keep it up to date. Our goal for the coming year is to continue with both. Work on putting pictures on the website & stick with the twice a year for the newsletter.

Garden Committee report Tim gave us a report on the success of the garden this year. We started the year in the green house at Tsyhekwa again this year. Our garden ended up being at the UW extension site on HWY 54. We had the last 40 X 40 plot on the far left. Kim & Juniper helped in the garden this year. Juniper brought tons of heirloom tomatoes from UWGB and we had a wonderful variety of plants. We did tons of canning.

2007 Goals- The intention of the Helfenstein (Helping Stone) soup council for this coming year is to go back to our community roots by changing our focus inward. We will do that by supporting each other in striving to improve our individual mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health and by being a family to each other.

We would like to accomplish the following goals with the understanding that we can only do what we have energy and support to do. We should not have expectations on others in the group but instead we should support each other mentally, physically, emotionally & spiritually. We should each do what we can with the hope that we will meet the following goals:

Monthly gatherings return to the pot luck gatherings of the past
Develop brochure for soup council
Develop Business cards
Continue bi annual newsletter
Develop electronic newsletter
Learn to put pictures on website
In the Light video project Keith is putting them on to DVD
Fundraising Christmas card project, plant project
Garden Broadway farmer's market Partner with people to have a booth and sell things besides our produce.

Present: Kim Diaz, Greg Banks, Tim Torrez, and Jim Olmsted, (Martha & Marty send their love and support) Plus earlier gatherings and conversations at Kavarna with Jeri, Rebecca, Phil, & Lenny,

Spiritual Opening Divination Tea

Annual Report - attached

Treasurer's Report - $150.00 in bank

2007 calendar

Feb 4, 2007 Stone Soup Gathering

Noon Kim & Tim's

February 23,2007 Newsletter deadline

March 9,10,11 2007 Celebrating Women & Winter women's weekend

Noon Brown County Library

March 25, 2007 Steve Kuene Organic Farm Tour

Noon

April 16 - 22, 2007 Earth Week Events, Clean up, Speakers, Eco Fair, Eco Jam

Environmental Hero Award

May 6, 2007 Garden Meeting

Noon Location - TBD

June 2 & 3, 2007 Mike & Tonys Organic Farm

June 16 -18 Energy Fair - Custer, WI

HSC Camping Trip

July 1, 2007 Pow ? Wow

Oneida, WI

August 4 & 5, 2007 Iron river Trip

August 10, 2007 Newsletter deadline

Sept 22, 2007 Peace & Justice Dinner

Location to be determined

October 7, 2007 Make a Difference Project

Noon TBD

Nov 4, 2007 Holiday Gathering

Noon TBD

Dec 2, 200 Healing Workshop

Noon TBD

Jan 6, 2008 Vision Gathering

Noon TBD

___________________

2006 Annual Report: Kim

Helfenstein Soup Council started our year in a board meeting at the Brown County Library. With old familiar faces and new faces which are always welcome. We hammered out the agenda, had lively discussion, stayed on task by lining up on stacks and finally 4 hours later we finished the marathon meeting with at least some clearer direction on where we were headed in the new year. Then we gathered for Pizza at Jakes where we picked more old friends. We had about 13 people attend which is the best attendance for a vision gathering for the soup council since I've been involved over 10 years.

February we had our traditional Stone Soup gathering at Kim & Tim's, March we hosted the celebrating women event at the Brown County Library with Alice Skenandore from Wise Women Gathering Place as our host speaker. This event was very well attended and supported. April was the garden meeting at Pat & Martha's which is always the best place to go for food. The Soup Council was one of the sponsors of the Earth Day event for Green Bay for the second year. We bought trees for the children. We presented our Environmental Hero Award to Steve Kuene for his work with Organic farming.

In May we meet at the old foot bridge in Joanne's Park to practice our psychic ability, which always more amazing than I imagined. All spring we were busy in the green house planting seeds and transplanting seedlings--we are experts at it by now. Then we ended up with a plot with the UW extension off highway 54 just passed NWTC.

The summer wizzed by, in June we enjoyed Sue Younders hospitality while we all camped in her yard along the river for the weekend. We all hung out and ate, had a bond fire, played music--we had the most wonderful performance of young ladies with violins and then enjoyed a presentation from Ted Reed about his trip to Peru and his spiritual experiences there. It was a great weekend with wonderful wild women...and a few brave men.

In July we hung out at the Oneida Pow Wow. August we enjoyed Blues in The Park. Tim worked hard in the garden with help from Juniper. We had the best tomato year ever...we got a donation of tons of heirloom tomatoes from UWGB. I canned more than 20 quarts and made tons of salsa.

In September we brought the Peace & Justice Festival back to the library with a great program and debut of the soup band?.with our one hit wonder "In The Light" . Dennis Gonzalez was given the Peace Owl award.

For our October "Make a Difference" project we helped Magic clear some clutter by taking a load of belongings to St Vincent De Paul for her. November we had our traditional Holiday meal at our house which just was not the same as Pat & Martha's. For our December meeting we had a sweat lodge at Adam's drive.

This year we had two newsletter that we put out to the community which were the best that we have ever done. And Martha has continued to keep up with the website and to fund that project. Thank you to everyone that participated and contributed this year.

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Minutes from August 13, 2006 gathering Blues in the Park - St James Park Present: Kim Diaz, Tim Torrez, Marty Slavik, Greg Banks - After meeting in the crowd : Lenny, Rebecca & Phil, Tony, and many familiar faces. Spiritual opening: Sage blessing & poems by Dennis Gonzalez

1. Newsletter - August 25th deadline. Sept 1st printing & sending. Gave Marty $30.00 for printing. Martha agreed to do envelopes. Kim to get stamps. Marty let us know when we can get together to fold & stuff & stamp. Want poster/flyer re P&J festival for last page. Jim sent Keith email, 1hawkpro@sbcglobal.net Marty can you contact him & work out getting the poster. Sent Marty article regarding soup council year and calendar for the rest of the year. Need a biography about Dennis for newsletter regarding peace owl award.

2. Peace & Justice Festival, September 24th, 2006 from noon to 4pm, brown county library: 5PM picnic, hike, & medicine wheel circle at Christa McAuliff park:

Read Jim's letter regarding recommendations: Schedule as follows:

Noon - Set up at Brown County library

12:30 - Greetings by Kim Diaz

Opening blessing by Reverand Elaine Thomas

1:00 HSC history by Jim , update & current by Kim

1:30 Peace Speaker, Jill Busiere (called & confirmed that she will be there.) Canad ate of the Peace Party-Greens Political Party for WI State Senate 2006 race

1:45 Native American Speaker - Dennis Gonzalez ( Jim is that confirmed?) speaking on Prisoner Rights and Prison Reform

2:00 Music by Keith Watt

2:30 Poetry by Sandy--Butterfly Woman

3:00 Peace Owl Award- Presented to Dennis Gonzalez (by Jim, Marty, Tim) need to ask Marty & Tim

4:30 Potluck at Christa McAuliff Park, hiking Baird creek & medicine wheel circle of friends gathering at sunset.

We still need someone to do children's activities in the foyer.

3. Schedule for HSC gatherings:

Sept 24th gathering - We decided to combine the September & October gathering and just have the P & J festival for both months.

October make a difference project - Kim to ask Juniper if she needs any help.

November 5th- Traditional Harvest gathering at Pat & Martha's....(please confirm Martha if that is ok)

December 3rd - Healing workshop at library. ( Martha do you want to do that again and was that location good)

January 7th - Vision Meeting - everyone liked the library because we got a lot of work done and the Jakes pizza was good. Stays the same for next year.

February 4th - Stone Soup meeting - Kim & Tim's house

March 4th - Celebrating women - Library

Since we decided to do 2 newsletters a year, the next newsletter will come out sometime in February or March. So we can plan April, May, June, July, August, September at our January meeting. It was suggested that we make the August gathering - Blues in the Park a regular thing.

4. Garden Update:

The garden is located on Highway 54 on the right if you are going west, between the Brown County Park entrance and GE. Our garden is the back corner on the Northwest side.

We have corn, beans, & squash, Okra, basil, parsley, tomatoes, eggplant, broccoli, kohlrabi, peppers, swiss chard, onions...lots of stuff. Tim & Juniper have been working hard in the garden. I helped in the green house & in the harvest and canning. We are almost ready for canning tomatoes & making salsa this week. TOMMORROW! My house if anyone is interested. This week & next are going to be the big tomato harvest.

Call Tim & Kim if you are interested in working in the garden: 496-9464.

Again we loved it as a project....want to do it again next year. The location is good...would be nice if it was in an abandoned city lot. need more help. Especially watering and weeding.

Peace Rally - august 18th - Baird Place

We ended with the Blues in the Park by Jimmy Flynn.

May Meeting at Johanns Park, Everyone Has Psychic Abilities with Greg Banks. Read letter from Jim Olmsted and approved his recommendations for Peace and Justice Day, please see the Peace and Justice section for that info. Letter from Dennis Gonzales was sent to Marty for future publication.

April Meeting at Pat and Marthas house.

Ideas about this years garden..an indoor farmers market Mason St and Washington.. On Broadway's one day market opportunity for non profit groups

Garden Committee Report. This year we will not be gardening at Harveys. We have bought organic seeds and are beginning to garden at Tsyhehkwah in Oneida, starting the seeds this month in the green house. Kim and Tim are planting seeds, all others are invited to plant seeds and garden. We have to schedule our time, as an employee from the staff has to be with us, this is for insurance purposes. The times are Tues 11-2:00 and Thurs 9-12..call Kim or Tim

Nominations for the Environmental Hero Award 2006 are, Ted Skenadore, Kathleen Kelly Hoffman, Martha Haugen, Jeanie Carlin, Margaret Gerhardt, Steve Kuehn. And Steve Keune was selected for this year.. Kim will contact Steve. And we will ask Phil to put together the award.

March 05, 2006 2nd annual CELEBRATING WOMEN..march is womans month Brown County Library in G.B a 12:30-3:30PM. Keynote speaker, Alice Skenadore, keynote speaker

Feb.5, 2006 Sunday Tim & Kim's house Those present were: Kim, Tim, Marty, Sue Younger, Ted Reed, Martha, Pat,Charlie Grimsby, Gina Villa-Grimsby

Sue Younger talked about the state wide referendum for a constitutional amendment, "in defense of the marriage act", that we will be voting on in Nov. add more detail** She will keep us up dated, there will be information on the website and in the newsletter. Her email is aquawoman54153@yahoo.com

Garden Committee Report next meeting Feb. 19 at Chris's house, to order seeds, decide where to have garden, greenhouse,decide about fundraiser status, etc. And do an inventory of leftover seeds, bring catalogers. Anyone who is interested in the garden is encouraged to attend. Chris's phone #437-7842

CALENDAR PLANNING

March meeting will be Celebrating Women, keynote speaker Alice Skenadore, of Wise Women Gathering Place, will speak about midwifery, women's circles **add more Jeane Carlin, Music, at Brown County Library in the auditorium and foyer. This will be about women showing off their talents, open mic, boots, info , Health Issues, Poetry, everyone welcome. Pot luck finger foods (HSC will provide the drinks, cups and plates and napkins, no coffee)Sue Younger will invite poet,Wendy Dielman.Gina is going to invite artist Margaret Gerhardt. Put an ad on Channel 4, send Press Release and Calendar update to Press Gazette & News Chronicle, and other places.

April Garden Meeting at Pat and Martha, potluck

Share time, info about organic gardening and plant seeds in containers..pat and Martha have collected containers to reuse, they are available for everyone. Listen to Steve Westin CD, about growing Angel Food if there is time and interest.

May 7 Meeting Planting at the garden.

June Overnight camping in Oconto, bonfire, fishing, at Sue Younger's house. Ted Reed to talk about his trips to Peru and share with us his experiences, insights, and spiritual journey

Sue Younger is doing an event in Oconto with the Handicap Citizens association, an art competition, we will put this event on the website and send an email out. Sue will inform us by email of details.

July camping at Iron River, MI

EARTH DAY COMMITTEE

The environmental Hero Award nominations so far are, Tsyunhehkw employees, Healthy Thoughts Magazine employees, Steve & wife Kuehne, Jeane Carlin. This will be decided by the board. We are asking for bios. send to the website..see contact us

Earth Day Activities, Lisa Melli, Martha and Margaret are planning an recycled art workshop at Aldo Leopold, details are being worked out in this committee.

Kim is working on the NEW Earth Day Committee to coordinate and create Earth Day activities....eco-jam, Baird Creek Clean-up. She suggested the soup council donate trees to be given away. We voted yes, with a 25$ ceiling. HS will give out our Environmental Hero Award and start planning to have a info booth there, if there is enough interest. Our committee will contact Greg and Jim about guidelines for possible nominations for this Award. Cofrin and ** were suggested by the NEW Earth Day Committee Peace Pole info will go on the website. Meeting ended for lack of time

Issues that never got in the Feb.meeting, but got into email from Kim. Kim will assign them to their proper committee.

*Communications Committee Agenda for Meeting Feb 24

l. Newsletter deadline to Marty Feb 17

2. Email addresses

3. Email categories for website

4. Email 101 workshop

5. Send the minutes to the Board by email

* Mission statement (in newsletter)

* Elder Board Recommendations

*Peace and Justice Committee will decide the PeaceOwl award ---Jim, Gina, Tim, Kim & Chris

Peace Pole--presest information, then if we want to work on this idea...give the info to Martha so she can put it on the peace and jusbice section of website

* Budget-- need money for seeds for garden

The Helfenstein Soup Council is in it's 13 th year as an environmental social justice organization. We have developed the following vision for this year: we will focus our energy on creating a collective consciousness for peace and justice issues, we will continue our work on environmental issues such as renewable resources & energy, and will support our community by respecting and helping other council members. We will build on our previous success by educating ourselves and the public through communications such as media, website, and a newsletter. We will do fund raising & grant writing and will continue to network and support other groups in their work.

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2006 Vision Quest.........

Vision Quest 2006 Meeting Brown County Library noon Jan.8, 2006 Greg Banks, Kim Diaz, Jim Olmsted, Marty Slavek, Gina Villa-Grimsby, Charles Grimsby, Chris Vander Steen, Keith Watt, MaryAnn Schlitz, Martha Haugen

Spiritual Opening

Scribe's Wrap Up 2005 Report, given by Martha Haugen

Keeper of the Keys Report,given by Kim Diaz, check book balance $206.40 and $50 cash for pizza at Jakes for today with no outstanding bills

Nominations for Board :

Board members to continue in their roles from last year. Kim Diaz&Greg Banks Co-facilitators, Martha Haugen Scribe, Tim Torrez, Keeper of the Keys, Marty Slavek, Patrick Parmentier. All willing to continue. Call for additional nominations to the Board. Passed that we allow nominations today for those who want to be on the Board, while a committee looks into future guidelines. Jim elected to the board.

Committee for Elder Board defination & guidelines. Will bring recommendations back to a later meeting. Jim, Kim, Mary Ann, Gina?.

2005 Survey

Mission Statement

Kim..we need a description of "who we are" for brochures, newsletters..etc. Mission statements from Kim, Gina, Jim and Mary Ann. A list of key words compiled from survey & group additions. And purpose of group HSC By-Laws. These were shared & collected to be used by Mission Statement Committee. Gina volunteered to chair committee. Also Kim will put something in newsletter for a wider audience. Mission Statement Committee of Kim, Gina, Martha

Calendar with additions

Feb. 5, 2006 Peace and Justice Gathering or Stone Soup Gathering at Kim & Tim's

March 5, 2006 Celebrating Women noon Brown County Library

April 2, 2006 Garden Meeting noon Pat & Martha's

May 7, 2006 Joanne's Park noon recycling meeting

June 4, 2006 Camping at Sue Youngers Stay overnight on Saturday, bonfire, music around the campfire, children welcome. Meeting on Sunday at noon, fishing, tents, Oconto, WI

July 1-4, 2006 Iron River Camping Trip

August 6, 2006 Everyone has psychic abilities, noon, Johanne's Park

Sept 3, 2006 Labor Day Weekend ??

Sept 23, Saturday, 2006 Peace and Justice Meeting

Oct. 1, 2006 Recycling Meeting at Senior Center ?

Nov. 5, 2006 Our Annual Harvest Meal at Pat and Marthas

Dec.3, 2006 2nd Holiday Healing Workshop at Brown County Library info booths, speaker

Jan. 7, 2007 Vision Quest...maybe Gina and Charlies

Peace and Justice Committee is kim, Tim, Jim, Chris, Gina and Charlie. with Mary Ann on a sub-committee to plan something for children Date Sat. Sept 23 for our Peace and Justice festival. International Day of Peace and Justice is Sept 24.

Recycling meeting--swap meet, do as our make a difference day, no place for Oct. maybe senior center, Martha, Kim find out more about place and interest of recycling group.

Next years vision gathering Jan 7,2007 where? Suggestions of Greg's door county place, gina and charlies house, harveys dome house. Decide later.

Mary Ann..Discussion about children and their education for peace, etc. incorporate children's activities into our activities. Gina brought up an idea of planting a peace pole as a spiritual ceremony. Greg suggests one meeting a year with spiritual focus. Mary Ann suggestion with a May Pole. When there is energy for something, we will support it. Gina could put an article about the peace pole on the Peace and Justice site and bring it up next month.

Short Term Goals

Calendar

Garden

Website

Monthly Pot Luck

Spiritual Ceremony

Newsletter

Long Term Goals

money

grant writing

compensate Facilitator

Jim suggests as a long term goal we do fund raising, grant writing so we can pay a grant writer and the facilitator. Gina volunteers to look into being a fund raiser and get back to us with her recommendations.

Tabled for future discussion.

Environmental Hero Award 2006

bring up at next meeting

Peace Owl Award 2006

Jim suggested that the Peace and Justice Committee take on the award...passed

Environmental Hero Award, Earth Day committee, tabled for next meeting

Communications Committee Report

Changing newsletter to twice a year. We will always have a hard copy. Limit amount of emails a month.

Martin, move that the newsletter have an editor and that the editor decide what goes into the newsletter..the addressing, folding be done when we do meet, Martha added, we could talk about process then....no objection.

Next newsletter, for distribution before the Celebrating Women Event in Feb...Deadline to Marty... Feb 17...Meeting Friday at noon Martha's house Feb 24

Garden Committee

Reports from Chris, Kim, Martha

Next garden meeting at Chris's house is Feb 17 Friday, noon. Next meeting will be planned at that time.

Budget

$20 filing fee for organization

$50 postage for newsletter for issue

$500 website

$200 seeds for garden and garden rental

$200 Peace and Justice Gathering

Table the budget till next meeting.

Pass Magic Hat.

The Scribe's "Wrap-Up" of year 2005 by Martha Haugen.

WE did so much last year. 2005 Jim Olmsted moved to New Mexico and Kim was asked to stay on as facilitator, which she did from encouragement of Greg Banks who said he would help her and be a co-facilitator with her for the year.

We started out last year with our traditional vision quest up north at Greg Banks in Iron River, MI. We talked alot, had long meetings and planned the calendar for the coming year. We used the responses from the surveys to decide on goals, commitments and program. Patrick had suggested in Dec. that we have a garden at Harvey Haugen's place on Sturgeon Bay Road and grow some vegetables as a fund raiser. He said he would buy the seeds. Kim said she would do the marketing plan and Tim and Martha said they would do some work and get some other people to also help. We planned a calendar for the up coming year.

We talked with Harvey and we formed a garden committee, that met later that year at Harveys dome house. We had some good pot luck meals. Lenny Larsen and Tony & Nancy Saladino were able to come and help with the garden planning. Tim & Kim, Patrick & Martha and Chris Vander Steen and Harvey and Martin Slavek made up the garden committee. Did I leave out anyone else who attended?

Jim has been sending the Cape Twisco and Rainbow Family history to the website all year, and it is almost all up there under ORGANIZATION, subset History..thank you Jim

In the winter, I approached the council with the idea of my doing a website, because my son was starting his own business hosting websites from his home, and I thought that our venture could be mutually beneficial to all of us. I got the go ahead from the council. And www.soupcouncil.org became a reality. Mike Sullivan did some web control structuring for the Admin Panel. And much thanks to Gareth for all his support both financially and motivationally. I, Martha, feel that the Website has been a great success.

We need a seperate report from the garden committee, because the work done there was so constant, difficult and yet rewarding. The garden got planted, weeded, harvested and put to bed for the winter by many people. Tim Torrez talked the plants into growing, and kept them company all summer singing to them and visiting the garden a couple of times every week, often with Chris Vander Steen, who mowed miles and miles of grass. The garden was so amazing that it really requires another report, but I have to say that Chris's tomatoes and butternut squash were memorable. Patrick ordered a vast aray of potato seedlings, and many herb and veg. seeds, so that we could experiment and find out what would grow best and sell best. All our seeds were organic and our methods were organic. We had bonfires after the work was done, and spent time with old and new friends. Many people helped in the garden, and enjoyed our crops.

The March meeting, Celebrating Women was attended by many women and some new faces. Kim Diaz was hostess and MC. Ms Taylor (don't know her last name) talked about womens history and womens challenges now. Many of us talked about our she-roes...our mothers and our own experiences of being women. There was poetry sharing and art work. Jeanie Carlin and Karl Bokerman sang and played their guitars. Sandy Sullivan read a poem that she wrote for her mother and some other of her poems. We Celebrated Women and ourselves as Women and were celebrated by the men who were there that day to be with us.

We have a DVD made by Keith Watt that records the presentation of the first PeaceOwl Award to Martin Slavek. This presentation was made by Sandra Sullivan, who is the sister of Jim Olmsted for who the award has been named and granted. Elaine Thomas gave the keynote talk about Gay Marriage.

The March meeting Celebrating Women was attended by many women, and some new faces. Taylor talked about womens challenges now. And many of us talked about our sheroes...our mothers and our own experiences of being women. There was poetry sharing and art work. Jeane Carlin and Karl Bokerman sang and played the guitar. Sandy Sullivan read a poem that she wrote for her mother, and other poems. We Celebrated Women and Ourselves as Women.

Charlie Frisk was awarded our Environmental Hero Award on the day of the Baird Creek Clean-up on Earth Day.

The council went to Aldo Leopold School and gave environmental talks to

Thanks to Lisa Meli, and Aldo parent who acted as MC, Tim Torrez for his drum opening and song, Tony Saladino who gave a talk and donated trees to the kids who came to Baird Creek on the next day, Kim Diaz who spoke about Aldo Leopold, Martha Haugen who talked about recycling. Laurie Stimpson took pictures, Sandy La Coy, Eric Eickenhauer, Nancy Saladino who helped the kids make their environmental commitment and remember it by making bracelets. Gerald Diaz interviewed, photographed our adventure for the Snap Shots Press Gazette article..Did I forget anyone else?

In April we started the Garden, which consumed much of our attention, and still managed to publish 4 issues of our Newsletter last year, thanks to Martin Slavek, who published the paper and Kim Diaz, who wrote and edited most of the newsletter. The newsletter is very good looking, and we are very proud of it. Our thanks to those who contributed articles for the newsletter this year.Maryann Schlitz, Rebecca Derenne and others.

At a summer meeting...July meeting,there are minutes for this meeting on this website.. when Jim and Greg were back in Green Bay, we had a long meeting and worked on program ideas, Peace and Justice Festival, goals for the council, Jim Olmsted visited the garden.

December Meeting...Dec. 4, 2005 Holiday Healing Workshop at the Brown County Library 12:30-3:30 PM. Simplify your holiday season by learning to take even better care of yourself. Trish Poole, keynote speaker, musical entertainment by Jeane Carlin, Open Mic, informational booths, potluck snacks.

Patricia "Trish" Poole, CH, ATP, Reiki Master Teacher will present about Reconnection healing and lead the group through a healing meditation. The guided meditation will strengthen your energy system and help you clear any addictions (chocolate, coffee, etc.) See her website www.patriciampoole.com .

Taku passed around a petition for Direct Legislation requesting that the following proposed resolution, without alteration, by referred to a vote of the voters on April 4, 2006,..."Should the United States begin an immediate withdrawal of its troops form Iraq, starting with the National Guard and Reserves. for more info, email Taku, from the Contact H.S.C. page on this web site... Interested people who have addresses in Green Bay signed this petition. The Wisconsin Legislature is currently supporting an amendment to the state Constitution that would ban civil unions and marriage for lesbians and gay couples, we were given a phone number to call, for a no vote on the Amendment, as this amendment would hurt real Wisc. families by prohibiting the critical right and responsibilities of marriage. The amendment goes too far. It not only bans marriage, but also civil unions and domestic partnership. for more information call Action Wisc at 608-441-0143. Website is www.actionwisconsin.org We have also networked with Two Rivers www.lakeshorepeacemakers.org Ron Kossik (414) 704-4571 and Betty Schneider (920)793-2036 These petitions need alot of signatures, help if you can.

In attendance were many HSC people and many new faces, and some many friends...a good time had by all, thank you, it truly is a beautiful world and this holiday peace gathering was enjoyed by all.

The following people are on the committee to plan next years event, Kim, Martha, Sue Younger, Jeane Carlin, Lynne Owen, anyone else interested..please join us. We welcome your help, call Martha or email

November Meeting..Nov 6, 2005 Harvest Meal at Patrick & Martha's house/ The garden is close to being finished. We will meet there next Saturday to clean up, put the plow away, and plant garlic. Good job! Thanks to all who worked on the Garden. Kim will look into other places for next years garden. We will have a garden committee meeting at the April Meeting.

It was decided to publish the newsletter bi-annually. The next issue will be winter/summer. The newsletter will come out on the winter and summer solstice. We will not be doing a survey this year but focus on the mission statement.

The following meeting schedule is tentative and will be published in the newsletter and on the website. January Vision Quest meeting when Jim Olmsted is visiting Green Bay, date to be announced. Feb. Peace and Justice Meeting at the Library, March- Celebrating Women at the multi-cultural center,April-garden meeting at Pat and Martha's house. May-May pole, June-to be decided, July-to be decided.

Alternative Healing planning committee Tues at Café Susan.

Kim is sending thank you notes to Chris, Harvey, Elaine Thomas.

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July 2005 minutes

Kim, Tim, Greg, Jim, Martha attending

Peace and Justice Festival will be Sept 17 at Christa McAuliffe Park, Kim reserved the shelter, electricity and we have permission to have music and also this year to sell vegetables. Tim is in charge of the music. Jim suggests we rent a P.A. system, Jim donated money, we will ask for more donations. Kim asks that we get commitments for musicians and speakers so that we can do a flier with a time schedule. Keith has been contacted to do the flier and he has the Peace Owl Award made. We will have another committee meeting in the next couple of weeks. Jim will ask Elaine Thomas, of the Metropolitan Community Church to give a talk on Gay Rights. Also contact the Positive Voice they have a speakers panel and St Norbert Rainbow Alliance. We talked about the drug and alcohol ...we have the disclaimer on fliers. it is also on the website, but not put on the home page. We nominated a lot of people for the peace owl award, and the consensus result was Martin Slavik for his involvement with the community and H.S.C.

. Martha talked about the website. The Outreach Committee will make the website decisions..What to put on the calendar? If the council is co-sponsoring an event, then that other group can have some postings on our calendar around that event, this is a guideline.

We talked about the garden. Kim talked to Lenny about distributing our vegetables. Ideas for selling our produce.. We will sell from a stand at the garden on Saturday or another day that we will be there. We can make fliers, use Martha's cell phone number. Fliers can be put at the extension office. And also we can advertise in newspaper that we have bushels of tomatoes for canning and customers can pick them up at the garden, or a members house. Greg suggests the food pantry and maybe they would have volunteer workers that could help us with the harvest. We want to make a donation to Tsyunhehkw Greenhouse. We need to make a banner or sign for the vegetable stand, Mary Ann has been asked asked. Tim says, Harvey has tractors, lawn mowers he needs help with. Jim suggested that he or Greg, someone who is not part of the garden, look at the process and make some suggestions. Greg is busy, but if he has time, he would help facilitate a meeting. Jim said one of the reasons that the council established themselves was for community gardening, it is in the ten year vision. ( If this vision paper is available, Martha would like to put it on the website.)

Greg will be doing the August meeting, it will be at noon in Joannes Park ...Everyone Has Psychic Abilities. Exercises to use psychic abilities. He will teach flame reading, people will learn how to give and receive messages. If there is anything anyone wants to get out of this meeting, they can email Greg. He will also focus on dream guidance, but teach the flame reading technique because it is a quick way to get guidance.

September meeting, work on Peace and Justice Festival, if we are going to write the nomination letter for the new board members we could work on it at this meeting (see Jan meeting)

Oct. meeting Make a Difference Day. Tim or Chris is going to ask Harvey if he wants to use this day. We can help him and organize the day, Pat can ask Harvey's friends. We will have a pot luck.

Nov. meeting...or annual holiday meal at Pat and Martha's house. We may need an extra table, we have an extra large folding table.

Dec Meeting Alternative Healing, Martha maybe at the library. if there are to be articles in the newsletter, it will have to be the Fall newsletter, at least there should be a short article referring everyone to the website. nominate board members

January 16, co-sponsor with NWTC Martin Luther King Event

January Meeting Vision Quest maybe at the multi cultural center... elections..work on mission statement...pot luck and spiritual meeting after the board meeting Kim wants to have board training for the new board members. Greg suggested that we have a nomination letter for people who are nominated, simple, consensus information.

Feb meeting

March meeting Celebrate Women

April meeting

Jim told us about Marc Olmsted peace activist...we will put a link onto our website

marcolmsted@comsast.net

www.marolmsted.com/blog

And it is okay to sponsor Laurie Simpson's Family Constellation workshop at the library. I need to call the library and this event can be listed on our website..

Rainbow world wide meditation 4th of July Greg calls it the 100th monkey meditation at 11:00 AM here in WI

4th of July...Martha's backyard we had a rainbow meditation circle..Jim O. told us of the beginning of rainbow family and the Hopi Propesphy..It would be fun to have the story of Cape Twisto on the website.

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June meeting in Oneida 2005

Kim, Tim, Martha in attendance. Short meeting. We will put the info about the Peace Owl Award in the next newsletter. Janet has a very large pressure cooker that she is going to give to us and she is also going to be collecting mason jars for us.Martha wants articles for the peace and justice section of the website. And I want to have the website be more interactive. And we are going to ask Tim to look into our having a community garden plot at Tsy. We are going to put links on the website to other websites. And we will discuss this further at the Outreach Committee soon to meet.

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Vision Quest 2005 January lst Iron River, MI

This page got wiped from the website.

I am looking for the paper copy...marthaH