Thursday 27 March 2014

Meeting - Governance

Our next meeting is Tuesday, April 1st @7pm in the Annette Library.

Our focus topic is Governance (aka deciding to decide!) and we hope to develop and finalize our governance structure this evening.

If time permits, we will move on to the Garden Agreements list which we started at the last meeting.  Emily has kindly written up what we discussed in the following list:

Content to be included in the Ravina Community Garden Agreement:

1) Voting Practices and How decisions are made
 * Do we have voting members and non-voting members? What is quorum?
 * What is the communication process when a vote/decision is being made? How are people notified?

2) Harvesting - schedule and distribution
 * Is there a cap on membership to ensure garden shares aren't too small?
 * Will harvesting happen on specific days/times? How will harvests be divided up?
 * Will shares of the harvest be contingent on volunteering a set number of hours?

3) Conflict Management/Dispute Resolution Practices
 * Suggested Policy: Any time someone provides a complaint to the garden coordinator, they should offer at least 2 possible solutions
 * How will disputes between gardeners or issues with garden agreement be resolved?

4) Gardening Practices
 * Can we all agree on organic? Does that need to be further defined (ie what amendments are and are not permitted)?

5) Sharing Space
 * Who has access to the garden? Members only? Volunteers?  Schools? Anyone in the community?
 * What if damage occurs while members/non members are in the space?

6) Member Responsibilities
 * What is required of garden members (ie participation on a team, minimum volunteer hours, etc)?
 * Are members required to participate in spring/fall cleanup or other group activities?

7) Teams and their responsibilities
 * What are the teams? What do they do? Are people able to be members of multiple teams?
 * Do teams have one central leader? 

8) Gardening tasks and schedules
 * How is the maintenance schedule for the garden developed/implemented?
 * How do people report on work they have completed or work that needs to be done?

Hope to see you there, and hope to see spring arrive any day now!

Friday 14 March 2014

Meeting - Garden Agreements

We are meeting on Tuesday, March 18th @ 7pm in the Annette Library to co-create our Garden Agreements.

Creating and honouring base agreements will provide a blueprint for best practices and a framework for community to grow upon.

Topics include gardening practices, decision making, sharing space, sharing harvest, use of tools, volunteer hours, resolving conflicts and creating the garden environment we can all thrive in.

Please consider what agreements you would like to see put in place and bring ideas to the table.  We will then list the agreements in an online survey to be voted upon.

If you cannot attend the meeting, please send them via email.

One of our first agreements will be on decision making:

How many votes equals a yes? 50%? 60%? 75% or ?
Can only members vote? Can anyone vote?

Help answer these and many more questions on Tuesday March 18th.


** The next garden meetings will also be held at Annette Library @ 7pm on the following dates:  

April 1st, 15th, and 29th.

Wednesday 5 March 2014

LiveGreen Funding - Approved!

Fantastic News!

Ravina Community Garden's grant application to Live Green Toronto has been approved, giving us our first garden project. 

In keeping with the Live Green mandate, the application includes an educational/demonstrative plot, a children's plot, a youth plot, and community vegetable plots.  The main focus of this project is to support local students and educators, and to establish a section of the community garden for their use.

Educational/demonstrative plot:

This space will be dedicated to the creation of a model garden plot that educators may utilize for workshops, new gardeners can learn from to create their own home gardens, and where gardeners are encouraged to stretch their imaginations and incorporate new and innovative gardening techniques.  This plot is here to encourage stewardship vs ownership of the land and the produce from this plot will be donated to local programs in need.

Children's plot:

This space is for the little ones to get their fingers in the soil and learn through experience.  We intend to grow many plants that can be eaten straight from the vine and grow lots of children's favourties plus new, exciting plants.  Local schools have expressed interest in hosting their garden and green clubs at the community garden and we are providing space for this opportunity as well as space for all of the children in the community to design and plant their own garden.

Youth plot:

This plot will be alongside the children's plot and be devoted to older youth's with more gardening experience and slightly more advanced gardening aspirations.

Community vegetable plots:

The remainder of the raised container beds will be devoted to community food production and this produce will be shared amongst the garden members and used for garden potlucks.  Any surplus will be donated.

A great big thank you goes to the wonderful people at Live Green Toronto and to our amazing trustee, Greenest City.   With your combined support, we are moving forward towards our long range goal of creating a sustainable, vibrant, and inclusive Community Garden here in Ward 13.