Melton Sustainable Living Group

We had a great turn out for the Group AGM yesterday at Kim & Gavin's place. A huge vote of thanks was given to them and David for their work over the past few years, along with Stacey and Michael (the 2012/13 committee's ordinary members). Gavin, Kim and their family are taking a break from the group for the next year, but we hope to see them at an activity in the near future. We elected a new committee for 2013/14: Stacey W (president), Jan M (Treasurer), Patrick Mc (Secretary), Jonathan C and Mandie M (ordinary members). The committee have their first meeting next weekend, and will soon be in contact with members to arrange the new calendar of activities. If you have any questions, feel free to email the group or leave us a comment below.

Hi Members and friends,   Based on a survey of members, we have chosen Saturday 27 July at 2pm to hold the AGM for the Melton Sustainable Living Group.   We are delighted that nearly all members are continuing with the group, and that we have nominations for all committee positions in 2013/14 (more nominations are still welcome).   We will be sending the nominations list shortly, along with some other information. If you have any questions, just leave a comment or send us an email.    

The group had a stall yesterday at the Djerrawarrah Festival, which is the main event of the year in our town.  Our stall had display boards, educational pamphlets, drought tolerant succulents, vegetable seedlings, and buckets and buckets of sheep poo.  Everyone who volunteered had a great time telling people about the sort of things they can do at home to grow their own food, save energy and money, and to green up their lifestyles.  We even had about 6 people express interest in joining the group, which is a fantastic outcome.  Hopefully they will join our merry band of environmentally aware citizens. Here are some photos and commentary from throughout the day. David, Jonathan, Caroline, and Amy David and Renata, The growing section of the stall The undercover educational display boards and pamphlets Gavin holding up the tent, looking friendly in an attempt to entice the crowds in to the display. Jake manning the displays Jake, Gavin, Rick and...

All I can say is that I believe that our stand at the DJ festival was a success and fun to boot.  Not only did we get the message out into the community that we exist, met many like minded people from other environmental groups in our shire, we made $121 for the group by selling plants grown by Michael, Jan and Gavin, chicken and duck eggs donated by Jan, and T-Shirts and hats for members provided by Kim.  I must say the the Sunflower plants were the biggest seller of the day followed by the salad gardens and the multitude of heirloom tomatoes. It was a great day, and it was good to see that many members and volunteers were able to man the stand throughout the day.  Here are some photos of the event taken early in the morning. Setting up at the start of the day The first shift.  Left to right; Amanda, Amy & David Inside the marquee as you move from left to right; The Gardening Panel.  Green Cleaning and Energy efficiency panels Pou...

As discussed at the last meeting, here is some more information about campaigns in our local area.  Click on the links for more information. The Big Picture hosted by BREAZE in Ballarat. ATA's 350 Photo Challenge .  Danni, and I have already submitted photos to this campaign. and finally, on Friday 23rd October, MGC Pedal Powered Launch Party .  They are powering the event using Future Spark to generate enough electricity into the grid to power the show.  Comedian Rod Quantock will MC the entertainment and perform his show, “Bugger the Polar Bears, this is serious” starting at 7pm.  I wrote about Rod Quantocks show on a post called " Rod Quantock's Guide to Climate Change ".  As for our own campaign, I am all ears, but we will need to act fast!  Post ideas for a local Melton event via comments so that we can organise something quickly, or if we can't organise quickly enough then I can contact the Melbourne Girls College for tickets to the sh...

This fortnight we have an evening meeting on Thursday, 2nd July, at the Melton Community Hall, meeting room 4, from 7-9pm.  The meeting will start dead on 7.00pm as we have a full programme, so please be a little early.  The hall will be open from 6.30pm onwards.  I have invited the team at ecoMaster to come along and present to us, and they have kindly accepted.  Listed below is what they intend on covering in two presentations; The most effective presentation would be about the Fed. Govt program which starts on 1st July.  Our group will be the first ever group in Australia to be presented with the Home Sustainability Assessments and the Green Loans program. We will cover: LYN: what is a home sustainability assessment and how does that work with a 'green loan' what is the purpose of the green loans scheme potential benefits the 'mechanics' of the scheme  eligibility for the loa...

Don’t forget that our next meeting will be held this Saturday, 23rd May from 1400-1600. For prospective members or interested people, please drop me an email me at the groups email address listed in the sidebar for the address details. We will be focusing on growing your own food. In these troubled times, there is no better time to start your own veggie patch or patio garden, and reap the rewards of the sound investment of your own food security. We will be getting our hands dirty, and everyone will get a small something to take home with them after the workshop. I am looking forward to the afternoon. Also, members please remember to send all apologies to David by Thursday. Kind regards, Gavin Webber, President.

I received this in the mail today.  It is our Certificate of Incorporation! This means that we can now be taken seriously (not that we haven’t been to date) and can apply for grants from various government bodies and institutions, which I am in the process of investigating and acting upon.  This will benefit any projects we deem appropriate for the group. Gavin

Local Sustainability group open for new members Melton Sustainable Living Group was recently formed to raise community awareness about the actions that individuals and business can take to lower their personal carbon footprint and to build local sustainability in water, energy, waste, transport and food production. Last night (May 7th) the group held a community meeting at the Melton Community Hall and attracted more than 18 Melton Shire residents, who are keen to learn more about the simple actions that they could make to green up their lifestyle. Among the group were members of the Alternative Technology Association, people interested in community gardens and several people who are involved in Sustainability in their professional lives. Commenting after the meeting, Melton Sustainable Living Group President Gavin Webber said: “The evening was a big success. It was great to share with other local like minded people ideas we all have for making our lives, and the lives of our fam...

Don’t forget the MSLG Awareness meeting being held on the 7th May 2009. Please refer to the poster below for details. Click to enlarge. There will be two presentations, one by Gavin about his journey towards a sustainable lifestyle, and one from another group, who will hopefully talk about why and how they formed their group and what projects they have done. It should make for an interesting evening. How to see you, and any prospective members there. Don’t forget to try and put up a few flyers on community notice boards during the weekend. Thanks!

Last Sunday, at the MSLG 2nd meeting, our initial elections took place.  Here are the results of the election for the 5 available officers in accordance with our association rules; President Gavin Webber Treasurer David Suttie Secretary David Hamilton Ordinary Member (media) Kim Webber Ordinary Member (vacant) Congratulations to all those who volunteered and were elected.  It will be a busy year for all members! The vacant post is available for nomination at the next meeting.

Welcome to the web presence of the Melton Sustainable Living Group.  We are a newly formed group in the shire of Melton, Victoria, Australia, who care about our local community.  Here are our vision and mission statements. Vision The members of Melton Sustainable Living Group believe in changing the world by thinking globally, but by acting locally. MSLG will bring sustainable living to Melton ensuring a cleaner, greener and more resilient community for all. Mission MSLG will foster positive change by serving the community with communication and education of sustainable living methods in an urban and suburban environment. MSLG will provide practical knowledge about how to lower personal emissions, energy efficiency, growing your own food garden, renewable energy, frugal living, rainwater harvesting and the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle). In essence this is a process of relocalising all essential elements that our community needs to sustain itself and thri...