GreenLB! Collaborative Community Mtg - May 2009

Tonight was our first Green Long Beach Collaborative Community meeting following the festival. We had said from the very beginning that if Catalyst was going to help put on the festival, then we're going to want to make sure that there is ongoing collaboration after the event.

So here we are, continuing what was started! We came together to share common vision for working together strategically to see a green Long Beach. Then we broke up into groups to begin a strategic planning process towards six initiatives.

The www.GreenLB.org web site has been converted over from a festival site to more of a collaborative community site. There you can check up on the collaborative teams that were formed coming out of tonight's meeting.

Sarah Mills also presented some of her findings from the Sustainability Audit that she conducted of the Festival. Check it out here.

Click here to check out more pics from this awesome meeting!

Festival Pics in The District Weekly

Check out a full page of pics from the Green Long Beach! Festival in The District Weekly!


See more pics of the festival here!

Big Thanks for Festival Support

A message from Elliot Gonzales, festival organizer:

To all volunteers of the Green Long Beach! Festival,

Thank You!!!

Without your help this event would not have been as great as it was. If you were very busy, just imagine how much more difficult it would be to have done this without you. It was a pleasure working with every one of you and I hope you all enjoyed yourselves very much. The feedback for the event has been great with everyone already asking about next year. Next year? Let's finish this week first!

I hope that as you volunteered you also got the chance to meet other great members of your community. One of the broader, definite goals of Green Long Beach! is to bring together community and offer the experience to meet your neighbor. We are all one community and all human beings who need to take good care of all the creations of the planet, especially each other. You all did a great job in helping host the first community-based Green Long Beach! Festival ever.

We broke records:

• Largest East Village farmer's market since it opened
• Possibly most activity in the Art Park since it opened
• Largest "green" event by and for the community in Long Beach - ever

We all did it, by taking some time from our busy lives to commit to something that helps everyone, something that created a vibe that is part of a movement. All over the world, people are waking up and seeing the need to do what they can to help change the way we live, not only to help our environment as in our planet, but our environment in the area around us, our communities. We are seeing how important it is to work together, that together we all bring something larger than ourselves into existence, and this, this my friends, is a beautiful thing.

Congratulations to you all for your help in putting on this event! Since there is not a single organizer, or single entity we can all take a bit of credit for our part in making this event such a success! You all did an amazing job and your hard work definitely paid off!

Let's continue to do our part and integrate respect and stewardship for our environment into our lifestyles and our communities. We will have a Post-Festival Meeting on May 28th, at 7pm location to be determined, we will send invites or evites and post it on the website. The purpose of this meeting is to connect and collaborate with other green groups. We can do anything we set our minds to - imagine when we all put our minds together. Hope to see you all on the 28th and thank you once again for making a difference.

Peace and Love,

Elliot Gonzales

Green Long Beach! catalyst

Post GreenLB! Festival

Wow, what a festival, right?! Thank you so much for being a part of it!

Among the many lessons we've learned in the short two and a half months of planning and organizing the festival, we've learned that we could not have accomplished what we've done without each other. Each of us has a collective contribution that builds our sense of community - that sense of common unity.

The festival wasn't just an event. It was a catalyst for ongoing collaboration to green Long Beach. As we move forward together, let's not just think of next year's festival. Rather, let's think of what we can do between now and the next festival. So what now?

1) A Home for Green Long Beach!

The festival started as a collaboration between individuals so it didn't really have a home, per se. Now that the event is done, we can continue to organize and collaborate together. Green Long Beach! will now be housed under the umbrella of Catalyst Community - a 501c3 non-profit organization. Read more about it here. Elliot Gonzales, the festival organizer, will still head up Green Long Beach! with the support of the Green Team (you!) and also the Catalyst Team.

This will give Green Long Beach! some stability.

2) Green Long Beach! Collaborative Meeting

We're all having a post-festival collaborative meeting on Thursday, May 28th at 7pm to begin an ongoing process for getting to know each other and strategically working to green Long Beach. We all comprise a wide array of community groups, businesses, and passionate individuals. We can do so much together! The location of the meeting will depend on how many people we can expect. So this means I'll need you to RSVP to let me know you're coming. I'll send location information to you later as we approach the date. Just save the date! =)

This will give Green Long Beach! some sustainability.

3) Festival Photos and Videos

The fun part after a festival event is seeing all the pics and vids! We've already posted over 120 festival pics over at www.GoCatalyst.org. Go check em out! We want to see your festival pics too! Anyone can add their festival photos to this same photo album by getting a gocatalyst login. Once you login to the site, you can add pics to any album or even create new albums of your other community events. So share your festival memories with the rest of the Green Long Beach! community!

I also added a photo album for the pre-festival meeting here.

I've got some cool videos of the festival that I'd like to put on youtube then share them on the site. I'll do that soon. But if you'd like to share your festival videos or share your videos from other community events, you can do it here.

What about www.greenLB.org? We'll still have it! You'll start to see that website evolve from a festival event site into our Green Long Beach! Collaborative Community site.

So this will give Green Long Beach! some visibility.


What an exciting time this is! At the festival, we talked about how this is our time in the green movement to shift from individual responsibility to a community responsibility. What would it look like for a whole community to own being green? Imagine Long Beach becoming known as a "green city"?

Let's stay connected so that we can continue working together to green Long Beach!

Green Long Beach Day

Check out the Proclamation from the Mayor of Long Beach and the City Council!

Pre-Festival Meeting Recap

We've got 2 more days before the Green Long Beach! Festival this Saturday!

It was awesome seeing over 50 people come out for Tuesday's pre-festival meeting and it was fun meeting and talking with many of you. Thank you to all those who were able to make it to the meeting! For those who couldn't, here's a quick recap:

- Elliot Gonzales, festival organizer, shared from his heart why he wanted to host this festival.
- We talked about the "Down to Earth" theme and how after only 2.5 months of planning, there has been incredible community ownership for the festival - all of us sharing a piece of Elliot's vision.
- The festival Logistics Team were introduced and each team member shared about what his or her role has been for the festival.
- Team members took general logistical questions.
- We emphasized the importance of ongoing collaboration and asked everyone to Save The Date of Thurs, May 28th for a post-festival meeting for strategic conversation. Please RSVP for it with me here at eric.leocadio@gocatalyst.org.
- We broke from group time and gave everyone an opportunity to look at their booth assignments or stage schedule, ask specific questions to the appropriate Logistics Team member and also to mingle and meet other participants.

It was a fun time of cultivating even more momentum going in to the festival this Saturday!

GreenLB! Festival Ad in District Weekly

Back page advertisement of the District Weekly!

GreenLB! Festival Media Advisory - May 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Mayor Foster Proclaims Green Long Beach Day As 270 Community Groups and Individuals Participate In Festival

LONG BEACH – With just two and a half months of planning, over 270 community groups, individuals, and businesses will be involved in an all-day festival in the East Village Arts District on May 9, 2009, a day Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster proclaimed as Green Long Beach Day.

News of the Green Long Beach! festival spread quickly through a grassroots viral response to be a part of a growing movement of thinking differently about the way we use our community’s resources. Festival organizers are hoping to catalyze an ongoing conversation about shifting from personal responsibility to embracing a sense of community responsibility for creating a green Long Beach.

“By pooling together our resources and talents we are proud to bring our community together as we celebrate our planet and community through Green Long Beach!” said Elliot Gonzales, festival organizer, on the event’s web site at www.greenLB.org.

The Green Long Beach! festival will feature four stages of entertainment involving 64 bands, musicians, performers, artists, workshop speakers, and kids activity groups, 35 East Village businesses hosting an event or offering discounts to festival guests, over 98 booths and vendors, 13 sponsors, 7 event hosts, and about 60 festival volunteers.

Organizers estimate attendance of approximately 3,000 people. Get “Down to Earth” by bringing your own reusable water container and tote bag. Bring your old cell phones for recycling. Take the bus or ride your bike to get a free tune-up. Bring your own t-shirt after 4pm and get a $5 festival screen print.

Major sponsors include Southern California Edison, Downtown Long Beach Associates, and East Village Arts District, Inc.

Festival hosted by 2nd Saturday Art Walk, East Village Farmers Market, Catalyst Community, DeAvy Art Gallery, T’s Space, East Village Arts District, Inc., and Long Beach Depot for Creative Reuse.

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Green Long Beach! Festival Update 05.04.09

Hi friends,

I remember first talking with Elliot Gonzales in February about his crazy idea for having a festival for local green groups in the community to get together and raise awareness about some really important issues that he cared passionately about - supporting the environment and appreciating the arts.

It was back in February when I decided that I wanted to be part of Elliot's vision and so Catalyst Community partnered with him to explore what this might look like.

But the thing is . . . he wanted to do it in May.

This May.

After laughing, whimpering, and crying, we rolled up our sleeves and assembled a team of passionate and talented folks to see if we can work towards making Elliot's picture of a locally-focused festival that supported a movement towards a green Long Beach a reality.

We knew that the festival would only be an event. But the more important goal was to have this event serve as a catalyst for ongoing conversation and collaboration among everyone who cared about a green Long Beach. That's what we're headed towards!

So the Festival planning team started work in March and in only two and a half months, there are now OVER 270 community groups, individuals, and businesses participating in making this all-day festival happen! These include 98 booths & vendors, 64 bands, musicians, performers, artists, speakers, and activity groups, 35 East Village businesses hosting an event or offering discounts to festival guests, 19 hosts and sponsors, and 60 festival team volunteers.

It is truly amazing to see how so many people stepped up to be part of this community vision!

The festival web site has been updated constantly these past few weeks and we've tried to put everything that's happening up there so that we can all see the amazing momentum that is happening. So go to the web site at http://www.greenLB.org to see all kinds of stuff on festival schedules, stage and activity times, participants, and more!

We are now only six days away from the festival. If you've already got something planned for Saturday, please come afterwards! The festival will run from 9am - 10pm. Be sure to bring your reusable water container, tote bag, and old cell phones for recycling. Ride your bike and get a free tune-up! Bring your own t-shirt after 4pm and get a $5 festival screen print on it.

Please help spread the word about the full day of fun this Saturday on May 9th. Grab a logo or image and change your profile pic for the rest of this week to help promote the festival. Post the web site link to your FB wall. Email your friends.

Thanks!

Eric Leocadio
Green Long Beach! Festival
Logistics Coordinator
Communications Director