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Announcements

Last SomerVille Scoop for 2007

Wow, where has the time gone I just cannot believe that it is the end of October already and this is the last Scoop for 2007. But do not despair because we will be back in February 2008. So, as a cheerio for the year, I would like to wish you all the most fantastic Christmas and New years. Yours truly Christophe (editor and chief of SomerVille Scoop).

Chidlow Show 11th November

Reminder that the Chidlow Show is on November 11^th. If you wish to participate as a member of the SomerVille stall and take the opportunity to tell your SomerVille story then please let us know as soon as possible at kara@greenedge.org so that a stall roster can be made. Thank you to all those members who have already volunteered!

Bargain 'Ecocom' Merchandise & SomerVille Shirts

We have a colourful range of adult and child size t-shirts and caps and hats bearing the 'Ecocom' name. We have marked these down to clear. You never know, they could become collector items!

All Adult Merchandise $10.00
All Children's Merchandise $5.00

We also have a number of SomerVille T Shirts for sale they are $30 a shirt or $50 for two. Unfortunately the only sizes we have left is large and extra large.

All Ecocom merchandise and the SomerVille Shirts can be purchased on any SomerVille Sunday.

Requests

Vespa for sale $2,990

Vespa ET2, 2004 50cc, black/tan seat, new tyres, spark plug and battery, licensed for 2 riders, comes with helmet, never been dropped: $2,990. If you are interested please contact Daniel on daniel@quolkids.com or 0422 524 829

Are you interested in joining the Chidlow volunteer bush fire brigade?

We encourage volunteering in local activities and this is an important area that would show our support for the local township of which we will be a part. Brigade meetings are held on the third Tuesday of every month at 7.30pm, the number to call is 9572 3016 (Saturday Mornings Only) new members are very welcome.

Do you have an up to date first aid certificate?

Paul Moes recently completed a first aid course and is getting our emergency procedures ship shape. So if you are one those valued potential life savers please let us know at info@sev.net.au

Something for Village Focus Point

We are looking for a railway carriage or something similar for the village focus point (Centre of the Village). Ideally it will be something we can have a café in. If you have something or know of something or have an idea for something then please email the details through to info@sev.net.au.

Submit an Article for the SomerVille Scoop

The Newsletter team is putting out a request for articles, points of interest, recipes , jokes etc. Have your say and share your knowledge.

If you are interested in making a contribution please email your submission to newsletter@sev.net.au by the 20^th of each second month.

If you have any queries about the structure or content please visit www.somervilleecovillage.com.au/newsletters and read the Newsletter Structure, Content and Submission Guidelines.

Additionally if you know of any coming events that you believe other members of the community may be interested in please email the details through to newsletter@sev.net.au.

Project Updates

Spring is here - the orchard in bloom >

Environment / Place

Update provided by Dave Moore

LSIP

Our Local Subdivision and Infrastructure Plan (LSIP), together with shire officers' recommendations, was approved at the full Mundaring Shire council meeting on 28 August. The LSIP was subsequently sent to the WAPC for it’s final endorsement on 18 September. At the time of writing we are still waiting for this endorsement.

Community Centre

Work on our Community Centre has proceeded with detailed design, materials research and preparing to submit a building application during November. Sandii Rogers (Bunbury Eco House) will be assisting with canvassing sponsorship for the building.

Village Centre

Three concept plans for the development of the village centre have been received from David Galloway (Ferart Design). These will be looked at during November and, after any revisions, will be presented and discussed with members in the near future.

Subdivision

Our application to subdivide the SomerVille land (lodged with WAPC on 27 June) has not yet been approved. We'll be doing our utmost to push ahead with this in the weeks to come.

Building Guidelines

The Building Guidelines (version 16 now!) have been the subject of many improvements and are going for a final review by our consultants prior to presenting to the Shire.

SomerVille Organic Farm

The green manure crops were turned into the soil in September, and this has been followed up by the planting of millet as a cover crop to hold the land through the summer. We are watching for its germination, any day now.

Water Management

Water harvesting trials continued to provide encouraging results, giving good yields of high quality water. We've installed a new 250kL water tank next to the Yellow Shed to take advantage of this bounty.

Timeline

The following dates are our best estimates of when key milestones in the establishment of SomerVille will occur:

Enterprise & Economics

Update provided by Alex Hyndman

I started as Greenedge's Enterprise Facilitator about 5 weeks ago. I also run Nexus Car Share in my spare time, which gives me some experience with small business. Hopefully I can bring something useful to the role and add some value to SomerVille.

My first task is to define the rest of my job. My role is basically to make sure that the enterprises are successfully executed in a timely manner. I've been developing an execution plan for the last few weeks, which will be reviewed by the SomerVille project team at the end of the month. This will summarise where each of the enterprises currently are and then propose a way forward for each of them so that they capture all the opportunities that the SomerVille project offers

SomerVille is renowned for it's strong focus on enterprise and economics. The enterprise plan shows that there are huge opportunities to add and capture value within the community. We've been working towards this for some time now with a lot of research and background work. Now that SomerVille is becoming so much more concrete however, we need to ensure that the planning is used to build these enterprises when they are needed.

There are 4 key stages that will dictate when these enterprises are needed.

The first and most pressing of these stages is the lot sales. The advertising of lots will be a great marketing opportunity for many of the proposed SomerVille enterprises. So from each enterprise's perspective it is important to be able to specify exactly what is going to be offered, how much it's going to cost and how it's going to work. If an enterprise misses this stage, then it will be much harder work to embed itself into the ecovillage at a later date. The other side of this synergy is that these enterprises are a large part of what makes SomerVille distinctive. How many other developments in Australia has its own phone & internet company, car share business, business support bureau and communal workshop facilities? This distinction is a key source of value when selling the lots.

The second key stage is infrastructure construction. During this stage the roads and utility systems will be installed. Several of the enterprises will need to install their own infrastructure during this stage so they obviously all need to be ready to do this at the same time.

The third stages is construction of the residences and village centre. With well over $15 million to be spent on residential housing alone it is critical to retain as much of this expenditure within the community as possible. One way this can be done is through bulk purchasing and construction contracts. A building services and procurement enterprise will be launched shortly to facilitate this. The village centre can also benefit from this type of bulk buying power. If certain enterprises aren't in place for this stage then these opportunities will be missed.

The last stage is a stage of maturity. This doesn't mean that enterprise will stop evolving. On the contrary, if we do our job properly, the economic base of SomerVille will continue to prosper and grow. New businesses will continually be started, more and more visitors will come to SomerVille, and the ecovillage will become more and more self sufficient. That's a number of years away though, so while we keep that picture in our head, we firstly have to get the first round of enterprises kicked off in time to jointly advertise with the lot sales.

One thing that we're finding as we start to make this shift from strategic planning to execution is that we are probably under resourced. We expect to have to assist these enterprises as they launch and this will require more staff to come on board. If you feel that you're in a position to help with this or even start your own business, then we'd love to hear from you so, please send an email to info@sev.net.au.

Busy Bees – 8th September 2007>

Cultural / Social

Update provided by Kara Holt-Gragg

We've been busy bees the last few months getting a lot done out on the land. In September we had a day digging up double gees and pulling down fences along with a BBQ lunch for all the hard workers. This was followed by our usual wondrous SomerVille Sunday where we got an update on Vida and Dom's trip abroad, very enlightening, and found out exactly what it is our SomerVille children would like to see at SomerVille when everything is built. You'll see in the photos the wonderful creations that were made and we must say a big thank you to M for organising that activity!

October is another wonderful month to be out on the land and many SomerVillians took the opportunity to help out with building the Yurt! Micheal Taylor, one of Greenedge's newest employees, and SomerVille resident, got to organising the construction and within two weekends the Yurt was built. If you haven't managed to go and see it yet then take the opportunity to enjoy some of this new summer sun and check it out. While October SomerVille Sunday was taken up with building it didn't stop us from celebrating the 70^th Birthday of our beloved Julie Woodman! Happy Birthday Julie from all of us!

< The Completed Yurt (view looking North – door on opposite side) Saturday 13^th October 2007

As SomerVille winds down for the year we invite you all to attend the Annual General Meeting on SomerVille Sunday 4^th of November. As this is very close to the first Tuesday in November we have decided to have a Melbourne Cup theme. So wear your favourite/most outrageous hat for the “SomerVille Stakes”. We will also have an official opening ceremony at the yurt.

Finally a reminder that the Chidlow Show is nearing and we will be having a SomerVille stall there to show case the variety of products and services SomerVille has to offer. It is an opportunity to share your SomerVille journey with local Chidlow residents and close the gap between SomerVille and the rest of the Chidlow community. If you are interested in getting involved then please write directly to kara@greenedge.org so that you don't miss out. Thank you to all those who have volunteered their services thus far!

As this is the last Scoop before Christmas and the end of the year we at the Social Cultural team would like to wish you all a very special SomerVille Christmas and the merriest and happiest of New Years, hopefully the year we start to build at SomerVille!!!! Thank you all for your support during the ups and downs that is the development of an ecovillage and we hope to see you bright and bushy tailed come the first SomerVille Sunday in 2008.

With Kindness

Kara and the Social/Cultural Team.

Coming Events

Editors Note: Please be aware that I will only advertise events that community members have made me aware of, or that I am aware of, so if you know of any events coming up that other community members might be interested in please email the details to newsletter@sev.net.au.

General Events
 

The Sustainable Mandurah Home

Open every Saturday and Sunday from 1- 5pm, and Wednesday from 2 – 4pm. 18 Grandmere Parade, Meadow Springs, Mandurah WA 6210

You don’t need to make an appointment at these times. Whether you are planning to build or buy a new home, make renovations to your existing home or if you want more information on sustainable living, simply drop in and take a look around. For more information please visit http://www.sustainablemandurah.com.au/

Chidlow & District Annual Show

Sunday 11^th November 2007 – 10am to 3pm
Chidlow Recreational Oval, Old Northam Rd Chidlow

Rides, stalls, produce, gymbus, showbags, petting zoo, wine tasting, stage bands, camel rides, belly dancers, horse jumping, sausage sizzle, bouncy castles, speakers all day, jack russell races, “Mulch” truck raffle, all natural ice cream, car clubs & vintage display, wooroloo horse & pony club and much much more. You can download a copy of the offical poster at:

http://www.somervilleecovillage.com.au/images/Chidlow%20Show.pdf

Self Awareness / Personal Development Events

This is a list of courses and activities coming up that intending SomerVille residents have experienced and believe to have been a valuable contribution to their life journey, and recommend to others. More details about these events can be found online in the SomerVille Members Only section at:

http://www.somervilleecovillage.com.au/members/self_awareness.htm

Unfortunately there are no upcoming Courses / Events that I have been made aware of.

SomerVille Calendar of Events

The SomerVille Calendar of Events can be found online at:
http://www.somervilleecovillage.com.au/calendar.htm.

NOTE: We will endeavour to keep our events to the schedule below however, due to unforeseen circumstances some may be changed or cancelled.

If you are on our mailing list we will email you in advance of events or if an event is cancelled.

If you are not already receiving our emails you can subscribe here. The locations are not all specified here, they will be advertised closer to the events via email.

Sunday 4 November 2007

• SomerVille Ecovillage™ Incorporated AGM

• 10:30am sharp please bring along a plate of food to share.

Sunday 2 December 2007

• SomerVille Sunday

• 10:30am sharp to 2pm please bring along a plate of food to share.

My Story

Unfortunately I have been unable to obtain a my story article for this edition.

Articles & Submissions

Photo 1 >

Caption Competition

(photos complements of Neil Robertson)

After discovering the below two photo's I knew that I had to somehow work them into the Scoop (they were taken by Neil Robinson, during the Yurt Building Busy Bee), then someone in the office suggested that we do a caption competition and ask people to fill in the blanks then we will publish the submissions in the next Scoop, and the funniest submission may even win a small prize.

Photo 2 >

So to submit your contribution please send an email to newsletter@sev.net.au with the subject “Caption Competition”, and under the heading of each caption put your text eg Caption 1 – text text text , Caption 2 – text text, and so on.

Please email me your submissions before the 20^th February 2008, all submissions are welcome, however only clean submissions will be published.

Products and Services Available

The SomerVille Vision:
"A vibrant village where community flourishes, in which every person is supported and contributes
in balance with a sustainable ecological ethic."

© Copyright 2005-2008. All Rights Reserved. SomerVille Ecovillage ™