QEAN Update! Aug-Sept 2008

•    QEAN phone-lin-ups: we had our first QEAN phone link up (ever!). It rocked; had folk from Brissie, Toowoomba and Cairns on the line! We plan to hold state-wide phone link ups every 2 months – the next one is  7th October 6-7pm.

•    QEAN now has a wiki! Visit http://qean.pbwiki.com to explore and ADD what you’re group has done/is up to. It includes an online calendar to keep up-dated about each groups’ events and avoid unnecessary over-lap.

•    Skill-shares: had an amazing Activist Education weekend workshop; 9 peeps participated in an ‘educating the educator’ stream and facilitated workshops the next day for 23 participants! Lotsa learning’s (http://www.flickr.com/photos/activisteducation/sets/72157606542781894). 

•    from this we’ve formed a ‘Qld activist ed’ and ‘Qld facilitators’ network/e-lists (general: http://groups.google.com/group/activist_edu_qld and for  educators: http://groups.google.com/group/qld-activist-educators)

•    held a Climate Camp fundraising gig in Brisbane – to help cover the arrestees fines (http://www.climatecamp.org.au/2008/may/30/dirty-coal-sunshine-state)

•    hot as ever on the coal trail – banding together with the Brisbane Activist Centre/Resistance and FoE to help make Sept week of actions happen - http://climateemergencyqueensland.blogspot.com

•    We’re having regular monthly gatherings in the park; a break from the order and structure of meetings; getting to know who’s in the network better

•    AYCC recently acquired a space at the rad youth centre ‘Visible Ink’ in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. We helped paint it and are looking forward to making use of it.

•    First coal infrastructure project (Waratah Coal) was shut down in Qld this week!!! (by Peter Garrett who once upon a time campaigned on the very same spot against sand-mining). ASENers did a submission against the project. Heaps of community actions/efforts and media coverage made this possible http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/05/2356941.htm

•    Some ASEN facilitators helped the Change Agency to faciltate a meeting with 30-40 Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples and Traditional Owners to assess and input into the SEQld Regional Plan.

•    QEAN people went to support the Mary River anti-Dam convergence in Qld, which coincided with GetUp climate torch relay http://www.savethemaryriver.com/

Coming up/stuff you can get involved in…

•    ASEN Fundraiser! Friday 24th October, Brisbane: Kristy, Merinda & Clare are organizing a three-course thriller ASEN fundraiser dinner for October. Aim is to raise $3000! To get involved contact Merinda (mindaflower@hotmail.com)

•    QEAN ‘gig’, date:tbc (proposed Sat 20th September, 10-3pm), venue: tbc. This will involve planning time for collectives, working groups, actions and a wicked Theories of Change workshop, plus lunch.

•    QEAN folk are helping to organise a Qld climate movement community summit; date tba, so far looks like late-October, perhaps the 19th, 25th or 26th.

•    Next QEAN phone link up is  7th October 6-7pm.

o     Brisbane = at 10 Laura St, Highgate Hill. All are welcome.

o    Toowoomba  = contact Sarah F (crashrulz01@hotmail.com).

o    Cairns = contact Sarah D (sarah.douglass@jcu.edu.au).

o    Townsville = contact Ainslie (ainslie.langdon@jcu.edu.au) or Lucy (lucy.owen@jcu.edu.au). We encourage you to congregate as a group, have dinner, hang out …it makes the calls so much fun!

•    Coal communities listening tour in November (period tbc)– traveling in buses to central and coastal Qld to meet with (very) coal-dependent communities and Indigenous peoples, researching, running workshops, sharing stories from climate camp, visit key coal infrastructure sites, and build for a post-coal economy. Visit http://cclt.wetpaint.com

•    GreenFest: ASEN will have a stall at GreenFest from 10th-12th October, at SouthBank. Brisbane. “Greenfest is a place for full community participation in creative energy to win the race against climate change”. www.greenfest.com.au

•    Flix-on-Fridays: Held every second Friday night of each month at 10 Laura St, Highgate Hill home of the butter-cup mobility Co-operative. Starts at 6:30pm. Range of activist films shown. Next one is on Friday 19th Sep.

Updates from Collectives:

USQ (uni of southern Qld, Toowoomba)

•    is thriving!

•    just finished our RIchmond Birdwing vine project and we had our pictures in the local paper too! It was a great success. 

•    currently working on a recycling campaign to get recycle bins on campus and we have a petition running at the moment for students who support the campaign to sign. 

•    we are also planning a little social get together camping trip hopefully sometime in the uni holidays.

JCU enviro collective– Cairns

* We have a petition going around at the moment to try and use only free range eggs on campus.

   -We are holding a 'clean up the creeks and car parks' hour this Thursday. (a big group of us are converging on the areas to pick up all the rubbish).

   -We are working with the JCU student association to hold a 3 day fund raising event with Re-leaf (if you've heard of them).

   -We are working on getting glass and aluminum recycling bins near the bar.

   -We are trying to get battery and printer cartridge deposit bins in the library.

UQ enviro collective

* Had a fundraising food stall at Threatened Species Family Fair Day with funds going towards supporting crew to get to the Alice Convergence

* Screened "A Force More Powerful" and had wicked discussions afterwards

* Organising a Tour de PARKs on Friday 19th of September PARKing Day

* Planning for an on campus action highlighting myths of "clean coal" on the Wednesday of Climate Week of Action in Sept

* Students from UQSUST [Student Union Sustainability Taskforce] are getting paid to do an energy audit of the Union - whoot!

* Continuing work on recycling & composting proposals with strong support from P&F dept.

QUT enviro collective

•    active around the campaign against the NT Intervention (stalls, film screenings, a speak-out afainst the Intervention with Walter Shaw, speakers from Nuclear Free Alliance

•    fundraising to send collective members to Alice for convergence

•    focused on the coal industry expansion in Queensland and picketed Anna Bligh the United Nations Association of Australia National Conference. Attention on 3 proposed coal mines and the Shoal Water Bay port

•    planning a campus action for Sept week of actions against ‘clean’ coal research at QUT

UQClimateforChange

•    submitted a recommendations paper to the VC

•    collaborating with uni depts and staff to map university progress/initiatives on climate change – then will take steps  to fill the gaps with uni admin

•    will have meeting with QLD Climate Change Minister Policy advisor soon

•    have affiliated to the AYCC – woot! Jessica Walsh is the delegate (s4099680@student.uq.edu.au)

Griffith uni food co-op

•    have had to do lots more paper work and make sure we’re in line with the new food business license.

•    Try to get Sudanese kitchen people to do a cook-up (migrant community from Annerley)

•    Company Trumps sells new dry goods, so we’ve switched whole-sale provider, so we’re sourcing stuff more locally

•    Hooke up with CPCI Centre for Public and Cultural Ideas (Griffith) – study of sustainability movement among youth (gave $900 to go to SoS in July)

UQ food co-op (aka EcoBug)

•    settled comfortably and happily into their new home

•    Membership numbers are growing, including a fresh batch of active vollies which is wonderful though we still need more if we are to stay open as often as we’d like

•    New projects on the boil include fresh salads from My Heart Garden which hopefully we will be selling from Monday (8th Sept)

•    looking into such exciting possibilities as a worm farm for compost and a solar oven

•    The recent full Moon Fiesta was a huge success and we look forward to many more.

Qld Indigenous solidarity crew:

•    Getting Qld folk to Alice Convergence – ASENers would love support with this!