Come along to Warwick Collective Inc, shop 74a Fitzroy St, from 10am Thursday, for a themed natural parenting and eco-living discussion between 10.30-11.30am.

The night started at 6 pm with some locally sourced and produced refreshments. Everyone had a chance to meet and socialise with collective members and supporters, while sampling some tasty foods including the very popular Fermaculture Fermented Food.

Before the movie commenced, Elizabeth Ure announced that an anonymous donor had contributed $2000 to the collective, which was very exciting news given the upcoming signing of the lease on Fitzroy Street.

The Grand Budapest Hotel was a fantastically entertaining film about a legendary concierge and his trusty lobby boy. The film,  based in a famous European hotel, was directed by Wes Anderson and featured many famous faces including Ralph Fiennes, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Tida Swinton, and Jude Law.

The Grand Budapest Hotel made us laugh (and, at times cringe) at its dark comedic genius.

Thanks to everyone who attended and a special thanks to our sponsors and donors of the raffle prizes: Corina Graham, The Enchanted Garden, Mason Wines, Granite Belt Brewery, Serene Scents by Susan, and The Cherry Tree.

The raffle will be drawn this Wednesday night at the heritage seeds workshop.

March’s Get Together was SO much fun.

If you weren’t at the meeting, everyone broke off into groups and have 10 minutes to brainstorm any ideas regarding the big projects – community space & shop, community garden, fundraising, workshops & skill sharing, grant submissions and ?? (for anything else!). It got very loud and was heaps of fun!!

Everyone wrote their ideas on their poster, then two people from every group stood up and told the entire group what they came up with.

Here’s some of the ideas:

Community Space & Shop
• 25% commission on art/craft sales
• Pop-up artists
• Rent from artists? (instead of commission)
• Yoga
• Wood-fire oven in courtyard – pizza nights + fresh bread
• Growing + selling herbs
• Artists in residence
• Art workshops
• Coffee shop
• Drawing lessons
• Use of sewing machine / sewing lessons
• Childcare
• Fun art workshop
• Souvenirs
• Guitar lessons
• Emerging artists
• Fundraising
• Use of turntables, learn how to DJ – have music playing at the same time
• Clubs to sell artworks
• Continuing on from Fresh Fest
• Cooking lessons (teens, kids, for one, multicultural)
• Upcycling furniture

Community Garden

• Working with different groups and organisations
• Heritage/heirloom seeds
• Water + electricity
• Infrastructure – storage, shade, toilets
• Council waste -> Compost
• Hamilton St
• Portable microphone
• Organic permaculture
• Seasonal
• Utilised by people with special needs
• Co-op
• Aquaponics
• Seed swaps
• Markets
• Kids space
• Railway sleepers
• Kids lessons + education
• Coffee shop
• Bricks
• Fairy lights
• Music
• Entertainment
• Fruit trees
• Worm farms
• Pipe dome covers with netting
• Chooks
• Educational workshops + training
• Sell at community shop
• Promotion
• Compost
• Provide food to those who need
• Leftovers to wildlife groups
• Bushfoods
• Schools?
• Use cuttings

Workshops & Skill Sharing

Of course, one of our main aims to make everything we do as accessible as possible – so that everyone can afford to participate, learn and have fun!

To do this, we plan to have a time-bank on our website, so that when you volunteer your time to put on a workshop or class, you receive credits. Then, when there’s an event or workshop you’d like to do, you can use your credits to receive a discount (or free). You can also earn credits by working on the shop or maybe even the garden!

Here are the ideas we came up with on the night, but the list is endless. It really just depends on your interests or what you want to learn!

• Online marketing
• English lessons for migrants
• Offer to do a print making workshop (alternative forms)
• Cooking classes
• Fermented foods
• Jewellery + glass classes
• Language classes
• Yoga + tai chi
• Facilitate workshops for people with depression + anxiety
• Mahjong/cards
• Holiday kids program
• Upcylcing furniture
• Skill share log – list of interests and connections
• Fixing/upcycling donated items and selling them
• Doll making
• Public speaking practice
• “Knitting to Nirvana”
• Astronomy
• Mentoring
• Worm farms
• Homework help
• Learn how to play instruments
• Creative writing
• Film making club
• Bee keeping
• Deportment
• Birdwatching
• Weaving
• Crochet (cute animals!)
• Leadership Skills

And I want to add one to the list – Self Organised Learning Environments – a place where children can work in groups with access the internet to research and learn independently.

* Interesting, stimulates curiosity
* Authentic [not asking for the sake of asking]
* Relevant [to the children]
* Fairly wide scope so it can lead off into yet other questions
* Challenging, stretches their imagination, skills, abilities

ie “Why is air invisible?”, “Is there sound on the moon?”, “Can animals think?”, “Can you kill a goat by starting at it?”, “What is irony?”, “Are there more stars in the universe or grains of sand on all the world’s beaches?” and on it goes!

Here’s more info about SOLE’s if you’re interested:
http://www.ted.com/prize/sole_toolkit#discover
https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud

Submissions

• Gardening Australia
• Regional Art Development
• Toowomba Clubhouses for Warwick
• Mental Illness Fellowship Qld
• Jetstar Grants
• Phams
• Menshed
• Beyondblue
• Aus Post Community Fund
• Flying Arts
• Lawrence Springborg
• Gambling Fund
• Grants @ State
• Scholarship Socitey
• SDRC
• SQU Regional Department
• Medibank Private Community Development Fund

Fundraising

• Open Gardens
• Garage sales
• Fun runs
• Raffle
• Sausage sizzle
• Grants
• Local businesses donations
• Canvas & Canape Nights (life drawing?)
• Cook book with localised produce/cultural foods