Category: HGN news

h.Energy This Weekend – See Sustainability in Action in Herefordshire!

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Steiner School Open Morning 10am Sat

Welcome to an eighth year of seeing sustainability in action in Herefordshire!    

Full listings are on the website – click here.

Highlights below, and we’re here in the Hereford Times…

Four Open Homes – and an open school! With eco features – one is a purpose-built passive house, another a converted cattle shed so quite diverse! Have a nosey…

 

Passive House Open Evening Friday

Unfortunately, The Bike Ride on Friday evening has had to be postponed – the weather has scuppered plans.  More here, but we hope to reschedule on a Saturday morning in November.

 

The Passive House Opening Friday evening is still very much going ahead!

 

Plenty for the Kids – Kids Cooking from Scratch at the Kindle Centre and Queenswood. Apple Picking at Canon Frome Court. Apple Pressing in Kington , Steiner School Tour and of course the Fun Run at Queenswood on Sunday Morning – prizes for first family to finish!

Want to get out of the city? We can offer a zero carbon electric car ride up to Earthworm Open House on Saturday – so all you need to do is turn up to the Kindle Centre Hereford at 2pm, and we’ll take you the rest of the way! We’ll need to arrange space so Booking Essential – please book before end of day on Friday.

More Electric Car chat can also be had on Saturday at Leominster Corn Square and the Kindle – featuring a TESLA…

Saturday 13th: Plenty Happening at the Kindle, Asda Hereford
Sunday 14th: Workshops, Walks and a Sustainable Market at Queenswood.

See you this weekend!

POSTPONED – h.Energy Bike Ride in Hereford this evening!

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Boo!

We’re very sorry to say that we need to postpone tonight’s ride. A combination of both rain AND wind would make this neither an easy nor sociable ride, which is what we were intending!

The open house we were cycling to is still very much open!  Hope to see you there.

As the evenings will be getting darker, We hope to run the ride on a Saturday morning in November and we’ll let you know.

In the meantime:

This is a map of the general route we would have taken if you’d like to try it out.

The aim of the ride was to ignite interest and highlight some of the many rides happening already – here is a list and please share your rides with the Green Network so we can add to the list!

Herefordshire Council rides information

Winter Rides Coming Up

Herefordshire Wheelers Easy Rides – and thank you so much to the Wheelers for supporting the planning for this ride.

Hope to see you at other h.Energy events over the weekend!

 

 

Make Do and Mend!

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Come and join us for our next Make Do & Mend session on Saturday, September 15th 2018 at

The Kindle Centre, ASDA, Hereford, 10am – 2pm

Bike repairs – Clothes Swap –  Household Repairs – Food and more.

Practical activities to save energy and money every month.

Come & challenge Brian – one of our Repairer’s – can you bring him a household item that he’s never fixed before?!

The Kindle’s Knit & Stitch team will be on hand to help with clothing and textile repairs.

Do you have a ‘make do and mend’ skill you can share on any of the days?  Please get in touch with what you’re able to do and what you’d need from us – resources, fee etc.

Kid’s Kitchen will be there to cook with the kids and Growing Local will be preparing & sharing a community meal.

Here’s how the CLOTHES SWAP will work:

10-11am Drop off the clothes you don’t want & collect your tokens (max. 10 items per person).

11am-1pm Select the clothes you do want & exchange them for your tokens.

PLEASE NOTE – We will only accept clothes that are in good, clean condition. We will NOT accept shoes, socks, nightwear, babygros, underwear, hats, scarves, gloves.

The Clothes Swap normally has a good selection of children’s, men’s and women’s clothing, which will be sorted into separate sections.

Any queries about the Clothes Swap, contact Averil: averil@brightspacefoundation.org.uk.

A similar event is also scheduled for 13 October 2018 to celebrate h.Energy weekend!

To volunteer or find out more about these Make Do & Mend events, please contact Rebecca: Email: events@hgnetwork.org

Facebook event for updates and to let us know what you’re bringing:

https://www.facebook.com/events/269974263550742/

Thanks to the Big Lottery funding for helping to make this possible and our lovely partners The Kindle Centre and Brightspace.

August: A Social Gathering

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We have no formal gathering in August, but Russell of Innocent Pilgrim has invited us to his yurt for a cider and cheese tasting – hurrah!

Russell will be opening the yurt from 7pm for a meet-up, social and tour of the apple farm. He will take you through some popular cheese and cider pairings, and more plans afoot to pair cider with food.

Please let us know if you can make it, and where you’re coming from so we can share lifts.

If you don’t let us know we may assume no interest so please do say!

The easiest place to do this is on the Facebook event, but you can also email events@hgnetwork.org.

Look forward to seeing you!

September’s Gathering will be back at Left Bank in Hereford, we’ll be checking in with our plastics campaign and welcoming Emma from the Marine Conservation Society with resources and ideas…

And don’t forget the start of the Make Do and Mend Saturdays at The Kindle – please spread the news far and wide – see you there…

 

Multigenerational Wisdom

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Doing something… Doing something of worth…  Doing nothing… But doing it together.

Wednesday’s Gathering:  We heard stories of school kids and 90+ year olds, villagers’ doors being knocked on in icy winter evenings, communal meals… heartwarming ideas of multigenerational involvement that we can use in our organisations to get more people involved.
Thanks to Liz and Christine for being a torrent of ideas… and for living those ideas wih young baby Finn who was a brililant workshop member!
How can we become more intergenerational in what we do?  We are social beings. Part of this is doing things together.
We were asked…  “Who are the people you naturally click with?” Who’s your typical group member now?”  useful questions to get understanding who comes through our ‘doors’, and why.
Some local perspectives were:  we need to understand our own areas.  Looking back at our histories… Some areas have people who have lived there for a long time and have a specific shared history with the place.  This is a different shared history than those who have moved as adults for example and we should try and understand both perspectives when planning our events and activities.
All agreed: food is so important! Conversations ‘happen’ over food.  “Not just talking – activity together”
Recommendations for more on  the topic:

And an Organisation: The Beth Johnson Foundation

And if you’d like to quiz her more, you can find Christine in the Hopes of Longtown community shop – along with a heap of great magazines to peruse including Permaculture.

Next Month:  we’ll be checking back in on the Plastic Action Here campaign and hearing about Plastic Free Waterways.  More soon.

h.Energy is ON – Still time to be part of it if you email events@hgnetwork.org.  Looking for and exceptional UPCYCLED home in Hereford, or a One Planet Wales development close to the border…?!  And all the electirc vehicles you can think of!  Get in touch events@hgnetwork.org

Our new HGN Administrator!

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We are very happy to announce that we have appointed Averil Clother to take on the administration of the Herefordshire Green Network.

Many of you will know Averil from her work over the past 7 years with the Brightspace Foundation (formerly Bulmer Foundation). She has often played an important role in supporting the Network over this time, and it feels fitting that she should become the safe pair of hands to take the Network forward into a new phase.

Averil messaged to say that she is delighted to be taking on this role with HGN and that she is looking forward to meeting & talking with Network members in the very near future!

Averil will be working alongside Rebecca Tully (our dynamic HGN Events Coordinator) and members of the HGN Steering Group.

Kate Gathercole who has been coordinating the Herefordshire Green Network since it began in early 2010 will be stepping down on the 1st August. She will continue to support the Network by joining the HGN Steering Group for the coming few months.

Averil’s role with the Network is made possible by funding from Awards for All. You will have the opportunity to meet Averil at the next HGN Members Meeting on Wednesday 19th September (5 – 6.30pm) – but she will also be around at HGN events in the meantime.

Welcome Averil!

FREE TRAINING – Fundraising and Recruiting Volunteers

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Do you ever find yourself wishing you had a few more people to carry out the great ideas, or a pot of money to do them with?

A couple of ways coming up that we can building our skills and resources…

Small Funds for Small Groups – a locally-focused workshop here in Herefordshire

10am to 1pm Monday 2nd July

The Kindle Centre, Hereford

We’ll:

  • Look at an example completed small grant application
  • Hear from Herefordshire Community Foundation about grants available right now
  • Identify grants that could help us make great activities for our h.Energy weekend
  • Work on the first step of our own applications – how we describe what we do, and the impact of it, so that a funder will listen!

Tea, coffee and pastries at the start!

You should leave with at least part of a funding bid written – well worth a morning’s reflection.

Places are free but limited – please book here and we’ll confirm your place by 22nd June.

If you’re raring to go now, here is a fund with a deadline in two weeks – if you’d like support completing it please email events@hgnetwork.org

Recruiting and Retaining Volunteers

July will see some free, live, online sessions with our events and publicity coordinator Rebecca who is also an experienced volunteer management trainer. All welcome!

Three lunchtimes: 17th, 18th and 19th July covering: recruiting volunteers, keeping them on board and making sure it’s all legal too.

Sign up here

If you’re not sure what an interactive online workshop might look like, Rebecca will be able to explain after the funding workshop face-to-face!  The beginning of the online sessions will also include an orientation.

… join HGN!

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In light of changes afoot here at HGN we have a job we are advertising, and a role for someone to join the HGN team going forward from here…

so .. if you have energy, a broad & enthusiastic desire to support communities, a passion for sustainable living & carbon reduction, a yearning to work in a self directed way, and are looking for a Herefordshire based opportunity to develop your own skills and capacity, click below and open the HGN Administrator Post file to read the job description and find details of how to apply:

HGN Administrator

Applications should be submitted before 9am on the 30th June 2018.

With huge thanks to Awards for All for their support.

Sociocracy in Action

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Thanks to Roz Brown for a very interesting introduction to Sociocracy on Wednesday evening for our June HGN Gathering.

The ‘permaculture of organisations’ Sociocracy incorporates a dynamic and systems based approach to decision making… and we had a go at finding common ground between different themes and issues over the course of the evening – to illuminating effect!

Click here and open the Sociocracy Handout at the top of the list for lots more information.. about the pros and cons of using using consent vs consensus, the power of clear ‘Vision Mission Aims’, and the principle of circles: semi-autonomous, self-organising teams.

Thanks to all of you who came along… this was one of our Awards for All supported workshops for local groups – and we have more!

… on Monday 2nd July 10 – 1pm come for a Breakfast Funding Workshop – eat croissants, drink coffee and hear from Herefordshire Community Foundation about how they might be able to support you … and go away with a funding application at least half filled in…  what’s not to like!

More details here.

HGN Members Meeting

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Join our HGN Members Meeting on Wednesday 20th June 5 – 6.30pm, all welcome.

Come and share the activities of your own local environmental group, business or interest – and hear what others around the county are getting up to.

Click here to find the Agenda – its top of the list!

 

.. & stay on afterwards for a drink & a social with others from the Network before going into our Sociocracy Workshop at 7.30pm with local expert Roz Brown.

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