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ssSouthwest Organization for Sustainability a 501(c)(3) non-profit Home

THANK YOU FOR VISITING OUR NEW SITE. IT IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. WE APPRECIATE YOUR PATIENCE AND FEEDBACK.

Farmers Market

July 9 - September 24Saturdays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.Ponderosa Lumber & Hardware Parking Lot2435 Eagle Drive

Vendor Application

2011 Rules & Reg's

PROGRAMSCurrently SOS offers the ongoing Simplicity Circle. Click here to find out more about this program What is Time Banking? Click on the top tab for more information.

EVENTSMember AppreciationAnnual FundraiserSilent Auction &Brown Bag RaffleNello's Bistro125 Country Center Dr.November 122:30 - 4:30 p.m.

Who We Are

We grew out of a group of environmentally, concerned citizens in Archuleta county, who in 2008 formed the Southwest Organization for Sustainability. Our founder and Chair, Denise Rue-Pastin is an environmental professional who decided to take action by forming the group after repeated "What can we do?" inquires. Our membership now stands at roughly 150 members. We have become a 501(c)(3) non-profit. We are solely supported through membership and donation. Your tax-deductable contribution is greatly appreciated.Our Mission is to promote a sustainable community with a primary focus in Archuleta County.
Growth

Programs

PROGRAMS

The Mission of the Pagosa Farmers Market is to provide a venue for local and regional food producers, and select non-food producers, to sell their products to benefit our community and the earth.

The goal of the Simplicity Circle is to gather once a month to learn new ways of living simply, to share ideas and to support one another in the process of simple living.

SOS donates books relating to the environment and sustainability to the Ruby Sisson Library in Pagosa Springs. Visit the library to enjoy one of these selections.

What Is Sustainability?

The United Nations defines sustainability as that which "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs."

Events

EVENTS

ST. PATRICK'S DAY PARADEAlways with a theme of 'Going Green', SOS joins the community for the annual St. Patricks Day Parade. This year we passed out seed packets!

EARTH DAY2011 is our third annual Earth Day Celebration! Join us at Town Park on Saturday April 16th begining at noon for live music, food, beer garden, and family activities in celebration of Mother Earth!Bring your E-Waste to recycle through the County's Program with minimal charge.

ANNUAL FUNDRAISEROnce a year SOS has a member appreciation fund- raising gala including a silent auction, door and raffle prizes, food and lots of fun!

MOVIE/SPEAKER NIGHTSOS sponsors speakers and movies on environmental and sustainable issues.
Recycle Collection:Batteries, CFL's, and ink cartridges are collected at SOS community events and the Farmers Market and recycled or disposed in an environmentally safe way.
Resources

RESOURCES

WHAT WE DO

Library Donations:Environmental books and DVD's are periodically donated to Ruby Sisson Library.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Chair: Denise Rue-PastinVice Chair: DeAnna HoyleSecretary: Abby LinzieTreasurer: Christina KnoellTrustees: Pauline Benetti Claudia SmithFarmers Market Co-ordinator: Lisa Jensen
Farmers Market

Pagosa Farmers Market

2011 Pagosa Farmers Market

Saturdays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Ponderosa Lumber & Hardware Parking Lot

2435 Eagle Drive

July 9 - September 24

Featuring:

Vendors with fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables and locally produced meats, breads, herbal products, seedlings and more, direct to you.

Fiber Producers' Co-Op wool, alpaca, mohair and angora fibers direct from the farm.

Tasty lunch featuring grass finished beef plus dessert and a drink.

FMGoodsWeb
Carrots
FMFlowersWeb
JuicyBite
FMJonniWeb
Sniff
Chili Peppers

Watch for the 2012

Application

Spring 2012

If you would like to be involved in the Pagosa Farmers Market

Please contact one of the following people:

Lisa Jensen, Market Director (970) 264-0430

Phyl Daleske, Volunteer Coordinator (970) 731-4589

Alan Meinhausen, Vendor Coordinator (970) 264-0385

Simplicity Circle

2011 Dates

April 30th

May 28th

June 25th

July 30th - Meet at Pagosa Farmers Market

August 27th - Meet at Pagosa Farmers Market

September 24th - Meet at Pagosa Farmers Market

October 29th

November 26th

December 31 New Year Potlick Brunch

Join Us at Moonlight Books in Downtown Pagosa

10:00 a.m. the last Saturday of the month!

Living simply in our society is sometimes difficult. It requires a conscious decision in almost every aspect of our daily life. It is with this intention that the Southwest Organization for Sustainability added the Simplicity Circle to our programs in 2011.

Simplicity study circles started in the 1980's in the U.S. and have grown in numbers since then. The focus of the circles have been different throughout the years, from life-style simplicity, to finances, to business models. As the economy continues to be a challenge, many individuals and families are looking for ways to cut costs, conserve resources and simplify their spending habits. Cecile Andrews, author and pioneer of the simplicity movement writes on her website " Simplicity is 'the examined life' in which we explore not only what creates fulfillment in our personal lives, but we ask which public plolicies create societies of justice and environmental well-being. Simplicity touches all aspects of our lives, including the issues of time, work, vacation, community, spending, consuming, health, social justice and spirituality. "

( http://www.cecileandrews.com/Topics.htm )

Membership

Join us

Support the goals of SOS by joining.

Annual Memberships:

Individual $ 15 Senior/Student $ 10

Business $ 50

Mail to:

SOS

P.O. Box 2491

Pagosa Springs, CO 81147

TimeBanking

Article 1

What Can Time Banking do for You?

It seems to be the one thing outside our bodies that no one can escape, it's false breath haunts us everywhere we go like a memory of regret holding us back from creating new, fearless experiences. It has been the predominate form of trading since before Christ, and we use it to this day, even though it forces us deeper into debt. We give it so much power over our lives, that it even dominates if we can get enough food to survive or not. It governs the way we think with a mentality that focuses on what we lack and what we need, instead of what we can do with the tools we already have. Money, and the system it represents, appears to be creating more and more materialism, destruction, and fear. It seems like we are powerless to stop money. How in the world do we change the primary way goods flow around the globe? It can start within ourselves by forming alternative ways we can get our needs met and Time Banking is one of those alternatives. I’m not saying we should eliminate money with Time Banking, because at this point, money has a place in our lives as a universal, well established, and recognized form of trade. But by using Time Banking in addition to monetary currency, we can do our part in creating a stable, well taken care of, and established community. In order to survive in the next century, we must rely on each other, not solely on the government, wall street, or loan brokers, but our neighbors and friends, family, and strangers two blocks down. We must become a community dedicated to seeing that everyone has enough and that everyone has value. Now that we have established the necessity of Time Banking the question of what it actually is arises. Simply put, it works like this, every hour you spend doing a service for someone in the community, you gain a Time Dollar. With your Time Dollar you now have an hour of time you can use to spend on someone else doing a service for you. Time banking works as a tool to reduce the need for and eradicate the idea that money is the only way to get your needs met. It works on the idea that one hour of your time is worth one hour of another’s time. This seems so strange at first because we are taught in our culture to rate another’s services as above or below ours based on how much money the doer procures from them. When one stops to think about it, however, it makes much more sense that everyone’s time is equal. This mentality builds stronger relationships based on equality. Our Time Banking Program runs through timebanks. org, a website dedicated to establishing time banks. To participate in a time bank you must join one established for your community and create a member profile stating your offers and requests. Your offers are things that you can do for others to earn time dollars, and requests are things you would like to spend your time dollars on. You do not need to spend your time dollars on the same person you gained them from. Time dollars are electronic and documented after completing your task on your web profile. For example, let’s say that Lisa really needs someone to watch her baby, Ella, on Friday from three to five so she can go work out at the gym so she posts a request for it on her profile. Well, Susan sees the need and has that time free so she emails Lisa through the website and they arrange Ella’s babysitting for two hours on Friday. This earns her two time dollars, which are recorded on her profile. Susan has really been wanting to learn Spanish, but hasn’t had enough extra money for lessons. She sees that Fred has listed Spanish as a skill on his profile so she contacts Fred via email, but he doesn’t check his email for a few days so Susan calls him instead from his listed number and they set up a good time for them both. She then spends her two time dollars on two hours of Spanish lessons. Then Fred gains two time dollars from teaching Susan Spanish for two hours, and uses one of them to have Tina weed his garden for an hour and the other time dollar to have John take him to the grocery store to go shopping since his car is getting fixed in the shop. Since tasks are not valued monetarily, you can also trade goods as long as you do not make the goods equivalent to a real currency. For example, if you were time banking wool from your sheep, you could not say that one bag equals ten dollars and therefore is worth ten time dollars. You can contact your coordinator with questions for more detailed information on the time banking of goods. All exchanges are documented electronically by yourself. So after you perform a task you go into your profile and enter in a short form about who you performed a service for, the hours you spent on it, and the date you did it. Then you have hours in your account to spend on other people’s services. Time Banking forms a web of relationships and helps people get their needs met in a healthy and sustainable way. Time Banking focuses on the following Five basic principals.The Five Core Principles of Time Banking:1. Assets: Everyone has something to give and everyone’s time is equal.2. Work: Building home and community is real, important work. 3. Reciprocity: Giving is stronger when it’s more than a one-way street 4. Community: We’re stronger together. 5. Respect: We deserve it from others – and we owe it to others. In order for time banking to work, it needs to be valued. Email did not only become popular because it was a great invention and idea, it became popular because people chose to use it as a tool to communicate. Time Banking is a great idea that allows us more freedom to create a flow in our lives of abundance, through a different medium than money. We must, in order to keep our world from collapsing, take responsibility for creating a strong community based on mutual respect and generosity, to continue forth into new times. We need your contribution. We would like to start a trial Time Bank here in Pagosa Springs as a branch of the Southwest Organization for Sustainability(SOS), an Archuleta county non profit organization. Twenty active participants are needed to create a community time bank which then we can expand from a trial Time Bank into an official Time Bank, and link our community in an even larger way. If you are interested in joining our Time Bank Trial, email Pauline at paulineb_centurytel.net to get more information.Below is a example list of possible services:Help at HomeChild Care Cooking & Sewing Hair & Beauty Housekeeping/Chores Pet Care Respite Care Miscellaneous Community ActivitiesClean Up/Recycling Community Service Fund-raising Special Projects Work for Social Change WellnessComplementary Therapies Counseling Diet & Nutrition Fitness & Exercise Medical Services Yoga/Meditation Arts, Crafts, & MusicClasses Crafts Entertainment Lessons Photo & Video Theater Home RepairCar Care Carpentry/Construction Electrical Garden & Yard Work Painting Plumbing TransportationErrands Local Long Distance Medical Train/Bus/Airport Worship Miscellaneous CompanionshipClubs Dining Out Email/IM Home Visits Medical Errands Telephone Calls RecreationBooks & Videos Dancing Events Games Sports Travel EducationAdvocacy Classes/Workshops Computers/Technology Languages/Translation Personal Finances Tutoring/Mentoring Business ServicesClerical Computer Support Financial Legal Marketing Research Odd JobsThis article was written and contributed byDakota Jarvie

Article 2

What is Time Banking?

"At its most basic level, Time banking is simply about spending an hour doing something for somebody in your community. That hour goes into the Time Bank as a Time Dollar. Then you have a Time dollar to spend on having someone doing something for you. It's a simple idea, but it has powerful ripple effects in building community connections.Each Time Bank has a website where you list what you would like to do for other members. You look up Time Bank services online or call a community coordinator to do it for you. You earn Time Dollars after each service you perform and then you get to spend it on whatever you want from the listings.With Time Banking, you will be working with a small group of committed individuals who are joined together for a common good. It connects you to the best in people because it creates a system that connects unmet needs with untapped resources. To see what happens each week when you are part of Time Bank is deeply fulfilling, especially if you are helping to make it run. "This excerpt was taken from the non-profit site Timebanks.org. Everything you would want to know about Time Banking is included on their site. We are currently looking for people who would be interested in participating in a Time Bank in Pagosa Springs. It's an exciting concept and is perfect for our current economic environment. If you are interesting in participating in a trial Time Bank, please contact Pauline at paulineb_centurytel.net. It will be free to be a member of the Time Bank, so let's give it a try!

Article 1
Article 2

SOS GOALS

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