Hi, Folks! Samantha wrote:
<<I am having a really hard time getting my foot in the door with my city council. There are a lot of smiles, but their heads are shaking at the same time. What made the difference with your city's governance? Petitions? Public comment at council meetings? Media involvement? Any suggestions for my last run at this, please.>> Oh, I have been here, too. Not a fun place to be. In my experience, petitions don't do squat and aren't worth the effort. Public comment at Council Meetings tend to really work -- especially if it is an election here. (Here in PA, it's a municipal election year, so there's all sorts of fun). Nothing seems to really work like bodies in the room. We tried t-shirts for the dog park, but not everyone would remember to wear them, plus we would meet people at Council Meetings who were there for something else, but would see us, remember what we were there for and want to join in (especially since they were there anyway.) So, in our case, what worked better than the t-shirts was: Tomato Stickers! We managed to get 1000 tomato stickers (white background, red tomato and black lettering "Save the community garden" around the tomato) for about $40 from a local printer. For the past 3 years, every time we had to go to a public meeting -- Housing Authority Board Meeting, Planning Commission, Borough Council, etc, -- my cousin Ed and I would get there 30 minutes early and offer a tomato sticker to anyone who came by. They were cheap, they were obvious, no one had to remember them and they didn't ruin anyone's clothes. Our regular supporters wore them and we easily added new people who might be at the meeting for something else, but were happy to wear them and become supporters later. We became so known for the tomato stickers that the local paper did a front page photo of myself, my cousin Ed and two of the gardeners wrapped in streamers of tomato stickers (couldn't find it in The Phoenix archives or I'd post the URL here). So, I think stickers are very helpful -- if you have a logo, go for it. We used tomatoes because they were colorful and it's what everyone at the food bank likes best from the garden (if all we grew was kale, I don't think we'd have nearly the support! ;-)) Good luck and get your people at those meetings wearing something. Get as many to speak as possible, but if you have about 1/3 sitting there wearing your sticker and 2/3s talking, you'll be fine. Dorene Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator St. John's United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden and Labyrinth A mission of St. John's United Church of Christ, 315 Gay Street, Phoenixville, PA 19460 _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
