Bruce and Cathy Odom hosted a wonderful potluck and planning
meeting for the refresh of As Local As Possible (ALAP). Around a dozen of us discussed a new,
community investing orientation for the ALAP group and shared a variety of
ideas on how we can structure future meetings.
We agreed to keep things simple at this stage with a discussion and
networking format that can be launched right away. Many in the room seemed quite interested in
eventually evolving into a true investment club (which involves a degree of
legal and structural work), but for now our efforts will revolve around building
a forum where local entrepreneurs and those interested in making local investments
can meet and discuss local business projects.
So far, we agreed to stick with our general intro statement
as follows:
We are an informal
group of Northern Michigan citizens seeking to have more local impact and
connectedness with our money. We gather once a month for a potluck and to
meet local entrepreneurs and learn about their projects. During our
meetings, we also share ideas for how we might keep more of our money locally
and invested for triple-bottom-line returns (financial, social, and
environmental). This is an experiment of sorts with exciting offshoot
possibilities, including the spawning of a more formal local investing
club. For now, though, those interested in pursuing local investments
with other group members or presenting entrepreneurs may do so independently of
this ALAP group. Our meetings are open to any individual, although we
request that you RSVP so that we can assure sufficient meeting space.
We also agreed to try a once a month meeting frequency, with
our next three hour session slated for Thursday, December 8. The structure for this meeting will be along
the lines of:
6:00-7:00 Potluck and Social Time
7:00-7:30 Invited Entrepreneur #1 Discussion Time (Short
presentation plus Q&A period)
7:30-8:00 Invited Entrepreneur #2 Discussion Time (Short
presentation plus Q&A period)
8:00-9:00 Group Business (Selection of next meetings
speakers, format changes, feedback for presenting entrepreneurs, etc)
To-Do’s
Cathy is checking out possible venues for the Dec 8
meeting. Possibilities mentioned include
The Good Work Collective, MLUI HQ, and the GT Commons meeting room.
Zach and Bruce will create a short “Investing Opportunity”
submission form that group members can use with prospective entrepreneurs who
would like to speak to our group.
All are encouraged to introduce the group to friends who
have an interest in community investing and to also help find sustainability-focused
entrepreneurs seeking alternative, community funding sources. Interests among group members tonight were
broad including areas such as local sustainable farming/food, alternative
energy, healthcare, eco-tourism, clean transportation, green building, and
education.
For those seeking more information about community investing
in general and a group like ours that has formed in Washington, see the
following links:
http://www.slowmoney.org/
This promises to be an exciting new adventure! Thanks to all who attended and especially to
Bruce and Cathy for welcoming us into their home!
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