Committee meeting notes 2.6, Next meeting Feb 18th 7:30pm

[Farm Hack MN]

Thank you for meeting last night. I think we made some good headway in identifying what we need and want out of this first Farm Hack. Please see the notes below and add to them if I missed something. 

*****Next meeting Feb. 18th 7:30pm, location TBA

2.6.13 Meeting Notes:

Attendees: Kristy Allen, Emily Hanson, Lindsay Rebhan, Paula Westmoreland, Kirk Marschel, Kayla Schanus, Stefan Meyer

Location: Kristy has been working on the event location. FreeWheel (bike shop) and The Hack Factory (co-op workshop space) seem like the best options, also both centrally located off the Greenway. The Hack Factory has their Minne Faire (makers fair) April 14-15 and would like a Farm Hack presence, we felt it would be too chaotic to have the Farm Hack during the faire as the space would be limited and might also diminish our goals. We can have a table at the event with the HoneyBee Cycle. The Hack Factory is willing to open their space to us for no fee and they have the tools for building machines, it seems like the best place. Kristy to confirm the date is okay with Hack Factory.

Date: We have have been going around on the date because we wanted enough time to promote and also get hacks. Looking into April farmers are too busy. We are now looking at having a Minneapolis Farm Hack March 23rd 10-4pm with a happy hour/social afterwards. We would like to then plan a follow up Urban Farm Hack Day - piggy backing an existing urban farm tour/event in July, tentatively identified July 20th. 

Goals: We want to build community with farmers, beekeepers, makers, carpenters, metal workers, bikers, and allies that have interest/skills/investment in moving projects forward and collaborating for agriculture innovation. We want to learn building skills, increase skills in mechanics, carpentry and connect with skilled artisans and those who have the tools. We want to demonstrate the power of bike machines applied for agricultural purposes. We want to group brainstorm on our specific needs that design/tools could address and keep that running list of design needs for people to build to. We want to showcase who is farming the city and promote groups/farms/foodhubs/events in the community that could cross pollinate with our goals.

How Do We Approach the Event Content: Lots of discussion here. We know we want a large group discussion about Farm Hack and identify areas that could use the most innovation now. We want to do a show and tell of some existing bike powered machines. Potentially a bike mechanic goes over some basic parts and engineering of how to generate a bike powered machine. We would like to break out into groups for design charettes and/or specific hack area focused discussions. Potentially cohort groups are formed who want to work on hack builds after the event. [There was discussion about having a contest to incentivize more hacks, but we would like more time to develop this. We decided against calling for a contest now and instead promoting a contest for a later date after people connect and choose to work on specific hacks.] Lunch provided. 

Potential Agenda - to be flushed out and details solidified at next meeting, including who will lead these areas. 

• Intros
• Farm Hack Introduction, who, what, online tool wiki, 
• Urban Farm Needs Discussion
• Demonstration - honey extractor bike, culti-cycle (or some form of presentation if not built yet), sorbet or smoothie bike, generator bike or other?
• Lunch 
• Tracks - for the afternoon - to be flushed out more, design charettes, mini teach in on bike mechanics or welding, other...
• Sorbet / Coffee - share designs generated.
• Wrap up, promote groups who contributed to event, share contact info and next Farm Hack date
• Happy Hour Social - location? Stop by some urban hives or greenhouse on the way?

Sponsors: PRI Cold Climate. Greenhorns/National Young Farmers Coalition. Beez Kneez Bike Delivery. The Hack Factory. Red Stagg Supper Club lunch sponsor. Peace Coffee, coffee donated. **FreeWheel 

Budget: We have in-kind donations but no cash flow. Peace Coffee said they could not give a monetary donation. PRI will be able to give some. We need plates/forks/napkins/cups, some money for the poster design and printing. 

Promotion: Lindsay trying to nail down poster designer, will be promoting the Farm Hack event page and online RSVP at the Eventbrite page, http://farmhackmpls.eventbrite.com There is lots of interest already from the community. 

Group Contacts:

We will poster and send to all sustainable ag groups, promote at SFA Conference, MOSES Conference, urban ag list serve, local sustainable ag online calendars, urban farmers meetings, bike shops, maker workshops. 

Kayla will be able to send out to PRI Cold Climate's contact lists and make a Facebook event if we want. 

Youth Environmental Activists Core (YEA MN), Cornercopia Student Organic Farm, U of MN Engineering students, Nice Ride, Midtown Greenway Coalition wants to support the event in some way, Spokes, Land Stewardship Project, Gardening Matters, Permies.com, Sisters Camelot, Homegrown Minneapolis contacts, Egg|Plant Urban Farm Supply, Minnesota Food and Justice Alliance, Sustainable Farming Association. 

Next meeting February 18th, 7:30pm, location TBA  

• Location and Agenda will be emailed out/posted.