Saying so long to The Local Good (Edmonton) (Dec 2007 - Nov 2023)

The following is the text of a speech I read at the farewell volunteer appreciation party for The Local Good on 9 Nov 2023. I gave ten years of my life to volunteering in whatever role was needed with TLG, over time holding pretty much every role as we grew and took on new projects, before burnout and family responsibilities forced me to step back into the advisory role of Past-Chair. After going on hiatus in the spring of 2020, the remaining volunteers were never able to recapture the magic and made the heartbreaking decision to dissolve our provincial society status. Our website and social media channels have disappeared, so I plan to repost some photos and articles from the archives here over the coming month or so.

SPEECH: Saying so long to The Local Good (Edmonton) (Dec 2007 - Nov 2023)

First, I’d like to acknowledge that we are Treaty people, living in amiskwaciwâskahikan in Treaty 6 territory, a gathering place since time immemorial of the vibrant cultures of Turtle Island - including the Cree, Blackfoot, Métis, Nakota Sioux, Haudenosaunee, Dene, Anishinaabe, Siksika, Inuit, and many others. We are guests here; may we honour all our responsibilities to our hosts and other-than-human relations.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Deb Merriam, and I volunteered with The Local Good from 2008 to 2018 in a variety of roles. Before becoming a volunteer about a year after their founding, I attended most of their monthly workshops.

The Local Good (and previously, Edmontonians Supporting A Green Economy) was a grassroots, volunteer-run organization dedicated to fostering sustainability and resilience in our community by acting as a nonpartisan networking hub to showcase local expertise, support local independently-owned businesses, and lift the voices of those without a larger platform. We formed (alongside Live Local Alberta) following community meetings on how to create a sustainable city in autumn 2007. We considered ourselves part of the Transition Towns and Local Living Economies movements, in reaction to the detrimental effects of globalization and climate change on communities.

Our hope was that by highlighting the best in our city and facilitating conversations about important issues and emerging ideas, we’d foster creation of projects and partnerships that transformed Edmonton into a resilient and sustainable community with a culture of belonging, social advocacy, and environmental responsibility. 

Some of the resulting projects were our own work, including: our newsletter, social media, and volunteer-written blog; shop-local and active-citizenship campaigns; a seminar series by local sustainability experts (2007-2013); the Slow Dialogue Edmonton workshop; Green Drinks Edmonton, a monthly networking event we inherited from Young Environmental Professionals in 2011; The Good Hundred Experiment (2012-2015) conferences; 7 Cash Mobs (plus a tree planting mob!); and Edmonton Resilience Festival(which we created and ran in 2015 & 2016 while Edmonton Permaculture Guild built their capacity to take it

on). 

Like most grassroots, volunteer-run groups run on shoestring budgets, passion and idealism,The Local Good

had limitations. We were entirely reliant on volunteers, without any expertise in preventing burnout. Our

commitment to ensuring events were low-cost created budget problems and exacerbated the burnout. As our

reach was limited by changing social media algorithms, we found ourselves in an echo chamber that

unintentionally excluded marginalized voices, despite diligent efforts toward inclusion and balance. Our focus

on in-person events as the way to build grassroots momentum around issues left us vulnerable to losing all

momentum during the pandemic lockdowns.

However, we also had tremendous success in helping iconic local businesses and shopping districts, creating bridges between academia, civil service, nongovernmental orgs, and local business where none had previously existed, and fostering community and awareness of other local groups. Our emphasis on building a stage and then spotlighting other organizations and businesses, and our policy of generously resharing posts and projects by other groups to increase their visibility, remains unusual despite its effectiveness. 

I was so proud to be part of this talented group of volunteers who did so much with so little. With love and

gratitude, I’d to acknowledge all our team members over the years: Adam, Alexis, Alison, Ally, Arielle, Asia,

Breanna, Catherine, Chris G, Chris K, Conrad, Courtney, Danielle, Diana, Gloria, Hannah, Jason, Jessica, Jude,

Julie, Kerstyn, Kim, Leila, Les, Lindsay, Nadine, Nathan, Rayleigh, Robyn, Sarah, Stephanie, Terra, Tommy,

Tonia, Toscha, and Wes, plus a couple of you who came after my time; our blog writers and events volunteers,

too numerous to list; our founders Tad and Maureen; and everyone who gave a talk, taught a skill, or acted as a

featured expert at the events we organized. I also want to thank my family for supporting my work on all

The Local Good's projects.

Please continue to create and support local independently-owned businesses, arts walks, block parties, cash mobs, clothing swaps, community leagues, craft guilds, cycling societies, disability advocates, environmentalists, farmers markets, festivals, front-yard gardens, fruit rescue societies, gay-straight alliances, housing co-operatives, Indigenous initiatives, land protection trusts, makers, minority-led organizations, musicians, permaculture guilds, pop-up parks, pride marches, regenerative farmers, repair cafes, renewable energy home tours, skill sharing events, Slow Food groups, solarpunks, social justice advocates, Transition Towns, tool libraries, urban foresters, unions, writers, and activists. Keep building a better world.

Keep loving local and doing good. We’re passing the torch to you. 

XO - Deborah

What are you making?

My YEGhead: planting seeds & watching them grow. Metaphorically.
Via Make Something Edmonton on Facebook.

Tonight is the launch party for the amazing Make Something Edmonton project, and I was lucky enough to grab a ticket before it sold out. Hopefully today's snowstorm won't prevent me from going!

In the spirit of the event, I thought I'd make a little list of what I'm making:

1. The Local Good. I've been on the volunteer board of directors of this amazing grassroots organization for several years now, and I am extremely proud of the work we are doing to make it easy to find the amazing local projects, businesses, and events in Edmonton. In our early years, we noticed that we'd met lots of people doing similar projects with common goals who were not aware of each other's work, and we felt that the best way we could make change was to bring them together so they can exchange ideas, create collaborations, and make amazing things happen. All our projects, from our events listing and blog, to themed Green Drinks networking events, to the Good Hundred Party and educational panel discussions, are based around the simple idea of fostering community by making it easy for people with common values and interests to find each other.

2. My bicycle blog, Loop-Frame Love, which I co-write with a rotating cast of collaborators. There has been a lot of heated rhetoric around bike lanes in our city lately; this project makes a small difference by showing that cycling in this city (and my co-bloggers') is not just for hipster messenger dudes on fixies, weekend warriors on mountain bike trails or training in pelotons, and wierdo commuters on hybrids wearing safety orange. There's a wonderful community of year-round bike-culture bloggers in Edmonton, and we hope that ours adds to the diversity and approachability of cycling voices in the city. So far our biggest contribution has been the Critical Lass rides we organize for female cyclists in street clothes, on a route suitable for novice riders, to promote cycling as an approachable, fun, everyday activity. Although there are other social rides sans politics and testosterone in other cities, we were the first in the world to take the tongue-in-cheek name "Critical Lass" for ours, and that name is now also being used in bike-culture model cities like Chicago and Seattle. LFL has outgrown our Blogspot space, so this spring we are relaunching as loopframelove.com, and we've just recruited fabulous new co-blogger Emma; we're also planning monthly Critical Lass rides and our first-ever Kidical Mass (for families).

3. This blog! If you're visiting from my twitter feed, this is where I explore the slow movement and all its facets, and gradually figure out shape my encore career will take. I know it involves slow design and slow craft, so it will be all about Making Something Edmonton - but I'm still finding my voice. Another ongoing topic of this blog is using my standard suburban move-up home as a slow home renovation case study, and an upcoming post will talk about creating an annual block party with my neighbors to build community in my neighborhood (where most residents have moved in in the last two years). I will also be planning a slow movement themed unconference as a collaboration between this blog and The Local Good this autumn, so stay tuned for details on that!

The Good Hundred Experiment

On Saturday, I had the great privilege to attend the Good Hundred Experiment and the party afterward. The event was an unsectored, invitation-only gathering of Edmonton change-makers organized by Nadine Riopel and Tad Hargrave with the support of The Local Good. The idea was to put amazing people doing inspiring projects into the same room, get them talking about the work they're doing and providing feedback to each other, and to watch the magic happen. The hope was that new friendships, new collaborations, and new insights would be created, to help smooth the attendees' paths and make even more good things happen in Edmonton.

"We trust that if we bring good people together in a good way, good things will happen."

(click to see the full-size panoramic image)

From the feedback on Twitter, I'd say that goal has already been more than accomplished. You can see the response on Twitter and in attendees' blogs summarized in this Storify by Tamara Stecyk.

I had to leave for a couple of hours mid-afternoon, but I got to participate in the small circle introductions, Tad's Islands Interview exercise, and have lunch (catered by Under The High Wheel) and drinks (at Kasbar that night - also Storified by Tamara) with some of the most inspiring people in Edmonton.

The ideas we wanted to explore in the afternoon sessions were jotted on the wall

over the course of the morning sessions, then our mediator Michelle Riopel pulled out what we'd brainstorm about in the afternoon. I can't wait to see a summary of what came out of those sessions.

I'm told that some of what we wrote here actually belonged on the burning questions sheet. Oops.

Music Is A Weapon's Lucas Coffey
energizing the crowd after lunch. SO fun.

Kaz Mega and Solidario (VladiG) rock their spoken-word piece "Edmonton". 

I learned so much at the daytime workshops, and finished the afterparty feeling energized, inspired, and deeply impressed with the city that I call home. I also got some great feedback and constructive criticism on the projects I'm involved in, and I'm delighted to have been able to introduce a few people who needed to meet, and sit and brainstorm with others on ways to collaborate. It'll take me a few days to process it all.

There will be another Good Hundred Experiment event in the Spring. If you're interested in attending - or you'd like to organize a similar event in your city and you'd like some advice on how to proceed - Tad & Nadine are the people to talk to.