Friday, July 18, 2008

Sewanee Chickens

Soo I've been biding my time waiting for some sort of resolution with the "Save Sewanee Chickens" battle to see how viable it would be for us to try and obtain permission to raise chickens next year. It now appears that the decision has been deferred until August and has been moved from the Lease Committee to the Community Council. Katherine Alvarez seems to think that Sewanee officials are "are indeed considering the greater issues of sustainability and local food, right and wrong, and common sense." So do we think this would be the best time for me to push onward in the battle for chickens? I felt weird even starting before we knew for sure that we had a new house for the fall - I didn't want Hartman or others to view it as a sign of trouble to come and think twice about giving us the house. But now that we know the house will be ours in the fall, and now that Katherine Alvarez seems to be encouraged rather than discouraged about the prospects of Sewanee chicken as pets or otherwise, then I think we should step out in a strong way pro-chicken. Unless there is an opposition to this in the House, I'm going to finalize my proposal for Green House chickens for the upcoming year. I can post it to the blog in the next few days and you guys can make comments or changes in plans or whatever and then I'll send it to the Community Council and Katherine Alvarez and Zigler and Haskell and whoever else needs to be involved in the process.

So I guess what I'm asking is if everyone thinks now is a good time for me to do all this or if we should wait until Alvarez gets a more final verdict? Or until we are more nicely settled in our new home? I am open to whatever everyone else wants. Soooo feedback please!

Love,
Rebecca

6 comments:

Elspeth said...

i think it's a great idea to finish your proposal. Before you send it to the community council, send it to all of us, Dr. Haskell, and Dean Hartman. Ultimately, people ask his opinion when they have to make decisions and it's important that he knows what we're doing and has time to think about it and talk about it with us first. And he's happy to do so!

Unknown said...

i concur

Steve Johnson said...

I would definitely finish the proposal and let Hartman and others read it.
What we might want to keep in mind, though, is that the house is a long-time installment. Although it would be AWESOME to get the chickens as soon as we can, we do not have to rush things. Even if we were to not get chickens until next year, we should still consider a success!
But I do think we should wait until we are all back at school before we send it to the community council. It would be nice to have a meeting or two with faculty, staff, students, and Green Housers regarding our proposal and its implementation.
If that made any sense...

Laura said...

I also think that finishing the proposal & sending it to Haskell, Hartman, and all of us (soon) would be grand. While there's no rush for us to get chickens, it would be nice to have this proposal presented to the community council in unity with Katherine Alverez's proposal. The more supportive community voices there are at the time of this decision, the better. Strength in numbers!

Thanks for your work, Rebecca!

Katherine said...

I'm excited about your GreenHouse and the fact that you want chickens. You'll really enjoy them and they'll be SO great for your garden.
The Community Council meeting is August 25. I would be happy to help you in any way you like. Please feel free to get in touch with me.

-Katherine

Katherine said...

ps - don't worry, I will not write or say anything about your interest in chickens. I'm interested in helping anyone who would like - not being a pain!

-Katherine

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