Future Canvas Thread!

Tally ho!

Welcome to the Thread, a weekly newsflash on our plan to make melbourne a 'sustainable everyday' metropolis.

Breaking news...Future Canvas received confirmation last week that it has received a very substantial grant from the EPA to support the Reforestation project. Thank you to all of those who have worked with us so capably over the last few months and continue to believe in our vision of a city abloom.

Upcoming events

Website Meeting: Wednesday April 21st, 6:00-7:00 at Em's house, a discussion of how best to move the Future Canvas website to the next stage of ease of use and content management. Please e-mail Em and Steve if you are interested in helping out steven.mckinnon@futurecanvas.org, Emily.B.Brodie@futurecanvas.org.

Reforestation Meeting: Thursday April 24, 6:30 at the Shed.

Future Canvas Meeting: Friday April 21, 5:30-7:30 at the Shed to discuss key outcomes of Michael and Mel's review of Future Canvas and get views/consensus on these changes. There will also be an update on the FC Space Launch.

Future Canvas Space Launch: Friday 8 May: Join us for a night of celebration as we toast the opening of the FC space at the Docklands.

FC Space Blitz: Sunday May 17: Join us for an adventurous day fusing art, fashion, gardening, composting and sculpture creation at Shed 4.

How you can help out

We have a superb Reforestation sponsorship proposal which we are keen to circulate. If you have any contacts who may be interested in supporting Reforestation through financial or in-kind donation please contact Ash at Ashley.Chaleyer@futurecanvas.org.

Future Canvas Space Launch: 8 May 2009: We need door people, bar people, people interested in co-ordinating a fashion show/art show, catering people, sound technicians, artists, event organisers, publicity/promotions helpers, muscle power for set up and pack up...and of course we welcome any form of sponsorship for the event! Contact joel.carnegie@futurecanvas.org

FC Space Blitz: 17 May 2009: We need marketing people, events management people, promotion people, postering people, letter drop, furniture makers, carpenters, artists, gardeners, Bolsheviks or just about anyone, Contact melissa.schellekens@futurecanvas.org

Future Canvas: If you are a grant-writing guru, finance person, film person, artist, it or web person, marketing person or just about anyone contact melissa.schellekens@futurecanvas.org

Future Canvas

The last week has been bustling for Future Canvas. Some of the highlights include:
Future Canvas had a very successful presence at the Melbourne Social Forum: April 17, 18 and 19. The Melbourne Social Forum is "a movement, a process, an event and an organization that helps to facilitate social change and the exploration of social alternatives that are socially just and ecologically sustainable." (http://www.melbournesocialforum.org). Mel, Michael, Em, Steve and Ash spoke to a range of people and developed a considerable lisf of potential volunteers/supporters.
Future Canvas is developing a range of sub-Google Groups to streamline project management and target action and e-mail traffic.The groups will come on-line early next week.These sub-groups will be the nucleus for certain activities/projects and each group will have a moderators/leaders as set out below:
Future Canvas: (the main group that we already have)
Future Canvas Reforestation: (the garden, cafe, etc)
Future Canvas Media: (inc. video production, the website, 3D media)
Future Canvas Enterprise: (the Showcase can be a project of that group)
Future Canvas Arts: (the Shed 4 art space)
Future Canvas Events: (inc. the launch party, markets, fora)
Future Canvas Partners: (aka, the committee)
Stay tuned for these groups!

Melissa Shellkens and Michael Chew have been working with Ash, Em and Steve to further develop Future Canvas' processes, strategy and general efficiency. Michael and Melissa have spent the last few weeks developing a more streamlined governance model and review of FC's development since 2007. Michael's spreadsheet will be available on the FC google group very soon, please let us know what you think.

Joel Carnegie has been working extremely hard to organise the Future Canvas Space Launch in May. Stay tuned for this event, it promises to be golden.

Over the next month Steve is running a review of FC's accounting processes to ensure this aspect of FC is being run using best practice.

Future Canvas is now on Twitter...keep an eye on our 'tweets'

Reforestation

The last week has been busy for Future Canvas’ Reforestation Project. Some of the highlights include:

Serious planning and organisation has begun for Future Canvas' Blitz. Meg and Emily are working on a plan for the event. Stay posted for further developments.

Melissa, Dan and Ash have begun the process of forming the Docklands Reforestation Steering Committee, a key panel of stakeholders from the Docklands area who will help to guide the Reforestation Project. This is a key initiative which will further advance the Reforestation project.

The National Australia Bank's Tanya Watkins has kindly offered to prepare a communications strategy for the Reforestation Project. This will add great effectiveness to the Reforestation project and will enable us to convey our key messages clearly and strategically. Stay tuned for for more updates.

Finalisation of the Reforestation sponsorship proposal. This has been circulated to some key potential sponsors for the project. We will keep you posted on any further developments which flow from this.
Yours,

Future Canvas.