Notes On Our Nineteenth Meeting

Date: Friday, September 16th, 2011
Time: 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Location: University of Texas - Pan American University Center Circle
Attendance: 5

The Rio Grande Valley Zeitgeist Movement held their nineteenth scheduled meeting on Friday evening at the University of Texas Pan American campus. We gathered in the outdoor University Center Circle next to a sporadically functioning and somewhat entertaining fountain. The small group of participants engaged in a wide ranging conversation going from food supply and production, vegetarianism, veganism and national political discourse to farm work, movement aspirations, religion and other events and issues that we have noticed in our personal lives. We also discussed our plans for future awareness campaigns, events and meetings. We talked about the movement and the Venus Project in general and what was happening recently regarding the Zeitgeist Media Festival and Peter Joseph's recent media interviews in addition to the amazing work being done by the Austin/Texas chapter.

Some interesting developments that have happened recently in our local chapter are the interest of Zack Quaintance from the local newspaper The Monitor, who seems to be interested in doing a story on our recent hydroponics presentation and subsequent use for home food production, and McAllen's Cine El Rey theater might be interested in screening a copy of Zeitgeist Moving Forward. These developments have not yet come to fruition, but they are both good signs that we will have some new publicity and exposure to the community, and it is very exciting to see what will happen!

For the near term, the annual HESTEC event at UTPA will be held in two weeks. This is a good opportunity to distribute literature and DVD's to members of the public who are interested in science, technology and engineering, and would likely be interested in learning about our ideas and goals. In addition, we learned that Edinburg has a community Second Saturday market day each month, where the local community gathers in a public space. This is another opportunity to engage in awareness activity and reach a general audience. I am looking forward to participating in these and other events in the near future and hope to see other members join in this important awareness activity.

Finally, we discussed future meeting venues and decided that we will start to meet in other public and outdoor places so we have a greater chance to interact with others while conducting our meetings. Our next meeting will be scheduled for Wednesday, October 5th at 6pm at UTPA. I hope to see you there and look forward to our continuing efforts to make the world a better place for all people.