Here is a report on the results of last week's Community Visit meeting:

Dear Cabot Community Members,

At the Community Meeting last Thursday over 50 Cabot community members set three priorities for action to advance the community (see full descriptions below):

·        Build a Cabot Agricultural Network

·        Improve Community Communications

·        Develop a Cabot Community Arts Center

Now we need your help! Task force groups are being formed to help address these key priorities. A number of volunteers signed up Thursday but we hope more members of the Cabot community will volunteer to join one or more task force groups. Simply reply to this email and let us know the task force(s) that you would like to participate in and we will add you to the list. And spread the word by forwarding this email along to others in the community.

The next meeting in the Community Visit process has been scheduled for Tuesday, November 27 from 6:30 to 9:00pm at the Willey Building. VCRD will bring a new Visiting Team of state, federal, regional, non-profit, and philanthropic leaders to Cabot to help task force groups as they develop action steps and resource ideas to move these projects forward. Cabot has set an ambitious agenda; it can succeed in these goals if residents line up for action.

Hope to see you on November 27^th!

Jan Westervelt

Cabot Community Visit Chair

jrwcabot@yahoo.com

563-2489

Paul Costello

Executive Director

Vermont Council on Rural Development

223-5763

info@vtrural.org

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Here's some background and more detail:

On October 25^th over 50 Cabot community members gathered in a community meeting to consider the ideas that were discussed through the Cabot Community Visit process and to set priorities for action. At the meeting, the Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) presented a list of all the key directions that the community had put on the table at the public forums on September 25^h and school forums on September 21^st. Participants discussed what was most important and most needed and voted on the priorities that they thought the community should line up to accomplish. Then, a number of folks signed up to serve on Task Forces to move these issues forward over the course of the next year. The top 3 priorities that participants chose are listed below.

Cabot Community Visit Priorities

Determined by Cabot community members at the VCRD Community Meeting, October 25^th 2012.

Build a Cabot Agricultural Network

Cabot has deep agricultural traditions and assets, but the farm, food, and value-added producers in town do not get together in any systematic way for mutual benefit. Cabot could build an agricultural and food system network that could eventually help aggregate, market, and distribute products, act as a producers circle, address infrastructure opportunities, connect Cabot farmers and producers to the Center for an Agricultural Economy in Hardwick, encourage or incubate new small farm operations and value-added businesses, and work together in other ways to support a strong agricultural future in the town.

Improve Community Communications

Some residents complain about communications gaps and the lack of knowledge about all the good things going on in the community. A Cabot Communications Task Force could advance community communications by linking all local activities into a common calendar with an on-line portal like Front Porch Forum’s calendar widget inserted into the websites of all municipal and community groups. This team could also put all the gathered information into a Cabot bulletin board in the village and share it in the Chronicle.

Develop a Cabot Community Arts Center

Cabot residents celebrate the diversity of arts, crafts and local products in the community. Many believe that a Task Force of Cabot residents could come together and identify a space in town to be redeveloped as an arts center. A Cabot Arts Center could include an outlet and showplace for local art and products, studio space, and space for youth to gather and for local music, movies, or theatrical performances to occur.