In front of me are over 30 pages of notes I took religiously at the 5th annual BALLE Conference held last month at UC Berkeley. Rather than painstakingly put you through all the various incantations of what Business Alliance for Local Living Economies is all about, I wish to present an overall feel for this new movement. I call it a movement because anytime a group seeks to bridge a glowing and growing gap; they attract the pioneers who are at the forefront of uniting some seemingly opposite poles. For BALLE, the gap that the members (over 50 chapters throughout the US at this time and growing) are addressing is between the business community and environmentalists and between the social justice activists and the sustainability folks. A large task you’d say? Certainly, but when you hear more and more people with that integration coming from their hearts and daily actions, a movement has sprung.

If you get this before Friday, Feb 9, we are screening Who Killed the Electric Car? See the mention of it in the latest issue of HopeDance or click here . A special guest Bruce Severance will be answering questions after the film. He was the senior designer on numerous electric vehicle development projects in the 90s.

We are working hard at screening some excellent films in the 4 counties: Sonoma, San Luis Obispo, Ventura and Santa Barbara. Films that are just not simple mainstream films where you watch and then go home but documentary films that often times have a campaign connected to them or at least have a discussion afterwards to keep the inspiration alive and well so we can learn to discuss matters and hopefully expand our knowledge to new people.