Queen City Sovereignty Salon: Activity Log
From 2026.01.08 Meeting: Team Notes and Research Leads
If you attended and would like to receive future updates directly, you’re welcome to reach out at:
s i g n a l @ k a m r e s e a r c h . g l o b a l
Food & Land
What Already Exists
o Augusta Co Permaculture Guild on Facebook
o Cooperative Extension & Master Gardeners
o Embrace
o Verdant Acres Farm (community supported agriculture, work trade)
o Local forging groups (mushrooms)
o Plant swaps, seed swaps, cuttings swaps
o Shenandoah Permaculture Institute
o Farm to Freezer meat options from local producers
o Medicinal Mushrooms
o Raw Milk, Butter Cheese
o Using underused farmland for crops to share
o Garden project at Natural Wonders School Verona, VA for the learning community. Students and parents will be included from day 1. The intention is for the school to source their meals from garden and educate the students.
o Parks service resources, ex. Water mapping
o Local farmers market
Dreams of What Could Be
o A community garden on every corner! Churches!! Vacant Lots
o School gardens, sourcing all meals from garden feeding families in need & educating students & re-attracting students to veggies
o Food not lawns
o Natural gardening, rewilding the land
o A downward trend in the average age of farmers
o Augusta to Abbatoir; Cannery
o Swales Everywhere
o Rainwater harvesting workshops (some already being done)
o Aquaculture fish supply
Risks on the Horizon
o PFAS – in biosolids
o Data centers and other industry taking up water
o More droughts / more floods
o Succession moments = land getting developed
One Small Next Step
o Connect SNAP recipients with volunteering opportunities to grow food
AI Kip: I have the phone contact for the SNAP Program people from Staunton Farmer's market. I've discussed ideas of volunteering for tokens, and given them Sovereignty Salon flyers. I will reach out to them again before our next meeting.
AI Kip: I will be reaching out to these existing programs to introduce myself and the Queen City Sovereignty Salon. I will see if there is opportunity to collaborate, and to see if they would be on board with joining hOUR economy in order to provide work opportunities for volunteers before our next meeting.
Skills & Repair
What already exists
o Houreconomy & it’s membership (potential)
o Individuals proof of qualifications and licensure
o Cider from Mars held a clothing swap in October
o Hydration specialist – can do presentation on Sowce Water / Physical Remediations requirements
o Graphic Design
o Regenerate or Rebalance Health Issues
o Physical Detox – one month program / training using technology to assist with cleansing ie. Restructural water, better, root ionizer, etc plus guidance and support
o Sewing repair group
o TAX E Querce (Tax Equeese) ?????
Dreams of What Could Be
o Tutoring
o Childcare
o Repair
o Transportation portal / ride share
o Painting
o Home repairs
o Wellness services
o Massage
o Purchase Consulting / Appraisals and inspections
o Self-regulation (EQ)
o Volunteering for Cmty members in need
o Tool / raw material Library
o A central in-person and virtual hub to find, source from, & contribute to these resources of tools, childcare, jobs, etc.
Risks on the Horizon
o Injury Liability
o Verification of skills
o Background checks
o Fraud
o Property liability
o Turnover
One Small Next Step
o Find an existing 501c3 to host (ex. Habitat)
o ID Subcommittee chair for this
o ListServe? New / existing – hOUR economy
o SOPs
AI Kip: After guidance received, I will be investigating a 508 Private Membership Association designation for the Sovereignty Salon and hOUR economy. This should mitigate the liability risks.
AI Kip: I will also find existing 501c3 organizations for us to partner with, and hope to have some leads by next meeting.
AI All: In the next meeting I will be asking for people who would like to take positions of leadership, acting as "team captains" or "subcommittee chairs." Please think on fun imaginative names for any role you would like to take!
AI hOUR economy: There is an existing listserve for the previous 500 members of the hOUR economy group. However, as it has not been active for quite some time and we are a new group so there would be privacy concerns, we are not doing a direct transfer. Rather, the previous leadership is sharing the Queen City Sovereignty Salon information with the original listserve, and they will need to reach out to us to join our new iteration of the program.
̶A̶I̶ ̶K̶i̶p̶:̶ ̶I̶ ̶h̶o̶p̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶p̶l̶a̶s̶h̶ ̶p̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶h̶o̶u̶r̶e̶c̶o̶n̶o̶m̶y̶.̶o̶r̶g̶ ̶d̶o̶m̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶n̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶n̶e̶x̶t̶ ̶m̶e̶e̶t̶i̶n̶g̶.̶ [See the draft here ; still not yet hosted and linked to houreconomy.org but will get there (Kip : 2026/01/12)]
AI All: Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are important, but I think we are still early for that. Please brainstorm what a standard event might look like so that we can begin to draft SOPs.
Tech & Comms
What Already Exists
o Signal Chat Program
Discussion point: SimpleX is a better messenger than Signal for privacy, I still use both.
o Proton (mail, VPN)
o Brave browser
o Home nodes
o FOSS (Fully Open Source Software)
o Linux; Ubuntu
o Libre Office Suite
o Mesh / Lora / Reticulum
o Nostr
Dreams of What Could Be
o Local community radio, less trouble than HAM radio. Like Swannanoa, NC community just implemented
o Community servers and message boards
o Meshtastic – local mesh networks
o Remedial training & assistance
Risks on the Horizon
o State pressure on private communications (telegram founder arrested)
o Exchange (Tornado cash founder arrested; github repo taken down)
o AI investments ready to crash
o Huge water and electricity suck paid for by neighbors not AI companies
One Small Next Step
o Connect with Mesh Community
o Install a VPN
AI Kip: I know the guys who set this up from Nostr! The Bitcoin Veterans set up the Burnsville, NC community radio after the storms in 2024. This is what was mentioned in the dreams section about Swannanoa, NC. It is a meshtastic set up. I have reached out to them about the possibility of setting up something similar here in Staunton to connect us with the Mesh Community. I will have a progress update by next meeting.
Money & Bitcoin
What already exists
o hOUR Economy & potentially an existing base of members
o Bitcoin Loans
o Bridgewater has a local currency
o Local credit union over big banks
o Green path financial wellness
Dreams of what could be
o Taxation with representation
Risks on the horizon
o Bitcoin too volatile & slow to ever be used as currency
o Crypto mostly used for scams & money laundering
o Most use cases for blockchain would work better with a normal database
o Losing access to coin
o Bob the uber-hacker?
One Small Next Step
̶A̶I̶ ̶K̶i̶p̶:̶ ̶I̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶r̶e̶s̶e̶a̶r̶c̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶B̶r̶i̶d̶g̶e̶w̶a̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶l̶o̶c̶a̶l̶ ̶c̶u̶r̶r̶e̶n̶c̶y̶ ̶(̶R̶i̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶R̶o̶o̶s̶)̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶s̶e̶e̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶I̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶s̶p̶e̶a̶k̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶C̶i̶t̶y̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶o̶s̶s̶i̶b̶i̶l̶i̶t̶y̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶c̶r̶e̶a̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶i̶m̶i̶l̶a̶r̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶e̶.̶ [I called and spoke with Bridgewater today about their River Roos program through Yiftee. They really liked the idea of the program, but Yiftee was not ideal and they are pivoting to a different program which will roll out soon. I left a message with the City Manager to hear more about this upcoming program. (Kip 2026/01/12)]
AI Kip: I will investigate physical tokens for the time-banking, as well as asking if this would be wanted from the broader community who might be using the time-banking program to source volunteers.
AI Kip: I will coordinate with the previous members of the Staunton Bitcoiners club to see if we can create a community education event.