regional approaches to transition

Regional transition examples

As well as setting up local - Transition Town - movements, the Australian approach seeems to be including [emphasising?] a regional approach. the two are complementary, I think.

shall we have a central Victorian transition region - a loose alliance that consolidates the contacts we already make with each other, and within which area transition towns and villages do their own thing?
Ian

here are some examples:

Northern NSW: www.sustainnorthernrivers.org

Sunshine Coast (SE Qld): http://www.seac.net.au/main/

SE NSW: http://nswcommunities.org.au/setts.html

Bega shire council supports transition: http://www.begavalley.nsw.gov.au/Home/Latest_News/080826planning.htm

notes from dinner conversation 28 July 08

Transition-Hats Off dinner #3, Monday 28 July 08 at Bronwen’s in Munro Court, Castlemaine

Luke Bennett: Tafe teacher for private Ag training org. Diploma sustainable Ag. Lobbied head if school to teach it. Problematic because of brand issue. BRIT now advertising the Diploma but won’t hire a teacher until student interest is shown. L. would LOVE to be teaching this Diploma. Also interested in sustainable waste (recycling organic waste).

Eliza Tree: Forest/Wheeler St. development (13th August submissions to council) Trying to get letters of objection. - Printz Plumbing tank project ?organising a bulk buying group to get discounts on tanks and installation.

Joel: -Wesley Hill Car-share proposal ?households meeting tomorrow night to work out the logistics. Looking for a mix of people from different stages of life ?mixed uses. - Wesley Hill Goat share ?shared care, responsibility and resources at central location in Wesley hill. - Trees for mulch, fertiliser, animal feed, could be harvested & used- resources available for this locally.

Carolyn Neilsen: - Currently living in a sustainable cluster housing development ?individual freehold assets but shared facilities & resources (4 households) ? shared child raising, - Also passionate about composting/ recycling. - Also car share & walking/cycling bus for kids to school.

John Sanderson: - Wood gassifier ?gassifierjohn@gmail.com as at Ararat. Waste wood from recycling plant ?heating pool. ? Megawatts.

Ian Lillington: - National & international context for transition. Transition handbook to be reprinted in Australia w/in Australian context & with Australian stories. - 9 other regions/towns in Aust. Which are calling themselves Transition towns?- ? National network (Carol has drafted a response available for comment) - Significant enthusiasm w/in this group to write the Australian book.

Sarah Austin: - Such inertia & negativity around climate change. So good to be positive & pro- active about this stuff.

Tony & Nada: - Started 25+ yrs ago - ran a Permaculture & Biodynamic farm in Harcourt. Have had goats. Both involved in an intentional meditation group. A lot of work dedicated towards putting the spirit into the systems we are trying to create. - Original member of MASG. Undergoing significant changes- Public forum Aug. 6th 7pm, Anglican church hall,- any issues, concerns, suggestions, open & deep listening to enable MASG to go ahead into the future. - Lots of room for different groups to operate in the municipality MASG never wanted/intended a monopoly. The more the merrier- we can all work together well.

Lucy, Ian & Carol: Gave a brief snapshot of the Hats off & transition conversations to date. + 12 Transition steps.

Nada: Noted the Honour the elders stage of the 12 transition steps. Not all about action. Interested in exploring contribution to resilience in myself & my community that may or may not involve action. Andrew Harvey ?Sacred activism. Role with children is also part of my contribution to resilience. If we are spiritually fulfilled & living authentic grounded lives, the resilience grows out of that ?we don’t have to do it. connected with a number of groups exploring what opportunity we have on this planet to collectively fulfill our potential with deep love.

Mark - Studying Bachelor of Urban, Rural & Environmental planning (outside of mainstream planning). President of Northern Bendigo Landcare group. Next weekend (Sun. 3rd) sustainability landuse forum (strawbale carbon offsets). Sometimes there is a fear about other people coming together & being all talk?sometimes need to think & share before we act?

Jac Semmler: Castlemaine is a place which supports my own resilience? Background in Enviro- sustainability. That & other activities push boundaries around own sustainability. Passionate about food ?planting, growing, food systems. Interested in doing things in my community with younger people ?ideas, energy & enthusiasm for true change. Age bracket that other organisations aren’t catering for ?interested in 搉etting?people who will grow up in these changing times.

Bob Rees: blow-in??most expensive supermarket anywhere. Brought up during war in a totally self-sufficient community. We all produced more than we needed ?we wasted nothing. Anyone registered as a supplier could take contributions on strict basis of need and understanding that it wasn’t for re-sale, just own consumption. This central drop-off point was administered by Salvation army but could be run by community. All about people looking out for each other.

Joel: Missing link - people don’t know what to do with real food. 損eak-oil?is the opportunity for IT managers to learn how to weed?

Break for questions –

Nada: Teddy bear project- part of peace festival. It’s a vehicle for connecting schools of different faiths ?children take the teddy home for a week with a journal & record everything the teddy does. If children have an experience of difference that is easy & comfortable & enjoyable then there will be no fear of that difference. Writing the project up. Next Year- peace train ?bring children from Melbourne up on the train ?connect in with steam train to Maldon. What we share is greater than what divides us. Need to continue.

Luke B: Educational resources for youth to do with climate change. All badness currently which is dispiriting. (Joanna Macy - Despair and Empowerment?. Melbourne group? make positive action fun using dance and tree-planting ?yo0unger shoot-off, sprouts? for kids.

Jac: Idea more re. Asking kids/young people/youth what their ideas are. Just sometimes need some structure/support to go for it. Nada: School near B/rat ?kids have developed all the projects & program & the kids went out & sold it to other schools. _ St Michaels.

Ian: Gen Barlow story from 1st dinner. Research for television programs (Nicki) ?looking for a family to feature ?significant transitions for a family to feature ?significant transitions over the next 6-9 months. Someone: Learning to & committing to walking the talk.

Simon: Only just moved to CM - been here 2 wks. Life in transition. Comes from Adelaide. Working for dept. for environment & heritage - wrote ecological restoration management plans. big issues but not disjointed from my life & shouldn’t be. Wants to offer himself to the conversation and the community.

Carol: Physical limits. Spends a lot of time in meditation. Really resonates with the connection with spirituality and transition. Very taken by the power of one in the contribution into the whole. Works reactively - conference ?awards ?hats off book, etc. Interested in closed-water-systems for rural communities (a Conference on this is Oct. 12th ?Benalla) & Women抯 w/end ?divine futures.

Bron Machin: CVGA (Central Vic. Greenhouse Alliance) ?commentary on govt. processes and advocacy, partnering. Slow transport ?spent years as a sustainable transport campaigner ?good resource.

Ian: Slow transport story ?cycling up midland hwy passed old lady in her buggy, struck by the diversity of uses poss?

Joel: Anyone interested in sharing in a community mulcher?

Where to:

- Skilling?

- Film night?

- More on Transition concept

- education.

- Proposed working groups

An apology for any misquotes, mistakes or misspellings in these notes. Hope they make sense. Luke J

Third Hats of Gathering Mount Alexander

Third Hats Off Gathering

6.30 food to share

7.30 story telling

Venue
Bron's home
7 Munro Court
Castlemaine
off Dudley Street
off Barkers Street North
just before railway overbridge
MOnday 28 Jul

Second transition dinner

24 adults and a gaggle of children gathered at Lucy and Maurice's home in Castlemaine of Mount Alexander bringing food to share, excitement, enthusiasm and passion. Ian and Carol shared a little of the Transition Handbook focussing on the links between peak oil clmate change and social organisation at the time of rapid and profound change. Carol was excited by the psychology of change chapter and briefly and intimately presented the stages of change model ( after di clementi). Everyone contributed reflection or ideas or inspiration. (except for Varun, he says and which he wants written here for he listened and slept htough he tried hard to stay awake he says). A talk around revealed that what we most wnat to create at our next gathering is storytelling. We know each other 'down the street' or in task oriented activities but here is an oportunity to further deepen our understanding of each othr and the contribution we are each making to transition here.

Next gathering

6.30 food to share

7.30 story telling

Venue
Bron's home
7 Munro Court
Castlemaine
off Dudley Street
off Barkers Street North
just before railway overbridge
MOnday 28 Jul

second hats off dinner

Next Meeting

Mon 14^th July 6.30pm 8 Campbell Street

– bring a plate to share;

– spread the word;

– Ian and Carol to give short presentations on ‘what is transition’?

First hats off dinner

First Hats Off Dinner

Castlemaine – 1^st July 2008

Background

The hats off dinner was called by Carol McDonough and Ian Lillington as a result of the United Nations Association of Australia World Environment Day win by ‘the communities of Mount Alexander Shire’ and a desire to have an open community conversation about ‘where to from here’ in terms of how to springboard from the win. Coinciding with this was the release of Rob Hopkins’ book: ‘The Transition Handbook – from oil dependency to local resilience’, documenting “one of the most dynamic and important social movements of the 21^st Century” (Richard Heinberg, foreward, p,8). This book outlines how the transition formula uses “Permaculture principles, the psychology of social marketing, and inclusive processes like ‘open space’…[to…find]…a way for people worried about an environmental apocalypse to invest their efforts in ongoing collective action that ends up looking more like a party than a protest march” (Richard Heinberg, foreward, p,10).

The challenge was put forward to attendees that this initial conversation may spawn an ongoing series of ‘hats off dinners’, guided by the transition concept, branching out of diverse and ever expanding circles of intimacy. It is hoped that such conversations may build on the existing ‘buzz’ towards change, celebrate and share milestones and achievements to date, and capture the collective imagination, and harness the skills and abilities of the Mount Alexander community in moving from project innovation to widespread buy-in and whole of community resilience in facing the changes ahead. It is also hoped that this process of becoming a Transition Town will be documented through multi-media for sharing and cross-fertilization with other communities, as well as for our own reflection and learning.

20 adults and 3 children attended the first dinner? They were randomly invited according to who bumped into who down the street and who they invited.

Notes from the dinner (NB: I have taken the liberty of ‘theming’ the notes to make them more readable, while trying to maintain the integrity ‘flow’ of the discussion)

Everyone introduced themselves around the table and were then invited to share whatever they thought to be relevant to the conversation, after a very brief introduction of the concept and how the dinner came about.

Alternative ways of organizing ourselves – Lucy expressed that we might need to be careful not to find ourselves reinventing the wheel and forming yet another ‘organisation’ – handed over to Janet to explain alternative ways of organizing ourselves towards collective productive output. For future discussion. Janet also shared that she feels it is important not to forget to acknowledge and take into account the elements at play here that are ‘beyond human’ (ie: the spiritual).

WHAT might this look like?

- Be time limited, active and productive (Joel)

- Adopt the ‘transition’ title as a town, not as another organization (Bron)

o The term ‘transition’ isn’t very powerful for a town – feels a bit like the sort of place you would pass through (Puck)

o What about ‘transform’? (Suzi)

o Transition concept very flexible – not threatening for councils to embrace (Ian)

- Spread the word, lobby, bring in funds, bring together people

- Tree analogy – there are so many limbs to this

- An education role – not just about building community trust, and changing mindsets – about teaching new skills (see below under ‘big picture’)

- Practical measures towards resilience – Bron reminded us of the need to focus on the practical issues underpinning resilience: food, water, fuel.

- Document the growing brainstorm list of what is already happening

‘Big Picture’ (visioning) vs ‘small picture’ (projects)

Clarification of purpose – there was some attempt to explore whether people wanted to engage in bite sized, project-based action, or big picture thinking, or both. There was a mixed response. Lucy shared Carol’s big picture for the process which was to move beyond the project based activity stage towards a more developmental ‘surfing of the wave’ which captures the whole of community and seeks to spread the stories of our community far and wide. Lucy articulated her understanding of the importance of inspiring people with good news and spreading the word in harnessing the ‘viral effect’ of behaviour change. Dean agreed articulating it as an organic process. Wendy still felt there was a place for the ‘hard truth’ story to shock people into action and offered everyone copies of a powerful powerpoint presentation she has to this end.

Action – there was agreement that many people don’t want a ‘talk-fest’, they want immediate action towards, for example, gassifiers, community gardens, personal gardening etc. Much discussion of the ‘emergency factor’. Equally though, there was some feeling that we didn’t want to reinvent the wheel, and also some didn’t want to become just a disparate group of projects.

Projects / initiatives (already happening / could happen)

Small Towns – Genevieve told the Newstead story and urged that we not leave the smaller towns out of the picture but also to allow them to be somewhat inward focused. The key issue for them is transport – need to find ways to share trips, and different ways of conducting meetings (eg video technology)

Transport – Joel shared the Wesley Hill car share pool initiative (where no-one owns a car – there is a pool of shared cars for use when necessary for reasons of distance or load, but otherwise walking or cycling is the preferred mode of transport)

It was discussed that the buses don’t seem to be used enough – is this because the timetables don’t work? How can we encourage people to use them more? Would be worth chatting to the owner of the bus company

who seems genuinely committed to providing a responsive service.

Food – Kathryn shared the story of shared local slow food dinners started by Jac Semmler – now running every second Monday. Often while brought together by the common interest in local food, end up talking big picture.

Town Money – Ian introduced the concept and was told it had already started in Maldon as supported by the Bendigo Bank and local traders.

‘Big Picture’

Changing mind-sets / culture – Suzi felt the change wasn’t just about changing mind-sets and culture, also that often it was a matter of filling a skills / knowledge gap eg: (as per their experience at Fryer’s Forest) negotiation, communication, car share etc).

The ‘community’ opportunity – Lars noted the irony of how removed we have come from ‘community’ – if you run into someone in a car you could get killed, if you run into someone as a pedestrian, you have a conversation!

Re-learning ‘how to share’ – Lars felt people come here because they are drawn to being part of a community – they are open and willing to re-learning how to share.

WHO might be involved?

- Use existing networks (eg: C500, Newstead, MASG etc)

- How do you contact those people who don’t self select? The disengaged. Fear (Wendy’s power-point) vs celebration (the ‘up’ side of ‘peer pressure)

- How to involve our neighbours – eg: US Crime study – e-mail list amongst neighbours helped reduce crime (better still, talk to your neighbours!). In this community diverse people live side by side – opportunity to influence.

- Local government has a huge role to play (relocalisation) (Joel)

o Should get Council on board because our capacity to survive is the only strength of this community in terms of its ‘natural’ resources – economically we don’t have much else going for us. (Lars)

WHY?

- Because we can

- Because we can’t not.

- Ride the wave - Build on, acknowledge, celebrate, share our achievements to date

HOW?

- Start with what is already happening, and working towards resilience, and build on it. (Janet)

- Build on whatever is happening to build community, infiltrate existing organizations and through these, model for the rest of the community

- Capture & document diversity – eg: Deanna’s Carbon Heroes – especially those who have made major shifts in their way of thinking and living – powerful stories (Dean).

- Documentation – Suzi expressed the need for documentation of this process – Janet had a camera and Lucy took notes with that very intention.

- Communication – Sarah flagged possibilities for communication including a transition blog, website and e-group. Disucssed information over-kill and how to manage

- Lucy offered herself as the ‘story-catcher’ (when she gets back from leave at the end of September) (Other stories: bike trailers, bikes on trains campaign)

- A group in NSW was offering to make a documentary of a town which put itself forward as being at the point of transition – was a while ago – Gen to pass details onto Lucy

- Education role / Study group / learning – Sarah felt a study group or opportunities for learning more about the transition concept and underlying principles such as permaculture would be beneficial and would assist us in carrying out our role in the ‘trickle effect’ towards passing on our learnings to our networks. This idea was well supported. Other ideas for reaching broader community:

o Film nights

o ‘Open mike’ nights for sharing stories (Lucy)

o Invite an ‘expert’ eg: a few years back Council did a series of 9 workshops where different people spoke about their different areas of expertise – was a huge turnout (Jim). May serve to ‘broaden’ the buy-in – bring in speakers with credibility & expertise.

§ This community has plenty of ‘experts’ within & that is the whole point of the transition concept.

§ Maybe organize a program of speakers for next year?

Where to from here?

- Meet once a month and share successes (? More frequently)

- Another meeting with 1/2 ‘tutorial’ from someone on transition concept and other 1/2 sharing of stories, food and networking

- Media release from tonight’s meeting to advertise next one

- Explore alternative ways of organizing towards productive ends (Janet, Lucy) (eg: ‘think tank’ theories)

- Name: ? J RATS (Resilience And Transition Society) – Dean!

Next Meeting

Mon 14^th July 6.30pm 8 Campbell Street

– bring a plate to share;

– spread the word;

– Ian to give short presentation on ‘what is transition’?

This is my first BLOG experience, so I just had to have a go.

Just a reminder to people who do not know the location of the Castlemaine Community House:
27 Lyttleton Street (opposite TOGS) front room - old School of Mines. Hopefully I will have finished the book by then and give Ian a run for his money.

Hope to see you all Sunday morning - we'll have our marvellous Chariot - a fancy Canadian child carrier - but I'm really looking forward to being cycled around by Jo or Ian on their European number!
Lu

try a child friendly bike on Sunday

child trailers, tag-alongs, load carrying bikes in Victory Park, Sunday 6 July from 10.30
ian

transition blog set up

Hi

here we are with blogspot; thanks to Carol's assistance

i encourage you to post your news and other items

if you don't want to be emailed with any more transition stuff, let me know

reminder: we meet next at CCH at 6.30 on 14 July - byo food to share

Ian