It has been quite a journey so far. Our group started on February 24th, 2008 and on June 1st we received the official designation as Transition Town. We are in the stages of awareness raising, laying the foundation and preparing for the Great Unleashing event on November 14th, 2008. Also the first working group type of activities and projects are starting.
Find below what events have been happening since we started. We are not continuing updating this page any longer, but have started our own website at http://www.sandpointtransition.org.
If you want to get in touch with us please call USA-208-255-2440 or send an email to info@sandpointtransition.org.
This update is from 9/29/2008. Enjoy!

UPCOMING

See http://www.sandpointtransition.org.


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July 29, Tuesday, 5-7 PM, Sandpoint Library
SUSTAINABILITY AWARENESS (movies and discussions)
This event will stimulate sustainable oriented thinking and provide inspiration and tools for hosting your own sustainability awareness raising event. We will watch "The Story of Stuff", followed by a discussion and reflection of the content. Then we will watch the story of an exemplary implementation of a sustainable production process from the film "The Next Industrial Revolution". This is followed with information and tips for showing these films at a house party, classroom, church group, neighborhood association or any other location and provide the resources to make it a successful event.

"

The Story of Stuff" is a fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns exposing the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

The history of one of the project examples from the movie "The Next Industrial Revolution" shows how to redesign processes and products to work according to nature's rules. "When we follow nature's rules, growth is good," says Bill McDonough. "The question before us is not growth versus no growth, it is: what would good growth look like? And this is a question of intent, of design. What if we grow health instead of sickness, home ownership instead of indigence, education instead of ignorance?". It represents a revolutionary change in the direction of the human economy and inspires to reconsider current efforts for the environment, reinvent businesses and institutions to work with nature and redefine ourselves as consumers, producers, and citizens to promote a new sustainable relationship with the Earth.


August 2, Saturday, 6:30 AM (maybe) and 9:00 AM, Long Bridge
LONG BRIDGE SWIM (information booth)
No, we are not taking the plunge! We have been invited by the founder and director of the Long Bridge Swim, Eric Ridgway, to set up an information booth at this event. Planning is underway and if things work out you will see us there! Find out more about the Swim at http://sandpoint.org/longbridgeswim/.


August 5, Tuesday, for location and time send email
SANDPOINT IN TRANSITION (presentation/workshop)
This event is an introduction to the transition movement, including
- history and background
- the 12 step process
- discussion of the transition model- its success and examples
- tips for sharing this with others
- the Sandpoint Transition Initiative
- transition resource materials
- how to get involved
and more. If you want to help creating a sustainable, resilient and vibrant community, if you are interested in actively working on making Sandpoint independent from fossil fuels, reduce carbon emissions, tackle a host of related issues, build a local economy and community, take care of our environment and each other, bring health to social systems and people and want to get involved, please let me know and I send you the event details, including location, time, etc.


August 22, Friday, 7 PM, Gardenia Center
"THE POWER OF COMMUNITY" (Movie and discussion)
Due to many requests we are showing this movie again, followed by a discussion.
This movie shows how Cuba, an isolated island nation, rebuilt its quality of life following the collapse of cheap oil, supplied by the former Soviet Union. This fascinating and empowering film shows how communities pulled together, created solutions, and ultimately thrived in spite of their decreased dependence on imported energy. This film is an inspiring portrayal of a community coming together to make a difference. An interesting and unique story of how a group in the face of an immediate "power down" found and created community solutions to ensure and enhance their survival.


NOVEMBER 14, Friday, Panida
The Great Unleashing
The date for the Sandpoint Transition Initiative kick-off event has been moved to November 14th, 2008 at the Panida Theater. This gives us more time to prepare. We have developed the first draft schedule for a 2 1/2 hour evening event, featuring keynote address, music, multi-media presentation and video clip. Currently we are looking to find help for 5 areas - overall event, marketing and programming coordinators, facilities/production and finance coordinators.


July 12
The next day we showed at the Jerry Fest a video clip of Rob Hopkins presenting to the IFG conference, followed by discussion. This event is held every year in memory of Jerry Garcia. It brings music bands and all kinds of activity to the mountains. People can camp, there are yoga sessions, hang out places, paint arts, kids parade, fire dancing and many other activities. This was quite successful, even though it was hard to see the projected video on a sunny, bright beautiful afternoon in the forests and mountains.


July 11
We showed the movie "The End of Suburbia - Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream", which was followed by a discussion. This was done at a new venue. We thought it is good to try different places as this might bring different people. After a short introduction to STI, the movie played. Afterwards the discussion brought different ideas of what to do and some outlook how the transition movement has a positive vision, with real world examples in place and that we can make together a transition to a life not depdndent on fossil fuels.The most challenging part of this event was how to figure out how to connect the laptop that we used for playing and projecting to a sound system using XLR plugs. This movie has a strong peak oil message, be aware!


June 29
We had a booth, no actually a tent, at the Harmony Run event that was well frequented. We had our first brochure of STI available, as well as a copy of the front page article in the local newspaper, copies of the Kinsale 2021 report and the Transition Primer and invitation cards for the next event. The most attractive piece was the STI banner, hung up high on the tent's edge.


June 17
We showed the movie "The Power of Community" followed by a discussion. We had very little time as the summer opening times of the library ends at 7 PM. Before the movie started and people were still coming in we asked everyone to talk to someone, exploring the question: "What is one of your dreams". After the movie we had about 1/2 hour for discussion and invited everyone to continue outside. The room was packed, people applauded at the end, discussions continued for a while. Even weeks afterwards we heard about that people liked it and the ones that missed it wanted to borrow the video. So we are scheduling another showing.


June 9
Today a local TV station in Spokane interviewed and filmed Richard in regards to have been designated as the 2nd official Transition Initiative in the US.


June 8
A well written front page article in the local newspaper was published about the Sandpoint Transition Initiative, based on an interview we had 3 days earlier, announcing our designation as official transition town and giving a lot of background what this is all about.


June 7
A few days ago we had our 2nd Open Space Event. Everyone was invited to the topic "Outreach and Sustainability". About 45 people showed up and we had sessions ranging from how to connect with the community to using ethanol as a future fuel. The mayor as well as a city council person were participating.


May 7
We invited groups and organization to our 1st Open Space (OS) event to work on how we can work together to create a sustainable town. At one point we extended the invitation to some of our friends. About 30 people came and several weeks after we still heard about what excitement this created. Again, participants asked how they can help and how excited they are.


April 20
On Earthday, a local organization did a one day event. Richard did a half hour powerpoint presentation on Relocalization, to an audience of about 20 people. Several people expressed their interest and excitement to know more and get involved.


February 24
During the first transition initiative meeting in Richard's and Berta's home about 10 people listened to a power point presentation, with the invitation to come to the next meeting to form an initiating group. We started meeting roughly biweekly and since a while we meet once a week. Our core team is currently 7 people and usually 4 - 5 at each meeting. We set up a Google-Group to exchange emails and store documents, like meeting notes, resource lists, event planning, etc. We have been going from defining our vision and mission, how we work together and taking steps to become an official Transition Town to planning and holding events, reaching out to the public, media and groups.