Transition Network Newsletter: August 2007

August 2007 Newsletter links

Transition Training

This is the start of something big.

70 cities, 15,000 towns/villages and any number of smaller rural communities in the UK are going to have undergo a Transition. It'll either be proactive, or reactive. I don't really want to think what reactive powerdown might look like - proactive will be challenging enough.

Dates

A key part of the proactive approach will involve early training. And here are the first dates for the pilots:

  • 21 to 22-Sep-07 (Friday and Saturday) - Totnes
  • 19 to 20-Oct-07 (Friday and Saturday) - Totnes
  • 2 to 3-Nov-07 (Friday and Saturday) - Bristol (provisional)

We're holding the first two in Totnes in the new Transition Network offices.

Later in the year and beyond, we'll be looking for clusters of transitioning communities where it makes sense for the trainers to make the journey to you. For example, we've already provisionally set up a third session in Bristol in early November.

Numbers

There's room for only 16 at this stage for the courses in Totnes. We'll expand that in time. Bristol numbers depends on level of interest and how well the Totnes sessions go.

If numbers are tight and we have more than 2 applying from a single community, we'll probably pass it back to the steering groups to decide who attends.

Content

The training will be a full-on 2 days' worth of critical skill building that you can take back to your own community, enabling you to accelerate, broaden and deepen your transition initiative.

The content is being finalised right now, but expect it to cover a lot of the following:

  • setting up
    • setting up the structure
    • funding/finance
    • IT infrastructure
  • working effectively
    • project management
    • presentation skills
    • running productive meetings
    • conflict resolution
    • dealing with the media
  • transitioning
    • raising awareness on Peak Oil and Climate Change
    • personal transition, societal transformation
    • 12 steps to Transition
    • Energy Descent Action planning
    • working with local government
    • skilling up for power down – eco building, energy efficiency, micro renewables, insulation, repairing, food production, permaculture, food preservation, forest gardening
    • oil vulnerability auditing for local businesses
    • setting up a local currency
    • the wider context (C&C, TEQs)

Some of you may shortly receive calls from Naresh Giangrande or Sophy Banks as they refine the content.

Costs

We're cutting the costs to the bone and aiming for £95 for the two days. If you can't afford the £95, then perhaps others in your group can make up the shortfall. For those of you who don't want/can't afford the local B&Bs, we'll do our best to find space in our homes.

Future developments

Beyond this, we'll need to train up a veritable army of trainers. Fast.

At least 15,000 communities need this type of training, and soon.

Who can attend

  • we want to keep this as open as possible, while recognising that existing official transition groups are able to take this learning back and put it to immediate use in their current active projects
  • we recommend that two individuals from each community attends - that way the knowledge is shared and there isn't just one person with "the knowledge"
  • if more than two apply from a single community, we'll probably rely on the steering group to select the final attendees

How to register

  • by 5-Sep-07, email me to register your group's interest and the names of the individuals likely to attend
  • it won't be a "first come first served" selection - we'll use criteria that balance out the mix of people and keep it fresh, based on size, geography, how long you've been going, official/unofficial Transition Initiatives
  • once we've selected the attendees, we'll send out confirmations
  • we'll follow up with full course details and joining instructions closer to the date

New offices

They're big, they're bright, they're central and they're ours.

Transition Network and Transition Town Totnes are moving in together - we'll soon to be fighting over biscuits and the last (herbal) teabag at 43 Fore Street, Totnes, Devon, TQ9 5HN.

Office opens officially 4-Sep-07.

I get my living room back, Rob's bookcases can breathe a sigh of relief.

Special thanks to the Tudor Trust for helping make it all possible.

New Transition Initiatives

Congrats and kudos to this pioneering band setting forth on their transition journeys. Each one of them at the cutting edge of social transformation. If you need to get in contact with any of them, let me know. (Full list of official Transition Initiatives here.)

Lostwithiel, Cornwall, UK

  • population 2,800
  • used to be the capital of Cornwall
  • very competitive - in May the town participates in a competition with neighbouring villages. Each town/village erects a large pole and the other villages try to steal them. A kind of "capture the flag" game, where you take the flagpole as well.
  • parking's free in the town... mmm, sounds a bit too car friendly to me...
  • a salutory tale about polution: ironically, tin, the source of the town's wealth, gradually caused its decline. Rubble, carried down by tributaries of the Fowey River from the mines on the moors, silted up the river, preventing big ships from reaching the quay.
  • has a golf course... perfect for food production in extremis once the herbicides have leached out :¬)

Forest of Dean, Gloucester, UK

  • a catalysing hub of transition for the Forest of Dean. Adopting an approach similar to Bristol, encouraging, inspiring and supporting transition initiatives across the area.
  • nifty website here.
  • may have a unique solution to local energy production: from wikipedia "Interestingly, Edward I granted the powers that allowed those born in the Forest to mine coal freely. There were, and are still, a number of small private mines in operation". Clean coal with carbon sequestration, naturally...?
  • the first place to hold a Transition meeting in a cave!

Nottingham, UK

  • population of 278,000
  • in Anglo-Saxon times the site fell under the rule of a Saxon chieftain named Snot, and named "Snotingaham" literally, "the homestead of Snot's people". The word shifted to "Nottingham", because the French were unable to pronounce the "sn".
  • residents of the slums rioted in 1831, in protest against the Duke of Newcastle's opposition to the Reform Act 1832, setting fire to his residence, Nottingham Castle.
  • the city has more manmade caves than anywhere else in the country and this whole cave network has Scheduled Ancient Monument protection equal to that of Stonehenge.
  • Nottingham is progressively changing from an industrial city to one based largely in the service sector. Tourism - particularly from the United States and the Far East - is becoming an increasingly significant part of the local economy. (Eeek - post peak air travel alert!!)

Wrington, Somerset, UK

  • population 3,100
  • an organic farm - looks tasty
  • running an interesting project in the local school, insulating it with straw bales. The classroom, once completed, will be the first of its kind to refurbish the existing classroom using this innovative design coupled with traditional building materials. The second classroom on site, which has remained un-altered, will act as a comparison for energy use in school science and geography projects.
  • recently got a bit wet!

Notable new "Mullers"

23 new ones in the last 2 weeks! Official list of "mullers" here.

In this emergent field of communities eager to transition, I'm never failed to be surprised at how fast things move. It was only a couple of months ago that I started exchanging emails with someone from Hungerford. And this week I hear that five groups from West Berks have already formed an alliance and intend to support eachother on this journey. Kudos to Thatcham, Newbury, Hungerford, Lambourne, and Kintbury for making the connections that will create additional resilience beyond their own immediate locality.

We've also heard from a community in Israel, Spain and two from Canada. And Asheville, NC in the US wants to become a fully fledged "Transition Town".

Twinning, anyone?

Gis a job, mister

The Transition Network will be soon advertising for an Office Manager to keep Rob and Ben in line.

Applicants will need extreme reserves of diplomacy to handle the prima donna egos, and plenty of resilience to keep the edges of chaos that we're dealing with from encroaching too far into the administrative hub.

Experience of herding cats in a carwash may be advantageous.

New content on Transition Network website

13-Aug-07, Radio interview: David Strahan on peak oil

One of the best interviews on Peak Oil that I've encountered involves David Strahan talking to Electric Politics. However, typically the mp3 files of radio interviews contain loads of puff at the start and the end and can be peppered with monologues about local issues, traffic news etc. So I've tidied up the mp3 file to keep just to the relevant material - just click on the link above.

11-Aug-07, Radio Programme: BBC Radio Scotland on Transitions

BBC Radio Scotland recently sent a crew to Totnes to find out more about TTT (Transition Town Totnes) and Transition Network. The programme was broadcast on 6-Aug-07 and unfortunately the BBC Radio only keeps their "listen again" links for a week on their website. But don't worry, the link above is to an mp3 I made of the programme. It's outstanding, full of excellent soundbites, healthy scepticism and inspiring phone-ins.

7-Aug-07, Article: Quantifying the leaky bucket economy

Just like buckets, local economies don't need to be leaky. It's only when you get your calculator out that you realise just how massive a difference you can make to a local economy with your purchasing decisions. In this short article, we compare the effects of money spent in local businesses vs those spent in national chain stores.
The assumption is that for a local business, 80% gets ploughed back in the local economy, whereas for a national chain, only 20% of the money spent gets recycled locally.
After just 4 transactions, guess what the difference is. 4 times? 10 times? 50 times? Not even warm - take a look and then get out your Totnes pounds.

1-Aug-07, Article: Peak Oil & Dentistry

A couple of months ago I met a dentist who had websurfed unexpectedly into the Peak Oil phenomenon (I shun the word "theory", since that language implies it's an academic discussion rather than a geologically observable feature). It had hit him squarely between the eyes and he was visibly reeling.
I let him know he wasn't alone in being concerned about it. We speculated on potential consequences and I gently drew him back from the edge of doomsterism. He agreed to respond to a set of questions I was busily formulating in my head (later posted on ODAC).
Shortly afterwards, an email from another dentist arrived with his own responses to the questions. I put their two responses together in what seems to be the first Peak Oil & Dentistry discussion on the internet. Grab your toothbrush and take a look.

This month's "something to get you pissed off "...

... and ready to take action on.

It's us vs the developers.

Monday's Guardian has reported that, in response to pressure from the House Builders Federation, the Government plans to ban the "Merton Rule" and other local authority regulations that set higher sustainable constructions and renewable energy targets than (the somewhat derisory) UK standards.

More than 150 local authorities have either introduced or are about to introduce the "Merton Rule", which requires any new building to reduce its carbon emissions by 10% through the use of renewables.

Take this opportunity to show solidarity with your local authority and call upon them to protest at this attempt to remove their rights in the interest of big business. Contact listing here.

Transition Initiatives Primer

Now up to version 21a with 22 waiting in the wings. For those who want to know what's changed, there's a section at the front called "Significant Changes".

Every coupla days...

... something happens that blows me away by showing just how smart, connected and determined people can be in this emergent transition movement.

A short while ago, I heard from a journalist who wanted to write a piece on transition initiatives. He's Peak Oil aware and felt drawn to the doomsterish end of the response continuum - he liked transition towns because they'll help everyone flee from the cities.

Alarm bells started ringing. The Transition model is about transforming the place you're in and making it work, not running away. We believe that cities are viable (well, maybe not Las Vegas), and Bristol, Brixton, Nottingham and others (eg Portland in the US) are showing us how that can be achieved.

So, together we drew back from the abyss of complete urban breakdown (this week's theme!) and contemplated other, more socially cooperative options. The piece was reconceived and rewritten.

Now, I'm never sure with journos - will the final article reflect this new viable Transition City angle... or will the dark side of doomsterism make its seductive presence felt again? But in this case I'm very relaxed. Here's why. In the last couple of days the journalist has become an "official muller", trying to figure out the best scope of a transition initiative in his own community. So, whimsical editorship willing, I expect you'll be able to read something particularly inspiring in the Sunday Times next weekend.

And let's face it, we can never get enough inspiration.