Transition Network Newsletter: January 2008

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Transition Network Conference

11/13-April-2008, mark your diaries now.

Location: Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester

Timing: Friday lunchtime to Sunday lunchtime

Full details: All the current details on the conference are here. The content will be developing as we pull the programme together, so if you don't get your answer right away, come back in a while.

Transition Training

Bringing down the house with another great course!

Totnes transitioners and professional trainers Sophy Banks and Naresh Giangrande continue the drive to educate the early adopters of the transition model. They've now delivered three Transition Training 2-day courses, refining the material and delivery all the time - and there are more to come.

Nearly 60 participants from America to Birmingham have now attended the gruelling, and inspiring, sessions to learn how to broaden, deepen and accelerate the transition initiative in their locale.

Additionally, in their relentless efforts to tackle climate change deniers and peak oil sceptics, they've developed a new Transition Talk course that prepares people like you to give presentations about Peak Oil, Climate Change and the need for society to transition from a life of over-consumption to one that's in harmony with the needs of the planet, and indeed ourselves.

The scale of this effort is massive - 70 cities, 15,000 towns/villages and any number of smaller rural communities in the UK are going to have to undergo some kind of transition or energy descent. It'll either be proactive, or reactive.

Then there's the rest of the world...

These trainings are aiming to get as many communities as possible to become proactive in tackling energy descent. The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation is a major supporter of these efforts - hearty thanks to them for their vision and commitment!

New Transition Initiatives

Congrats and kudos to this pioneering band setting forth on their transition journeys. Each one of them is 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.)

Last newsletter there were 4 more communities to add. This time there's 10! No, actually it's 11 - another New Zealand community snuck in at the last moment. No, it's 12 - Dunbar from Scotland just sent in their response to the criteria and are now part of the tribe.

West Kirby, England

  • Wiki link to West Kirby
  • All about West Kirby
  • Population is around 12,000
  • Has spawned more than its fair share of luvvies, with Glenda Jackson (famous as an MP that broke ranks over the Iraq "war") and Daniel Craig (buffissimo in Casino Royale)

Llandeilo, Wales

  • Wiki link to Llandeilo
  • All about Llandeilo
  • The first of the Welsh Transition Initiatives, with others to follow...
  • Once printed its own currency as part of the network of the Welsh
  • "Bank of the Black Ox", a bank so stable that it had at times a higher credit rating than the Bank of England. Apparently became the "Bank of the Black Horse", aka Lloyds Bank, now LloydsTSB. The Bank's first offices were in a pub in Llandovery - make of that what you will!

Bro Ddyfi, Wales

  • Wiki link to Bro Ddyfi
  • The second of the Welsh official transition initiatiives
  • The Bro Ddyfi area covers the Powys part of the Dyfi Valley, consisting of the four wards, Machynlleth, Cadfarch, Llanbrynmair and Glantwymyn
  • And just to illustrate what relocalisation means in Wales, here's that sentence (and a bit more) in the local language:
  • Mae ardal Cymunedau yn Gyntaf Bro Ddyfi yn cynnwys y rhan honno o Bowys sydd yn Nyffryn Dyfi, sef wardiau Machynlleth,
  • Cadfarch, Llanbrynmair a Glantwymyn. Mae'n unigryw yng Nghymru am ei bod yn digwydd gofalu am yn union yr un ardal â Fforwm Strategaeth Gymuned Leol - sefydliad yr ydym yn cydweithio'n agos ag ef er mwyn osgoi dryswch a dyblygiad.

Whitstable, England

  • Wiki link to Whitstable
  • All about Whitstable
  • Population 30,000
  • In a rare show of early resilience, there's a windfarm off the coast of Whitstable consisting of 30 wind turbines, each 140 metres (459 ft) high, providing enough electricity to power 70,000 households
  • The town is criss-crossed by numerous small alleys, once used by fishermen to reach the beach. "Squeeze Gut Alley", through which most people have to walk sideways due to its narrowness, is one of the more notable.
  • Whitstable is the oyster capital of South East England - they enjoy rhythmical hermaphroditism, the scandalous ability to change sex repeatedly throughout their lives. That's the oysters rather than the locals, natch.
  • Has the craziest looking set of sea forts I've ever seen, possibly an inspiration for those mechanical beasts that shot the hell out of Luke Skywalker in one of those interminable Star Wars movies. Possible site for tidal or wave based renewables???

Marsden & Slaithwaite, England

  • Marsden's townsfolks are great fans of Spring. At one point in their history: ""Many years ago the people of Marsden were aware that when the cuckoo arrived, so did the Spring and sunshine. They tried to keep Spring forever, by building a tower around the Cuckoo. Unfortunately, as the last stones were about to be laid, away flew the cuckoo. If only they'd built the tower one layer higher. As the legend says, it "were nobbut just wun course too low."
  • Two communities linked by canal and the unbreakable bond of their Yorkshire heritage
  • Slaithwaite's resilient population was infamous for its enterprising exploits: "Legend has it that local smugglers caught by the excise men tried to explain their nocturnal activities as 'raking the moon from the canal' and definitely not as 'fishing out smuggled brandy'. A "Moonraker" is now the official nickname for a native of the village"

Frome, England

  • Population 24,000
  • Pronounced "froom"
  • Has a massive annual ten-day Festival, starting the first Friday in July. Heartily recommended.
  • Continuing the luvvie theme, Miss Moneypenny hailed from Frome. Her Bond history is the perfect experience of the downside of a peak, starting at the top with the inestimable Connery, down through the lacklustre Lazenby to the buffoonery of Moore. Sigh.

Brampton, England

  • Sustainable Brampton has been up and running since 2004, recognising early the unsustainability of current western industrial lifestyles
  • Wiki link to Brampton
  • Population 4,000
  • Market town in Cumbria, just 2 miles south of Hadrian's Wall
  • This wall was built by Hadrian (actually his slaves) around AD122 to prevent the marauding Scots from, well, marauding.
  • The 80-mile long fortification is a perfect example of "eco/resilient building", where local materials were used, providing work opportunities for local people and strengthening the local economy. Further employment as a proxy empire force kept the local people reasonably wealthy.
  • The last points were particularly interesting for Hadrian, whose tax collectors needed plenty denarii to finance his architectural extravagances. Hadrian was famous for his beard and judging from his portly statue (which was probably slimmed down in the ancient equivalent of airbrushing), may have trouble negotiating the narrows in Whitstable.

Dunbar, Scotland

  • Population 6,400
  • There's something very resilient about the Scots, and following my December tour of ten towns/cities/villages up there, it became clear that the level of connection within their communities and their sense of place is way in excess of what remains in many places in England. Bodes well for them...
  • During my visit I was blown away by Dunbar's levels of commitment to sustainability and knowledge about climate change and resource depletion.
  • Dunbar is the birthplace of the wonderful John Muir, one of the first modern western ecologists, and a true lover of wilderness places

Isle of Wight, England

  • The first Transition Island! It's a puzzle - will it be easier to transition an island or harder by comparison to the mainland? The islanders' connection to place will be very strong and that's an advantage. The sense of potential isolation given the distance from the land (just 3 miles) and the fact that the Isle of Wight ferry is, mile for mile, the most expensive boat ride in the world gives pause for thought...
  • Can we infer anything from the battery of cannons pointing at the mainland?
  • In 2005, perhaps with a bit of over-enthusiasm, Northern Petroleum began exploratory drilling for oil on the island. However, having found nothing but sand and dinosaur bones, they ceased operations in October that year.
  • The economic future of the island could go either way. Perhaps if peak oil drives a huge reduction in foreign holidays, the Isle of Wight, with it's excellent beaches and top climate may win out...

Waiheke Island, New Zealand

  • What can we say? Transition Network is barely out of nappies and here's the first New Zealand community to join the Transition tribe. Kudos, congrats and "kia ora" to all involved over there.
  • All about the island
  • Population 8,000
  • Wiki link to Transition Waiheke Island
  • Waiheke could teach us a lot about resilient homes - "each house on the island must maintain its own water supply, most collecting rainwater in cisterns, and must install a septic tank and septic field to handle sewerage."
  • They've done well on waste too - "the community established a charitable trust which bid on the City's contract for solid waste disposal. After winning the bid, it was implemented with such success that the recycling centre soon had to be expanded to handle the volumes."
  • And as for food, get this - "the Growing Healthy Communities (GHC) project aims to increase the knowledge and practical experience of growing food among young people and includes the setting up of edible gardens at all three Waiheke schools."

Orewa, New Zealand

  • All about Orewa
  • Population 6,000
  • In their core group of 6, they have a collective 110 years of living in Orewa. That'll make sure the team has a great sense of place, is well connected to the fabric of the community and is likely to create a very inclusive initiative
  • Lots of permaculture experience, which is always good to see
  • If you search YouTube for Orewa, amid the college fistfights, Taekwondo bouts, street dancing and skateboarding wipeouts, you'll find 6 great videos of Richard Heinberg during his visit over there. Recommended.
  • Most famous export is punk band, Mint Chicks. In reality, neither female, nor minty. But great music, if you like that kind of thing.



Phew, with the rate now increasing to about one per week, who knows how many there'll be by the next time this newsletter hauls its creaking butt off the keyboard and into cyberspace. We're at 34 now, with the international dimension expanding yet again...

Notable new "Mullers"

Originally, if you wanted the Transition Initiatives Primer, you'd have to email me. All such emails would find their way onto the Mullers' Maps. However, sheer volume was turning me into a bottleneck (yet again) so we made the primer available for direct download and asked you to email us if you wanted to get onto the maps.

For this reason, the rate of increase has slowed down - for now... Still, there have been some interesting additions from Germany, Czech Republic, France, Holland, and even Switzerland. And judging by our web stats, it's only a matter of time before we get some interest from the Pacific Rim. Actually, with Rob's book just having sold Korean rights, that might happen rather abruptly.

Transition Network new recruit

Just a couple of weeks ago, Jo Coish started as our new Office Manager to help build an organisation that's worthy of the communities who are heading off on the transition journey.

She's a staunch environmentalist with a great cv, but Rob and I had to break her out of prison to get her - where she was employed, as opposed to incarcerated. Her experience there with raging psychopaths will stand her in good stead as she tries to kick our butts into shape.

Welcome to Jo - many of you will see her at the 2008 Conference.

New content for Transition Network

Rob's book - the Transition Handbook

If you thought the Primer was important reading, then the Transition Handbook is a "stop what you're doing, find a comfy chair and a large packet of biscuits and apologise to everyone you live with for ignoring them for the next two days" kind of book.

If you've read any of Rob's blog then you'll be very familiar with the accessible style, gentle wit, oodles of common sense, visionary thinking and sound practical advice.

We've arranged bulk discounts for Transition Initiatives (mullers and official). It's going to retail at £12.95, but to you it'll be:

  • 5-9 copies @ £9.00 per copy post free to UK (over 30% discount)
  • 10-49 copies @ £7.50 post free to UK (over 40% discount)
  • 50+ @ £6.00 post free to UK (over 50% discount)

Free shipping doesn't apply to:

  • orders from abroad
  • non-bulk purchase

so you'll need to talk to Greenbooks about that.

You can order from the Green Books offices by phone on 01803 863260 or by sending them an email.


Transition Presentation

It's the one wot I give at awareness raising meetings, available for download here. Click on the link and select "Save", and save the ppt to an easy spot (like your desktop).


Getting your community off plastic bags

There's an astonishing movie called Message in the Waves that'll make painfully aware of the awful consequences on marine and bird life of using plastic. You'll want eradicate all plastic from your life and possibly kick off a community project to do the same for everyone else. Getting rid of plastic bags is a fine first step, but only if it's on the pathway to resilience building. This movie is downloadable from our high volume server, but you'll need to email me to get the link and password.

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

... and ready to take action on.

The Private Members Planning and Energy Bill is designed both to protect the Merton Rule and enact the provisions of the Caton Bill. This bill has been taken up by Michael Fallon MP in the 2007 Private Members’ Ballot. It will enable local planning authorities to set requirements for clean energy generation and energy efficiency in local plans (and prevent the developers from diluting them).

The vote is 25-Jan-08, so there's not much time. Please send an email to your MP [surname] [first letter of first name]@parliament.uk (eg Anthony Steen is steena AT parliament.uk) and ask them to support this bill.

Thanks!

Funding news

This is a section that we'll develop over time.

We'll put news of other successful bids here. If you have spectacular success, or failure, that you'd like to share, send us an email about it.

In the meantime, a survey will be going out shortly to everyone on our database requesting your views on the best way for you to interact and share these stories while we're figuring out the longer term software options to ensure people can network along geographical and specialty lines and access a knowledge database.

Seaton success

Seaton has recently had success with a bid they put into the National Association for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (NAAONB). Their website is here. The funding requests that the grant is matched, so it's not all plain sailing...

Big Lottery "local food" fund - joint bids from Transition Initiatives

Transition Network, Nick Weir and f3 along with multiple transition initiatives have produced a draft application for a juicy £50million fund for local food.

The bid is in the process of being finalised. If you'd like further information, please send us an email.

Community Development fund looking for projects

We're in discussions with an organisation currently seeking development funding and pilot projects for social and environmental community initiatives. This Community Interest Company will be raising funds from private and institutional investors to invest in local projects that significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build economic and energy resilience at a community level. Income is generated from project revenues and from the sale of voluntary carbon credits (note: not offsetting through the CDM) and the majority of profits will be used to reinvest in further community projects, education and communications programs and research.

The fund is already evaluating pilot projects such as:

  • residential, commercial and government buildings energy efficiency programmes across a whole borough including insulation, low-energy bulbs, solar heating and smart metering
  • localised distributed energy generation projects where technologies like gasification can generate clean green heat and power from municipal and agricultural waste

The organisation is inviting Transition Initiatives (either official or mulling) to submit ideas for potential pilot schemes that:

  • are of a reasonable scale (i.e. across a parish, town, or borough)
  • demonstrably show emissions reductions and generate revenues as a social enterprise
  • involve local government and commerce
  • be able to attract public sector funding
  • be at a stage of planning where full capitalisation is required in the near future.

If your community has a project that you feel will qualify then please email your ideas to us.

Education funding opportunity - joint bids from Transition Initiatives

Lynn Burke from TTT Education group has spotted a potential goldmine at the Esmee Fairbairn "New Approaches to Learning" fund. She's already in contact with the Brixton crew and is interested if anyone else would like to participate.

The bid deadlines are March and June. If you'd like further information, please send her an email.

Community Development Foundation – £130m Grassroots Grants Scheme

Adrienne Campbell from TTLewes brought this to our attention:

The Cabinet Office recently unveiled the name of a new, multi-million pound funding programme to boost local community organisations with much-needed access to small grants and long-term financing. It also announced the appointment of the Community Development Foundation as its lead national partner in delivering the scheme.
'Grassroots Grants' will launch shortly with £130 million available from 2008-2011 to strengthen the community sector. It will be divided into two parts: an £80 million small grants fund for community organisations; and a groundbreaking £50 million endowments programme to enable local foundations to generate additional donations from the private sector on a matched basis and invest them in endowments, thereby building their capacity to provide long-term funding for frontline community organisations.
The Community Development Foundation (CDF) will open an application process in January to identify and appoint local funders who will deliver Grassroots Grants locally. Applications will be invited by April with further details of the process and the programme to be confirmed in February.

Partners' corner - Schumacher college

Tackling Climate Change at Home (7/11-April)

Transition Network works very closely with Schumacher College. There's an interesting course entitled Tackling Climate Change at Home coming up and we've arranged a £250 reduction in fees for a limited number of places for those involved in a Transition Initiative (even if it's at an embryonic stage).

Here's a quick summary:

Participants will learn from leading UK experts (Peter Harper - Head of Research and Innovation at the Centre for Alternative Technology, Julia Hailes - Author of The New Green Consumer Guide, Alastair Sawday - Publisher and author of Special Places to Stay series) about the fields of sustainable energy and water usage, green consumerism and socially responsible travel and tourism. Discussions between participants and course teachers will help the group to understand the challenges, choices and practicalities of changing ingrained habits. Schumacher College itself aims to model a sustainable lifestyle and you’ll be able to contribute to this on-going project and share in the lessons we have learnt.
Dates: 7/11-April-2007

On a personal note, the college made a massive contribution to my own journey into this transition role. Getting Gaia'ed by Stephan Harding was a highlight, as was the "Life beyond Oil" course I attended in 2006. Something happens to people when they attend a course at Schumacher. There seems to be a significant ecological shift inside and nothing's quite the same again.

Please email me directly if you want to pursue this.

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