Transition Town, where to next...form or fold?

In May 2009 a small group of Transition minded people formed as a Steering Group to promote the development of a Transition Initiative around Coal Point and surrounding areas.

Since then the group's activities have been mainly focused on raising community awareness about the twin challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change, via

• Organising a formal "Transition Towns" training event
• Supporting or participating in relevant community events such as Sustainable House day (2009) National tree Day (2009) and Lake Macquarie Living Smart festival (2010)
• Running a movie festival (~10 movie screenings from Nov 09 to Oct 10)

Formally, the steering group is a subcommittee of the Progress Association and with the Association's major event of the year,The Art & Craft Show opening on the evening of Friday 26 November at 7.30pm,and running through to 2pm on Sunday 28th, at Progress Hall, the opportunity to gather some thoughts whilst the community was gathering was too much to resist. 

This event provides a fantastic opportunity to further promote the transition initiative, and at the same time survey community opinions on what changes people here would like to see, and would be willing to support.

During the Art Show there will be a display and discussion area with resources for people to browse and someone to talk to. All interested peole will be invited to share their opinions on what initiatives they would support or prioritise using a "dotmocracy" process. Plus, anyone who wants to be more actively involved will be invited to form a working group.

On Sunday 28 November at 11am at the Hall there will be a meeting of everyone who wants to actively pursue some specific aspect of the Transition model and is interested in getting together with others to work as a group.If you are ready to act on one or more topics please come to the "kick-off" meeting, you can have a look at the Art & Craft too.

What's a Working Group?

Working groups form around an area of interest to a few people, for example, if you want to progress home energy efficiency, be it solar water, solar power, wind power, energy efficienct appliances etc we can find other like minds and work together on a project.

At the Sunday meeting people will nominate the specific topics they want to work on, and those with the same interest will take the next steps - whatever they are! So please come prepared with ideas, enthusiasm or both.

At this meeting the Coal Point Transition Towns initiative will either form some working groups, or fold due to lack of interest.


IDEAS BANK

The steering group's strategy has been to follow (however roughly!) the Transition Initiatives Primer, published by the Transition Towns organisation www.transitiontowns.org.

The overall goal is to stimulate and coordinate community level actions to decrease dependence on fossil fuels and promote overall sustainability in the community. What we would like to see is the emergence of active groups leading by example and helping to shape the evolution of our community into a (more) sustainable society, in areas such as:

• promoting local food / minimising food-miles
• garden sharing
• community gardens
• making public land productive ("Veges on the Verges" etc)
• promoting solar hot water
• promoting solar and wind power (could we be self sufficient?)
• energy efficiency in the home/at work
• promoting low energy transport options, such as walking bus" to get kids to school
• cycling
• making it easier / safer to walk (in preference to driving)
• develop a shared vision of what our local communities could be.

Hoping to see you on the 28^th , 26^th or 27^th

Dates for Doing

March
Thursday 18th from 9.30am Toronto Garden Club- Scout Hall
21-27th Seniors Week

April 
12th 7pm Annual General Meeting of Coal Point Progress Association.

Landcaring  every Thursday
March the Carey Bay Wetlands
April is Gurranba
May Burnage
June Threlkeld
July Laycock St
August Stansfield Reserves

Transition Town Movie Festival
April 16th Friday- 6-9.30pm
May 8th- Saturday Noon-4.30pm
June 19th Sunday 11am-4.00pm-
July 15th Friday 6-9pm
August 13th Saturday Noon-5pm
September 18th Sunday 11-4.30pm

Transition Town Titbits

The Coal Point Transition Steering Group has been busy of late. The group hosted a 2-day training workshop recently in which 12 ‘transitioners’ came together to learn more about the Transition Town Movement and the tools and techniques that have made this international positive movement the success it is.

There were sessions on the various transition tools such as ‘Open Space Technology’- a way of gathering community input on various questions that the community wants answers to, Conversation Café- a process for gathering ideas and actions on a specific topic, Visioning-a way of defining how the community will look, feel, and build resilience to the twin challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change, and information sharing. activities that go way beyond a lecture format and are interactive, fun and empowering.

The other aspect to this weekend was meeting and catching up with others who have been working within their communities on Transition Initiatives. There were people from Foster and Taree who were thinking how to start the process, folk from Maitland about to mobilise the masses, Newcastle Transition Towners getting reinvigorated and six members from the Coal Point group who now have a greater understanding of the Transition model and how it all works.

Sincerest thanks to the Trainers Bob Thomas and Sandra Menteith who came from the Bowral Transition group-Climate Action Wingecarribee, recently famous for the Bundy On Tap triumph which has all the community supporting a no-bottled water policy within the town of Bundanoon.

Gracious thanks also to Chris & Libby Walters for hosting the event at their home.

What’s On Locally In February

Monday 1st: Progress Committee meeting 7-9pm at Hall
Monday 8th :Transition Steering Group 4-6pm at Hall
Monday 15th:Fit n Trim Challenge starts– Hype Fitness
Thursday 18th :Toronto Garden Club,10am Scout Hall
Wednesday 24th: Landcare-Where to now– 4.30-6.30pm Landcare Office
Thursday 25th -Landcare for Youth,4-5.30pm Landcare Office 
Saturday 27th and -Sunday 28th Transition Town Training—venue to be confirmed.
Tuesday 9th March Lake Macquarie Landcare Network AGM  4.30-6.30 at the Landcare Office

Transition Town Steering Group update

The Coal Point Transition Town Steering Group (CPTTSG) has been meeting regularly and been planning a year of activity focussing on awareness raising  through a series of movies & speaker sessions and culminating at the end of the year in a Live More Use Less Festival to be held locally in Gurranba Reserve and at the Hall.

In February the group is hosting a Transition Training workshop on 27th -28th February. The trainers are from the Bowral Transition group, made famous for their stance on excluding bottled water from Bundanoon, the Bundy on Tap campaign.

The training covers the context for transition, an overview of the 12 principals of Transition, visioning, awareness raising, the initiating group, the psychology of change, open space technology, Joanna Macy activities and transition networks. It is an inspiring session and people from Transition Town Newcastle are also coming along.

The cost for the 2 days of training is $50, or $30 conc. Morning/Afternoon tea and lunch are provided. Email cppatransition@gmail.com for more information. Places are limited.

Apologies for those awaiting the film festival extravaganza in January, it was decided mid December that many people would not be around so instead there’ll be regular movies shown over the upcoming months.

What’s on in December

• Transition Town Steering Group Strategic Planning session Sunday 6th 9am-1pm– 23 Whitelock Street 
•  Monthly meeting of the Progress AssociationMonday 7th 7-9pm,Progress Hall, 197 Skye Point Rd 
• Landcare- Stansfield Reserves –Thursday 3rd  with LRO Green Team volunteers at  the end of Stansfield Close 
• Landcare Christmas Party—Thursday 17th  at 11am, Landcare Resource Office, Toronto Road Teralba
  

Coal Point Transition Town Steering Group

The Transition Town Steering group will be having a strategic planning session on Sunday 6th December, 9am-1pm at 23 Whitelock Street, Ian's place.

This meeting is to determine an awareness raising program for 2010, have a look at the skill set of the group, consider the meeting times and look at how we communicate our message to the rest of the community.

All interested people are welcome to attend but there is a catch, you need to have read the Transition Town Primer , http://www.transitiontowns.org/TransitionNetwork/Primer  so that we all have the same understanding of the process and what the big picture goals are, i.e how to create a locally resilient community to address the twin challenges of peak oil and climate change.

The In Transition-the movie screening held in early November was a successful and exciting 1st event for the group. Twenty-four people found out a bit more about the Transition movement, a few more people have joined the growing group, and a super supper was supplied courtesy of Bakers Delight

Transition Initiatives- What are they and how do you do one?

Have you been wondering what The Transition Movement is all about? The Steering group has as well and have come up with some goals for the group.

• To raise the awareness of people who live in the area about Peak Oil and Climate change,and
• to get some local initiatives happening and to increase the numbers in the steering group.

The way the group is going to go about this is through a series of film and discussion sessions.

The first film is ‘In Transition-the Movie’, 49 minutes of positive pleasure about how communities all around the world are taking on the challenge to move towards a more resilient community and happier lifestyle.

The discussion after the film will be a question and answer session with members of the local Steering Group about the Transition Town movement and what the local group gets up to.

In Transition-the movie will be shown on Saturday 7th  November at 7pm at Progress Hall, 197 Skye Point Road, Coal Point. Entry is free and supper will be available.

The next meeting of the Steering group will be on Monday 21st November where we discover the wonders of Permaculture at one of the member’s homes. If you’re interested in coming along contact Di on 49 705 695