June 2012 – Transition Network Newsletter
By Mike Grenville 31st May 2012
NETWORK NEWS & NEWS FROM THE NETWORK
May Round-up of What’s Happening out in the World of Transition
News from Spain, Brazil, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, France, Germany, Latvia
and in the UK we visit Cornwall, Devon, Essex, London, Sussex, Wiltshire.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/news/2012-05-30/may-round-what-s-happening-out-world-transition
May Round-up – US Edition
http://transitionus.org/stories/may-round-whats-happening-world-transition-us-edition-2012
The May Podcast
A Transition School, a Sustainable Seaweed Skills and bashing giant bees in Tooting!
This month’s podcast goes into more depth on three of the stories from the April round-up of what’s happening in Transition.
We hear from the High School Joan Segura i Valls in Santa Coloma de Queralt (in Catalonia, Spain) who have just completed a big project about Transition, from Transition Oamaru and Waitaki District in New Zealand about their Sustainable Skills School, and we hear from Tooting about their Treasuring Tooting event
The podcast can be embeded on your own website, and is also available on iTunes.
http://transitionculture.org/2012/05/24/its-the-may-podcast-a-transition-school-a-sustainable-seaweed-skills-and-bashing-giant-bees-in-tooting/
Put the Local back into Local Enterprise Partnerships
There is a third story to sit alongside austerity and growth in the debates that are raging both nationally and internationally about where we go from here.
http://transitionculture.org/2012/05/28/why-we-need-to-put-the-local-back-into-local-enterprise-partnerships/
GET INVOLVED
Transition Free Press – Going Live!
A taster edition, a blueprint of how the new Transition paper will look, and the kinds of subjects we will cover every quarter – news with comment and context, features and reviews is going live today. We hope Transition Free Press will become a flourishing national newspaper for the Transition Movement. there is a whole new narrative out there, the happening story of Transition you might not see covered by mainstream media. That’s the story we’re aiming to tell. See it online here and order a print copy.
http://transitionfreepress.org/2012/05/31/welcome-to-our-preview-edition/
REconomy Project Website Goes Live
The new website provides the latest tools and resources that can help you build a local economy where you live.
http://www.reconomyproject.org/?p=3420
The Transition Streets Challenge launch
Around 80 people attended the Transition Newcastle fun launch of Transition Streets.
http://sustainingcommunity.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/transition-streets-challenge-launch/
Growing Communities seeks social entrepreneurs
Interested in setting up a not-for-profit business to bring more sustainable food to your community?
A workshop on the 4th July in Hackney will explain how to get involved.
Register your interest by Friday 15 June
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/news/2012-05-15/growing-communities-seeks-social-entrepreneurs
VOLUNTEER REQUIRED – Support for Transition Initiatives
We are in the process of developing a new regional support structure for Transition Initiatives that will enable Transition Training to work more closely with Transition Initiatives across the UK and help them through their various stages of growth. A key element in the preparation of this will be to update our existing database, with the aim to establish a main contact within each Transition Initiative. A volunteer is required to research the contact information on the Transition Initiatives’ websites and to initiate a first contact via email and/or phone. We estimate that a minimum of 10-15 hours per week over 1 month are needed to complete this task. The volunteer will need to be comfortable with researching content on the internet and have very good Microsoft office and Excel skills. If you are interested or would like to have more information,
please email Kat Balassa katharinabalassa@transitionnetwork.org
or call 05601 531882 (Tuesday-Thursday).
SOCIAL REPORTERS
TRANSITION TRAINING
Transition Training: the Trainer
The work they are doing is valuable and contributing to their locality’s resilience and sustainability, but is it Transition?
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/ann-owen/2012-05/transition-training-trainer
The New Economy begins at home
Hosting Training For Transition, making donuts, and bringing the New Economy home
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/guest-blogger/2012-05/organiser-hosting-training-transition-making-donuts-and-bringing-new
The Unitiated: Making it up as you go along
The problem with hindsight is you can’t go back and change things!
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/kerry-lane/2012-05/unitiated-making-it-you-go-along
INGREDIENTS AND TOOLS (DEEPENING)
When the Experiment Fails
Because we live in a culture of success celebrating failure is perhaps the least understood ingredient in the Transition Companion.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/charlotte-du-cann/2012-05/when-experiment-fails
Watching the Signs
How a simple sign can be a vital practical manifestation.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/mark-watson/2012-05/watching-signs
Applying the Recipe
Looking at the ingredients of Deepening applied to Transition iniative in Omagh.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/marella-fyffe/2012-05/applying-recipe
Personal Resilience
Creating personal resilience requires practice.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/jay-tompt/2012-05/personal-resilience
CHOCOLATE OR THE THINGS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT
Chocolate – something we should really do without?
The everyday substance we call chocolate is compromising, whichever way you look at it.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/caroline-jackson/2012-05/chocolate-something-we-should-really-do-without
A Naked Look At My Shower
My wonderful hot shower is actually part of a complex system whose workings I really have no clue about.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/guest-blogger/2012-05/naked-look-my-shower
Home, Sweet Home
Maybe most people in the UK feel that “things surely won’t get that bad here” or maybe homelessness is such a scary topic that we’d rather not dwell on it.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/ann-owen/2012-05/home-sweet-home
TRANSITION FACE TO FACE: THE INTERVIEW
Brief Encounter
The art of interviewing in search of a new narrative.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/charlotte-du-cann/2012-05/brief-encounter
A Chance Is Enough
The most influential Transitioner in Scotland interviewed
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/guest-blogger/2012-05/chance-enough
NEWS STORIES
Keeping Shop – A Day in the Life of a Transition Enterprise
The Tooting Transition Shop which opened for 9 days with great fanfare ‘sells nothing’, but ‘has lots on offer.’
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/guest-blogger/2012-05/keeping-shop-day-life-transition-enterprise
OTHER TRANSITION STORIES
Lights Out for the Territory
Being amongst the people in another spirit is the new territory.
http://transitionnorwich.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/lights-out-for-territory.html
Walking with Weeds
One of a series of Sustainable Bungay’s Plants for Life talks, walks and workshops on the theme of Plants as Medicine.
http://transitionnorwich.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/walking-with-weeds.html
What is Inner Transition? Why do we need it?
In this chapter of the book “Vital Signs”, an anthology of Ecopsychology writing, Hilary Prentice gives an overview of the territory of what started in Totnes as the “Heart and Soul” group, now known as Inner Transition.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/resources/overview-inner-transition
See also
http://transitionheart.ning.com/
RESOURCES
Guide to Sharing
It explores four Action Ideas to help communities share more:
Organize a Community Swap – with a focus on clothing swaps
Lend Locally – with a focus on tool libraries
Share Time, Labor, and Skills – with a focus on time banks
Set up a Co-op – with a focus on solar co-ops
http://www.newdream.org/programs/collaborative-communities/community-action-kit
Free tools to help communities become zero carbon
Users can model the outcomes of different energy retrofit strategies on building stock in an area. It can be used for projects of any size, from one building to a whole town or city.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/news/2012-05-15/free-tools-help-communities-become-zero-carbon
Top 11 Peak Energy FAQs
Richard Heinberg’s answers to the Top 11 FAQs he gets asked when he’s out on the road. http://www.postcarbon.org/article/827909-top-11-faqs
YOU ARE HERE: The Oil Journey Presentation
http://www.postcarbon.org/article/632881-you-are-here-the-oil-journey
Peak Oil and Transition in 2 minutes – Its Time You Knew
A short silent video ideal for your stand at exhibitions and festivals
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/resources/peak-oil-and-transition-2-minutes-its-time-you-knew
BOOKS
Dark Mountain issue 3
The latest edition will be back from the printer in early August. You can help fund the book by pre-ordering your copy.
http://dark-mountain.net/uncategorized/dark-mountain-3-between-the-covers/
Review: The End of Growth – Jeff Rubin
http://energybulletin.net/stories/2012-05-26/review-jeff-rubin-end-growth-capilano-university-vancouver-24052012
COMING UP
The Nationwide ‘Festival of Transition’ – till 20th June
Coordinated by nef (the new economics foundation) and the Transition Network, has begun, running until 20th June, the first day of the 20th UN Earth Summit in Rio. Instead of flying to Brazil, the Festival gives people the opportunity to do something positive about climate change and the economic crisis in their own communities. The Festival is a unique mixture of walks, talks and a DIY day of action on 20th June. It combines a series of organised events at festivals, museums and institutions around the country with an open invitation to schools, workplaces and community groups to stage their own ‘real-life experiments’ in living differently on 20th June.
http://www.festivaloftransition.net/
7 Graces Global Conference
22-24th June
Can We Heal Humanity and the Planet by Changing the Way We Sell?
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/events/2012-06-22/7-graces-global-conference-london-and-online-live-stream
Ecology, Scarcity and The Gift Economy
15-19 July Schumacher College
Led by Charles Eisenstein and Toni Spencer, in this course you will build and embody a vision of a planet guided by new myths and stories that reflect cutting-edge understandings in science and economics.
http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/courses/ecology-scarcity-and-the-gift-economy
Evenings with Charles Eisenstein in the UK
London 19th July 7 pm
https://www.facebook.com/AnEveningWithCharlesEisenstein
Schumacher College 17th July 8pm
http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/community/open-evening-charles-eisenstein-money-and-the-crisis-of-civilisation
Dark Mountain Festival 17-19 August
http://www.uncivilisation.co.uk/
The 2012 Transition Network conference
14-16th September, Battersea Arts Centre in London
More events here
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/events
TRAINING
Transition THRIVE course – the training for people in established Transition groups- last days to book!
This training looks at the typical challenges TIs can face after their start-up phase and includes practical ideas on how to maintain momentum; engage a broader range of people; fund activity; help establish a localised economy; and communicate well within the group.
16-17 June – in the heart of Totnes
Trainers: Naresh Giangrande (Transition Totnes and Transition Network training’s co-founder) and Mandy Dean (Senior lecturer at Bath University and member of Transition Bath)
Costs: We are trying out a new financing model for the Thrive Training, inspired by the “Gift Economy” and Transition Portugal. So all we ask for is a payment of £40 prior to the course. The actual full costs of the training weekend is around £105 (depending on number of participants), but we leave it up to each participant to decide after the course, if and how much they want to contribute to this course as a way of gratitude and support of its continuity in the future.
Contact: If you’d like to book a place, have any questions or bursary enquiries or can’t make June but would like to do the next Thrive training contact training@transitionnetwork.org
Want to know more about “Transition THRIVE” and if it is you?
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/events/2012-06-16/transitionthrive
Click here to see all upcoming Transition Training courses.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/events/network-training
Two NEW Transition training announcements for the US!
Transition US is looking for more Transition LAUNCH trainers and will be offering a Train the Trainers course this summer in Chicago, IL! Plus we are offering a new advanced Transition training course: Transition THRIVE! Coming to the U.S. for the first time this July! Both trainings will be delivered by Transition Network co-founder Naresh Giangrande and Transition Heart & Soul originator Sophy Banks from the UK.
The 4-day “Train the Trainer” course is the second one to ever be offered in the US. We anticipate a great turnout with leaders from various parts of the country and some from other countries. Training dates: July 12-15, 2012, Chicago, IL
More info here: http://transitionus.org/event/transition-thrive-training-chicago-il
Also announcing a special opportunity for all Transition leaders to attend the first ever Transition THRIVE!
An advanced workshop to boost one’s Transition Initiative to the next level. Participants will explore how to sustain momentum, build in economic components and learn new tools they to deepen into the process. Training Dates: July 18-19, 2012, Chicago, IL More info here: http://transitionus.org/event/train-trainer-chicago-july-2012
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“When your life might depend on your next door neighbour, rudeness becomes an unaffordable luxury.”
Jason Heppenstall
http://22billionenergyslaves.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/natures-revenge.html
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http://www.transitionnetwork.org/tags/transition-network-newsletter
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http://www.transitionnetwork.org/news/2012-05-31/june-2012-transition-network-newsletter
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This newsletter is published on the first Friday of each month.
Newsletter Editor: Mike Grenville,
from Transition Forest Row for the Transition Network
Contact: mgrenville@gmail.com
+44 (0)7974 924289