News from i-JK sites
Portrait pattern of an initiative
Our Rob has been very busy thinking about the next Transition Handbook and how to communicate Transition between ourselves and others. His thoughts have lead him to seeing and talking about Transition as a 'Pattern Language'. He ran several workshops on the topic at the conference (workshop recordings here), put all the patterns up for comment, and got some sound feedback.
We will soon have a new online directory for the patterns which will enable Rob and Helen (who is doing lots of research into them) to share their thoughts and invite Transitioners to offer comments, suggest projects, images and more.
In the meantime, you can't keep a good idea down, nor a passionate movement quiet (not that anyone would want to). Ideas seed themselves and spread, rooting themselves in the different experiences and cultures of initiatives, taking on different forms and working in different ways.
Sustainable Bungay have been thinking a lot about how the Patterns overlap with their world and have written a wonderful piece which they have kindly agreed to let us copy; lock, stock and barrel - thanks all - here it is:
Low carbon food - bring and buy, share ideas and a picnic
The next WinACC open meeting has the theme of Low Carbon Food, and will include a bring and buy stall of home-grown produce and a picnic lunch afterwards in Abbey Gardens (unless it rains).
We want to share ideas about low carbon food, share allotment or garden surpluses, and build links across WinACC supporters with an interest in food. All welcome - a good chance to meet new people who share your interest in food.
People Powered Renewable Co-op
If you are one of those people who want to go renewable, but are not sure how to go about it, Transition Maidenhead may have the answer. The group has set up a co-op to help people navigate the minefield of renewable technologies and take advantage of new Government legislation which rewards householders for going solar. And you can raise much needed funds for your Transition Town at the same time. Cindy Barnes, one of The Smart Energy Co-op’s founders, explains how it works.
GinACC - the WinACC pub night
"GinACC", WinACC informal drinks and chat for anyone interested, on 27 July at the Hyde Tavern, Winchester SO23 7DY from 6.30pm. Probably the last we'll organise, so your last chance if you've been meaning to come.
New toolkits for the Refugee and Migrant sector
We have published with the support of the Baring Foundation 3 toolkits to support our work with the refugee and migrant sector on climate change. These focus on issues of forced migration, the challenges of climate change to refugee organisations as well as offer a practical guide for reducing your office carbon footprint.
For more information and downloads click here
Volunteer training internship
We are looking for a part-time, voluntary intern to join our team. The training internship will involve varied work from event management to supporting the development of new training courses. This will involve a high level of input into staff meetings and decision making. The voluntary internship is part time – 3 days per week, for a period of 3-4 months subject to availability.
Too many car park spaces in Winchester?
A report of a survey by a WinACC Transport Group member of car parking in central Winchester shows that the car parks were far from full on all three days.
"Change at the City Council - fresh air or hot air?"
Kelsie Learney, Leader of Winchester City Council, spoke at the WinACC open meeting on Saturday 3 July. She set out what the new Cabinet plans to do to cut Winchester's carbon footprint. WinACC members and supporters were encouraged by her clear commitment to creating a low carbon Winchester where we want to live, and appreciated her honesty about the hard decisions that the Council's Cabinet will have to take to manage the cut in Council finances. A detailed account follows:-
Thank you!
You can rely on us to stand again in 2011, and we hope you will continue to give us your support.
In the meantime, keep an eye on our website and join the Winchester Green Supporters e-list. Come along to our regular monthly meetings held on the first Wednesday of the month, 7.30-9.30pm, Hyde Tavern, Hyde Street, Winchester.Councils must prepare for a heatwave
Temperature exceeded 31°C last weekend with warning from the Met Office that hot evenings pose risks to people with underlying health problems. These temperatures extremes will be more likely with a changing climate. Local democracy think thank, the LGiU, is encouraging councillors to help communities and their councils to better prepare and adapt to these changes. Whether it is high temperatures or flooding, adapting to climate change is a local issue.
How organisations cut their own carbon footprint
This will be an opportunity for organisations in Winchester district to showcase their achievements in cutting their carbon footprint, and for organisations which want to do more to learn from each other. Exact times and programme still being planned. If you want to know more, or have ideas to offer or achievements to describe, email richard.boothman@winacc.org.uk. Sponsorship opportunities for this conference will be available. If you are interested in helping WinACC to meet the costs of staging this flagship event and gaining some worthwhile publicity, please also email Richard.
Transition Training and Consulting - working with the National Trust
Transition Training and Consulting (TTandC) is the part of the Transition Network specifically designed to engage with businesses and organisations in our communities, and deliver transition-related training and consulting services. Run as a social enterprise, any profits go to support the work of the Transition Network.
This is the first of a regular series of updates from TTandC. It aims primarily to keep transition folk posted about the work we are doing, the services we are developing, opportunities to help, and upcoming training sessions if you wish to join us.
Transition 2010 - an all island gathering
Alex and the Transition Ireland and Northern Ireland crew are putting on the first all island gathering on the 13/14/15 August. It's shaping up to be quite an event in a lovely venue so we recommend taking a look at the website for more information - here's some of the blurb:
Portsmouth Green Fair
Environemtal and fun-filled fair with lots of stalls, workshops and entertainment. "Bundles of Free fun for all the family!" For more information visit the Portsmouth Climate Action Network website here.
Transition Network conference 2010 round up
The Transition Network conference 2010 was absolutely fantastic. That may sound a bit biased, but it really was, honestly!
This year we did what we could to record as much of it as possible so that it could be shared as widely as possible. There were films, interviews, flip chart sheets, reflections (around the world), infamous lectures, news items and more.
Here follows a list of links to these various items as a 'signpost' for future reference - if something is missing, please email Ed and he will add it or point you towards it.
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Announcing the new forums
Ta da! We are proud to announce the (gentle) opening of our new forums.
We have had these up our sleeves for a while now, but things being what they are, bugs being bugs, conferences happening, houses moving, and other excitements, we've had to wait a while to get these out into the light.
Our all new forums are now ready to use and generally enjoy. We have not set up one forum for every single theme and topic under the sun as this doesn't work, so we've set up a couple up and have our ears open for requests for new forums.
They are a big leap form our old forums in a number of ways including:
- Integrated into the Transition site with the newsletter etc.
- Linked to your personal profile
This means that you can:
- Receive email alerts when people respond to your posts (weyhey!)
- Find out more about other posters by clicking on their profile links and contact them directly
- Follow other posters so you can see all their posts
- Be a forum moderator/facilitator if you want to
- ... and more
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Bee Green
Interesting example of workplace blog, with interesting articles and good tips on ways to be more more green from recycling batteries to the vegetables to plant this time of year. To see the Bee Green website click here.
Winchester leads the way towards a low carbon society
The Winchester Declaration on Climate Change gives organisations of all types, including businesses, charities and the public sector, the opportunity to pledge to reduce their carbon emissions by 20% by 2012. For more information about climate change, how you can make changes, or to pledge to reduce your emissions, click HERE.
Winchester 20:20 vision
We need a vision of Winchester in 2020 as a sustainable city where people like to live and work. WinACC would like to develop the practical and affordable themes from the event, ’24 hours to save Winchester’'. The themes picked out by our Transport Group included:
Inside view of the Transition Conference
From Sophy Banks
If you’ve had enough of the Transition Conference at Seale Hayne – sorry! I’ve written this for those interested in the process of designing and running the event, particularly because what happened gave such an opportunity to explore what happens when something shocking lands in our communities and really shakes people up.
In this post I’ll talk about what I’ve learnt – in particular how key it is to be able to marry the practical, outer, doing side of Transition, the factual knowledge of what’s happening, the ability to express and hold strong feelings, and then to reflect and make a deeper meaning from what’s happened.
Holding this conference became a powerful job of weaving together these different qualities and skills in a frame of mutual respect and trust, with an amazing group of over three hundred people who brought all the different elements that were needed.
(sophy at the conference)...