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: 

7 August 2010 - 10:30am - 12:00pm St Lawrence Parish Room, Colebrook St, Winchester, SO23 9LH

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. 

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Themes:  Energy

 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.

27 July 2010 - 6:30pm - 8:30pm Hyde Tavern, Hyde St, Winchester SO23 7DY

"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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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:-

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Winchester Green Party is fighting to get the first Green Councillor in Hampshire elected.   Although we did not win in the St Bartholomew Ward this time (Winchester City Council election), we took 12 per cent of the vote, the highest for the Green Party anywhere in Hampshire, and more than double our vote share last year.   We are really grateful if – against the electoral odds – you entrusted us with your precious vote. We aim to ensure your trust is justified.   Like you, many people are concerned about the degree of inequality in Winchester. Our precious City is being ruined by traffic congestion, pollution, over-crowding and noise. Winchester’s climate change emissions are the worst of any city in the UK – we are at the bottom of the league. This District’s emissions average 8.4 tonnes per person per year – the highest in Hampshire.   Only the Green Party is radical enough to get to the root causes of these problems. Support for Winchester Green Party has been steadily rising since we first stood in 2007.

 

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.  

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.

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11 November 2010 - 5:30pm - 9:30pm Central Winchester - exact location to be confirmed

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.

Themes:  Business & Economics

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.

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:

17 July 2010 - 11:00am - 4:00pm Guildhall Square, Portsmouth PO1 2AB‎ and Victoria Park, Portsmouth

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.

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.

 

...

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

...

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.

Major organisations in the Winchester District have pledged to reduce their carbon footprints in a pioneering local declaration on climate change. 20:12, the campaign to cut the carbon footprint of Winchester by 20% by the end of 2012, was set up by Winchester District Strategic Partnership, and is led by Winchester City Council and Winchester Action on Climate Change.   The first wave of organisations to sign up included the University of Winchester, Winchester Area Community Action, Winchester City Council and Winchester College. Winchester and Eastleigh HealthCare Trust is already working to a NHS scheme for carbon footprint reduction, but as a local public service organisation it has the same goals as the Winchester Declaration and has also signed. Since the launch, DC Leisure has also signed up. DC Leisure is the Council's partner which runs the River Park Leisure Centre. The latest to sign is Colden Common School.
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.

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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:

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Themes:  Heart & Soul

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)...