March 30th, 2009 by admin

March 30, 2009

Elevator Speech – Went over some ways of giving a short description of what Transition is all about. One strategy is to start with Climate change and Peak Oil. Explain Peak Oil, talk to the transition plan and finish up with a vision of a better place. CC + Peak Oil – transition plan – Vision of Better Place

Event Planning/logistics – Make sure we capture names, e-mail addresses & areas of interest. Bring sign in book. Need to be able to tell folks what we are doing next. What’s our next event. Discussed on what format this will look like. Share our NINg site, transitionus.org & next event. John to look into a movie possibility at the screening room. This needs more work/discussion. Niall to connect with Alexas on movie screening plans. Elizabeth to check on financials of the End of Surburbia.

Food Plan/availability – Discussion around the need to know what NBPT can supply for itself in terms of food. Elizabeth mentioned She might have the Victory gardens information.

Technical Review/ Dry run – Possible times are 12PM – 2:30 PM or 7 PM. John is bringing an audio technician.

minutes

March 23rd, 2009 by admin

March 23, 2009

Logo – Agreed that we should have a Transition Newburyport Logo. Something that is simple yet captures the spirit of Newburyport. John to look into this. Agreed to go with proposed logo. This can be modified at a future date if needed.

Flyers – Flyers to go out April 1st. Important to limit the amount of paper distributed but posting in key locations is a must for publicity. John and Ben to action this? Flyer looks awesome. Add Economic Instability and correct spelling mistakes.

Plan for April 22nd presentation – Agreed to split the presentation into four sections. Ben to be the host and do introductions. Niall to cover the CC and PO section. John to cover the transition piece. Elizabeth to handle introduction of Q&A section and the closing. Elizabeth will get camera’s) from Port Media to film session. Niall to cover slides 1-40. John 42 – 72. Good source of information is the live Webinars that Mid West Permaculture does.

Meeting presentation format – We want April 22nd to be an interactive event where we not only raise awareness but also build community. Let’s have some fun. Look at an interactive format such as attendees talking to someone they didn’t come in with before and after the presentation. Agreed. Meeting with Green community – It would be good to connect with the existing green leaders in the community in advance of April 22nd if possible. Possible date April 3rd. Niall to set up. See Calendar below.

Promotion – Agreed we will need a press release 2 weeks prior to April 22nd ~ April 8th. Elizabeth to pull draft press release together. Potential PR vehicles include; The Liberator, the Daily News, Newburyport News, blogs, Cable event guide + community sources. Reviewed PR event draft. Add economic instability and global nature of Transition movement. Wiki site – The goal is to have this in place in some format for April 22nd. Elizabeth to help Ben pull content together so Ben can focus on structure.

Additional IG members – We reviewed skill sets and in general felt that the existing team had the required skill sets. It was also discussed that given the large amount of work that additional members might make sense.

Celebrate that we are officially a transition town! See Calendar below.

Fund raising – Our main costs will be for printing initially. We don’t have good clarity on how we can tap into the non-profit status of the TransitionTownUS. Niall to follow up with Montpelier. No reply from Montpelier. Elizabeth to follow up with Transition US. Plus ask about information on awareness plan.

The Long View Radio show – Transition towns is a future topic on this show. It would be great if we were involved. Niall to follow up with the Long View hosts. Ben to organize capturing the stream from event. Niall to follow up with Ron on format

North Shore permaculture meet up & Peak Oil Meet up. The North shore permaculture group has a series of planned workshops on skill-building including Early Spring Foraging this Sunday the 29th at Green Meadows Farm. http://www.meetup.com/Northshore-Permaculture-Meetup-Group(http://www.meetup.com/)

Peak Oil meet-up – Greater Boston Peak Oil / Climate Change Meetup (http://oilawareness.meetup.com/312/)

Next meeting – The next meeting will be on March 30th at 7:15 at Niall’s house. The Agenda will be preparing for an elevator speech, discussion of state of preparedness for April 22nd, Peak Oil and Climate change review. Niall to send out address

New reading (http://transitionculture.org/wp-content/uploads/who_we_are_low.pdf)

minutes

March 3rd, 2009 by admin

March 3, 2009

A meeting of the initiating group of Transition Newburyport was held at 7:00PM at Jon Browns home at the old firehouse.

All present were: Elizabeth Marcus, Niall Robinson, John Brown, Ben Twombly

This being the first meeting of Transition Newburyport we spent the first hour and twenty minutes just getting to know each other. Each of us shared our story as to how we became interested in Transition Town, how we relate with it, and how we see Newburyport taking hold of it.

We then opened it up for general discussion as to how we thought we should move forward.

It was agreed that we wanted to obtain “OFFICIAL STATUS” as soon as possible. As a group we went through the Transition Initiative Response Form to insure that we were all on the same page, had read the book, understood peak oil and climate change, ect. Ben agreed to take care of the responsibility of filing for ‘official status’ and that everyone would provide him with a brief bio for the form. Jon raised the idea that we try and have our first Transition awareness presentation for Newburyport’s Earth Day Week Celebrations starting Wednesday, April 22. He has already reserved the date with the library. We agreed that it was a good idea, but that we would make our final decision to move forward with it at the next meeting on March 23, 2009. This would allow Jon and Niall to complete a training weekend in Vermont. Our intention is to develop an ambitious schedule of semi-monthly awareness events after our initial Earth Day Event and discussion that there is probably a greater need to raise awareness and understanding about the peak oil issue. The group decided it was important that we have a Transition Newburyport website up and running for the possible Earth Day presentation. We agreed we wanted to have a WIKI and use the transitionnetwork.org site for now and reconsider our own site in the future. Ben offered to contact the Transition Network and set up the site. Jon recommended we all watch the presentation on Transition Towns located at http://midwestpermaculture.com/TI-Presentation.php presented by Michael Brownlee, (founding Team Member of Transition Network US, Co-Founder of Transition Boulder,) by the next meeting and decide if that is what we want to show as our first public presentation and Q/A to the citizens of Newburyport. Jon also suggested we all take part in the free webinar offered two times a month from http://www.midwestpermaculture.com , that it would perhaps be a good thing to check out along with the free presentation. Niall brought up the idea that the four of us take a Team building training course. He recommended the ‘Heart First’ training offered by the Newburyport Leadership Institute. He also recommended we look at the Natural Step Framework for Sustainability at http://www.naturalstep.org Niall told us about the Basecamp site as a means of communication for online project management and asked us to take a look at it. As a group we decided that it was important to us that we maintain openness with the rest of the Transition Network. To achieve that we will communicate via the NING site for as much of our communication as possible so others can learn as we learn. Elizabeth recommended we subscribe to the Energy Bulletin provided in association with the Post Carbon Institute. The young one in the group didn’t know what “Return to Mayberry” meant, that was mentioned in a recent bulletin. Elizabeth and Ben urged Jon and Niall to start using RSS feeds because it is easier to keep up with information without having to go directly to the website all the time. We recognize that a lesson in how to use RSS feeds would be helpful seeing that many people are not too familiar with how to use them. Ben recommended we try and get the bookstores and the library to offer some of the books and DVDs that Transition Town has recommended. And get them to display in front of the stores.

The group shared the desire to be able to develop resources to offer the local business community to perform oil vulnerability audits.

It was recognized by the group that Newburyport is already rich with groups working on key issues of the transition movement; such as, food supply, alternative transportation, green buildings, buy local, etc. We will be learning how best to connect with these other groups and get them to integrate with this initiative.

Questions to raise at the Transition Training: “Security of the home” as a means to connect with individuals about the future and how Transition Town accomplishes that. What is meant by the “conflict of interest” question on the Response form? What thoughts exist in regards to seeking non-profit status? Should it be reserved for the Hubs? Thoughts? What’s the best way to get others to help the Initiating Group? What thoughts the trainers/attendees might have with Newburyport’s dependency on the surrounding towns for food and water? If Transition US is or becomes a non-profit … will our designation as an official transition initiative grant us non-profit status through them?

Links and Documents requested to be shared at meeting: Newburyport Earth Week Calendar (http://newburyportearthday.info/) Transition Town Sample Constitutions (http://transitiontowns.org/TransitionResources/TransitionResources) Transition Town Presentation by Michael Brownlee (http://midwestpermaculture.com/TI-Presentation.php) Post Petroleum Energy Bulletin (http://www.energybulletin.net/) Basecamp site (http://www.basecamphq.com/) Natural Step Framework (http://www.naturalstep.org/) “Resolution for Citizens Peaceful Energy Plan” co-created with Jon Brown in ‘98 (http://www.sunspiritgallery.com/energy.htm)

Meeting closed at 11:00pm.

minutes