2011 Planning Meeting

This meeting took place at Jade's house on 10th January 2011, and was open to everyone and advertised in the bulletin. The following people attended: Stephanie Ferguson, Jade Cawthray, Pippa Vine, Ceri Galloway, Penny Hall, Katie Earnshaw, Rowan Wiley, Iain Webb, Bev Sedley, Dave Jackson, Anna McIvor, Helen Holmes, Liz Serocold, Ivan Ivanovic and James T.

These notes are exactly what was written on the flipchart sheets - they are intended as reminders and guidelines, rather than a definite statement of what we are going to do! They include a little bit about the process, in case anyone would like to try this process themselves (it took about 1 hour 15 minutes). With many thanks to Jade for hosting, to Rowan for helping type in these notes, and to everyone who attended and contributed to these ideas.

The meeting - what we did and the notes we made

Following quick introductions, we started by doing a quick brainstorm on "What is Transition Cambridge about?"

Here are the words that people suggested: community action / building, positive change, reducing oil/ fossil fuel dependence, reducing climate change, reducing consumerism, culture building, awareness raising, participating in change, fun, resilience, "changing because we want to before we have to", education, promoting particular values, localisation of everything, skill share, networking with similar minds, closing the loop, healing society, sustainable resources, supporting each other/neighbourhood/community.

Next we brainstormed our achievements so far (left column) followed by what we want to do next (discussed first in pairs, then summarised in the right column) - the idea here was to be very "blue sky" in our thinking - what would we like to do next if we could do everything we wanted to.

Achievements so farWhat next?
enjoyable eventswidening participation - more and varied people getting involved
we exist!a nice presentation - more talks at WI, schools - taking the message outside our comfort zone (e.g. big supermarkets)
large e-bulletin mail-out (1500 people)one big focus thing (like the plastic bag free campaign but not that, e.g. recycled loo roll in public places and pubs)
built this community of people here tonightmore culture building (ie permaculture) amongst people in transition
grow some of our own foodtangible physical change (e.g. solar panels, growing spaces) i.e. physical manifestations of what transition is about
energy outreach eventsown companies/social enterprises
built wind turbineskills register
lots of stalls and awareness raising eventsbuilding local communities
focusing on localisationraising profile with the council
we're solventstarting an energy descent action plan
we have an officeadaptable/flexible - communication; taking topical opportunities as they arise; non-repetitive in our message; changing/variety
the garden share schemeworking more with children
the story writing competitionthinking ahead / planning events in advance with city wide initiatives e.g. science festival - getting more savy about what's going on and how we can fit in with it
the growzones eventssupporting each other to become more resilitn within our own group - leading by example
we often have several events a weeknobody burning out
starting CASFA (Cambridge Sustainable Food Alliance)people actively participating
we've received several grantsenjoyable fun events
 open space - more open in general

Following this we split up into topic/activity groups (usually 2 or 3s) to think about what we are actually going to do this year towards these goals. Before the meeting started, everyone had filled in the following year planner with the activities they already knew about (in black). Then in this discussion, the question was, "What else is needed (or is this enough)?" (bearing in mind that some groups are already very active and don't need to plan anything more). We then came back together to add to the year planner (new ideas in blue).

Finally, we did a quick brainstorm on the gaps between what we would ideally like to do (the blue sky thinking from earlier) and what we are actually planning to. These gaps also included things that we hadn't mentioned yet but need to talk about for this coming year. The gaps we identified were:

  • presentations + training on giving the presentation + preparation of other resources and materials, also for stalls
  • the energy descent action plan
  • promotions?
  • Strawberry Fair
  • awareness raising
  • active component -> that will bring about real change in Cambridge - need a day conference on this with one member of each group to think about this
  • making ways into getting involved with Transition clearer (not group meetings!)
  • linking everything up (the BIG PICTURE) - joining the dots (e.g. peak oil implications) -> increase the power of the brand
  • council - talk to them - new policies
  • small businesses
  • collaboration / leaving some things so that we've got time to concentrate on doing a few things really well
  • widening participation - people with time on hands - local volunteering web-site - need someone to coordinate volunteers

Some of these will be linked up by the 'Top Secret Event' (2050 Simulation) - in particular this should link lots of parts of transition together, be a practical manifestation, be great for awareness raising and promoting what we do, be very active with wide participation, bring a lot of new people in, engage with local businesses, and be a physical version of an energy descent action plan. Other things are in the pipeline (e.g. a mini-conference on setting up transition-related social enterprises).

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