Pitch Up Pitch In
Our first Pitch Up Pitch In night will be Tuesday 28th November at 7.30pm at the Friends Meeting House in Jesus Lane. Come and hear our four pioneering project pitchers and be inspired to pitch in yourself (or to pitch up next time).
Solar Power Push (Peter Pope)
In the UK 25% of our energy use is in transport - mostly oil. Lets generate energy from our rooftops and enjoy clean electric mobility.
A sustainable bike rack for Empty Common Community Garden
We need a bike rack
The walls for the compost loo are recycled doors
Empty Common Community Garden is a delightful hotch-potch of flowers, fruit and veg, bees and bats, frogs and all sorts. But we have nowhere to park our bikes safely! So now we want to build one. Can you help?
In line with previous projects it needs to be made of sustainable materials, ideally recycled - like the old doors we used to make the walls for the compost toilet.
You are also welcome to help in the garden in other ways.
Aquaponics (Casandra Villava and Emyr James)
Casandra and Emyr have built an aquaponics system in their greenhouse. This is a method of combining fish keeping with growing plants whereby the fish waste (ammonia) is transformed into nitrates by bacteria that colonise the growbeds. The fish feed the plants and the plants clean the water for the fish.
The mechanics and chemistry are working OK but there is still scope for improvement. Also they would like volunteers to help with trying different plants, or possibly adding some monitoring with a raspberry pi. With suitable land it could be scaled up to something useful for the community.
A social media workshop/learning group (Jacky Sutton-Adam)
Calling all budding citizen reporters! Transition Cambridge has a fortnightly bulletin, a Twitter and Facebook account and a blog.. and some great news and photos opportunities! Shall we set up a social media workshop or learning group for members who want to learn how to do social media and comms? We have a contact from a nearby transition group who is willing to come to Cambridge and share her knowledge and experience.
This could be a one-off event or 3-4 learning sessions using TC media opportunities as learning material. We could cover anything from simple SM tasks to learning and developing interview and reporting techniques, sound photographic and video reporting.
Who would like to take part?
What is Pitch UP Pitch In?
An opportunity to pitch in
At each Pitch Up Pitch In evening you will hear from four projects that need your help - four ways to promote Transition Cambridge ideals, making Cambridge a more sustainable and resilient, community. They are pitching for support from you: your time, energy, skills, possibly some cash. If you decide to pitch in you will be doing good for Cambridge and developing your own skills and experience. Will you?
An opportunity to pitch up
If you have a project in mind that you think Transition people could help with, here is an opportunity to make a pitch for support and help to make it happen. You will have 10-15 minutes to explain your idea and answer questions - please allow at least 5 minutes for questions. You can speak on your own or with others, as you prefer. You can have slides if you want. We suggest that you concentrate on:
- What is the project and why you want to do it.
- What sort of help you need to make it happen.
- What will be the first steps.
You may have it all planned out or it may be a bit vague. What matters is that you think its a great idea and you are prepared to commit some time and energy to make happen.
But you won't be on your own. Experienced TC hub people will be on hand as well as your new volunteers to set your project going.
If you have an idea you would like to pitch at a subsequent event, contact Nicola.
Event format
Four project pitches (total 1 hour) followed by 30 minutes facilitated discussion groups - one for each project. So people interested in that project can get together and discuss further. (Possibly with tea and cake).
Projects
All projects will be consistent with TC aims. Beyond that they could be completely new, something that other Transition groups have done, or a revival or development of something that we have done before. It could be a one-off event, a series of events, a small project or a big project.