From oil dependence to local resilience

Starting a Transition Town initiative

Here are a few pointers for anyone who is thinking about starting a Transition initiative. After you have read this, take some actions and ask some questions...

First you will need to gather a few people to work with, who will help lead the process through the first few steps. It's great if you can identify people who have contacts in the area - ie people who know people, and ones who represent different skills and interests.
You might invite them to a screening of a film - there are several good ones listed in the Transition Initiatives Primer - see attached. The Primer, as well as being an very good outline of the process and development of a Transition Town initiative, gives a list of films and describes the screening rights are for each one. This first event can be a screening on a TV at yours or someone else's home. Offering a bit of food and some refreshments will entice people to come.
I highly recommend also showing Rob Hopkins presentations on Transition Towns on the same night. There are three clips showing him speaking to the International Forum on Globalisation. They total 18 mins, and are very inspiring. You can watch them here as Youtube clips, or I can send you a CD with these and the Primer on it.
The Transition Handbook is an awesome resource, if you don't yet have a copy, I recommend you get one. Here are the instructions for getting a copy from the NZ distributor - Helen Dew of Living Economies.
The 12 Steps, 7 But's, and The Criteria (for formalising a Transition Initiative) are also very helpful and can both be found on the sidebar of the NZ site for the Transition Network, at www.transitiontowns.org.nz. There is also a summary version of these, you can download here (see below).

Take action, and ask questions. This will help others who come after you.

Kia Kaha and have fun!

Tags: first, initiative, start, steps, town, transition