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Transition Towns - Maitland.
Our aim is to empower ourselves and our community to deal creatively and positively with the environmental and social challenges that lie ahead. We will do this by first raising awareness of those challenges, which include climate change, peak oil and economic uncertainty, and then unleashing the collective genius of the community to come up with our own solutions.
Before the Second World War the lower Hunter Valley was a significant citrus growing area. Whilst the number of orchards has all but disappeared a large number of homes in the district have a citrus tree or two in the backyard. When this citrus becomes ready for picking, there is usually a bounty of fruit, often more than households can use. Transition Town Maitland is embarking on a ‘citrus drive’ to collect unwanted citrus in the Maitland area and put it to good use in the local community. Transition Towns is a movement that started in the UK and responds positively to the challenges of peak oil and climate change by building resilience in communities through reducing dependence on fossil fuels. We are non-profit, promote the use of bicycles and look to foster interdependence in the community through social events and exchange of ideas and unwanted items. If you have excess citrus fruit and are willing to donate it, we ask your permission to collect the fruit and put it to use in our community. We will come at a time suitable to you and clean up the fruit and around the trees. If you agree to be part of this we assure you that your privacy and property will be respected. We will take the fruit and distribute it in the community to those who may not have access to it. We plan to do this in several ways; by giving to charity, at farmers markets and by preserving some for use in the year to come (holding workshops on making jam and marmalade). We hope to build an ongoing relationship with you and to be in a position to purchase the fruit in the future.Please consider being part of this drive to collect the spare citrus in the Maitland area and feel free to ask questions you may have or make suggestions on how we can better fit with what your needs are from such a relationship. To register your interest or any enquiries please call Sarah - 49332601 or Kate - 49320443 or email Mark - info@purplepear.net.au
Reports.
February 2011 The new year brings new opportunity to transition Maitland to a resilient future. The table above will be filled in due course with the events of the group as they unfold with input from the members. Fixtures in the programme will be the monthly meetings and the bike awareness, and of course the knitting too. We will meet on the last Thursday of each month. The venue will alternate for the time being, between Cornerstone Cafe and Purple Pear Farm. Open Space discussions will take place at Cornerstone Cafe and Films will be shown at Purple Pear. This will continue untill neither venue can hold the crowds and we will find more a accomidating venue. Our first meeting is set for Thursday 24th February with a movie night at Purple Pear. 6.30 pm and bring something to share for supper. We will continue to meet outside Organic Feast on the last Saturday of each month for Bike Awareness with ongoing maintenance and conversation together with a short ride. Bring you bicycles and your kids and show that the bike is a genuine from of transport for the Maitland area. We meet from 9am to noon and remember get started when you get there because people who see you having fun will join in and remember to tell them about Transition Towns, take their details if they want more information. Everyone needs to be involved to help roll out this vital community development. 27th July 2010 At the Transition Town meeting of 27/10/10, a number of the TT-ers got together as scheduled to consider how we could improve the profile of Transition Towns in the Maitland LGA. The way forward?
Start with ourselves → Fix the message →Go forth and multiply
1. Start with ourselves (so that we can fix the message)
Schedule meetings at Purple Pear and Cornerstone Café for the time being (no fees plus more conducive to building the existing TT community) Ensure meetings provide a forum for TTers to share what they have been doing from month to month, their successes, challenges, bright ideas, learnings, experience, share advice coming from experience Include interesting guest speakers Month by month cover various aspects of transition for TT-ers so we become familiar with it, and knowledgeable. Have reskilling and new-skilling workshops, rejig them for repeats Share knowledge and food (meetings to be a food sharing opportunity, bring food to share) Share ideas and “how to” do sustainable things Start and maintain a calendar of events widely available to TTers and beyond Continue to be activity based Train speakers
Consider who TTers want to reach Solo people doing TT things in their own backyard Young families (go to schools, preschools, Maccas, supermarket etc) Groups Like minded groups Service groups Church groups Community groups Business groups Adolescents (go to Facebook!) Gardeners, bike riders, craftspeople, musical people Government – local, state, federal Businesses and Industry
27th July 2010Thank you to those people who came out last night to the meeting. Welcome to Stewart, Helen, David and Ros and thanks to Estrella, Louisa, Sarah and Vicky and Jo, who hepled Kate to get the night organized. It was great to see Cate and Danny who bring so much to the group each time.We were sorry to here that Jo was not well. The evening did not start well as the room seemed to be double booked and the dance group were expecting to continue but vacated in time for a 7.30 start. Estrella chaired the meeting and led us through reports on activities since the last gathering. Jo was not present and Mark gave a run down on the meeting with the Job Find people and also the visit to the meeting of Newcastle Transition Towns. Kate reported on the bike awareness and the involvement of Hunter LETS in future events. Kate also spoke about the skills audit and where it was leading the group and the need for participation of others - so if you recieved a sheet and have filled it in then get it back to us or at least tell us why you do not want to, so we know. And Kate filled us in on the Bike Awareness ride to Walka Water Works in October. Estrella spoke of things that had come to her attention like the climate change report by the state government (more info here) http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/climatechange/understanding.htm and items on Peak Oil in the Organic Gardening Magazine and called for news from others. Mark gave an overview on the permablitz guidelines including the form sent by Permaculture Hunter Region to be filled out by participants and the need to be part of a group of local people for ongoing support before the blitz team can get involved. We then went into "Open Space" discussion and took on the ambitious task of going with five topics. The outcomes were worth the effort as we went a long way towards solving the worlds problems - including working towards a Maitland free of plastic bags, a creative event involving the various community groups to showcase the talents out there, a spring festival with reskilling demonstrations, fire twirlers and much more, a speakers event for future meetings to bring information to the group on topics associated with our region, and a film night with a food festival featuring local produce to be held in November. Remember that the bike awarerness is to be held on Saturday 31st July. It is vital that this event gets well attended. We need you to be there to be numbers to build awareness of the group and also of the need to address peak oil and climate change in a positive way. Bring your bike and look like you are maintaining it, organize a ride in the area with your kids, sit and have coffee and talk about issues and direction that interests you, bring things to trade in LETS, (not a member? sign up on the day and start trading there and then), bring clothes you are no longer happy with and swap them with others for a wardrobe changeout, bring your boche balls and play on the lawn in the median, bring a skill and demonstrate it for others, do what ever you think is good. We need you to be inventive and take some lead in this thing and mostly we need you to be there. If you can't be there then let us know so we feel we are not flogging a dead horse and this is something people want or tell us what it is you need to be further convinced that this movement is worth you time. Try to not wait for things to happen but get in and make them happen. We have to tell everyone about transition towns and get all parts of the community involved or it is not going anywhere. The next meeting will be on Thursday 26th August so mark it in your diary and we will let you know details when we know.
10th July 2010Hello fellow transitioners. There is excitement in the air and things are happening all the time. Jo Yates, Kate and I had a nice meeting with a mutual obligation agency with regards to involving "work for the dole" participants in Transition towns. We discussed the pit falls of the scheme and worked on ways that people could be invloved. We have decided to get other agencies involved if possible and our new friends will approach Dept of Housing and such to advance the concept of taking permablitz into the back yards of community members accessing government services with a view to assisting them to be more resilient and independent of the welfare system. We also went to see the folks at TT Newcastle and participated in the "open space" discussion forum. This exciting excersise allows for anyone to nominate a topic for discussion and several of the topics are chosen for a series of tables and a revolving opportunity to be in on several discussions in turn. We will explain more when the time comes but be ready as it may happen soon so prepare a topic associated with community transitioning that you want to see discussed. The permablitz is advancing well too, with many requests for blitzes in many parts of town. The system rules are working themselves out with the need for interested people to get together a group in thier area and to have onboard a person with a Permaculture Design Certificate and at least one member of the Permaculture Hunter Region group (for insurance purposes) There will be people outside the local group to assist in the initial blitz but the group needs to be formed to ensure ongoing support for the members of the local group. Another idea is to start a group to look after people in the community that need a hand. This idea came from the work of Sarah who organized meals to be prepared for a person who had an illness in the house and the prepared meals allowed the family to concentrate on other things. With your help, and perhaps in association with existing groups such as "meals on wheels" and service clubs and church groups, we could start a register of those willing to help with those needing help - what do you think? At the last meeting we attempted to get an idea of the types of things the members knew of and the organizations people were involved in with a view to forging alliences within the community. We also talked of the need for a type of speakers beureau to bring the messsage of Transition Towns to the various groups who request more information on what it is all about. It is also important to get an idea of the skills on offer within the group ( especially after we had a journalist lurking amongst us). To facilitate this collection of data we circulated a form to fill out and I have attached the form so please fill it out and send it back or bring it to the next meeting. Speaking of the next meeting - are you aware that it is on Wednesday 21st July at 7.30 pm at theRutherford Community Centre? Bring your ideas and get ready to transition Maitland to a fabulous resisient community. The final format for the night will be discussed at a planning meeting to be held here at Purple Pear on 14th July at 6pm. If you wish to be involved in the planning, then let us know and we will fill you in on the details for the night. If you have ideas at any time you can contact us to voice you ideas in the now or just send me word that you have read the post and I am not pounding for no good reason. |
