Celebrating Amherst

The next Transition Amherst Council meeting happens this Thursday, January 17 at 44 Beston street in the home of Gabor Lukacs, from 7 to 9 PM.

The goal of the meeting is
1) To support and coordinate the work of all the working groups in
operation,
2) To support initiating further groups that have the goal to create a more resilient community, and
3) To connect people to people, resources and information.

We do that by discussing current activities, look for tried and functioning models, attempt to bring out people’s inspiration as well as providing emotional support for overcoming challenges.

Please see more about the working groups a href=”http://www.transitionamherst.org/blog/working-groups/”>here.

As inspiration, here is what other transition towns do to support working groups do the work:

http://transitionjoshuatree.org/get-involved/general-information/
http://transitiontownmedia.org/volunteer/working-groups/
http://www.growfoodamherst.org/
http://groups.drupal.org/transition-towns

And a short status report:

Transition Amherst started regular meetings in the spring of 2010 to
help the Amherst community be more resilient: transitioning to a lower
energy use, having more local resources, and being aware of challenges
we are facing and things we can do about them. In the process of this
we held

* Movie nights, seeing films about energy, food and transportation,
* Outings, to learn about the local resources we have
* Skill sharing workshops, to learn what we can provide for ourselves
and each other without much input from global corporations, and
* book discussion groups, to learn about the transition movement and
to get emotional support about the issues we are facing.

We also put together a web site, transitionamherst.org, and
co-sponsored a variety of events with other like-minded organizations.

In the process of starting a Transition movement there is a part where
the Initiating group organizes a big event that many call Unleashing,
and pass the control to the working groups it helped form. This event
did happen last fall, so now the control of where we are heading is
with the various working groups, or, rather, with the people involved
with those working groups, and the members of the original initiating
group still help the process by participating in those groups, and/or
helping their work. By the way in the Amherst area there are lots of
groups with similar goals that we didn’t start or may not even know
about, but we aim to support them if we can also. Ways we can help the
process are outreach, communications and connecting (helping the
council function and updating the web site), and awareness raising.

Minutes from last meeting:
——————-
Transition Amherst Council of Groups
December 5, 2012, Meeting Notes
7-9 p.m., the Brennan Farm

Next Meeting: Thursday, January 17, 7-9 p.m. at the Gabor Lukacs home,
44 Beston St.
Note: this is an invitation to all sub-group representatives and persons interested in an administration-and-outreach subgroup, but space is limited, so please signal your intention to attend by phoning
Gabor at 253-9755, or emailing him at gaborzol [at] gmail [dot] com

Present 12/5/12: Bernard & Patti Brennan (Morgan & Ilana), Joshua
Cohen, Rick Martin & Melissa Perot (from Summer St.).
Patti facilitated; Rick took notes.

1. We checked-in at 7:15, with a little extra time given to Joshua and
Melissa, who attended the All Things Community event, but are new to
the Council.

2. Considerable confusion was noted as to the date/place of the
meeting tonight, and who was invited. Efforts were made to clarify
this for our next meeting (above) after a Christmas break.

3. We discussed the somewhat awkward morphing process from Initiating
Committee to a Council of Groups (of four or more people), the Council
meeting probably once a month. The following subgroups are in various
stages of organizing, and made the following reports:

A. Skill-Sharing Group: organizer Gabor Lukacs reported ongoing
workshops such as winter bicycling, a Christmas break, possible
upcoming workshop on his social-collapse-rebuild board game, Valley
Time-Trade, etc. He also reported briefly on our website (now part of
administration-and-outreach).
B. Helping Hands Group: organizer Patti Brennan reported on
gathering people willing to give short-term physical assistance to
persons needing help with tasks ––all for community-building and the
joy of giving.
C. All Things Local Indoor Farm Market: representative Bernard
Brennan reported on the group’s continuing search for a location, now
including a possible site on Rt. 9 (east).
D. Neighborhood Organization: newcomer Melissa Perot described some
of her neighborhood priorities motivating her to participate in Town
Meeting and to organize the Summer St. area. Rick promised to contact
Tina and recover the contact information for people who attended this
interest-group at the Great Unleashing.
E. Grow Food Amherst: no report. Organizer: John Gerber.
Representative: John White (also working to organize a micro-loan
group).

4. We adjourned at 9 p.m.
——————

Last evening, during one of the last meetings of the initiating group, we made the final decisions on the finer details of the celebration.

Link to the printable flyer is here.