Notes on Hub Meeting – 14th September 07 (Note taker Chris Callard)
Attendance: 9
Discussed agenda
1. Membership of Hub
It was agreed that whilst the membership of the hub should be fluid, with people able to join and leave as they chose, there should be a core group of people who were committed to the hub so that there was no a constant repetition of what was going on. As such it was proposed that for a hub meeting the core members should send apologies when not able to attend, just to confirm their continued commitment.
Again it was reiterated that with a core group making up the hub, all meetings should be completely transparent and documented on the website.
2. Accounts
Ann detailed the accounts to date:
Money owed: £70 (to various people for the hiring of meeting rooms)
£9.99 (to Sam for website domain registration)
Money received: £45.95 (from meeting collections)
So group is £24.05 in debit
It was noted that we can't open a bank account until the group has a constitution – this was seen as a priority. Doly suggested we could look at other transition groups constitution and base ours on those.
Aisha said we should plan how we are going to fund future meetings as this is our largest expense at the moment. Doly to change note on website that says meetings are 'free entry' to say 'free entry, donations welcome'. Jo and Maureen to look into alternative venues for larger group meetings.
3. Transition Town training
Jo raised the point that the training in Totnes seemed very expensive at £95, and it was agreed that we should find out more about what this money goes towards. The general feeling was that we didn't want to start any fund raising with finding a large amount of money for training. John thought it possible that the cost of training might be reduced in the future now that the Transition network has received £30,000 in funding.
4. Forum and mailing list
Chris proposed using the Supanames webhost for our forum and website as we know for certain that this can run the software needed for setting up a more sophisticated forum to replace the Google group (where a free webhost might not be able). It was agreed that the cost of £16 a year (for a minimum of two years) was worth it for the reliability.
It was also proposed that we register the email addresses left at the first meeting on the new forum (after emailing for permission), and put people into Usergroups relating to the function groups, so that we have a universal mailing list and lists for each function group. Chris to do this when webhost set up.
The forum should have discussion categories for each function group, but also general discussion categories for: Vision/Process of Transition Brighton; Education and Awareness; the Hub
Suggested that at we recruit one person from each function group to act as moderator for their function group category.
5. Website
Proposed sections of the website were: static pages of Information (e.g. about Transition movement, Peak Oil, Climate Change); a blog (online calendar) of Announcements (e.g. of Actions, Meetings); What and How to join in with Transition actions; the story of Transition Brightion and Hove (what we are and what we're proposing to do)
Doly offered to write a piece on the story of Transition B&H.
This list still in early stages and to be developed. Still to be decided: how many people/who will be responsible for updating the blog.
Maureen raised the point that we need a plan of how to inform people about Transition B&H who don't use/have access to the internet.
6. Deciding the agenda for next week's (19th Sep) group meeting
It was agreed that group meetings needed a more concrete agenda, advertised on the website beforehand, to keep/raise the interest of people attending.
After some discussion it was agreed that the meeting should be centred around the subject of Education and Awareness, and how we raise this as part of Step 2 of the Transition process.
Proposed to begin the meeting with a short introduction from John about what has happened since the first August 15th meeting, and then move on to a discussion (in smaller groups) centred around the content of our Education and Awareness. (This following from Joyce's point that currently the direction of Transition B&H is murky, even to the most committed people, and we need to clarify and simplify this in order to engage with the public.) The key questions that need to be answered are: What are the core messages of Transition B&H? How are we going to change the way we live in order to survive in the future?
Hub members to decide upon, by email, a short description of the agenda that Doly will post on the website.
Jo proposed that we adopt a stronger form of facilitation at the group meetings in order to include more people's opinions, as this had been seen to work well at other meetings such as Climate Camp. Jo to find out more about the details of this type of facilitation. Chris and Jo volunteered to facilitate at the Sep 19th meeting.
John to email details of next meeting when agenda summarised. It was agreed that meetings need to be advertised more widely, not just by email/online but in the wider community.
7. Other matters
Joyce reiterated (and everyone agreed) the need for the group to move towards actions and not just to have endless meetings.
Jo suggested the idea, as part of awareness raising, of having a public meeting inviting all existing groups connected to the transition idea to come and give a short talk detailing what they are already doing in this direction.
Not discussed
Neighbourhood Groups – links to local communties
Information gathering – how do we do this?
Notes on Hub Meeting – 14th September 07
