The next general meeting is on 29 November at the slightly earlier time of 7–9pm, at the Salvation Army Hall, 1 Park Crescent (north side of the Level map)
Do you want to participate in working groups that address our basic need areas – such as Food, Energy, Transport, Buildings, Waste and Resources, Textiles? And/or in a Neighbourhood group for the particular area in which you live?
The Purpose of this meeting is to form these groups and help them organise their first meetings. We will be covering:
• the purpose of function and neighbourhood groups
• how to organise your first meeting
• a possible agenda for the first meeting
• where to go for resources and information about the Transition process
• how to use the website and forum for your group
• the direction of the groups in the future
with lots of time for questions about anything else you want to know.
We will be also having informal Christmas drinks in a nearby pub afterwards
Next Transition Brighton and Hove general meeting – 29 November
Strictly come blogging
Sarah Lewis has offered up to four of us the opportunity to make our voices heard on the 'Rocks' blogsite. If you reckon your typing fingers are mightier than a sword, send us your scintillating stories and we'll publish them on the Transition B&H site.
The four finest entries (as decided by our panel of professional writers and the transition network as a whole, with an arm-wrestling contest in case of a tie) will be offered the blogging spots and the awesome responsibility of inspiring and enthusing the readers of Rocks.
Here are some tips from Sarah to help you write a blindin' blog.
1. Keep it short
People come to blogs to have a quick nose around someone else's life. Attention spans on the internet generally won't stand up to a long rambling diatribe so keep your posts short and sweet, no more than 400 words is a good rule to follow.
2. Keep it relevant
Say what you did that day and why, in keeping with the theme of your blog. No one is going to be interested in Mrs Miggins having an argument with the man from number 34.
3. Entice people to read more
Make sure each sentence moves the story on from the last and offers information that people will want to read.
4. Watch punctuation
To many !!!!, (brackets), - hyphens -, CAPPED WORDS and italics makes it hard to read. Use words to express what you mean, not punctuation. Exclamation marks, especially, are hardly ever justified.
5. Watch your tenses
People want to know about things that are happening now. If you are telling an old story link it in with a current day event.
6. Get involved
Bare your heart, or the bits of it you want to, and let readers know you are prepared to entertain their voyeurism. You never know, you might find it therapeutic.
7. Interact
Invite readers to share their experiences or ask them questions.
8. Share your passion
If you are blogging about a particular topic explain why you are interested in it or why you are embarking on that particular mission and how it feels to do so.
9. Be yourself
Let your natural writing voice come through. Readers will begin to feel like they actually know you and want to come back for more.
10. Have fun
If you enjoy writing your blog, people will enjoy reading it.
Money Workshop – Sunday 25 November
Money workshop by Peter Koenig, author of '30 Lies about Money'. Sunday, November 25, 2007 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM The Werks, 45 Church Road, Hove BN3 2BE (Yahoo! Maps, Google Maps). Cost: whatever you'd like to pay.
CATEGORY
Education
DESCRIPTION
last time round:
we ran a couple of workshops in June - one in London, one in Brighton. topics covered included:
- whether tweaking the money system would help us tackle the environmental crisis
- how banks create money out of nothing and why we let them
- why money works like a mirror (but you see what's going on in your head not on your face)
- how to stop money from getting in the way of what you want to do
you should come if:
you're trying to figure out how to align your work set-up with your money set-up. particularly if you are thinking of starting up a business, or have started up a business.
particularly if your priorities include any of these sorts of things:
* get paid for doing really creative work that feels satisfying.
* feel like 'the money bit' is the easiest part of the work you do
* tackle social and/or environmental problems, without feeling like 'the money' is pulling in a different direction
* work out how to incorporate money into a new style of working (because you're working in an emerging area or because you're switching careers)
or, if you have a particular burning question about money that you would like to tackle.
what we'd be doing in the workshop:
talking about how and why money works
peter'll introduce the fundamentals of the work he's been doing for the last 20-odd years (you can dig around his site to get the idea).
i'll talk a bit about what i've been working on over the last year (about how money, stories, nature, work and community relate to each other - and why that might be useful)
money set-up problem solving.
it's possible to get endlessly caught up in theories of money. harvard economist joseph schumpeter apparently spent 40 years working on one book about money...and then gave up.
so, we'll try to keep things practical and work through specific questions to do with money. in previous workshops, this has ranged from "why are meetings to talk about money more daunting than normal meetings" to "how do i incorporate money into my artistic practice without it corrupting it". if you have a specific question around money and work, this would be the time to bring it up.
eating lunch.
near the workshop venue. together or separately.
money exercises
there are a few specific money exercises that we may or may not do as part of the workshop. there's a great one based on 'the findhorn money game' (something like this: http://depts.washington.edu/eqhlth/pages/money_game.pdf )
another is working through a set of questions to compile a 'money biography'. this can be a lot more helpful than talking in the abstract (and you don't have to tell anyone else your answer).
probably going to the pub afterwards.
what you might get out of the workshop:
* next time someone says "we have to do this because of the money" or "we need to get the money so we can...", you might be able to say "that's not necessarily the case". and then come up with a great way of designing around seemingly insurmountable problems.
* you'll enjoy opening bills / filing tax returns / sending invoices / negotiating fees.
* you'll have some tools for designing creative/social/environmental/professional projects that incorporate money in inventive ways.
what people said after the last workshop:
"The workshop was great. it has been on my mind a lot since then, and do really think it was of benefit...The price was right, and it was a good day."
"I feel it's given me more confidence to continue or do more of the things I was doing already, which is good."
"It was immensely beneficial to partake in this workshop...for a
one-day format I think it covered a lot of ground and was a perfect seed
planting."
They also said they wanted to have some written documentation to take away, more practical exercises and a shorter introduction at the beginning of the day. So, it'll be more like that this time....
Buy Nothing Day: Make Your Own Gift Workshop – 24 November
Shop less – live more! Come and join us for a free, fun alternative to Christmas shopping. Get creative and learn some new skills... 11am–5pm, Sat 24 Nov 2007 at the Cowley Club, 12 London Road, Brighton.
Click on the image for larger poster to download and put up somewhere...
Free workshops on the day:
11.30am Paper making
Dipped and moulded candles
1pm Sewing and clothing re-design (Bring clothes to mend/revamp/freecycle)
Renewable energy toys
3pm Jewellery making
Rag rug weaving
Plus: Recycled Tetra Pac wallets, make your own Christmas cards, recipes for food gifts to take away and more...
Bring books to exchange at our Bookcrossing stall...bring something to Freecycle and browse our free shop... make some friends and come away with something unique...
Buy Nothing Day is an annual event started in 1992 as a means to highlight excessive consumerism in today’s Western culture. This event is part of an initiative to reduce consumption by Transition Brighton and Hove, a group of volunteers aiming to start a city-wide community response to the challenges of climate change and peak oil.
We are running this event for free and with no funding. Donations are welcome, both monetary and of materials. A list of things we require is as follows...
Unwanted clothes, books and other items,
small picture frames,
some kind of receptical big enough to fit a picture frame in;
used office paper (not recycled, the less printing the better);
old tights,
stuff to put in paper (flower petals work well),
tetra-paks,
anything useful for card-making (card, things to stick on, glitter, glue, etc)
material (any kind, large, small or scraps),
candle makling stuff (wax, moulds, wicks, scents),
beads, thread and other jewellery-making stuff,
anything else that may be of use.
We will freecycle anything that doesn't get used.
For more information email here.
Invite people to this event on Facebook here.
Links to past actions and what it's all about here.
Buy Nothing Day UK website here.
Next hub meeting – 22 November
The next hub meeting is at 7pm on Thu 22 November, in the back room of the Cowley Club.
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Talk: Green Roofs by Dusty Gedge – 19 November
There will be a talk on green roofs by Dusty Gedge (from Channel 4s "Wild Things I love" ) - on Monday November 19 at the Cornerstone Church, Hove - Entry free. Contact adam@biggreen.eclipse.co.uk - see www.building-green.pbwiki.com
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Transition Top-Up Evening! – 16 November
The next Transition Top-Up event will be to discuss Peak Oil and the Implications for our Economy - an informal debate in the Reservoir pub on Howard Road in Hanover on Friday 16th Nov. Transition members with research experience in this area will be on hand to explore the issue over a pint! All welcome . Meet from 8pm. Contact is Charley 07773 279326
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Notes from hub meeting – Thu 15 November
Notes taken by Kat Neeser
• Discussion of Gerry's query regarding reporting and checking method of project and function groups. Gerry to e-mail Chris Callard and John Bristow his query to be discussed by e-mail. Will be addressed at the next network meeting.
• The next network meeting will be in the week commencing Monday, November 26. Probably Thursday. One of the facilitators to have had facilitation training.
• Discussed the subject and format for next meeting. Suggestions:
¬ opportunity for function and neighbourhood groups to meet up and a callout for people who want to be in a function or neighbourhood group to research similar things going on in that area in Brighton and Hove and create a map of where we fit in.
¬ Bring in just the coordinators or another representative of each of the function and neighbourhood groups. There was concern that not enough people from each group would turn up if we wanted all groups to meet their members.
¬ Function and neighbourhood groups to get a clearer idea of their tasks and how they fit in with the rest of the network.
¬ Need to be prepared for new people turning up if we do decide to have an open meeting.
¬ Suggestion of calling it something other than a network meeting.
¬ Concern about imposing a coordinator on a function or neighbourhood group. Could be alleviated by asking for a representative.
¬ I think a final decision was to invite everyone who is interested in being involved in the function or neighbourhood group, with Doly facilitating.
¬ Details to be put on website as soon as possible by ?
• Leaflet design: latest draft and feedback comments discussed in the group. Kat to feedback to Chloe. Final design to be e-mailed to Chris by Monday, November 19 for printing in time for Buy Nothing Day.
• Logo: Chloe is doing the third version. We are 99% agreed. Logo should go on Flyer. N.b. this didn't happen… Can go on next print run.
• Constitution: David Greenhop explained the current draft and those present suggested alterations.
• Website: discussed the need to have a list of hub members that is up-to-date. John to e-mail Chris regarding list of people in the forum.
-Charlie suggested having a clear contact on website, not just the Webmaster. Group discussed using Jo's Google group e-mail which could be forwarded to rotated people's accounts. It was agreed to put this e-mail on the flyer instead of Kat's telephone number.
-Also discussed having a telephone number on the website. Jo says she has a spare phone and a spare phone number which people could take turns looking after.
-David suggested VOIP. (The minute taker didn't know what this was! Can David elaborate?)
-Charlie suggested 2 separate e-mail contacts and a "this month e-mail x."
• Training for Hub and coordinators from national transition network: John suggested that just two people, maybe one of them being Alex who can film it, go to Totnes for training due to costs.
• Brighton and Hove Business Forum and Sustainability Forum had invited us to give talks. There is no urgency but it would be good to start thinking about preparing for less perhaps in small groups e.g. business groups. We need to put together a presentation perhaps having a project group for this.
• Sarah Lewis: Doly reported on a chat she has had with Sarah who is the editor of Rocks Magazine and runs the Argus environmental pages.
-4 people are needed to write a blog on the Rocks website.
-the survey can go on the Rocks website (Gerry's project)
-Kat has discussed an idea for an article in the Argus with Sarah in which older people are interviewed about life with less dependence on fossil fuels. Some ideas were suggested to Kat about interviews that have already been done with the older people in this area. Kat to follow up ideas and find Totnes Elders interviews.
• New venue: Charlie suggested The Works in Hove as a potential new, free venue for meetings. E-mail him if you need more information and contact details: charlie*at*themoon.co.uk.
Parking lot to be talked about later:
• Role and expectations of Hub
• role and expectations of project groups
• education and awareness
• terms to be used (i.e. what is a project group, a function group, and interest group etc. Guess this needs to link in with the network map)
• network meetings
• viability check out
Facilitation training – 8 November
If you are interested in taking a more active role in Transition Brighton and Hove meetings, please come along to this free facilitation training session. The training will teach skills and techniques we can use to help create inclusive, enjoyable meetings with productive outcomes. Thursday 8th November 7:30-9:30pm, 52 Providence Place (Cowley Club back-building). All welcome.
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STOP PRESS: Send objections to the Newhaven incinerator
We have received notice that East Sussex County Council have given until 7 November for people to raise objections to the latest plans for the incinerator at North Quay, Newhaven. If you wish to send an objection letter, please get them off right away. Sample letters here, here and here (please personalise them if possible). More information here.
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Can you imagine Brighton without oil? Free School - 7th November
First in a series of “Free School” participatory workshops for learning, discussing and making plans for local action responding to climate change and peak oil. 7-9pm, The Cowley Club Meeting Room, 52 Providence Place, Brighton. FREE.
Part of the Education and Awareness Programme by Transition Brighton and Hove.
Next Transition network meeting – Tue 6 Nov
Our next Whole Network meeting for Transition B&H is now to be on Tuesday 6th November 7.30 to 9.30 at the Brighthelm Centre (map). We felt this Tues would be too soon.
Our Agenda is
1. Update from the Leaflet group and Hub on the Core Message, and from the Logo group on the Logo, and updates on Progress from all the Education and Awareness Programme Action Groups present.
2. Setting up Function and Neighbourhood Groups.
Facilitated by Stephen Watson and Ann Baldridge.
Brighton Permaculture Trust courses
Brighton Permaculture Trust are running a number of courses over the next few months. See the full list here
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