Transition Town Totnes Bulletin 36 - November 09

Submitted by TTTAdmin on 13 November 2009 - 5:50pm
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1. Introduction* 2. Walking on Sunshine* 3. The Future Of Food* 4. Group Skills* 5. New Transition Together Teams* 6. 'Moneyless Man' on way to Totnes* 7. TTT Building Group & Cosy Devon home insulation grants* 8. Core Group Highlights* 9. Reskilling Corner* 10. Upcoming Events*

1. Introduction

It seems to have become tradition to open the newsletter with a seasonal reference to the weather and the bounty that’s sprouting from the garden. I shall not therefore break from convention, despite being possibly the world’s most hopeless grower. As autumn is nearly through, winter does seem to be upon us - even the dandelions have slowed down a bit.

So if winter is here, Christmas must be just round the corner. Sorry if it is too soon to be talking about Christmas but I do so not for any crass, commercial interests – quite the contrary. Beneath the joy, celebrations and family get-togethers of the festive season, many of us sit, somewhat uncomfortably, on a little anxious tension where the pleasures of giving and receiving are nagged by our sense of feeding the appetite of our hungry consumer society. Trying to be genuinely grateful and appreciative on receipt from a loved one of an over-wrapped plastic gift of dubious quality and suspect origin is a tricky annual feat.

So if you struggle with this aspect of the festive season, you will want to support our forthcoming Bag Week when we get serious about not wasting bags, and consider our shopping behaviour. This includes screenings of seminal ‘consumer’ films, ‘The Story of Stuff’ and ‘Message in the Waves’ (7pm, 19th Nov, Methodist Church), and a workshop for you to set a new trend around town by making your own bag (10-3, 21st Nov, Birdwood House).

We are also the first to be cranking up the Festive celebrations with the ‘Totnes Winterfest’ (11-4, 28th Nov, Civic Hall). We celebrate our fantastic achievements with a showcase of the inspiring and practical projects from across our community, plus workshops and activities for all ages including a ‘really really free market’, gardeners question time, action sessions with our - now world-famous - Transition Tales, and much much more.

It has been a confusing week in the news with normally high profile supporter of Transition, Ed Milliband, laying out plans to fast-track the new generation of nuclear, coal and centralised renewables apparently unquestioned by the BBC and other mainstream media, while new hope has arisen around the much anticipated Copenhagen summit. At this time in history, when there are so many reasons to be both concerned and hopeful, it seems the need to hear the Transition voice has never been so great.

The Totnes Winterfest is our voice in Totnes - a chance to show the town how much we have achieved, the range of exciting projects we have underway and to give a taste of the flavoursome things on the horizon as projects come together in some very significant, job-creating proposals that will take the Town and District to a whole new level in our Transition to an abundant, low-carbon future. Please tell your friends and colleagues about this event and invite them along to join the fun.

As for our voice at Copenhagen - we are proud to report that our very own Sophy Banks, Naresh Giangrande and Ben Brangwyn will be there, representing the Transition Network and telling ‘important’ people about what we in Totnes have gone and started. We wish them well and look forward to hearing from them in the New Year.

I am writing this in my new position as Interim Manager and Fundraiser at TTT, which I am very proud, if a little daunted, to be taking on. Some of you may recognise me as the person conducting surveys at evening events earlier in the year, asking whether you would be happy to pay more for our events. It is questions like this that we need to be asking very carefully over the next five months. From a financial point of view, we are not wishing away 2009. We have a very significant fundraising challenge ahead of us at TTT and we are going to have to get a lot bolder about asking for financial support.

I very much hope that you, as our supporters and activists, will understand this need. So much energy and countless hours have gone into getting TTT to where it is today. However, the reality is we also need a bit of cash! If you have experience, expertise, contacts or anything else in the field of fundraising or income generation that you could bring to TTT, I would be very pleased to hear from you.

It is worth noting that significant milestones in TTT’s history to date were made possible by generous private donations from individuals within the community for which we are all grateful. Most of our core activity, essential to holding TTT together, is very difficult to raise money for; charitable trusts and investors are more interested in our carbon-reducing projects and business opportunities. Funding our core is where these private donations have proven invaluable. If you are interested in investing financially in the future of our community, perhaps TTT is something you could consider. If you would like to discuss this in confidence, I can be contacted on 07977 178214 or halgillmore@mac.com.

Apologies to be introducing myself on a big ask but, like I say, we are going to have to get a bit better at doing that sort of thing so I may as well get the ball rolling now as we approach the generous festive season!

I will be working in the TTT office most Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays and look forward to getting to know you in my new role and will hopefully see you at one of the events this month.

Many thanks and best wishes,

Hal Gillmore - Interim Manager

(thanks to Lou's mum's garden for the pics!)

2. Walking on Sunshine

For great returns on solar generated electricity the time to buy is now!

As the dark, dreary days of winter close in what better time to be thinking about....solar generated electricity? The government has just announced the provisional rates for the new Feed in Tariffs which means solar generated electricity in the UK has finally come of age. And a group of us are bulk buying solar PV systems to take advantage of a sweet spot where we can still get government grants and take advantage of the new Feed in Tariffs come April. Want to join?
For more information click here...

 

3. The Future Of Food in our Town Workshop

TTT Food Group's public action workshop 'The Future of Food in our Town' was held on 12th November. The workshop bought to public attention some of the results of the food mapping survey conducted in the town over the past 9 months. A report is due to be published next year. If we are to "radical rethink" the way the UK produces and consumes its food, as urged by Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, recently, the production of our bread locally is something we urgently need to address. Come and participate in a discussion with Andrew Whitley, award winning author of "Bread Matters" and members of TTT Food Group, which will explore the ways we can develop the production and distribution of our local food, especially bread. The discussion will be held on Tuesday 1st December at Schumacher College, Dartington from 8pm. No charge, but donations will be accepted.

4. Group Skills Workshop

Nick Osbourne of Response-Ability, ran a day-workshop on group skills at the end of October. Thirteen of us joined what felt to be a very thought-provoking and insightful workshop into the dynamics of what happens when people work together. We covered the different stages of a group's dynamic, how we tend to act in groups, how to run effective meetings, deal with conflict, and manage various roles. I think Nick did a great job, a good balance of imput from him, and reflection and sharing from us. Thanks to all those that came and to Nick. I certainly felt like I got a lot out of it, and it was such a relief to talk about those things that go as unspokens - namely the way that we work together in our groups - whilst we are often focused on what we are doing...
There was more covered than I can hope to sumise, but my main recommendation would be to sit this one-day course, if you haven't already. Give yourselves, and your groups the time to reflect on the process, and the opportunity to work towards a healthier, more resilient dynamic. This certainly got my vote! This course will be running again next year, do contact the office for more info or to register interest.
Lou - TTT Admin

5. New Transition Together Teams Up and Running...

Over the last couple of months 3 new Transition Together Teams have formed in the town!They have started meeting together regularly, working through the programme, as well as enjoying the great community aspects involved in working together with neighbours.

The Transition Together idea is that 5-8 households join to form small, social groups of friends, neighbours and colleagues and then, with the support of the programme, take a number of effective, practical, money-saving and carbon-reducing steps.

A workbook helps each person to build their own Practical Action Plan that improves household energy efficiency, minimises water use, reduces waste (and consumption), explores local transport options and promotes the great value, healthy food available locally. It also helps everyone to understand what’s behind the rising energy prices and climate change, and what this means for them, their family and their local community.

The project has been arracting intereest from other transition initiatives around the UK (and beyond), and we are offering all of our materials and learnings so far to those who are interested in starting their own Transition Together project elsewhere now.

For 10 transition initiatives, we have also been able to offer some financial support. Based on the success of our pilot project, TTT was awarded more funding by the Big Green Challenge Plus (BGC+) £10,000 of which we are using to help seed this roll-out to the wider Transition Network. In addition to providing the ‘Transition Together Starter Pack’ which includes all the required materials and resources, we have been able to give £1,000 per TI to help get the project underway. The 10 TIs that have been awarded a share of the funding are: Transition Leicester, Sustaining Dunbar, Transition Town Louth, Transition Town Maidenhead, Transition Southwell, Transition Bro Ddyfi Trawsnewid, Transition Omagh, Transition Hereford, Transition Farnham, Transition BH Hub, and Transition Ann Arbor, Maine, USA. Read more...

6. 'Moneyless Man' on way to Totnes after year of 'Living without Money'.

Bristol-based Mark Boyle comes to Totnes on Tuesday 17th of November (Totnes Methodist Church - 7.30pm) to speak about 'Living without Money', a social experiment he undertook for one year which ends on international Buy Nothing Day 2009. .
Founder of the world’s fastest growing alternative economy ‘The Freeconomy Community', Mark will be talking about both the economic and ecological reasons behind his fascinating social experiment and the actual practical experience of living through four seasons with zero cash.
For 12 months Boyle has neither spent nor received a penny, with no prepayment of bills or stockpiling. He has spent the last year living in a caravan on an organic farm where he volunteers for three days per week. He cooks outside – rain or shine - on a rocket stove made from old catering tins, goes to his compost toilet using newspapers salvaged from his local newsagents, heats his humble abode using wood he has coppiced and scavenged locally, and powers his laptop & mobile using solar. He washes either in a river or by using a solar shower, & cycles the 55km round trip to the city twice a week, using his trailer to transport the things he needs & gives away. He has been foraging wild food, growing your own, bartering & using waste food that local businesses would normally throw out and comments:
"It is the disconnection we have with what we consume that is the primary cause of the wasteful and destructive culture we live in today. If we all had to grow your own food again we wouldn’t waste one third of it as we do here in the UK today. If we had to make our own tables and chairs, we wouldn't throw them out the moment we changed the interior décor. If we had to clean our own drinking water, we sure as hell wouldn't foul it. We’ve absolutely no respect or real appreciation for the embodied energy, destruction and suffering that goes into the things we consume and buy today, and hence the symptoms of this separation of the consumer from the consumed (sweatshops, environmental destruction, wars over resources, factory farms) relentlessly persists. Money is the tool that has increasingly enabled humanity to exaggerate this disconnection with what they consume and therefore has a huge role to play in climate change and the destruction of our natural environment.”
Don't miss the chance to see him talk at the Methodist Chuch Tuesday 17th November 7:30pm! See here for more...

7. TTT Building Group encourages take-up of home insulation grants - more volunteers needed!

To meet our energy reduction targets we need to tackle high energy emissions from our homes. Volunteers from TTT building Group have started a door knocking campaign to advise people of the free or discounted offers of cavity wall and loft insulation.

Funding for these insulation offers is through Government grants administered by an organisation called Cosy Devon (previously Warm Front). Cosy Devon pays TTT £15 (or £30 if both cavity wall and roof insulation is installed) for every referral made which will be a useful income stream for TTT.

It is early days, but so far we have door knocked about 150 homes, spoken to about 50 householders, done 10 formal referrals as well as leaving several other homes with the information necessary to refer themselves using the TTT referral code (SH023).

TTT Building Group would like to recruit more volunteers to help with the door knocking, so if you have a few hours to spare please do get in touch with Nicola Evans or Mary Popham on marypopham@btinternet.com or 07815 799996

Ideally we would recruit enough volunteers so that Totnes can be divided into manageable small ‘patches’ of homes and pairs of volunteers can be allocated a patch. This will enable volunteers to really learn about the existing housing stock in their patch. Volunteers would:

  • door knock every home in the ‘patch’ to advise of insulation schemes;
  • assist residents to fill in referral forms;
  • refer queries to Cosy Devon or others as necessary ;
  • re-contact homes to ensure that referrals have been followed up;
  • help resolve any difficulties e.g. with road access for contractors;
  • build up a data base of properties in the patch including age of property, levels of insulation etc to assist with potential future offers and projects.

8. Core Group Highlights - November 09

Every month representatives of TTT groups and a few others meet to discuss the overall direction we are going in. Soon we will be loading the minutes onto the website, but meantime here is a brief digest:

Programme of Events: It costs about £500 to produce the printed programme and we agreed a few changes to make better use of this investment. The next programme will start in February 2010 and run up to the end of July. The list will include at least of couple of events designed to raise money as well as illuminate, inspire and entertain us. We have some exciting ideas but you’ll have to wait and see!

TTT Ltd: which is the formal legal side of the organisation, has an AGM coming up so we have to sort out what we mean by ‘members’ and a system for nominating and electing directors. There’ll be more information on this soon but in the meantime groups should be thinking about what they’ve done over the past year because we’ll one short reports for the Annual Report.

Winterfest: This is starting to look really exciting so watch out for a special bulletin before the event on November 28th.

Heard about DECC, the government department responsible for bankrolling ten new nuclear power stations? Well they also have £10 million in half-million chunks to fund low carbon community initiatives and we are after a chunk. Our bid involves launching Transition Together street groups and providing them with funding to take major energy saving measures and install renewables. We want to collaborate with South Hams, an energy company and local installers. Watch this space!

The EDAP document will be published in the next couple of weeks so we are having a full day meeting to discuss how it effects TTT’s work. Come along on Friday Dec 4th from 10.00am - bring food to share at lunchtime.

And we hear Christmas is coming so we are having a party. Friday Dec 19th from 7.00pm with lots of fun things going on.

9. Reskilling Corner


Thursday 19 November, 1.30 - 4pm

D.I.O. Skillshare #9 - Make a Mosaic: Wonders from Waste with Jan O'Highway

A fun taster workshop to learn the basics of mosaic art. Jan will help us make a small tile, teapot stand, coaster or mirror frame from all sorts of discarded objects such as plastic, crockery, mirror & toys, plus traditional tesserae of glass & ceramic.
Please wear old warm clothes and book in advance. Tea, coffee & all materials are provided.
Cost: £5 per head to cover materials, heating and other costs.
Where: Jan's working studio in Harberton, which has just enough room for 7 people.
Contact Jan asap to reserve your place and to find out the studio address. Also please let Jan know if you can offer lifts from Totnes 01803 863223 / information@janohighway.com / www.janohighway.com
Monday 7th December, 6-8pm, Dartington

D.I.O. Skillshare #10 - Personal Resilience through NLP with Erica Lewis

Most of us achieve more when we are feeling positive and able to deal constructively with negative emotions. Come and find out what the tools and techniques of NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) have to offer in helping you to manage stress, anxiety or stage fright, and supporting other people to do the same. Take away some new skills that will enable you to be calm and positive whenever that would be useful for you. See Erica's website for more info.
Where: Erica's home in Dartington. Cost: Free, but please bring nibblies &/or drinks to share.
RSVP: Email erica_lewis@btinternet.com to book a spot (limited to 8 people) & find out her address

Do-It-Ourselves Skillshares

Do you know how to fix electrical appliances? Make recycled wallets? Preserve & pickle? Crochet? Make cheese? Do you want to experiment with others to build a pedal-powered blender? Or have you been compiling a long wishlist of skills to learn?
Within our community we have a vast number of valuable skills, many lying dormant and underused. D.I.O. Skillshares are practical, free and fun opportunities to share our skills with others over a relaxed cup of tea. It's free, easy, informal and flexible, and everyone benefits.
All skillshares will be free unless venues need to be hired or materials need to be purchased. People coming to learn will need to book in with with the skill-sharer and find out what they need to bring. All that we ask is that you bring some food to share for lunch, and have a think about what skills you can offer for a future skillshare. You can organise to run your workshop whenever you wish and the skill-share can take any form you want - from a couple of hours workshop, to a discussion you want to host, or even a short-term apprenticeship.
If you want to input into the skillshares by offering a skill you would be happy to share, or you have a skill you would like to learn from others, please contact Asha (asha@eatthesuburbs.org / 07942598155).

10. Upcoming Events

Please note that we also provide a page on our website for non-TTT events.

Monday 16th – Sunday 22nd November

Totnes Bag Week

Various awareness events including a film night with ‘Story of Stuff’ & ‘Message in the Waves’

Christmas is coming: buy local, buy sensibly, and leave out the placcy bag!
Worried about plastic bags? Time to take a new look at what we can do.
Thursday 19th November: Films & discussion
7pm The Story of Stuff - 8pm Message in the Waves
Saturday 21st November: Make a Bag Day with TTT 10.00 – 3.00pm
Venues & further details tbc click here. Or for more info contact Jacqi on 07922 411266.

decorations

Tuesday 24th November 1- 4pm. Unit 6 Bridge Farm, Harberton (small donation for materials and heating).

Making decorations for the Xmas Tree at St Mary's Church

The theme for this year's Transition Tree at St Mary's is "A Rainbow Path", so we'll be making all sorts of eco-transitiony things in rainbow colours + glitter.....please bring recycled/sustainable/natural/discarded materials to use and share. More info & directions from Jan 01803 863223

Wednesday 25th November. Totnes Methodist Church. 8pm. £4 (£3 concessions). Totnes Pounds welcome.

How We Used To Live - Food, energy, skills, and elbow-grease: memories of a pre-oil Totnes.

How did Totnes feed, heat and transport itself before the age of globalisation and cheap energy? What did a local food system look like to those who depended on it? Two generations have passed with no first-hand knowledge of living with much less energy than we expect today.

 

This event, illustrated with images from Totnes and District Image Bank presented by Barrington Weekes, and introduced by Rob Hopkins of Transition Town Totnes, will introduce you to the first hand stories of life growing up in the 1940s and 50s, where central heating was unknown and most food was, by necessity, local, through the memories of those who were there. This fascinating and illuminating evening will leave you seeing the town in a very different way.

 

 

 

Saturday 28th November. Totnes Civic Hall. 11am - 4pm. Donations.

*Totnes Winterfest!* - Inspiring ideas and projects from across our community

Tea & cake Café. Seed-saving. Clothes Swapping. Making earth paints. Nut trees In Pots. bike maintenance. Really really FREE market (bring & swap your stuff!). Pied piper Procession. Interactive Story-telling. Rope-making FrOM PLANTS. Wormeries. Delicious hot soup. Library. ‘The Grove’ childrens’ transition tales – live!. Wool workshop. Gardeners’ Question-time. Wild food. Interactive game “The Quest to 2030”. The Totnes £ bankers. Patchwork woolen blanket workshop. Loads of talks, practical workshops & demos all day…A day out with the TTT Projects and Groups! Come and get inspired!... The Nut Tree project, Transition Homes, the Totnes Pound, the Totnes Rickshaw Company, Transition Tales, the ATMOS project, the Healthy Futures Garden project, Totnes Renewable Energy Society, Gardenshare, and more!

Come to find out more about what people are up to behind the scenes, where the current projects are, and how you can get involved and be part of these exciting initiatives!

A day of cake, demos, workshops, reskilling sessions, jumble sale / clothes swapping, gardening chat, reading, chatting and disocvering what thriving projects are in our town.

Thank you to all the wonderful support and enthusiasm for the day from all the groups and projects involved. It look like we have a great day in store. We are still looking for even more general helpers on the day we still have a wish-list for the day.
We especially need:
  • arm chairs and comfy chairs / bean bags / poufs for the library area.
  • home made cakes of any variety (to help us cover the cost of the venue)
  • vegetables for the soup (bring in in the morning).
  • mugs & spoons for soup (borrowed for the day)
  • books for the library (borrowing for the day only)
  • quality items for the really really free market
  • general hands to help set up, decorate, chop veg, move tables, arrange library, shift things, help with displays, and help tidy up at the end.
  • lots of old shrunken woolly jumpers - doesn't matter what colour or if they've got holes in - but good and shrunk is the key... (Just boil them up and sort of "fleece "them.) (proceeds from the patchwork woolen blanket raffle to help towards venue costs for the day...)

Contact Lou on 867358 or at transitiontowntotnes@gmail.com to let her know in advance... thanks.

More info on the Really Really Free Market

A Really Really Free Market is a communal garage sale, but better....no price tags! At Totnes Winterfest we'll be setting up a small market place to offer goods free of charge without bartering or monetary exchange... the gift economy in action.
Bring along any underused quality items you have that someone else might enjoy, that you no longer need. Those books you've read that are cluttering up your cupboards, surplus garden produce, clothes and great items you'd like to pass on, pot plants that want a new home, any bits and bobs that you think could be useful to someone else (but no junk please). Clothes swapping is all part of this! Please feel free to come a bring your things, as well as to swap some items that excite you in return, leaving plenty for others.
Please start putting things aside for the Really Really Free Market now and bring contributions as early as possible on the day of the Totnes Winterfest, November 28. If you have any questions, would like to help with the market, or if you'd like to drop things off in advance of the day, contact Asha asha@eatthesurburbs.org / 07942598155
NB: Don’t miss Leechwell Gardens Open Day. Birdwood House Fri 27th & Sat 28th November 09.

EDAP - full day meeting

To discuss how it effects TTT’s work. On Friday December 4th from 10.00am - bring food to share at lunchtime. Everyone welcome.

TTT Christmas Party!

Friday December 18th from 7.00pm with lots of fun things going on...

To look at all of our previous bulletins please click here. In order to receive this monthly bulletin by email, please register on our website. If you have any problems with the email bulletin please click here - and you will be able to tell us about them.

Please note that the office is open Tuesdays - Thursdays 10am-1pm. Thanks.

Transition Town Totnes, 43 Fore Street, Totnes, Devon, TQ9 5HN.

Tel: 01803 867358 Email: totnes@transitionnetwork.org

Web: www.totnes.transitionnetwork.org