What a year! The groundwork of getting Transition The Grove Inc established was a huge task and as milestone after milestone was achieved an exhausted team could relax a bit.
Here (not in the right order) are some of the many tasks completed successfully this year:
[ul]Meeting regularly with Transition The Gap and learning through their process of getting a community garden site approved and the garden started. Helping with visioning workshop.
Attending numerous Brisbane Transition Hub meetings seminars panels workshops and going through a steep learning curve about climate change food security Peak oil and resources population growth biodiversity threats… Met some wonderful people and gained a mountain of motivation and support.
Established links with a lot of closely compatable groups such as Alternative Technology Association Doctors and Scientists for Sustainability and Social Justice Sub-Tropical Fruit Club Brisbane Organic Growers Inc Hot Futures Pine Rivers Climate Action Group Association for the Study of Peak Oil Sustainable Population Australia… Built up an extensive on-line network of groups and contacts sourcing material about climate change peak oil population growth food security…
Chose the name Transition The Grove and identified the bioregion nestling in the mountain bowl created by the catchment of Kedron Brook/ Cedar Creek with the suburbs Upper Kedron Ferny Grove Ferny Hills Arana Hills and Keperra (Grovely)[/ul]
Applied for and became the Official Transition Town for this region (The Grove)
Looked at lots of model constitutions and wrote and got agreed a Constitution for Transition The Grove designed with a Transition focus.
Formed an Inaugural Committee to hold the Inaugural Meeting for Transition The Grove Inc.
Formally Incorporated as Transition The Grove Inc with all the associated getting ABN PO box bank account official seal.
Winning status as a tax free organisation with the ATO.
Creating the website Version 1 in html a community portal for The Grove bringing together a mountain of local information and defining a boundary to keep the focus local. The website also brought together a large number of links to reports and articles and documents about climate change peak oil population growth food security. These had been gleaned from seminars panels and the online network of groups.
Learning Joomla (the program the website is done in)
Creating the website Version 2 completely redesigned using Joomla. This website incorporates the community portal model (completely re-entered to meet the requirements of Joomla) and a range of social networking tools including the Events calendar the Forums the Subgroups the ability to Join online the ability to Share webpages through email/Twitter/Facebook… the Noticeboard the Search tools. Behind the scenes there is Acymailer which enables Newsletters to the whole membership a wider mailing list or to individual subgroups. The website incorporates powerful logic to protect privacy and to screen applicants for members to check they are locals or making a substantial local contribution.
Refining (over and over) the website processes to get them working and doing what they are meant to do.
Since learning Joomla and doing Transition The Grove’s website a lot of other people have asked for help with their websites. As a local outreach this is happening. It has also been a good fundraiser for Transition The Grove.
Members are joining steadily via the website and also joining subgroups. A limit of 8 subgroups had to be brought in because too many people were joining everything. It had to be about what people could actually get involved in.
Hits to the website very strong. Roughly 8000 a month at present.
Hits to individual Forum threads growing steadily. Some threads getting a lot of interest.
Marquee fold-up tables 2 thermos pots and a Transition The Grove banner acquired. The banner involved quite a bit of design.
Transition The Grove present with marquee at:
[ol]Ferny Grove markets
Arana AusFest
Launch of the Glider Project
The Hills District Community Carols (cancelled due to rain)[/ol]
Guest speaking about Transition The Grove:
[ol]Inner Circle
Sandgate Transition Workshop
Hot Futures
Peace Festival[/ol]
We were helped with a loan of a projector from Transition The Gap and use of personal notebook computers.
Regular Newsletters were published over about 10 months and they were well received but with the advent of the interactive webseite and the Forums the Newsletter have fallen into a hole. [Goal: Revive the monthly Newsletter]
A lot of use of Twitter and Facebook to network locally and copy through pages from Transition The Grove’s website. This has drawn a lot of interest.
The Grove (upper Kedron Brook valley to Camp Mountain and down around Mt Nebo Rd and the mountains behind Keperra and Great Western and across around Caesar Rd and the mountains behind Ferny Grove) being mapped online in 3D digital imagery using satellite GPS data. This is a massive task involving a lot of learning the techology but it will be a wonderful visual resource to give us a powerful sense of our place on earth.
Surveying the local area:
[ol]Park facilities
Health facilities
Gliders[/ol]
Regular monthly meetings at Arana Library on different themes.
[ol]Energy
Community gardens[/ol]
Breakfast with Minister for the Environment Kate Jones MP representing Transition The Grove
Social dinner gathering for the whole membership of Transition The Grove.
Transition The Grove organised a Social Inclusion Week BBQ.
Breakfast with The Hills Chamber of Commerce (annual Big Breakfast speed networking event) representing Transition The Grove including in speed networking
The Food and Gardens Subgroup has scoped potential sites for a community garden in the area.
The Energy Subgroup has good discussions up and running and is now working with key staff at local school with plans for an Energy Expo mooted for next year.
Joined the Kedron Brook Catchment Group – a key environmental management group for our defining catchment area – and have worked to actively participate in their projects and meetings and support their efforts.
Radio YYY 87.6 FM Transition The Grove Hour – playing daily at different times same program over a week. Format of music and interviews with local people about topics giving a local focus – this has been a powerful way to learn and form relationships:
[ol]Local Tourism
Local Security
What makes for a sense of belonging locally
Mental health locally
Christmas locally
Environment – bush stone curlews
Local shopping centres
Energy grants[/ol]
Networking local organisations and representatives introducing Transition The Grove and beginning to establish contacts and discussions about how to work together and explaining what Transition The Grove does. Handing out lots of
cards and website address.
Getting to know some of the people who have joined – there are some great people. Some relationships now established with good trust and working procedures.
Living locally – using the Events calendar to identify local activities to participate in. It is fun and very meaningful and has taken the focus of activities elsewhere such as those organised by the Brisbane Transition Hub. Getting a very good knowledge of local by living fully here. Petrol bill goes down. Cost of living goes down.
Main thrust for early next year:
Get the Subgroups activated with people meeting each other face-to-face and starting to hold discussions and make plans and dream projects and get to know each other. The numbers of people registered for individual subgroups (about 25 subgroups) are nearly all quite large enough now to form workable groups (example: 20 people). Community gardens Energy Health Environment Education Water Recreation particularly look ready to get actively off the ground.
Work with the schools.
Our members/management committee have a very high level of participation in locally active groups:
Youth Welfare Committee
North West Health Centre Community Consultative Committee
QLD Rail Community Reference Group for the Ferny Grove line
St William’s Social Justice Group
State Emergency Service
Neighbourhood Watch
Local churches
Local schools and P&Cs
U3A
Angligreen
Local bushcare groups
Kedron Brook Catchment Group
Local health and fitness businesses
Youth recreation
Politics
Associated activities:
Living Sustainably in the Suburbs course run all year.
Permaculture food forest on local site in flourishing production – this is a model site with tours available on request