Dear {usertag:name}

Please welcome new member Kegan Scherf to the Water Energy Health Business & Economy Environment Governance Security and Towards Zero Waste Sub-groups.

Kegan is Campaign Director for Matt Siggins in Enoggera Ward [Matt is a Transition The Grove member] Ferny Grove Neighbourhood Watch and West Arana Leagues Club.

Transition The Grove Inc does not support any particular political party and members of any political party are welcome to join if they agree to support our aims.

The Forums are a place where issues can be discussed and debated. It is not to be used for political campaigning but information about candidates and their local contributions can be entered there. Often information about who political candidates are is not widely available in the electorate until you go to vote so we are trying to get details of all candidates and make them available as soon as they are known.

Local events organised by political parties may be put in the Community Calendar.

We are getting quite a few members joining with political backgrounds of all colours (I am aware of LNP ALP and Citizens Electoral Council – quite a mix) and so far it seems to be working fine. Ideally these will prove to be locals who care about the area and want to work to make a difference locally here. Some are finding the Community Calendar tool a useful way of finding what is on – but the more people who contribute to it the more effective it is for this.

It is also important to keep in mind that the Transition Town movement is about creating local options for a future that we see severely affected by climate change and peak oil. Most political parties aren’t focusing on local resilience adapting in place and reducing our dependence on carbon-fuels the way Transition Towns are.

There is another reason why having involvement from members who are politically aware is valuable. These are usually people who also understand there is a lot to governing and providing all the systems and services we all rely on for our lives. Quite typically they want to join all the sub-groups about providing our core security and infrastructure. Great! This is where the real work of planning for our future here locally lies.

I hope that the Forums can be a place where locals of all political colours can discuss issues so that real wisdom emerges.

Warm regards

Anne Tennock

Subgroup Organiser