Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mike Morin on February 12, 2010 at 3:02pm

I am very interested and would like to take the survey.

HOWEVER, sustainability is not enough and a survey that I belive we should want to participate in should also include the principles and objectives of inclusion, humanity, equity, altruism, participation, environmental/public health and well-being, cooperation, and hopefully a resultant peace.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kevin Wilson on February 12, 2010 at 9:58pm

On the first page, how many ppl involved in the TI - not clear whether it means the initiating/core group, those actively coming to events, or the email list of interested folks. Big difference in the numbers.

Question 21 - should include an option for your local TI website.

q 34 - what does "school service" mean? I'm assuming PTA or similar

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dan Thaler on February 13, 2010 at 4:44am

Who, besides the researchers and ourselves will see the results?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Chris Snyder on February 13, 2010 at 8:03am

I was using the Safari browser on my Mac to take the survey, finished the first page (6 questions), and at the bottom was a scroll bar showing I was at 6 of 54 questions, and two buttons labeled "Save" and "start" with no navigation arrows or "next" button for getting to the next page. So I assumed I had to save my answers and then it would go on to the next page. Nope, "save" booted me out of the survey entirely, and when I used Safari's back arrow, pushing the only other option of "start" caused it to tell me that my info was already "being processed", so I guess I don't get to finish mine.
Please make sure that your survey works on all platforms/ browsers, not just Windows Internet Explorer before you release it, and provide better instructions before people start as to what the various control buttons do and how users are to move through it and submit it at the end. I don't have any faith that the results of this survey will be an accurate representation of Transitioners, when some folks' input is excluded due to technical difficulties or lack of internet access, and there may be differences in transitioners between those who are motivated to take the survey, and those that aren't. A true scientific survey would strive for a 100% response from a random sample. If you have far more responses to the first six questions than all others, I'd take that as an indication that others had the same technical problems that I did. Also, have you taken precautions to ensure that some folks don't respond twice? I'm about to find out.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dave Ewoldt on February 13, 2010 at 10:21am

question 2
How do you define involvement? Core team and committees? People who have come to events and are supporters?

question 4
These really can't be rank ordered. One thing that is important to realize about relocalization in general is that it is systemic. Relocalization, and its unique manifestation in the transition movement, is the _process_ to create a sustainable future. It explicitly understands that these issues are interconnected, interdependent, and intimately intertwined.

For example, community building entails local self-reliance, local economies, health and well-being, and coalition building (relationships with other organizations). These all require acknowledging the _urgent_ necessity to craft realistic and viable responses to peak oil and global warming. While global warming may be the most important crisis facing life to deal with, none of them can be dealt with effectively in isolation.

question 6
Awareness-raising and community engagement (taking the red pill and having a viable alternative to offer), building links with other organizations (a hub organization), building connections with local government officials (having a seat at the table on policy discussions), business and economic activities (local currency), and food security and energy conservation are extremely important to people's lives as well.

question 36
There is quite a spectrum amongst these groups. For instance, while I trust Friends of the Earth, the Sierra Club is an unapologetic supporter of the status quo. While I strongly distrust both right wings of the Corporate War Party, I tend to trust the Green Party (on values anyway, not so much for effectiveness).

question 37
As the German Greens say, we're neither right nor left, we're out front. I'm actually more embarrassed by and distrustful of liberalism than by conservatism. And progressivism in the US does its best to marginalize anything that smells of populism, and has been quite successful at doing so since the late 1800s.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Randy Chatterjee on February 15, 2010 at 12:40am

I thought the survey was comprehensive and relatively non-judgmental. Although written for US residents, there was only one question where a Canadian Transitioner (and also American) had to "interpret" the question. (It concerned the website used for communication; question 21 I think.)

Dave, I also found some of the same questions you mentioned to be "unanswerable" or trivializing. The data will certainly be difficult to interpret in some cases, and it may be helpful to write Paolo and Rachel about egregious awkwardness and vagueness, such as the linear right-left political spectrum.

Jerry, I concur that this survey could be used to "normalize" a movement that is all about diversity. I hope our responses will show our diversity, as well as our awareness of those diverse strengths that will allow each Transition to take a different path to roughly the same end point.

Chris, Safari version 4.0 works. If you can upgrade, do so. Safari does lag behind other browsers in some functionality, and I use Firefox as my backup when I see trouble.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Andy Johnson on February 15, 2010 at 8:53am

I just took the survey. Safari 4.04 worked fine.

I filled out the survey for a group that does not call itself a "Transition group" but which is working on transition initiatives in its own way. So my answers maybe are not reflective of an actual transition group?

Question 4: There are other things that my group is doing that aren't on this list, that are their highest priority - they fall in the category of "greening the local structures/economy".

I think that Paolo is not going to get really useful fine-grained kind of information from this survey (of course). But maybe he will learn something about our beliefs and what we are working on.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jim Snyder-Grant on February 15, 2010 at 10:41am

I couldn't answer most of the questions, so I stopped filling it out. I'm part of a local environmental group that is not explicitly part of the transition movement, and the survey kept referring to "your local Transition Initiative (TI).", a non-existent entity in my case.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Rion D'Luz on February 15, 2010 at 1:17pm

Hello All:

I filled out the survey as best I could. Though I suspect that I'll question the validity/meaning of their results, it felt like the right thing to do. There is no transition group here (Johnson) and I'm following Montpelier and Hardwick here to keep abreast of all the good work going into organizing resources and people. Will attend events as able come end of winter.

For my wife and myself, food security and economic opportunity play center stage in our endeavors. My wife started a local Farmer's market last summer, a food buyers' club last month, and we are slowly making progress in developing (trying to at least) the Lamoille River Cooperative. Although this coop is 'consumer' focused - complete with programs like CSA's and community gardens, our goal is to eventually become a hub by incorporating producers as well; complete with shared cold storage, processing and slaughter facilities and the like. The only caveat is not stepping on existing toes and being able to form partnerships with the likes of DeepRoot and other similar .orgs.

Our hope is that organizing around food and food systems will garner the interest of the more mainstream populace and from there we can inform on other, more pressing, issues in non-political/religious contexts. For although we both wholeheartedly agree with the underlying premise(s) of TT (peak oil, climate change, end of civilization as we know it....) those subjects are nearly impossible for average people to wrap their heads around. Our plan is to try and get food to be the camel's nose in the tent:). FWIW, just food issues alone: food awareness, food choices, nutrition, local support of producers, etc. is challenging enough; despite the increased levels of awareness and the fantastic labors of great people around the State over the past 10-12 years related to local food.

So, who are the beneficiaries of this survey?
[quote]
Have you ever wondered who your fellow Transitioners are?  The values the movement really represents?  Priorities? Aspirations? Goals? Most popular activities? Have you ever wondered if local activities vary by gender, locality, or culture?  Or whether aspirations and goals vary by age
[/quote]
I realize VT is a 'small' place compared to other places and that it's relatively easy to cross paths and share; but the above ? does not really seem that hard to decipher as it is. One need only look at the events and people involved.

[quote]
...promotes the coordination of individual actions and behavior in order to solve large problems, such as a new organization of the economy based on environmental sustainability"
[/quote]
IMHO, Small and bottom-up has a chance for success as long as it stays that way:) Long live the new sociocracy!

[quote]
"...represents a radical departure from other social movement organizations that have instead used street demonstrations, picketing, lobbying, etc. for their actions."
[/quote]
IMHO, there is a place for that too. Just look at the worker coops in Buenos Aires; lots of direct action there as well as the equivalent of TT organizing.

I'm asking myself if the root of this movement reflects empowerment at the community/individual level
then the only difference between TT and ELF/ALF is how that power is garnered.
TT's assumption is that traditional power structures will be weakened to the point of
ineffectiveness (Big==fail) and direct-action types believe (ala chomsky) that power never cedes willingly.

By way of analogy look to the push for municipal Wifi being contested and defeated by Telco's in court. If TT collective/aggregate organization ever got to the point of challenging existing corp institutions and knowing that the State has big-business as it's primary constituent, TT may find that "street demonstrations, picketing, lobbying, etc. .." may become Plan B

Keep up the good work. Small is beautiful. Keep the spirit alive but don't forget to duck!

Rion D'Luz

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Judith Haran on February 21, 2010 at 3:30pm

The reason so many people have abandoned this survey is that the survey is directed only at people in established Iniativies. I bet most people like me and the friends I've convinced to join, simply are not members of any established initiative. The survey does not offer responses relevant to these people. I abandoned in on page 2 when I realized this.

• ▶ Reply