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MIMIC THIS! When you get invited to events 3000 miles away (or 20 of them just across town), use COPY & PASTE with the really interesting events to seed your own community's plans for similar events. Why start from scratch.... Beg, borrow and mimic! More....
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Made two presentations on Transition Towns recently... Interesting experience... PA EAC's and USGBC chapters a help

I have been doing two monthly sustainability video-discussion events for almost a 18 months. As usual, I didn't think to post the most recent events here, even they were on the Transition movement. I don't think I've ever had a response from this website. I was surprised by a nice turnout for both the Doylestown and the Warminster, PA events. Sold (at cost) several copies of the Trans Initiatives Primer. I missed out getting mailing list at both, but can recover most. I knew about half of the crowd.

As usual, I learned a lot in preparing for the events. I'm still doing a close read on the Primer.

It seems like I'll be starting either a Temporary Initiating Hub or a local Transition Hub. In my role as a Relocalization Coordinator (ECLA PA) I've built bridges and connections to many local environmental groups

Here in PA we have something called the Pensylvania Environmental Council (PEC: www.pecpa.org/) that does environmental education and advocacy statewide; discusses current issues and describes land use and water resources improvement projects around the state. They sponsor and help establish (by local enabling legislation) local EAC's (Environmental Advisory Councils) that have a fairly wide latitude to address global climate change and peak oil issues at the local level. Of course they're just advisory.

I'm very gradually introducing the notion that our local EAC could begin to approach the Transition Network. I'm starting this (obliquely) as an outreach through our local USGBC (Delaware Valley Green Building Council) who I've invited to make a new introductory presentation they've developed on green building. I plan to introduce the idea at our meeting tomorrow night by proposing a regional EAC event in late October or Early Nov. These regional gatherings were once popular and fell into disuse until recently. The regional meeting will be where I float the idea.

The option for us Pennsylvanians seems to be to have one if the EAC will embrace the Transition objectives at this time, or two orgs (one being the Transition NGO) where feasible. In Bucks County, where I'm located, about half the municipalities have EAC's.

I'll post the results as they come in.

I find that the most effective strategy for addressing GCC and PO by focusing on energy efficiency and conservation as matters of fiscal responsibility. It avoids a lot of climate and energy arguments (prevalent in this area) and paints opponents as being fiscally irresponsible.

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Comment by David Eggleton on September 23, 2011 at 7:19am: If I could, I'd delete my previous comment and replace it with a complete one.
What's missing was between brackets. The missing piece is:
"insert plausible peak oil scenario"

Comment by David Eggleton on September 23, 2011 at 7:16am: "What do you say instead of peak oil?"

Instead of asking if they know what a word or phrase means, we can ask if they have plans for . It can be direct or indirect, as in "How will life be different when gasoline costs $5.50/gallon?" If the reply is that they haven't thought about it, one can invite them to think about it with others. If the reply reveals curiosity about how that could develop, one can invite them to learn about it with others.

Knowing the names of things is not knowing the things.

Comment by Bill Eichman on September 22, 2011 at 8:01pm: Given the context, I assume GCC is an anagram of Global Climate Change, and PO is peak oil - is that correct?

If that is correct - 90% had never heard of peak oil?

What do you say instead of peak oil?

Comment by Alison Headland on September 22, 2011 at 7:40pm: I've actually stopped using PO as a term when promoting talks/presentations on the subject. I did an informal survey at our local Farmer's Market one day, and 90% of those folks I asked had never even heard of the term, let alone had a clue as to what it meant. I think the psychology of familiarity suggests that "when I don't know what the term means, it doesn't apply to me, ergo I have no interest in hearing about it".

Comment by Bill Eichman on September 17, 2011 at 3:15pm: What do you propose about conservation to these councils? What kinds of language and suggestions seem to get people's attention?

Comment by Clare Maher on August 29, 2011 at 7:35am: Keep up the good work! A friend in Delaware (Bear) is interested in Transistion Towns & community support groups. How can she find folks in her area?

Comment by Philip C. Wert on August 18, 2009 at 10:42pm: Hi Larry,
Nice to hear about others nearby interested in Transition, etc. Since becoming aware of Peak Oil about 1.5 years ago, I've spent a lot of time reading and thinking about how I can help. First, I concentrated on my own personal situation because, as you know, it can be a little unsettling. Because I serve on borough council here in West Reading, I'm trying to contemplate ways to get people thinking about things in a different way. It's hard because because the day-to-day stuff is basically the same as it's been and our budget was a bear to get through last year, with this year probably being even worse. I've also been involved in the 422 Corridor study to re-establish passenger rail in the Schuylkill Valley. I think it would go a very long way to getting us beyond the Happy Motoring paradigm. Anyway, good to hear from you.