Here’s what we’ve been up to so far!

Saturday, January 25     Introduction to Transition in Kamloops: Two very full sessions totalling about 140 people were held, providing an introduction to the concept of the Transition Town movement. In each session, there was a one hour film on Transition Towns, a presentation on the global implications of climate change, a presentation from the founders of Transition Vernon, and a brain-storming session.  It was very inspiring to see so many people interested in making our community a healthier and more sustainable place to live!

The discussions focused on a variety of different topics with several common themes, which can be summarized as follows:

• sharing – housing, cars, tools, communal spaces, business cooperatives, skills, education
• healthy people and environment = good (permaculture)
• working together – worker cooperatives, neighbourhood associations, cooperative housing
• conserve resources – alternative transportation and energy, sustainable architecture

Some of the ideas discussed are things that happen in our community already, but on a small scale.  Most ideas focused on the possibilities and opportunities that exist, the potential for creating a really amazing community that will thrive and prosper for years to come.   Not all ideas were recorded — it was intended to get people’s brains churning with possibilities, and this is just the beginning of a great conversation!  Watch for future opportunities to develop these ideas and expand on them further by “liking” Kamloops 350 on our Facebook page.

Wednesday,  February 12  First Organizers Meeting

Kamloops Immigrant Services building; 26 people in attendance.

Raison d’être (Our reason for being)

We went through a preliminary  “Why are we here” exercise, first in five small groups and then with the entire group. The five groups came up with these statements.

1. Empowering our community through sustainability, food, energy and culture.
2. Attract people to act together toward a sustainable life.
3. A hub that connects positive things already happening and identifies gaps, raises awareness, creates space for discussion, …
4. Will provide a flexible infrastructure to support initiatives in Kamloops to make peoples’ lives better.
5. Will interconnect and support sustainable projects, reach out to new initiatives that contribute to greater community resilience while healing our dysfunctional relationship with the Earth.

Combined ideas: When we looked at the 5 statements, we found that the list of words and ideas given below resonated with us.  These will be the starting point of creating a mission statement for the group at a future event.

The role of transition is to

empower, connect, attract, act, support, heal, respect, and create

in order to, in the face of challenges, build a

sustainable, resilient, cooperative, humanitarian, flexible, fun, and transparent

community that has a positive relationship with the Earth.

 Group Name

We discussed a name for the group. What we decided on was “Transition Kamloops”. Not original at all, but most people felt that this allowed us to associate ourselves with the Transition Towns movement. There are, in fact, 20 Transition Towns established in BC and another 10 or so in the early stages like ours.

TEN website

Gisela, who moderates the Thompson Environmental Network website on behalf of Kamloops 350, suggested that we could:  a) post news here, and b) could actually take ownership of the website for Transition Kamloops including changing its name. The link is:

http://www.thompsonenvironmental.net/

 

Modeling the behaviour we wish to promote

It was suggested repeatedly that Transition Kamloops, while supporting and advocating for change, needs to also model the change we wish to see as much as possible, not only in projects that we may create and act on, but also in our behaviour. Among the small things that telegraph our core beliefs should include bringing our own mugs, etc., to meetings. They might also include car pooling (or avoiding cars) to attend meetings and events, and composting and recycling wastes from meetings.

 

Monday,  February 17  Organizers Potluck

Kamloops Immigrant Services building; 30 people in attendance.

• Delicious food. Successful carpooling to this event.
• An initiative to develop a skills inventory was started.
• Planning for:  Transition Launch workshop given by Michelle Colussi of Victoria, co-founder of Transition Victoria and Canada’s most experienced Transition Trainer. March 14-15.

 

Monday,  March 3  Organizers Meeting

Kamloops Immigrant Services building; 24 people in attendance.

• Exercises to get to know one another. Discussion of Kamloops using the SWOT planning model (Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats).  Lots of each identified!
• Final planning for:  Transition Launch workshop, March 14-15.
• The workshop is open to the public. The cost is $43.39.  For more information and to register, go to this link: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/transition-kamloops-launch-workshop-registration-10694709163

 

Our next event will be a workshop to help us learn how to build Transition Kamloops into an active, thriving entity that makes a difference in our community.  Join us for the Transition Kamloops Launch workshop, March 14 and 15.  Details here.