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About Transition Sebastopol

Overview and History of Transition Sebastopol

Transition Sebastopol was formed in the late summer of 2008 with a core group of people who had participated in a local discussion group called Peak Oil Sebastopol which was formed in 2007. Transition Sebastopol became an official Transition Town in December 2008 and was the 9th Transition Town in the US. There are now over 60 Transition initiatives in the US.

Transition Sebastopol's first public event was in January 2009 and in its first year held over 20 local public events. Transition Sebastopol currently has eight active working groups including four sub-groups of the Food Group (iGrow, Local Food Directory, Re-skilling, Seed Bank), two sub-groups of the Heart & Soul Group (Elders Salon, Meditation Collective), an Energy Group, and Transportation Group (Car-lite). Each week there are now several Transition Sebastopol events and many projects underway.

The mission of Transition Sebastopol is to create a positive vision of the future by cultivating community resilience in response to potential challenges of resource depletion, climate change, and economic instability.

Why Transition Sebastopol

The Transition approach empowers communities to squarely face the challenges of peak oil, climate change and global economic instability, and to unleash the collective genius of their own people to find the answers to this momentous question:

For all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how are we going to drastically reduce carbon emissions (in response to climate change), significantly rebuild resilience (in response to peak oil), and greatly strengthen our local economy (in response to economic instability)? Transition Initiatives make no claim to have all the answers, but by building on the wisdom of the past and accessing the pool of ingenuity, skills and determination in our communities, the solutions can readily emerge.

Now is the time for us to take stock and to start re-creating our future in ways that are not based on cheap, plentiful and polluting oil but on localized food, sustainable energy sources, resilient local economies and an enlivened sense of community well-being.

Read about the history of the Transition movement on the Transition US site.

About the Transition Sebastopol Working Group Council

The Transition Sebastopol Working Group Council, or WGC, is made up of a representative from each working group in Transition Sebastopol (TS). The council meets regularly to decide on pertinent issues brought forth by various working groups or community interests, to clarify the TS constitution, to create policies and procedures as needed, to determine the evolving role of TS in the community and to make sure the administration of TS is running effectively.

The WCG would like to make sure the wider transition community knows that all working group council meetings have an open door policy. People who would like to attend a meeting may do so, in order to listen and witness our discussions on transition issues and decisions. Please see our calendar of events for upcoming meeting dates.

Into Another Great Year!

Dear Transition community,

As we review our past year we can be excited about the year to come. Our restructuring has produced a Working Group Council, made up of representatives from each of our working groups, a Constitution, and a Charter. These elements will serve as a foundation for the growth we expect to see this coming year.

We have already had many new people relocate to Sebastopol specifically to be involved in Transition Sebastopol. All of us in Transition welcome you. With the completion of our restructuring we will re-continue our community potlucks and mixers each month, which will give all of us more opportunities to connect.

We are also preparing to launch several additional working groups. A sample of just a few are: an education group, a water group, a group that helps people form communities and establish place, and a community support group.

We are looking forward to all the different events we will be sponsoring this year, including the Reskilling events, Heart and Soul, the Seed Exchange, Ready for Anything, Energy, Transportation, the Elder Salon, and the Transition to Sustainable Living Course.

Thank you for all your support. Happy Holidays, and we look forward to your participation in this great experiment of community transition in the New Year.

About our Working Groups & the TS Working Group Council

Transition Sebastopol is a grass roots; all volunteer movement that is comprised of working groups. The working groups are formed to address a particular aspect of our community needs and further the greater agenda of helping us all become more resilient and sustainable.

Cheerful Disclaimer

Just in case you were under the impression that Transition is a process defined by people who have all the answers, you need to be aware of a key fact.
We truly don't know if this will work. Transition is a social experiment on a massive scale.
What we are convinced of is this:
* if we wait for the governments, it'll be too little, too late
* if we act as individuals, it'll be too little
* but if we act as communities, it might just be enough, just in time.
Everything that you read on the transition town http://transitiontowns.org site is the result of real work undertaken in the real world with community engagement at its heart. There's not an ivory tower in sight, no professors in musty oak-panelled studies churning out erudite papers, no slavish adherence to a model carved in stone.
This site, just like the transition model, is brought to you by people who are actively engaged in transition in a community. People who are learning by doing - and learning all the time. People who understand that we can't sit back and wait for someone else to do the work. People like you, perhaps...

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