Events

Please join us at the Sebastopol Grange on Highway 12 for this special event with Richard Heinberg.

With oil production peaking, climate changing, the economy faltering, and fresh water, soil, fish, and minerals depleting at alarming rates, we must aim to increase society’s resilience—its ability to absorb shocks while continuing to function.
   
That means re-localizing much economic activity. We must aim also to shore up basic support services, education, and cultural benefits, while de-emphasizing economic activity that entails non-essential consumption of resources. 

If ever there was a time to get to work and build a resilient community…it is clearly now.

Join us for an evening with Richard Heinberg:

Tuesday, November 16th 
7 – 9 pm  (come early – limited seating)

Suggested donation $10-$20

Location:
Sebastopol Grange Hall 
6000 Sebastopol Ave/Hwy 12

Printable flyer available here (help us spread the word!)

About Richard Heinberg:

Richard is a Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute and is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost Peak Oil educators. He has authored scores of essays and articles that have appeared in numerous journals and on-line publications. He has appeared in many film and television documentaries, including Leonardo DiCaprio’s 11th Hour, and is a recipient of the M. King Hubbert Award for Excellence in Energy Education. Since 2002, he has given over three hundred lectures on oil depletion to a wide variety of audiences.  
 
Richard Heinberg is the author of nine books including: Blackout: Coal, Climate, and the Last Energy Crisis (2009), Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines (2007), The Oil Depletion Protocol: A Plan to Avert Oil Wars, Terrorism & Economic Collapse (2006), Powerdown: Options & Actions for a Post-Carbon World (2004) and The Party's Over: Oil, War & the Fate of Industrial Societies (2003). You can order Richard's books here.
 
This event will benefit Transition US, Transition Sebastopol and the Sebastopol Grange. 
Please bring a canned or packaged food item for the Redwood Food Bank. 
For more info: (707) 318-5046

Thank you to WaccoBB for helping us spread the word.

The Transition Sebastopol Energy Group presents Marcin Jakubowski on "Economy in a Box: Reaching Post-Scarcity Escape Velocity."

Join us for an eye-opening presentation that may explode your index of possibilities – or at the very least – that will leave you with a fresh view on the possibilities before us. This will be a 45 minute presentation followed by a question and answer session.

Suggested donation: $5 (nobody turned away for lack of funds)
Very limited seating, so please arrive early.

Marcin is also speaking on Tuesday night, November 16 in Cotati hosted by Transition Cotati. Details here.

The presentation summarizes the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) – an advanced industrial economy-in-a-box which may be replicated inexpensively anywhere in the world. The GVCS provides the key building blocks for creating modern, resilient, post-carbon communities in a bootstrapping fashion. We will push the limits of thinking and practice of how the GVCS can break the feasibility and cost barriers of building communities from the ground up. This presentation will cover a bold program of requirements which would allow replication cost to reach a minimum. We believe that our discussion is worthwhile because these are not pipe dreams – but realities that we’re substantiating with daily results from Factor e Farm, our living laboratory.

Location: Guayaki Cafe & Mate Bar
6782 Sebastopol Avenue
(opposite Gravenstein Station/Coffee Catz)
Sebastopol

About Marcin Jakubowski:

Marcin Jakubowski received his Ph.D. in fusion physics from the U. Wisconsin, Madison, and has taken a mid-course correction by founding Open Source Ecology (OSE). He will be discussing OSE's work in the presenation - The Global Village Constrcuction Set - An Economy in a Box.

The Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) is an advanced industrial economy in a box that can be deployed inexpensively anywhere in the world. This social experiment aims to demonstrate, first, that a community of 5 skilled people with the proper tools may attain a comfortable lifestyle (100% food, fuel, energy, housing, and technology needs) with 2 hours of work per day with local resources. Second, OSE aims to demonstrate that a ~200 person resilient community can be created with a capacity to produce all of its own technology, up to the 1990s level of microchip fabrication – also with similar 2 hour per day work schedules.

The cost of creating such a community, and the cost of living, is reduced to one tenth the normal thanks to lifetime design and the savings from using open source software and hardware designs. The components of the GVCS are essential to life and work in the system - rather than decorative knick-knacks - and are "designed for disassembly" so each component, like the LifeTrac tractor for example, is easy to repair with bolts and simple tools such as wrenches, and is easy to modify and improve.

This project aims to collate all learnings of humanity to date regarding quality, modern lifestyles, minus any compromises associated with the status quo. The GVCS is designed to be applicable in any location where soil, sunshine, and water are found. The completion of the GVCS introduces the possibility of closing the industrial divide between the ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ worlds. The GVCS is a radical departure whereby individuals are empowered to take responsibility for the world around them – as creators instead of consumers. OSE focuses on turning ‘dirt and sticks’ into advanced civilization via application of modern technology to abundant, local resources. If this is achieved, by tapping humanity's unlimited creative potential – we just may begin evolving to freedom.

Key Links:

• Weblog: http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/
• How to Build a Post-Scarcity Village: http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/2009/09/ose-presence-at-paraflows-festiva... 5 min video
• OSE featured in Plenitude: New Economics of Real Wealth: http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/2010/07/plenitude-the-new-economics-of-tr... – 3 min video
• Economy in a Box: http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/2010/07/economy-in-a-box-presentation-rep... presentation – 45 min video
• Progress on the ground:
  - tractor: http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/2010/07/lifetrac-ii-frame-2/
  - CEB press< <http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/2010/06/full-product-release/
  - hole puncher < <http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/2010/07/open-source-150-ton-hole-puncher/ 
  - torch table < <http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/2010/01/reptab-open-source-torch-table-in-make-zine/
  - crowd funding< <http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/2010/07/getting-ready-to-build-a-better-future/

A Wisdom Council Discussion Group of Transition Sebastopol 

Calling All Elders, Earth Elders, Wannabe Elders, Soon-to-become Elders, or Interested Baby Boomers on up! 


The Elder Salon is a nonhierarchical circle of peers. We’ll introduce the discussion with some thoughts from an elder voice or thought-provoking instigator to kick off our own discovery of what it is WE think and believe about the topic; what WE want and need now and in our future; what WE think should be the course of action and attitudes as we progress into and through our older years

WHY: There are a lot of new ideas about aging, staying youthful in body and spirit, and our role in society and local life. What have our generational contributions been and what is left undone? What are our mistakes and triumphs?

If we don’t want others to determine what becomes of us in very old age, we need to be proactive and begin making conscious, thoughtful choices about our future, how we want to live and be regarded. What role do elders want to play in the coming changes; what wisdom can we offer?

Reminder to all: the Elders Salon is regular and ongoing.

When:

During November & December, we will be meeting the THIRD Thursday of the month (to avoid conflict with the holidays).
Usually the fourth Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m.

Location:
Sequoia Village Cohousing Common House
459 Sequoia Lane, Sebastopol —
(off Covert Lane, opposite Pacific Market (Fiesta) and west a little, before Pleasant Hill Rd.)
Please PARK ON THE STREET!

see more about this group here: http://transitionsebastopol.org/aboutelderssalon

facilitated by Julia Bystrova, Angel Rodriguez and Kari Stettler

You are invited to participate in a "What is Community?"  presentation, salon, and experiential workshop.

The salon will be asking such questions as:

• “What do we want our community to be like?"
• "What are we doing to make that happen?"
• "What works in this community?"
• "What doesn't work and how could we shift it?"

This will be a juicy, deep and frank discussion about what is in our hearts, souls and minds about this community we live. 
The discussion will be followed by experiential exercises that generate a sense of community, based on Joana Macy's work.

Location:
St. Stephens Church
500 Robinson Way
Sebastopol

We look forward to your presence!

Please note NEW LOCATION!
 
Come nourish and rejuvenate your Heart and Soul in an atmosphere of singing, sharing, poetry and meditation. We will sing songs from across the devotional landscape, and bask in the joy, love and community of being together in a heart space. 
This November, our theme will be giving thanks.

Bring your instruments, songs, poems and heartfelt expressions as you feel inspired, or just come and follow along. This is a sacred space event, facilitated to hold a deep and loving space for us to share.

When:
Sunday, November 21,
7:30- 10 p.m. (Circle at 8)

Socializing will be before and after the event.

Bring snacks or drinks to share, firewood for the fire and cushions/blankets to sit on.

Location:
St. Stephens Church
500 Robinson Way
Sebastopol (NOTE NEW LOCATION!)

This monthly event is specifically intended as a way to come together with our hearts. As we share in this way, we stabilize and grow our love in these times of greater concerns.

Join us for a FREE 2-hour introduction to the new Model of Transition for Sustainable Living (MTSL) program.
(Cost for subsequent classes will cover cost materials. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.)

Location:
St. Stephens Church
500 Robinson Way
Sebastopol

About the Model of Transition for Sustainable Living (MTSL) program

The Model of Transition for Sustainable Living (MTSL) program consists of twelve modules—one of which will be covered each month, from December 2010 through November, 2011.  Together they will provide an overall perspective on current thinking and technology, as well as practical skills for everyday sustainable living.  The MTSL program includes a Workbook/Planner, a Reader, a Resource Directory, a Journal, and a series of Visual Aides.

The program has been designed to work in concert with local participating businesses and organizations.  The mission of the program is to empower you to act; to transition you from wherever you are today, to a lifestyle that is highly sustainable, within the one-year time period of the course.  Therefore, the program consists of 20% theory and 80% practical application. 

Regular classes will begin on January 8 and 9. Through 2011, classes will be held the second weekend of every month (except December).

Overview of Module 1: