Wellington Governance

The purpose of this page is to clarify the roles and governance of both the "Transition Towns of Wellington" and the steering committee. Of particular interest is the relationship between the TToW and the individual Transition initiative around the Wellington region (Karori, Lower Hutt, Newtown, Brooklyn, etc)

Group Objective

Above all else, both Transition Towns of Wellington and it's steering group exist because of the twin challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change - to raise awareness, build resilience and reduce our carbon footprint.

Transition Towns of Wellington - An Initiating Hub

What type of Transition initiative this group represents has been discussed both at the Wellington wide meeting and at the recent steering group meeting. Some of the points raised:

• Transition Town initiatives should be at the suburb level as Wellington is too large an area to transition initially as a whole
• however, individual suburbs currently do not have many people interested in Transition Towns (that we know about), many suburbs only having one person
• so, transition initiatives at the suburb level could use some initial support and networking oportunities that could be provided by a hub
• at this stage, we are not in a position to offer the full services of a Hub
• What we can offer are:
  • a roadshow crew - help with showing awareness raising films
  • this wiki, with content regularly updated
  • a Wellington Email Group
  • opportunities to network via meetings, the email group, notices of events other members are attending
  • a generic flyer to which you can add your contact details for your suburb

So, at present the purpose of Transition Towns of Wellington is to initiate and support community level transition initiatives in the Wellington area. This type of activity will probably be sufficient for the next 6 months or so - once there are a few transition initiatives up and running at the suburb level the group may like to revisit what it is that this hub should provide.

Role of the Steering Group

At the first meeting of the steering group, we went briefly down the road of "the job of the steering group is to get us through the first 5 steps..." and then came back to the fact that we are a steering group for an initiating hub not an individual transition initiative. So, in fact, we think our job at this point is mainly to assist with raising awareness (step 2) and laying the foundations (step 3). This currently consists of providing the Roadshow Crew, information stalls at events like Bike Week and the Organic River Festival, networking with existing related groups and activists, and strengthening our connections to Transition iniatives in the UK and around Aotearoa.

It is suggested in the primer that once there are 4 to 5 working groups, the steering group should be re-formed with a member from each of those groups. In our case it may make sense for us to re-form when there are 4 to 5 community level transition initiatives with their own steering groups, and one from each can form the steering group for wellington.