East Otago Transition Collaboration

Hi Peta and all,
I appreciated representing the Peninsula on behalf of the Peninsula group at the IN TRANSITION premiere because it gave me an insight thanks to your inspiring email of all the stuff that is going on: we all hear good stories but a short sharp synthesis is really valuable. And of course the dynamci Maureen Howard was there to add depth to my sketchy knowledge.
My feeling is that we don't need any more databases - they exist aplenty. What the "In Transition" evening demonstrated to me was that there are a good number of active communities, all with their own internal dynamics, and all were searching for more effective ways of working together. Each community is often very busy just making those internal dynamics work, however occasionally, and around certain issues, those same communities could move mountains if they pulled together.
An idea expressed at the premiere evening was to form 'working groups' - real people from each community working on specific issues and meeting in real space and real time to do so. Those 'working groups' would be comprised of one or two individuals from each integrated community, and would work on an action over a specific period. Those individuals would also be vectors of information for each community as well, as inevitably they'd learn about each community, and so we'll be able to tighten the links between us through the practice of working groups. I am certain that there will be many incidental benefits - connections of like minded people and spread of workshops etc, but the deep goal would be to build structural resilience and social strength, through our methods and forms of communication and action.

As with all the initiatives so far, the parameters we put around them (geographical) are related to need and the real shape of things on the ground, and those parameters change as we adapt to new situations on the ground. My feeling is that East Otago can be Peninsula north to Hampden, and coastal if that works for everybody, but that's something to be discussed.

So:
1. Mechanics: via email on TT forums to settle on Working Groups? or other? Or, establishing something simple like a Google Group for each Working Group (assuming we go for this) as the key 'work site' when working at distance, and using the other forms for general discussion and public expression of progress?
2. Why working groups? Well, there are issues (Rainwater Harvesting, Regional Food Strategy, Transport - Rail particularly) that could be rapidly progressed with a combined effort, with little distraction from the daily business of each local group, yet could provide wonderful returns for each group and harness the specific talents of one or two key individuals within each group.

This isn't the only place to discuss this - but as is always the case when collaborating with different groups - we need to try out different platforms to find the one that suits!