Transition Pt Chevalier Minutes 11 February 2014

Present: Keith, Adrian, Walter, Yolanda, Niki, Adrienne, Deryn, Anne, Jenny, Chris

Apologies: Anna, Ally, Ellen, Bruce

Brought gifts of vegetable and fruit but couldn’t stay: Terry

Self and World Course – Deryn spoke about this course and whether to advertise it to the Transition Pt Chevalier community – we said yes! It is a psychosynthesis course about and for people working on/with sustainability. It encourages people to become involved with issues. It is five weekends over the year, based in Oratia. For more details see (scroll down to find the course)

http://www.psychosynthesis.co.nz/psychosynthesis-courses/

Accounts and room booking – The Springs of Life room we are using is $28 per session, Niki has paid out of the TPC account for the first five months of this year. It is booked for the whole year – 2nd Tuesday of every month up to and including November.

Hosting – A “host” is needed for each meeting. This involves getting the key (ideally at the end of the previous meeting), opening up a little early, bringing tea/milk and a small amount of food to share. So far Walter has offered for March, Adrienne April, Adrian May, and Yolanda June.

St Helier’s presentation – Yolanda spoke to a group in St Heliers who are wanting to start a Transition Town about our group. She updated a Powerpoint originally used by Niki (let one of us know if you are ever in need of it). As Yolanda pointed out, we have done a lot over the years!

Neighbourly website – This is a new (not yet launched) initiative that Yolanda found out about at her St Helier’s visit, designed by the makers of Grab One - www.neighbourly.co.nz. It looks like it could be a great way to connect with each other. Niki currently has the materials, so please let me know if you’d like to take a look. nikiharre@xtra.co.nz.

Relationships, co-ops and expanding the group – Niki raised the concept of our group being essentially about relationships – that is, finding ways of relating to each other that enact and demonstrate other ways of living. There are lots of ways to do this, but having practical relationships – i.e. things we do together that replace or take over from status-quo practices, seems like a powerful possibility. The community garden is an excellent example of an ongoing way of relating and “doing”. Food is one possibility for “relationships of practice” - the purchasing group already does this, e.g. with the avocados, nuts, honey, blueberries and other foods from time to time. But it could be good to have more of our food sourced in this way (through for example, Ceres and Trade Aid) bypassing the supermarket and relying more on each other for this essential component of life.

Walter also talked about attempting to open-up and expand the group, and how we could do that effectively.

The discussion covered:

a)

Ceres has a $500 a month requirement that means we would need to be well-organised and committed. Others talked about their coops – with Anne & Walter, Adrian and Adrienne already being in coops that work for them. Trade Aid seems more straight forward – Niki to investigate.

b)

That we have deep relationships with each other already and maybe could have more social events to nurture these further.

c)

That we could help bring people into the group by following up with those who turn up and showing them warmth and friendliness.

d)

That we need to offer something to people who come to us, rather than hoping they will energise us. That offering could be in the form of more structured/meaningful meetings that seem to have a “purpose” and so newcomers can see the value in simply coming along, or these practical relationship networks (the garden, co-ops etc), or other initiatives.

Communications change-over. The meeting expressed deep thanks to Bruce for taking on this role for so long and gratitude to Guido for taking over. We would like an event to celebrate this, Adrienne will liaise with Deryn  to organise something.

Data-base for alternative holidays Anne suggested we establish a database of local or low resource holidays that we can share with each other and beyond. The idea was well received, and to be discussed or developed further.

The infinite game – This is a workshop and short course being developed by Niki that is designed to explore how to live well together. You will receive an invitation through the email list. We discussed good times and it is likely to be 4 – 6pm on Sundays for three months.

Gardening – Jenny told us about  gardengenie.co, a new website offering help to novice gardeners.

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