Daily News and Info: Volunteer Positions Available
Transition Guelph is looking to fill two volunteer job positions: Website Developer, and Graphic Designer. If you're interested in either of these positions, please check out the job descriptions here.
Climate change. Economic instability. Peak oil and resource depletion. Environmental degradation. These are just a few of the most pressing issues of our time. The Transition movement, which is spreading quickly around the world, provides a foundation upon which to build a promising future together that is more fulfilling, creative and sustainable. Transition is a process for strengthening community resilience and building sustainability that is uniquely designed by each community based on their local needs and resources.
Based in Guelph Ontario, Canada, Transition Guelph is proud to be Canada's second official Transition Initiative, joining Peterborough, Ontario, Canada's first, on May 14, 2009. The transition movement is gaining a strong foothold in Canada and around the world, with over 275 official Transition Initiatives worldwide and, as of August, 2012, twenty-three in Canada. Thousands more communities worldwide are in the initial organizing stages. (For a complete list, see www.transitionnetwork.org.)
When: Thursday, May 30, 2013 to Sunday, June 30, 2013
Where: See PDF for details
We're looking for people to join the Guelph-Wellington Time Bank Working Group. There are many interesting and exciting opportunities available, and all work offered will be reimbursed in Time Bank credit hours. Click here for a PDF document describing the job opportunities and contact information.
For more information on the Guelph-Wellington Time Bank, visit the Time Bank page.
Personal and Community Resilience: Training for Life in These Times
What: 2-day workshop
When: Wednesday, June 19, 2013 to Thursday, June 20, 2013
Where: St. Brigid's Villa, Ignatius Jesuit Centre
There is much to do for the transition away from destructive fossil fuel dependency toward a life-enhancing society. There is also a lot to BE -- effective collaborative partners, harmonious neighbours, clear, trustworthy communicators, open and supportive friends.
In our busy days full of projects for resilient natural ecosystems, local food systems, economic opportunities in the community, educating for a transitioned world, and others, it can be challenging to attend to our inner experience and the quality of our relationships. Just as we re-skill for low-impact, high-satisfaction living, we need to train for personal resilience. And as we give space to our inner world, we re-balance and reconnect to feeling abundantly resourced and revitalised.Together we cultivate the skills needed to form and maintain strong connections for our communities' resilient future.
A unique opportunity has presented itself with the arrival of Sophy Banks, a Trainer for Transition and part of the global Transition Network, based in Totnes, UK, who will be with us in Guelph for several days this spring. The workshop will be co-facilitated by our own Sally Ludwig. I hope you can save the dates now for a two-day workshop offered June 19 and 20 at Ignatius Jesuit Centre. Please reserve a place early, as attendance will be limited to 25 participants.
Please note: This workshop will be filmed - by skilled people we trust - to be part of a film on community resilience in response to climate change.
Cost and registration: Basic cost for this workshop is $50, payable upon registration. The actual full cost of the workshop weekend is around $100 (depending on number of participants), but we leave it up to each participant to decide after the course, if and how much they want to contribute to this course as a way of gratitude and support of its continuity in the future.
We don’t want cost to prevent anyone who wants to from attending. If you cannot afford to pay $50, or have any queries please contact info@transitionguelph.org .
A new study finds “a nearly tenfold increase in melt intensity” on the Antarctic Peninsula in the last few hundred years. Here’s the most worrisome news from this 1000-year reconstruction of ”ice-melt intensity and mean temperature” published in Nature Geoscience: The warming has occurred in progressive phases since about AD 1460, but intensification of melt is nonlinear, and has largely occurred since the mid-twentieth century.
This is potentially an indication that climate change has now past the stability point and is now into globally non-linear accelerating change. If so, this is very bad news.
An independent 2012 report, entitled 2012 Nutritional Analysis: Comparison of GMO Corn versus Non-GMO Corn, found numerous concerning and notable differences between GMO and non-GMO corn, none of which are particularly surprising.
"Humanity is not a bunch of lemmings marching unstoppably toward a cliff. There is such a thing as free will…. People please wake up! For the sake of young people, future generations, and other life on our planet, don’t settle for what some “experts” say is the best we can do." —James Hansen
Hensen is the director of the Goddard Institute for Space Research at NASA. His credentials are impeccable, and he has been, since the early 1970s among the most vocal of scientists warning about climate change. This article describes his 11th-hour strategy for exercising our fast-dwindling options to mitigate the worst of climate change before it's too late.
What is most exciting to me this month in the Transition movement? So much great stuff is happening – the potluck on the 19th, Timebank really taking off, Appleseed Collective working in the beautiful orchard entrusted to our care, Transitioners participating in The Natural Step’s Accelerate conference, and more.
I’m looking forward to all these with great anticipation and – most of all – eagerly awaiting the visit of Sophy Banks! She will be in North America from the UK Transition Network and is bringing two very special opportunities for Transition Guelph volunteers.
First is a two-day workshop on June 19th and 20th titled Personal and Community Resilience: Training for Life in Our Time (see event details above). Co-facilitated by the wonderful and knowledgeable Ms. Banks and by (yours truly) me, our group will explore the inner dimension of Transition with teaching, peer learning, and a variety of experiential and expressive arts activities. For more information please visit: http://www.eventbrite.ca/event/6390364753/?ref=estw#
Second, on Saturday, June 22nd Sophy will offer a fantabulous free coaching session for our volunteers – that’s you! The day will be informal and lively, with tools and material from the Transition: Thrive training to help us look at our movement, assess its strengths and identify areas to grow and improve. If you can join us for all or part of the day, please register at http://sophycomestoguelph.eventbrite.ca/# or RSVP ami@transitionguelph.org.
What a thrill it is to work with Sophy for the benefit of TG and our Guelph community! I hope you will share in one or both of these great events. They promise a powerful chance to expand and deepen our connection as a group and gain perspective on our best ways to promote resilience in this unique and special city of ours.
In transition,
Sally
Thought for the Day
It's difficult to get a man to understand something if his salary depends on him not understanding it.
-- Upton Sinclair - (quoted on The Oil Drum website)More...
Rob Hopkins: The Transition Handbook
A great introduction to the Transition Town idea. About 5 min long.
In 2011, Transition Guelph launched its first Resilience Festival as a way of reaching out to the broader community, engaging other groups and organizations, and inspiring our citizens to get involved, to help build a stronger and more resilient city. It was a phenomenal success! Since then TG has hosted Resilience 2012 and Resilience 2013, partnering with more groups, hosting a greater number of events, and seeing more and more of the community coming out, enjoying the day, learning, and having fun!
Most of the events are free or by donation, and each year the festival culminates in one of our most popular events, the Earth Hour candlelight pot-luck dinner and concert!
To learn more about the Guelph Resilience Festival, please visit the festival website at:
Movies, we got 'em! The Transition Guelph lending library has over 30 titles on the shelf, and you can borrow them, free of charge, for a period of two weeks. Hold a screening in your home for family and friends, discuss the movie afterwards. It's a great way to raise awareness around the key issues of our time, and to examine the possibilities for change. Here are a few random titles for you to check out:
The most recent blog posting was titled: "Community as Wealth", posted on Tue, Jun 11, 2013:
“We are stealing the future, selling it to the present, and calling it GDP.” – Paul Hawken
Donald Trump, you can kiss my… Wait. Sorry, let me begin again…
Okay, here’s something that I think is real...
LGBTTIQQ Positive Space