Initial Transition Kalamazoo Meeting

The next meeting of the group interested in forming a Transition Initiative for the Kalamazoo area will be Friday, March 7, at 7 p.m., at the WMU Office for Sustainability, which has kindly offered its facilities for this meeting. The Office is at the SE corner of W. Michigan and Howard St. (in what was formerly a University Bookstore). There’s a parking lot beside and behind the building, with a driveway off West Michigan. No fee or sticker required.

We’ll let the agenda pretty much establish itself during this meeting. Here are some possibilities for discussion:

We could exchange thoughts and ideas about our vision for Kalamazoo Transition. We could exchange ideas on the areas of interest each of us has, with a view to both getting to know each other better and also moving toward establishing some working groups. We could begin an assessment or “inventory” of what components and agencies are already here, in the Kalamazoo area, working towards Transition and resilient community. We could begin forming and scheduling a study group to discuss The Transition Companion, especially the section on “Starting Out.”

Many of you saw the film In Transition 2.0 at our last meeting, back in December at First Congregational Church, or have seen one of my programs about Transition; so you’re already acquainted with the movement. Even if you didn’t and don’t know much about Transition, we hope you’ll come to this next meeting, especially if you’re simply curious at this point and aren’t sure how much you want to be involved. We’ll have some informative literature and some informed folks you can talk with. Among our number will be Mike Hoag, a founder of McHenry County Transition (Illinois) and Derek Kanwischer, a founder of Missoula Transition (Montana).

We’ll also be scheduling some future meetings. Our next one will be sometime in April, probably at the First Congregational Church again–they’re eager to be supportive. We’ll keep you informed about what’s to come.

Yours, in Transition and in peace,

Tom

Kalamazoo Transition meeting: An “open space,” free-format discussion for anyone interested in helping Kalamazoo adapt to the related problems of environmental degradation, resource depletion, and instability of our financial system. Doors open at 6:30, discussion from 7:00-8:30.

For more info on what the Transition movement is, see here: http://www.transitionnetwork.org/