Transition Tyndale Meeting 1st May 2013 Scott’s Cafe Forum Cinema
Chair : David
Notes : Barbara
Present : Debbie, Kate, Jo, Richard, Roly, Jane, Wendy, Sue,
Apologies received from Ross, Gill, Megan, Pat, Phil, Roger, Andrew & Kat, Anderw Auld, Mark Slipperly.
1. Energy Fair 11th May Trinity Church Hall 10am – 4pm. Volunteers are needed from 8am to help set-up; meet and greet; also we hope to be able to have energy monitors to lend out on this occasion.
2. Incredible Edible Todmorden Trip 18th May Richard will send out an email for people to sign up to travel by mini-bus. There will be a tour of the town and a presentation.
3. Love Your Bike 3 25th May will be held at West End Methodist.
4. Transition Free Press was available for £1 from Debbie. It was agreed with our Treasurer, Wendy, that Debbie be reimbursed for the whole purchase and return the money from sales to T.T.
5. Car Share Scheme: Jane and Susannah had a meeting with NCC Local Transport Officers – Margaret Robinson, Richard Mackenzie, and Co-Wheels. £35,000 is earmarked for the purchase of two probably hybrid cars, arrangements of street parking consultation by the charging points is required but the project could be launched this summer. Jane asked for T.T. Volunteers to help with publicity and management of the Car Club that will cost £25 and the cars will be hired to members at an hourly rate.
6. 25th May Farmer Market Seedling Swop on T.T. Stall. Please bring surplus seedlings from your or your friends supply and collect rare and wonderful specimens provided by other people. Flowers, herbs, salad, veggies and surplus seeds
This is a summary of the views of those present regarding campaining.
Discussion about campaigning initiated through various scenarios presented by David,( see previous post) were scaled depicting T.T. engaging with complex controversial issues to
local education and awareness raising.
We agreed that individual members of T.T. would represent their views on sustainability and resilience by active engagement with projects meeting our objectives.
We could achieve our objects by facilitating local neighborhood actions, campaigning to influence our local authorities such as our MP, NCC, Town or Parish Councils, and provide or organize or promote educational and awareness raising initiatives.
It was agreed that TT is not aligned to any political party but does support initiatives towards energy descent and ecological preservation and conservation by government.
It was also agreed that we could benefit from more expert knowledge on complex and controversial issues to ensure that our motivation and actions are aligned with our core beliefs.
We did not see ourselves as a protest group but an action group so individuals were not inclined towards confrontation but strongly inclined to building the local community spirit supporting and reinforcing our ideals.
Transition Tynedale 
I know that the campaigning question has been hotly debated in recent months. I’d agree with what’s recorded above. One thing the Rail Users’ Group (which is a campaign group) spends a lot of its time doing, either itself of via various regional groups, is lobbying and responding to consultations. There are plenty of issues, from energy to planning where Transition movements have something distinctive to say.
Interestingly, the Transition Network site has a piece titled Green politics? about an election campaign in Lancashire (https://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/caroline-jackson/2013-05/green-politics).