kim
Occupied
Posts: 82
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Post by kim on Oct 23, 2011 9:31:56 GMT -7
The first Free School classes will take place Thursday, Oct. 27. The discussion topic is the concept of Transition Towns. Gabe will facilitate. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to join!
This study group will be meeting each Thursday evening from 5:30 to 6:30 at the University UC Center, first floor in the large open area.
If you would like to facilitate a class, one way you can do that is to post your study topic idea to this forum by signing up then clicking "New Thread." Be sure to state the study group subject, and the dates and times you are available to meet.
Developing our critique allows us to create a more effective movement. I believe that we all have something to teach and we all have much more to learn.
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"You ll be sort of surprised what there is to be found once you go beyond Z and start poking around ”
― Dr. Seuss
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Post by bedouina on Oct 25, 2011 9:43:16 GMT -7
Thanks, transition towns sounds like a great topic for a first meeting, I will do my best to attend. I am interested in setting up barter systems for goods/services. Great day!
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Post by piglet on Oct 26, 2011 23:45:47 GMT -7
Bartering ;D
Usury free currency ;D
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Post by johnmak on Oct 27, 2011 10:38:34 GMT -7
why are these study groups scheduled at the same time as our weekday GA's?
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Post by KimB on Oct 27, 2011 14:26:02 GMT -7
These study group meetings were scheduled prior to the GAs being scheduled on Thursdays at 6 pm. The week that these meetings were arranged, the GAs were on Mon-Wed-Fri.
It's all a work in progress, pls keep the patience!
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Post by johnmak on Oct 27, 2011 19:10:06 GMT -7
Sorry Kim - I wasn't meaning to offend. My post does sound more gruff than I had intended. John
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Post by piglet on Oct 27, 2011 22:01:04 GMT -7
 We look forward to coming next week. I like seeing new faces and building community at a human level too. I would also like to say that I hope the Thursday day/time continues as I like to combine my trips to town for as many events as possible and the Peace and Justice Film series screens each Thursday night at 7pm, also in the University Center. I think this many have been deliberate actually. Good thinking!
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kim
Occupied
Posts: 82
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Post by kim on Oct 28, 2011 19:38:23 GMT -7
About 12-15 people met in the open area in the first floor of the UC Center. After we all introduced ourselves and gave each other an idea of why each of us was at the discussion, we kicked off the discussion by watching the a brief, 18 minute video: Rob Hopkins: Transition to a world without oil.You can see the video at this link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8meWY0W40OAFrom this video, the group explored the concept of Community resilience, or how communities withstand shocks from outside. Rob Hopkins outlines some areas of community investment that various transition towns are exploring: garden share and community food and agriculture development, alternative currencies (bringing it local, e.g. Lewes Dollar), energy descent planning (creating plans to move away from energy dependence) and engage with local government. Permaculture and food dependence were a focus. Debby brought up the "Slow Cities" concept, where local governments of towns committed to creating local economies by specializing and encouraging trade between towns. The commune model was compared/contrasted as well, and the idea of exclusivity vs inclusivity, or more generally scale. I said I hate people (no just kidding!). But there is a question of can we all just get along? We need to find the language and tools to return our dignity to us, using technology as a tool to unite us but still maintaining contact on a human level. We briefly touched on work specialization but the importance of keeping specialization balanced with social purpose, and not falling into long repetitive, soul-eating hours of Work as We Know It or Work for Work's Sake. Dependency (maintained by our reliance on the dollar) vs resiliency (supported by a local currency). The "We trade network" is available in Missoula but open only to businesses & values trades in dollars; other forms of "banking hours" in an online network to be traded for other people's services, etc have been modeled. However, it was questioned whether these maintain the inequities of the existing system. Dave suggested Michael Albert/Parecon or participatory economics, a model of job complexes, which is a total re-imagining of work. Hudson recommended energybulletin.net, and mentioned the 12 steps to live better (I think these are the steps of the Transition Town idea, but Hudson, maybe you can provide more detail on this?). Steve Running will be facilitating a meeting about Transition Town concept on (Nov. 1?). Can someone in the know pls post additional details about that meeting? We finished the discussion by agreeing to continue the topic next week, same place and time. For this week, people will do independent research about the concept of Transition Towns, continuing the discussion on this forum and sharing links, book titles, etc, as we would like. Next week, we will continue the "class" by sharing what we have learned. Gabe has a copy of the Transition Towns handbook, and we'll make a group effort to print off certain sections of that for everyone by next week, so we can have a group reading for the following week. Everyone please feel free to make suggestions/comments if I missed any important concepts! I really enjoyed meeting everyone and the discussion. Also, Dave posted some more info about Parecon on the forum occupymissoula.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=dreamers&action=display&thread=104. |
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Post by piglet on Oct 28, 2011 20:13:20 GMT -7
Kim, here is some additional information you requested:
"Transition Town Missoula?" hosts "Creating A Positive Future Now" by Dr. Steve Running, and an introduction to the Transition Movement.
November 10th, 630pm in the large meeting room of the Missoula Public library.
Also, I don't know if you remember at the Peace and Justice Film discussion last night but Luke brought up the John Warner/U of M Climate Studies kick off and it's focus on military solutions/response to climate change. I think that kickoff was 2 years ago now...Anyway Running was instrumental and very enthusiastic in arranging all that, I think it came on the heals of his partial peace prize award, I can't recall all the details now.
It should be interesting to see what's discussed at the transition town seminar, we will be there for sure.
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Post by debbyflorence on Oct 31, 2011 19:10:21 GMT -7
I wont be there this week.. keep the updates coming! I would like to try to make it the following week. and now i want to use this smilie face:  |
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kim
Occupied
Posts: 82
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Post by kim on Oct 31, 2011 19:21:40 GMT -7
We'll miss you Debby!  Hope people are finding this forum topic...not a lot of response so far! -KB |
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Post by johnmak on Oct 31, 2011 19:46:04 GMT -7
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Post by troutsky on Nov 1, 2011 9:58:34 GMT -7
I thought the discussion last Thursday was fantastic and look forward to the upcoming one. Thanks Gabe for getting us started in this direction. And Kim for the minute taking and enthusiasm. A free school in the middle of a not-free school is a great concept.
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sara
Occupier
Posts: 15
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Post by sara on Nov 3, 2011 20:11:15 GMT -7
I thought our discussion tonight was terrific and now I've found this site on the forum. Ha!
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sara
Occupier
Posts: 15
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Post by sara on Nov 5, 2011 12:50:38 GMT -7
Ok, maybe I didn't find the right spot to stay in touch with the other members of our Transition study group. I've been looking forward to reading the suggested material but haven't seen it yet. Any clues? Anybody?
sara
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