Been doing a lot of thinking about how to structure organizations such that stuff gets done. 

Bioneers and the All-Volunteer Vs. One-Paid-Position Choice [They…

[I walked in in the middle of it, thinking that I was in the room for the Economic Dev./Jobs group—they were meeting for the first time at the ECCO Center, actually. Poor dumb me. They're in the middle of their meeting when I get there, but I get a detailed & interesting look at what the planning process for really-developed Transition activities look like.]

Karriem: 2 hr meetings once a month seems reasonable

Andrea: …1hr is kinda pushing it

Tracy: Respecting…

[Here Fred gave us a bit more context and knowledge about how Transition Larimer could function in the midst of the other stuff going on in Larimer--he seems to see it being a more grassroots and education-oriented structure in the community. Afterwards we established plans for the Awareness Raising Group--namely, to fold ourselves into what One Voice, the Larimer Consensus Group's mouthpiece, was doing already, and offer our help to…

[Left and top-left we've got some pictures from the gathering--above is an architectural concept for what Larimer could look like in the…

[More rough notes, just to give a sense of what goes on at these meetings:]

Barton Kirk's Talk:

• Larimer Vision Plan

  • He's impressed

    • liking that they're planning with these practical things in…

3.4.12

Monthly To Do's

[Rough notes from Pittsburgh Garden Experiment discussion on to-do's for year. Helpful to a beginner like me--in-depth tips on particular plants and gardening strategies, too. More experienced gardeners may have found it less helpful.] 

Monthly To Do's

• January

  • Seed catalogs

    • - organic

    • you get what you pay…

2/19/12

Solar Salon (and Sing-a-long!)

[From Maren Cooke's “Solar Salon” at her place: now a monthly event. People coming around to see her solar setup (and getting it for themselves, potentially) + rooftop garden (very extensive, very awesome) and hAbout buying Solar in Pittsburgh—many good, very practical information sets on getting solar individually and in entire communities—creative financing, block buying. All below:]

Joani:…

2/18/12

[Started typing after the subject of community organizing and when it does and doesn't work—Lois hasn't had success in Swissvale so far.]

Lois: I've been trying to figure out how to get people interested in Transition, Transition Initiatives, urban gardens, etc, in Swissvale—difficult.

Justin: Eric Slagle you should talk to—and others, esp. about vacant lots & urban gardens—Guerilla Gardening opportunities?

[Now we talk…

Lots of good stuff discussion happened , both within Jeff's Work Day group (which I was in) and in the reconvening meeting, where each smaller group shared its thoughts with the larger one. Notes are rough, as will probably be usual, but hopefully useful 

 Rick: Discussion groups:

• something monthly, perhaps on Sunday afternoon

• How do I save seeds? How do I start gardens? How do I start technical processes to get that…

Here's the notes from the lively discussion last Saturday: there were three topics, and about 15-20 people total at the discussion. There was not enough DDR, but there was plenty of food and intellectual inter-rest. Notes are a bit rough, but hopefully useful. 

Transition Structure, Nonprofit Status, Forming Connections with Other Groups

Latif: PCSI & Op. Better Block helped him figure out where to go for T4T. RACE organization too, Turkish. RACE:…

OccupyPGH is an experiment in community-building, small-group resilience--and like any good set of sterile, lab-coated scientists, they've got their successes, failures, and work-arounds. This is what I've learned from talking to people at Mellon Green who have kept that experiment ongoing: 

The consensus decision-making model can be tedious but nonetheless fruitful. I am told I can Google it and find something similar to the 8-ish steps they're using; also…

Keep learning things in this Transition venture, about people around Pittsburgh and the personalities driving change forward. Why not keep a public journal of experiences, see if others find the things I've been seeing as interesting as I do?

Well, first entry time: farm days--would like people to see the kinds of wonderful experiences one can have at these things. This'll be a more or less direct copy of what I put in the Meetup…

8/1/12, Kingsley Association: Fred Brown's Conversation with TransitionPGH about his further involvement with Transition

Executive…