Chelmsford

Our next main meeting will be on  Thursday 4th August 2011. 6.30 - 9.30pm (first hour for newbies), at the Two Brewers, Springfield Road, Chelmsford.

We started the group in September 2010, and as of March 2011 we're an official Transition Initiative.

We are contacting existing local groups and establishing synergies. Our membership is diverse, we have folks with a long history of involvement with such groups as Greenpeace, FoE, community groups, local politics, environmental businesses, borough council, academics and more. We also have truly visionary people committed to transitioning Chelmsford, for example with Transport.

We now have 6 sub-groups formed. Transport, Policy & Strategy, Food, Housing, Recycling & Waste and also Energy & EDAP. We have a Core Team of 5; three have completed a Transition training course and one is on a permaculture course. We have a secretary and treasurer and an adopted Constitution (many thanks to Transition Ealing for help with this).

We've had nine monthly meetings to date which sprang from a "Changing Chelmsford" event that was hosted by the Chelmsford Society and the RSA in 2010. We remain involved with this initiative. The event which inspired us to get going was Sunrise Off-Grid 2009 where we saw Rob himself presenting.

In mid-February 2011 two of us attended John Croft's excellent Dragon Dreaming workshop in Norwich.

During climate week we linked up with the Big Green Bus, a reporter from the Essex Chronicle dropped by to interview us. We also had a movie night on the Friday 25th March at a local Community/Heritage Centre, donations made sure costs were recovered, thanks all. We were on BBC Radio Essex on the 16 March. Inspired by attaining official status we have been dropping leaflets in public buildings and shops and community centres. We also ran a one-day sustainable energy course.

In June three of us attended Transition training in Wivenhoe, we'd all recommend it and are thankful to the trainers and participants.

On 2nd July we had a lively presence and ran activities at the community/volunteer group tent "the Little House of Lateral Wonderment" at Chelmsford's Fling Festival.

From 8th-11th July we had a representative at the national Transition Network conference in Liverpool.

Between 19th - 26th September we will be celebrating our first birthday with transition activities in and around Chelmsford; We will post details here when available.

Please do get in touch, or come to a meeting, if you want to be part of what we're doing or simply find out more. Our forum and website are now properly active. Register and promote your local initiative if you like. Or better still register and join us.