Our Journey starting out
March 26, 2012
Last week “Sunshine Coast in Transition” was registered on the global Transition Network as a “mulling” Initiative. This means we still have some criteria to fill before we earn “official” status. But we are on our way!
The beginnings of Transition on the Coast are traced back to October 2011 when the Green Team collaborated with the Coast Film Society to show “Transition 1:0” to a large audience at the Heritage Playhouse in Gibsons. Afterwards, a panel of invited guests from Transition Town Powell River, the Coast Food Action Network and Sea to Sky Outdoor School led a discussion about Transition. Members of the audience interested in starting a movement on the Coast were invited to sign a list.
About a half dozen of us who signed that list gathered together in a private home in Langdale in December to form an ad-hoc initiating group.
Erich, Gayle, Joe, Trisha, Leonie at our first meeting in Langdale.
We eventually invited Mark Lebbell, a guest from the film’s panel who had attended a Transition Training workshop in Vancouver to join us. Mark suggested we put on a weekend workshop of our own, ask Transition Trainer Michelle Colussi to facilitate and invite a diverse cross section of the population as possible.
With the help of the Sunshine Coast Conservation Society, the Regional District and local businesses such as Gibsons Copy Shop, Greenomics and Wheatberries Bakery, the Transition Training workshop was held in February 2012 and was a great success; by the end of the weekend we had 16 people committed to forming a Transition Initiating Group. The Ad-hoc group dissolved itself as it has planned to do. Using the first Permaculture principle of “Observe and Interact” we came away with the desire to collaborate and support volunteer groups on the Coast who are already addressing local resiliency, eventually becoming the “glue” that binds these and other groups together.
To date, our Initiating Group has had two meetings in Roberts Creek to prepare our mission statement and action plans. We have been invited to take part in Earth Day celebrations on Sunday April 22 in Roberts Creek and our members are volunteering their time to help make the event a success.
October 2nd, 2012 Fall Update
Participating in Roberts Creek Earth Day celebrations was a great little “zap” project for us to get our feet wet. The event coordinator Sheila, was very grateful to our members for directing traffic, collecting dishes and transporting them on bikes up the road to the kitchen. In return for our help, we were given space to set up a booth for Transition. The “Grandmothers & Grand Others” group loaned us their tent and we had fun painting a banner that we hung up to announce our arrival as the new kid in town. Members who had attended the Launch Transition workshop teamed partnered up with members who were newer to the group. Our focus was to create a space to listen to people voice their concerns for Mother Earth more than giving out information about Transition. During a casual evaluation of the project, we concluded we enjoyed the interaction with people in our community, networked with groups and individuals who promote local resiliency in our community, and as a bonus, we collected three pages of new contacts. It was suggested that for future collaborative events, pairing volunteers together makes for an enjoyable experience.
At the Transition booth on Earth Day in April: Kandi, Dale, Barb W., Leslie and Barb S.
As an adjunct to Earth Day, a couple of our members joined Permaculture teacher Delvin and a group of students in the Heart Gardens to help plant a food micro-forest.
Many of our members who are involved in other groups on the Coast attended the Biodiversity Summit May 31 – June 2. I was invited by the Ruby Lake Lagoon Society and the Sunshine Coast Biodiversity Steering Group and represented Sunshine Coast in Transition. It was a powerful, energetic three days of sharing ideas, expertise and vision for a local Biodiversity Strategy Framework.
We had a couple of potluck dinners.
Here are some of our members gathering at Roberts Creek cohousing in June
…..And at Dianne’s place for a summer potluck and meeting in July. Dana from Village Vancouver and Rolef, a guest of Renuka and Terry joined us.
August 24th & 25th 2012.
Justin from the One Straw Society Live & Learn re-skilling program invited us to join them at the Synchronicity Art Festival in Gibsons.
Here’s Annette and Mary Kay brainstorming ideas for a couple of interactive art pieces for the Synchronicity Art Festival.
Setting up. Group partnerships: Justin from Live & Learn and David from the Food Action network. The SCRD “We Envision” team provided drinking water and brochures for our table.
Our oil memorial and positive visioning interactive art pieces were a popular hit for parents wanting to educate their children about all the things we use that are made out of oil.
August 30, 2012.
We wanted to show appreciation for the grassroots groups who have contributed to local resiliency on the Coast, so when we were invited to do a Transition presentation at Green Drinks night at the Gumboot we presented our hosts with a cake that was made of as many local ingredients we could find. It was graciously divided up and shared with the crowd. The cake was also used it as a metaphor for local resiliency/ingredients/tools as described in the Transition Companion book by Rob Hopkins.
Hosts of Green Drinks One Straw’s Mary & Crystal receiving a blackberry cake from Sunshine Coast in Transition.
September 2nd, 2012.
To launch the group’s re-skilling education package, Barb and Leslie & Rolf hosted a Permaculture tour of their property. The focus was to introduce some Permaculture principles as it relates to Transition. Leslie & Barb showed us their ten year permaculture mapping plan and gave us a tour of their garden, demonstrating a mulching technique and served us delicious tea, sending us home with samples of zucchini from their harvest.
Sunshine Coast in Transition 
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