In Transition, Again, Still

Well, we've said it before, that we're an organization in transition. And it's beginning to look like that might always be the case.

If it seems to you that we've been pretty quiet since A RENAISSANCE OF LOCAL! in September, you're right. We've spent a lot of time rethinking what we're doing, reorganizing, exploring new alliances, considering reinventing ourselves again.

The RENAISSANCE, by the way, was a seminal event for us. About 900 people participated in the three-day county-wide festival, conference and expo at Planet Bluegrass in Lyons. Which is great, but we were actually looking for a far greater turnout. Many people told us they felt that Lyons was too far away, or that the admission fee was too high. Should we have been surprised? Others said they weren't sure what it was all about or why it was important, so opted to do something else that weekend.

The feedback told us that we need to do a much better job of communicating and engaging people in what we're attempting to do. Back to the fundamentals. And that realization has shaped much of our planning over the last few months. In the next few posts I'll be sharing some of the thinking that's been going on behind the scenes, some of the realizations we've focused on to help define next steps.

MISSION/VISION

For instance, we've come to more clearly define our mission, goal, role, vision. Here's what we've gotten to:

Our mission is to be a catalyst for relocalization—i.e., developing local self-sufficiency in food, energy, transportation, media, systems of care, and economy—while regenerating community.

Our goal is to prepare our communities for the local impacts of climate change and peak oil through county-wide adoption of integrated, inclusive approaches and concrete actions that will dramatically reduce our collective carbon footprint and lead to ethically and gracefully making the transition to a more sustainable, localized economy in a carbon-constrained future.

We serve as a transition team, initiating a county-wide process of relocalizing all essential elements that our communities need to sustain themselves and thrive. Our role is to provide inspiration, empowerment, education, training and support of individuals, businesses, organizations, communities and local governments, uniting them together as we consider and implement a collective vision of a relocalized future.

Our vision is a future where life is more socially connected, more meaningful and satisfying, more sustainable, and more equitable in a greater community of relocalized communities; where production and consumption occur closer to home; where long and fragile supply chains—now vulnerable to surges in oil prices and economic volatility—have been replaced by interconnected local networks; where the total amount of energy consumed by businesses and citizens is dramatically less than current unsustainable levels.

More to come...