TE Support Group

We are a group drawn from the members of the Transition Town groups around East Anglia, to help the groups to work together effectively.

Our approach

The Transition Movement is essentially about local people thinking through the problems that face us all for themselves and coming up with solutions that suit them and their communities. Thus while it is valuable for them to learn what to do from Transition Movement books and resources, and from each other, ultimate responsibility and autonomy must remain with the local groups.

We believe that this challenge – how to set up effective voluntary co-ordination and co-operation without hierarchy – is the key to the new kind of society we are pioneering in the Transition Movement. It is very different from a free market where everyone is in competition, or from central control. Fortunately, there are very good models from the best of systems theory.

We intend this Support Group to have the following functions:

• Stability and conflict resolution: Help local groups to systematically monitor their activities. Are they going well? If not, what can be done? Support for handling conflicts between people is a crucial part of this.
• Synergy: Look at the activities within a local initiative and across initiatives (ex. nearby food groups) and see where they affect each other or could benefit by working together.
• External relations and planning: Keep an eye on what is happening in the transition movement more generally, other relevant organisations, and the wider environment, and use this to help local initiatives plan in general, and their Energy Descent Action Plans in particular.
• Policy and identity: Support the membership in formulating overall policy.