Official Transition Initiative

June 28^th, 2011

From Carolyne Staton

Executive Director

Transition US

Transtionus.com

Dear Jessica, Christie, Sarah, Erik, Natalie, Dan & Terri:

Congratulations! It is with anticipated delight at all you will accomplish (and all that we might learn together) that I announce that Transition Milwaukee is the 93rd officially recognized Transition Initiative in the United States. What a stellar group your steering committee is and we haven't seen the mini bios of Natalie and Terri!  (please send those when you can so we can add to your application and be impressed even more). We hope you will share your innovative ideas and lessons learned with us and take the soapbox from time to time to teach others in the network. 

The success of the Transition Movement will largely depend on collaboration with surrounding and emerging Transition Initiatives in your area and with other organizations that are furthering various aspects of local community resilience. We have seen that linking arms is the best way to strengthen this important work.  We do not need to reinvent any wheels and one way that transition efforts grow most quickly is through partnerships and collaborations. It furthers all of our efforts to share tools and resources within each region and with other Transition Initiatives in the United States.

Your prime contact in the US is Transition US Executive Director, Carolyne Stayton. It will help us to sort emails if you start your subject line as "NameOfYourInitiative:…” Remember Transition US works in partnership with the Transition Network to support all members of the US Transition Movement. If you have suggestions or comments on how the services might be improved, please send your good ideas our way.

Your initiative will be listed on the map on the Transition US website.  There may be additional steps for you to take to be listed on the newly improved Transition Network website out of the UK. We will let you know what these are.

We recommend that you read Rob Hopkins’ blog (www.transitionculture.org) on a regular basis. Also helpful is our webinar series. Recordings and forums (on topics related to our webinars) can be found here at http://transitionus.org/online_training_archives. ; We have started a monthly  Tele-Salon where members of Initiating Groups can have informal discussions about what is working and not working, share excitement or worries and generally come together and experience the remarkable extent of the larger movement.  You can find how to participate in these here:http://transitionus.org/event/conference-call-monthly-open-dialog. ; We hope many of these might be very useful to you.

The best way to stay tuned to what is happening across the US is to subscribe to the TUS newsletter.  We will be adding your initiating group members to the TUS newsletter. Please encourage others to join this as well.  We hope your group will be a regular contributor! 

We would also encourage you and members of your Initiating Group to sign up on our Email List.  This will allow you to connect with folks from other Initiatives.  More information can be found at www.transitionus.org/lists.

Carl from the Transition US office will be contacting you regarding the opportunity to publish a joint press release. We have found establishing positive relationships with local, regional, and national media is an important step towards building awareness of the Transition Movement.

We wish you every success with your community initiative and look forward to hearing how Transition unfolds in your area. Please keep us informed of your activities, so that we can share these with the wider Transition community.

Best regards from all of us in Transition US (plus Rob, Ben and the trustees of Transition Network)

Keep up the great work!

Carolyne, Carl, Shelby and the Transition US Team