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Table of Contents
Green Drinks and 29-minutes 1
AGM and the Future for TrEx 1
Wild Exmouth 2
Practical Volunteering Day July 4th. 3
Nic Pawson's work on Organics & Healthy Soil 3
Exmouth Environmental Information Centre (EIC) 3
Green Drinks and 29-minutes
I believe that Simon is trying a different format for the 29-minute session this month; in any case rest assured of good company (and good beer) Thursday 4th July (this week!)
Come along at 19.30 to the Park Hotel, 114 Exeter Road, Exmouth, Devon EX8 1QH.
AGM and the Future for TrEx
Folks we have an AGM booked. By kind leave of the elders, our AGM is at 14.30 on 14th Sept. at Glenorchy Church Hall, from 14.00- 16.00.
For personal reasons, I cannot any longer continue in the role of Chair nor in the additional roles that I have taken on over the years. It is my intention therefore to resign from all.
I do not have an expectation that volunteers will come forward to stand for the roles of Chair and Secretary, I cannot speak for Doreen Sandham who is Treasurer, but if those three roles are not filled, the Umbrella Group cannot continue and therefore I shall be proposing a motion that Transition Exmouth be closed.
I have been in the role of Chair since the departure of Derek Smithers, six years ago and I hope my involvement has not been without results but much of the effort that I and others have put in has been behind-the-scenes in meetings with those in positions to influence the future of Exmouth and we have neglected the core function of a Transition Town that is, to encourage and support affiliated groups to do-their-own-thing!
A major factor in that neglect has been the failure over these years to attract anyone to the roles of fundraiser and of event organiser. Further, I have never done FB and It is now clear that abstinence from that is compromising my ability to keep in touch with what is happening around me.
After the recent elections, we now have sympathetic men and women as councillors on both the Town Council and East Devon District, some of these are in fact our own members. At the same time and with significant input from our members, the Neighbourhood Plan is in place with a whole raft of policies that promote our goal of environmental sustainability. Perhaps the Transition movement has now been overtaken by events? Certainly I hear it from all sides that people are no-longer willing to make the type of commitment that an organisation with a conventional management structure calls for; alas without a conventional structure, we cannot keep a bank account nor continue in our membership of COLP.
The workings of Extinction Rebellion (XR) were explained at a 29-minutes meeting and progress in recruiting local activists was apparent at a more recent event. Whereas the theory of Transition Towns is that grass-roots actions for sustainability will develop a momentum by involving the majority of our residents, the theory of XR is that in order to achieve their three demands:
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Government to tell the truth
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Target for net-zero carbon emissions by 2025
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A Citizen Assembly to oversee the process
the movement need only recruit 3.5% of the population, that is some 2.5m activists. and they tell us that they are well on their way. XR is by admission a desperate attempt to force Government's hand. I wish XR well and urge everyone to join; for the future my own path is on a different but parallel track.
Please come to the AGM on 14 September and lets make it a celebration of what we have achieved over the last ten years in Exmouth.
Wild Exmouth
Following is a message form Tim dafforn:
Dear Adrian and Transition Exmouth
I am pleased to invite you to the first stakeholder group for the Wild Exmouth project on Thursday 11th July, 16.00-18.00, Exmouth Town Hall, Committee Room. This group will meet twice a year to look at achievements and plans ahead for the project as we develop exciting wildlife and community initiatives in the town.
You are invited as Transition Exmouth is a key group with close links to residents and the natural environment. I would really appreciate your input and ideas to help make this project a success and hope you will be able to make this meeting. There are so many great projects already happening in Exmouth and we want Wild Exmouth to build on these and deliver even more nature and outdoor based activities for the town. If you would like to nominate someone from Transition Exmouth to come along please let me know.
We will be presenting the project plan for the first year, along with our exciting summer events programme, a spring report from Debs Rylands (Wild Exmouth Ranger), and looking at activities for Autumn and Winter. This will include a closer look at our future projects on: Wild Flower meadows, orchards and tree planting, artist led community work,
green space mapping and valley park vision, pledge for nature campaign
I look forward to hearing from you and I hope you will be able to make it.
Summer regards, Tim
We have put a lot of energy into Wild Exmouth so does anyone want to go and represent us?
Practical Volunteering Day July 4th.
Wild Exmouth volunteers will return to Hillcrest to tend to the second Orchard. They visited one of the two orchard sites a few weeks back and the trees are thriving. Now we return to the second site to mulch and improve the area.
Join Wild Exmouth at the Hillcrest Gardens entrance to the reserve from 10:30am - they'll be there until 3:30pm, so drop in when you like, join in the fun, make friends and have a chat about the wild side of Exmouth.
Nic Pawson's work on Organics & Healthy Soil
Nick a long-time Transition Town Exmouth member and keen gardener, wrote a book some time ago called 'The Questioning Garden'. A second book followed 'Degeneration of the World's Soil'. Nic's work on organics & healthy soil was ahead of it's time. and Jan Pawson is editing the works to get them ready for publication. If anyone wants to help with that or just to read them, please contact Jan on jan.pawson@btinternet.com
Exmouth Environmental Information Centre (EIC)
Our doughty campaigner Noel has been pushing this proposal around the District for a long time but has now had a letter of support from our MP, Sir Hugo Swire who wants to get involved. Anyone who wants to help Noel please contact him on noelharrower@btinternet.com
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