Transition Bedford

What are you doing on Saturday May 15 2010? Nothing much?

Think again – you could be helping to reshape the future of your town.

Transition Bedford is hosting an event that will bring together different groups of people to create a vision for a sustainable Bedford in 2020.

If you belong to a group that’s interested in what our town looks like in a decade’s time, you need to be at this event – I’m not just talking about environmental groups, but also everyone from allotment societies to local history groups to walking groups and all points in between! We’re looking for as many interested groups as possible to get involved, both before the event, on the day itself and on into the future (and the year 2020!) and we’d love to know who is interested in participating.

So far we’ve created a list of topics that we’d like to explore at the meeting. If you – either a group or an individual – are willing to participate in some way in one or more of these topics, please add a comment below, saying who you are and which topic(s) you’re fired up about. “Participation” could mean helping with a demonstration, giving a talk, or simply sharing your ideas with others.

The topics are, in no particular order:

• Food
• Transport
• Energy
• Education
• Building and housing
• Local government
• Heart and soul
• Health and wellbeing
• Waste and recycling
• Community and culture
• Economy and business
• Media and communications

Once we’ve compiled a list of the people who want to take part in this inspiring event, we’ll post that onto this blog so that you can tell us if we’re missing out anyone crucial.

Still confused? If you’re wondering what on earth this whole “transition” thing is about, check out Transitiontowns.org

To learn more about what we’re doing to make Bedford a transition town, and watch a video about the transition movement, click here.

Tony Juniper

I am most pleased to announce that on Wednesday 20 January, at 6pm UK/1pm EST, I will be hosting campaigner, writer, sustainability adviser and one of the UK’s best known environmentalists, Tony Juniper, on the special 1st anniversary edition of my radio show, my radio show Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul

A dynamic and inspiring speaker, and often referred to as an “Eco Hero”, Tony has worked for the last 25 years for change toward a more sustainable society at local, national and international levels. Amongst his almost endless list of personal and professional experiences, he has served as Vice-Chair of Friends of the Earth International, and is currently Special Adviser to the Prince of Wales Rainforests Project, Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic’s new Green Magazine supplement, and is the Green Party Parliamentary candidate for Cambridge, England.

On this very special anniversary edition, Tony and I will discuss his thesis of “Harmony” as taken from the upcoming book of the same name he is currently writing with Prince Charles and Ian Skelly, and is scheduled for publication by Harper Collins in autumn 2010. Tony will tell us about the present state of environmentalism, what we’ve achieved and not achieved, and what’s next for humanity at this time in history, and explain how the solutions to the ecological and economic problems we now face at a planetary level are not due so much to our political, technological or corporate systems, but rather to the fundamental fact that we as a culture have become disconnected from the Earth, and are illiterate as to how nature works and how we as humans fit into the natural order on a cosmological and spiritual level.

On the air, Tony will offer us some easy, joyful and practical ways to re-engage and reconnect with our planet and re-establish the true, holistic harmony that is meant to sing within every human soul.

You absolutely will NOT want to miss this most important and truly inspiring show.

Listeners can listen LIVE or “on demand” any time at http://ow.ly/UvBM

Another upcoming guest of interest to Transition Town followers and other “green” folks is Dr Leo Sharashkin, translator/editor of the “Ringing Cedars” (aka Anastasia)  book  series that is creating a wide-spread “return to the Earth” movement in Europe. That show is coming Wednesday 24 February.

To be sure you don’t miss either of these broadcasts, subscribe to the show either via iTunes, or mark it as a favourite on Blog Talk Radio.

Just look for “Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul”
http://blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn

Great changes are happening at the Global Wellness Circle (GWC).

GWC was started in May 2008 as a means to support local holistic wellness businesses, and to provide a forum where people can join together to learn about each others’ values and beliefs, and form friendships and partnerships. The focus from the onset has been to build an inclusive, holistically-minded community and to provide information to the public about health, environment, and overall wellbeing of mind, body, spirit, society and world.

Now 18 months old, the Global Wellness Circle is going through some exciting changes.  Originally a small business, GWC are now in the process of applying for CIC status (Community Interest Company/Social Enterprise), and the Bedford chapter have established a firm link to our Transition Bedford initiative. That means, whereas GWC used to have a policy of drawing only from its paid membership for its speaker rota, they now are inviting (and encouraging) volunteer speakers from Transition Bedford OR other Transition Towns to speak as a representative of their initiative and the Transition Town movement in general, to share whatever valuable skills or information they have with the group.*

GWC have active chapters in Bedford, Milton Keynes, Cambridge and Hemel Hempstead, and should be getting Northampton and Dunstable up and running by February 2010. They welcome anyone and everyone to attend their events (membership is NOT required to attend), and hope that with the addition of Transition Town members, they will become an even more vibrant and exciting group, working together for a better future.

To see the kind of events GWC help to promote, check out their November 2009 events listings at http://www.global-wellness-circle.com/events/events_listings/2009/GWC_events_1109.html The listings include a wide range of events such as GWC evenings, local workshops, training, speakers, community events, exhibitions, radio shows, parties and more, all in the central UK area. All events focus on health, wellbeing and natural lifestyle, and include activities for children, families and adults.

For more information about GWC, or to enquire about becoming a speaker, kindly contact Lynn at lynn@global-wellness-circle.com. You are also invited to subscribe to the GWC mailing list at http://www.global-wellness-circle.com, so you can receive both their events listings and their newsletter, “All is Well”, every month.

Wishing you WELL,
Lynn Serafinn
Founder, Global Wellness Circle
Chair, Transition Bedford

* If you are a member of a Transition Town group and would like to speak at a GWC meeting, it is expected that you will come as a representative of your TT initiative, as opposed to representing your private business. If you do wish to promote your private enterprise (e.g., a green or holistic business you own), you are most welcome to consider becoming a practitioner member of GWC.

We received this invitation from the Quaker Meeting House about an event you might be interested in on 20 November. Reply to this announcement if you intend to attend so those of us are going can connect. Thanks! –Lynn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Quaker Meeting House hirers and friends,

I would like to invite you to a public meeting organised by Bedford Quakers entitled “Climate Change, Copenhagen and Us”, at the Harpur Suite, Bedford on November 20th at 7.15 pm. Please see attachment with details of the event and the supporting organisations to date (TTBedford admin note: sorry, this attachment did not come with the email we received). We are delighted that Tony Juniper, a leading environmentalist, and Patrick Hall MP are our main speakers.

Please circulate notice of this meeting widely if possible.  If you would like to use our printed posters and/or fliers, reply to us ASAP and we can arrange a convenient collection point.

We would like to retain email addresses for communication purposes until a week after the Copenhagen Summit . If you prefer otherwise please tell us.

With your permission, we would also like to share your email address with the supporting organizations listed above who may wish to contact you regarding similar events. If you are happy for us to do so, please let us know.

Please reply to bedfordquakerevents@googlemail.com

Why is this important?
(more…)

In a recent article, former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was quoted to say that the Bedfordshire town of Bedford, should be given a “stupid award” owing to its local planning committee opposing the construction of wind farms on aesthetic grounds. While the implications of this opposition are duly noted, the recently formed community initiative Transition Bedford, part of the larger Transition Town Network of over 1500 local initiatives worldwide, replies, “Look deeper, Mr Prescott, and you will find that the people of  Bedford are not at all stupid in matters to do with climate change and peak oil.”

(more…)

FREE Film Premier
“In Transition”
Wed Sept 9^th 2009

(09.09.09… a call to action)
Ent. Shed, Castle Rd (Next to Gordon Arms pub),
Bedford, MK40 3QY
doors open at 7.30pm (more…)

Do you Tweet?
If so, then please follow Transition Bedford on Twitter! Just go to http://twitter.com/TTBedford and click “follow”.

Follow us on Twitter for the latest news about the Transition movement in Bedford, the UK and throughout the world. AND be sure to share your own news with us, if you are a member of any Transition Town group, so we can ReTweet your great work. It’s all part of “raising awareness”.

If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can sign up for free at http://www.twitter.com.

I (Lynn) am a bit of a Tweet-geek, so if you are new to Twitter and you need any help, just Tweet me at http://www.twitter.com/LynnSerafinn