Articles of Association of Towards Transition Barraba
An Unincorporated Not-For-Profit Association
1. Name
The organisation shall be called "Towards Transition Barraba" and shall use the logo "TTB".
2. Objects
The objects of the organisation shall be to promote a Transition Initiative under the umbrella of the Transition Network of Totnes, UK. This Initiative is aimed at developing solutions to the problems we will face in the light of Climate Change and Peak Oil, at the preparation of an Energy Descent Pathway and at the implementation of this plan.
We aim to become accepted by the Transition Network as a Transition Town so we consider the criteria set out by the Transition Network (see Attachment 1 below) as guiding our efforts.
3. Powers
The organisation shall set out to achieve its objects by
3.1. publishing and distributing information
3.2. engaging in and supporting education and research
3.3. raising funds by soliciting donations and sponsorship
3.4. running events
3.5. recruiting volunteers
3.6. co-operating with other like-minded organisations
3.7. and such other activities as it finds necessary
4. Membership
The Group shall operate in Barraba, New South Wales and the surrounding district defined by the original boundaries of the Barraba Shire prior to its amalgamation with Tamworth Regional Council.
Membership of the Group shall be open to anyone over the age of 16 residing in the Area of Operation who wishes to participate in the project and who accepts the conditions laid out in this document.
Membership shall be terminated upon resignation by the member or by resolution of the membership.
5. Organisation
The organisation shall initially be managed by an Initiating Group which shall be made up of the signatories to this document. This Initiating Group shall disband when the Working Groups (see Section 6) have been formed. The conveners of the Working Groups shall then form the Steering Group.
The Initiating Group, the Steering Group, and the Working Groups shall each determine their own modus operandi using a formal committee structure or an Open Space arrangement (as described in Open Space Technology: A User’s Guide by Harrison Owen).
Each group shall have a convener who shall be responsible for keeping the members of the group informed of all the meetings of the group and shall be responsible for the preparation of records of all the decisions taken at all meetings of the group.
6. Working Groups
The Initiating Group shall pursue the objects by forming Working Groups, each group specializing in a given topic from the following list:
6.1. Food
6.2. Water
6.3. Waste
6.4. Energy
6.5. Transport
6.6. Economy
6.7. Education
6.8. Local Government
6.9. Hearts and Minds
6.10. any other topic raised during the planning process.
Each Working Group shall be autonomous and shall appoint its own convener.
The Working Groups shall focus on carbon footprint reduction and resilience to the reduced availability of cheap, plentiful oil, shall identify the problems arising out of Climate Change and Peak Oil and develop solutions to those problems. The Working Groups shall contribute these solutions to the preparation of the Energy Descent Pathway (see Section 13)
7. Meetings
General Meetings of the organisation shall be held when needed and not less that once a year.
Meetings of the Initiating Group, the Steering Group and the Working Groups shall be held as frequently as the members of the group require.
8. Quorum
The quorum at formal meetings of the organisation and of the Initiating Group, the Steering Group and the Working Groups shall be half the membership plus one.
9. Voting
All members shall be entitled to one vote on any formal motion.
10. Records and Accounts
The Initiating Group and, after its dissolution, the Steering Group, shall keep formal records of membership, meetings, correspondence and finances for the organisation. The Working Groups shall keep formal records of their membership, meetings, correspondence and finances and shall copy these records to the Initiating Group or the Steering Group.
11. Changes to these Articles of Association
These Article can only be changed by a vote of the membership. The notice of the motion for change must have been given to all members at least 21 days before the vote. The quorum of this vote shall be half the membership plus one, and must be carried by two thirds of those voting.
12. Dissolution of the Organisation
The organisation shall be dissolved only by a vote of the membership. The notice of the motion for dissolution must have been given to all members at least 21 days before the vote. The quorum of this vote shall be half the membership plus one, and the dissolution motion must be carried by two thirds of those voting.
14. Energy Descent Pathway
The end product of the Transition Initiative is an Energy Descent Pathway which shall describe in detail how the town plans to combat the future effects of Climate Change and Peak Oil.
The following stage of the Transition process is the implementation of the Energy Descent Pathway to create a sustainable community which has a low carbon footprint and is resilient to the effects of Peak Oil.
14. Adoption
These Articles of Association were adopted by
Sarah Marrett, Ruby Kynast, Manya Ballard, Danny Ballard, Andy Wright, Patricia McMullen, and Robin Chalmers
on 12/02/2009
Attachment 1
The Criteria for acceptance by the Transition Network as a Transition Town
An understanding of Peak Oil and Climate Change as twin drivers (to be written into your group's constitution or governing documents)
A group of 4-5 people willing to step into leadership roles (not just the boundless enthusiasm of a single person)
At least two people from the core team willing to attend an initial two day training course. Initially these will be in Totnes and over time we'll roll them out to other areas as well, including internationally. Transition Training is just UK based right now, but that's going to have to change – we're working on it. Initiative
A potentially strong connection to the local council
An initial understanding of the 12 steps
A commitment to ask for help when needed
A commitment to regularly update your Transition Initiative web presence - either the wiki (collaborative workspace on the web that we'll make available to you), or your own website
A commitment to write up something on the Transition Towns blog once every couple of months (the world will be watching...)
A commitment, once you're into the Transition, for your group to give at least two presentations to other communities (in the vicinity) that are considering embarking on this journey – a sort of “here’s what we did” or "here's how it was for us" talk
A commitment to network with other communities in Transition
Minimal conflicts of interests in the core team
A commitment to work with the Transition Network re grant applications for funding from national grant giving bodies. Your own local trusts are yours to deal with as appropriate.
A commitment to strive for inclusivity across your entire initiative. We're aware that we need to strengthen this point in response to concerns about extreme political groups becoming involved in transition initiatives. One way of doing this is for your core group to explicitly state their support the UN Declaration of Human Rights (General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948). You could add this to your constitution (when finalized) so that extreme political groups that have discrimination as a key value cannot participate in the decision-making bodies within your transition initiative. There may be more elegant ways of handling this requirement, and there's a group within the network looking at how that might be done.
A recognition that although your entire county or district may need to go through transition, the first place for you to start is in your local community. It may be that eventually the number of transitioning communities in your area warrant some central group to help provide local support, but this will emerge over time, rather than be imposed. This point is in response to the several instances of people rushing off to transition their entire county/region rather than their local community.
and finally, we recommend that at least one person on the core team should have attended a permaculture design course... it really does seem to make a difference.