by Sapan Rinpoche
To begin your knowledge base buildup about the worldwide Transition Movement and Network, the best source is the transitiontowns.org website. Visiting that site, you will see Lyons listed as number 93 in the worldwide list (number 5 in the USA); Transition Colorado (formerly Boulder County) is number 53 (first in the USA). Other official transition towns in Colorado currently include Denver, number 145; and Louisville, number 150; and Westminster/Arvada/Broomfield, number 256. On the Transition Colorado website there are many more active groups forming, but for various reasons they have not yet gone through all of the hoops to become “official” as of yet. These include Longmont and several Boulder groups.
The official Transition Initiatives in the world now total 278 in sixteen countries. That is fifty-eight more initiatives and one more country (Denmark) than was reported in the October 2009 Journal article. There are now fifty-eight initiatives in the United States, and Canada now has thirteen initiatives. As of the end of this month, there are none yet in Mexico or the rest of North America.
So that you don’t miss it, in case you cannot make it through this whole article, let it be indicated that the Lyons Initiating Group has booked Lyons Town Hall for a community gathering about Transition on Thursday, March 25. Please put that on your calendar now. TTLyonsCO will be inviting a broad spectrum of the community to attend this information and re-directional meeting, which will start at 7 p.m.
As a summary report to the community of Lyons, these comments have been edited and extracted from an end-of-year report for 2009, entitled “One Year of Transition in Colorado,” which Coco Gordon submitted in December to Michael Brownlee, the Director of Transition Colorado … Our Transition Lyons initiative was established in the summer of 2008 and we were officially accredited on August 20, 2008. We have had about fifty active members over the sixteen months of activity. Currently, we have 220 people on our mailing list, and 30 members on the TTLyonsCO website (see URL at end of article). We often send out information to other supportive mail lists such as Students of Permaculture, town groups including the LIPS (Lyons Itinerant Poetry Society) group and other Transition groups.
Coco Gordon was appointed to the Sustainable Future Commission for Lyons, and feels that “being understood by our town governing bodies as a leading force for our community’s resilience, enabling backing to create economic localization, bringing in renewable energy systems, and work with improving our water systems, and generally, a respect for Transition throughout our town” are being amongst our proudest accomplishments.
She numerated some of our specific accomplishments, and I blush, “a far-reaching monthly Transition column in our local newspaper, The Lyons Recorder, written by our Transition initiating member, Sapan Rinpoche” and “assigning of Transition Lyons’ importance in the guiding documents for Lyons renewed Town Comprehensive Plan.” This last fall, Transition Lyons became a member of the Lyons Chamber of Commerce.
Also sited were pulling together a sense of collaboration from disparate but similar prior working town groups, such as farms, CSAs, four different garden groups, more individuals building chicken coops, Green Heart Institute, and citizen groups called together often to talk in community spaces about community feelings, problems and solutions, and tracking how many new local businesses are focusing on recycling, local energy, and issues related to Transition endeavors.
We are proud to announce that we have graduated five more Lyons Permaculture certified persons to continue all the Transition Lyons reskillings, with active participation from Greenheart Institute in their new meeting place at the Barnette.
We were able to conduct our Transition programs in many town sites, at no expense, with a good sense of community. We brought out different people’s mindsets into the Transition programs: from summer long “Be-Ins of heart and soul” celebrations thanking community gardens and the confluence of our two rivers; to community brainstorm Open Space sessions in our co-housing village and Town Hall; to adding future visions to our Town treasures in mapping sessions with elders at the Senior Center. A viable Community Clearinghouse was proposed to be run by elders and youth. We introduced a new practice of conversing with nature beings in our parks; showing transition films with invited speakers and discussions, dealing with the economic downturn in Open Space; honoring elders; a booth for Lyons’ Earthday; saving seeds; making a swale after watching a film “Greening the Desert;” picnics and pot lucks, sometimes only bringing out half a dozen people, mostly two dozen and once 80 people.
We had done many great things with transition and so pulled back to let things continue to happen more on their own. We invited our Transition mailing list to join us in Permaculture classes, poetry readings, gardens, participation in Lyons’ CAC (Citizens Advisory Council), and almost concluded a one year Public Process of seventy leaders of groups that met in roundtable decision-making with Transition members included. We are now culling a new younger group to go who want to join, to and training them to go forward.
Copies of the Transition Handbook are available here in Lyons from Coco Gordon at a nominal cost. Please call her at (303) 823-5585 and email her about Transition Town Lyons at
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We all love our great community of Lyons. As one of the smaller towns in the entire worldwide Transition Movement, we are seen as somewhat leading the way in the realm of small towns. So let’s stay tuned, ramp up our energy and produce our best work as a community in the coming months, years and decades. Personally, I am very excited about what we are doing, across the board … to make a difference in these transitional times!
For more information on how you can become further engaged here with Transition Town Lyons, visit the Transition Colorado site, www.TransitionColorado.ning.com, where you will also find the TTLyonsCo website. The specific URL is a long one, but you should go there: www.TransitionColorado.ning.com/group/transitiontownlyonsco.
Join in with us by signing up as a member of this Transition Town Lyons group, and help by your involvement in your special areas of interest. That will be a very good action in support of our efforts here in “Transition Lyons – Jewel of the Front Range!”
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