Deciding to Study and Analyse your local community is a good place to start when first forming a BUD. Discovering the aspects of life that your community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive can be key to your group making real progress towards a better future. Some good questions to ask yourself are:

• How do we significantly increase resilience?
• How do we drastically reduce carbon emissions?
• How do we strengthen our local economy?

Sometimes the best ways to answer these questions and more like them is to fully understand the problem in the first place! Both newcomers and experienced social change workers have found a need to gather information, renew their visions of a new society, and devise new ways for achieving our dreams. Starting these programs with your BUD is the perfect way to do just that!

Book Clubs

Movie Clubs

See Also:

Case Studies

Sources:Building Social Change Communities, Transition Primer: A Guide to Becoming a Transition Town, US Version 

Contributors: Peter Woodrow, Transition US

Recommended Books:Building Social Change Communities, Transition Primer: A Guide to Becoming a Transition Town, US Version 

In joining a group, one accepts a personal responsibility to behave with respect, goodwill, and honesty. Each one is expected to recognize that the group's needs have a certain priority over the desires of the individual. Many people participate in group work in a very egocentric way. It is important to accept the shared responsibility for helping to find solutions to other's concerns.

The pace or flow of the meeting is the responsibility of the Facilitator. If the atmosphere starts to become tense, choose techniques which encourage balance and cooperation. If the meeting is going slowly and people are becoming restless, suggest a stretch or rearrange the agenda.

Is home a haven of retreat from the world? Or is it a place for friends to gather? Is your shared dwelling simply a place to sleep and store clothes? You don't have to be in agreement with your Home-mate(s) on this. One person may simply need a place to sleep and keep clothes, while another may host large dinner parties. This can work very well, provided all are in agreement about how the space is being used. But if one person needs quiet by 9:30 p.m. and the dinner parties usually end at 11:00 pm, with noisy comings and goings, there will be conflict. Think about what you want and need around sociability.

Sources: Sharing Housing: A Guidebook for Finding and Keeping Good Housemates

Contributors:  Annamarie Pluhar

Recommended Books: Sharing Housing: A Guidebook for Finding and Keeping Good Housemates

It is good to address each other by name. One way to learn names is to draw a seating plan, and as people go around and introduce themselves, write their names on it. Later, refer to the plan and address people by their names. In large groups, name tags can be helpful. Also when people speak, it is useful for them to identify themselves so all can gradually learn each others' names.

In the average American household, the television is on for more than four hours a day. Many households have a television in every room in the house. Some don't have a television at all. What are your habits concerning television? What are your preferences for what you watch and when? What can you live with in terms of having television on in the kitchen, living room, and other common areas? What "must you have" concerning television and what would you "like to have" in your living space?

Sources: Sharing Housing: A Guidebook for Finding and Keeping Good Housemates

Contributors:  Annamarie Pluhar

Recommended Books: Sharing Housing: A Guidebook for Finding and Keeping Good Housemates

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