This could be done as part of a Hot Seat exercise or by itself. People take turns volunteering to be the focus person. Everyone else shares their thoughts:

What do you think are the problem areas that a member of the group is not seeing about themselves? Are they denying something which others think are true? Etc.

People hearing about their blind spots are encouraged to start responding by saying "What feels true about what you are saying is___" Rather than responding defensively or contradicting the suggested blind spot. As with anything in transparency groups, you participate because you want to see yourself more clearly and hearing from others is a way to achieve that.

When you live alone it's easy to become preoccupied with your own thoughts and feelings. Your perspective is the only one you have and so any internal conversation is amplified. You think something so often that then it becomes true. Having another who can listen to an idea or review an incident can provide some perspective and reality. What was a big deal, diminishes into manageable proportions just for getting it out of internal dialogue into the clarity of reality.

Crowd Sourced Income

The Transition Sponsored Businesses

If many people want to speak at the same time, it is useful to ask all those who would like to speak to raise their hands. Have them count off, and then have them speak in that order. At the end of the stack, the Facilitator might call for another stack or try another technique.

As an organization we encourage individuals with limited incomes to find these titles at your local library or borrow from a fellow Transition website user. However, if you have the means and like to own books you can purchase these titles and support The Transition by clicking on the covers below and purchasing them online.

Everyone has days when things don’t go as planned. Maybe you messed up at work, or had a fight with your partner, are dealing with some weather-related blues, or perhaps you just can’t find the motivation to seize the day—and you don’t really know why. A Reddit user named ryans01 shared a lengthy comment jam packed with self-help tips in response to a post made by a fellow Reddit user. 

The original post reads: “I have lots of things I want to learn and do with my life, but I can’t even bring myself to do what I’m required to do… I have no money, no one who really cares about me, shitty grades, shitty diet and exercise, and the worst part of it? It’s not even that I hate any of this. I hate feeling like this, but not even enough to do something about it.”

This is the advice ryans01 shared that made his reply go viral all over the internet:

“My name’s Ryan and I live in Canada. Just moved to a new city for a dream job that I got because of the rules below. I owe a lot of my success to people much cooler, kinder, more loving and greater than me. When I get the chance to maybe let a little bit of help out, it’s a way of thanking them,” he wrote.

He then delivered four simple rules.

1. Have as many ‘Non Zero Days’ as you can.
2. Be grateful to the three you’s (Past, Present and Future you)
3. Forgive
4. Exercise and read books. (You get endorphins and exercise your mind)

His concept of Non-Zero Days in particular has really resonated with many people: “There are no more zero days. What’s a zero day? A zero day is when you don’t do a single f**king thing towards whatever dream or goal or want or whatever that you got going on. No more zeros,” ryans01 wrote.

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 

Sometimes information needs to be collected during the meeting. To save time, circulate a clipboard to collect this information. Once collected it can be entered into the written record and/or presented to the group by the Facilitator.

If the flow of the meeting is breaking down or if one person or small group seems to be dominating, anyone can call into question the technique being used and suggest an alternative.