Guiding our communities from oil dependency to local resilience
 
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THE STRUCTURE

of Transition Los Angeles

 

 

 

AN UMBELLIFERAE STRUCTURE

The entirety of Transition taking place in Los Angeles is rather like an umbellifer plant.  There are many exciting and attractive activities taking place within the local Pods, such as reskilling workshops and awareness-raising events.  And the TLA "city hub" organization offers supporting structure behind them, with activities like speaker's trainings, area-wide issues, and hosting the Training for Transition.

OUR COMMON GOAL is growing local community resilience and self-sufficiency throughout the entire Los Angeles basin.  We are preparing for the twin crises of peak oil and climate change.  We realize that we cannot succeed alone; our individual security during energy descent within this massive LA basin is entirely dependent upon the degree to which we have prepared the whole area.
 

UMBELLETS (aka "Pods")

Local neighborhood groups or local clusters of Transition-type activities are like the umbellets in botany, the floret-pedicel-bracteole combination in the above diagram..  Within TLA, these local groups are called "pods." A pod might be a few scattered initiator-type individuals who are working to get things going, it might be an existing group that is embracing Transition ideas, it might be a new group that is coming together specifically to address Transition.  An individual pod, once it's well underway, will probably have a full set of local working groups and physical projects (akin to the florets in the above diagram).  A pod might eventually become a full-fledged Transition Initiative.  It might take on its own legal and fiscal existence.

  • To qualify as a pod, the mission of the group must include cultivating within the local community a positive outcome to peak oil and climate change, combined. That generally means we're working toward resilience.  The group should be working within the Transition concept, generally defined by the 7 Principles and 12 Steps .  It helps if the group generally understands TLA's common goal (above). 
  • Each Pod sends at least one Ray to meetings of the TLA core group.  If that particular individual cannot attend, the Pod should arrange for a substitute representative.
  • Pods can have a Google Calendar on the TLA calendar page to announce their local Transition-related activities; this local calendar is also merged into the general "all areas " calendar. The Google Calendar for the pod is maintained by the pod and automatically feeds into the TLA calendar via Google technology.
  • Pods are strongly encouraged to develop their own web presence to announce and unify their local area activities.  This may include blogs, webpages, online fliers, email addresses, discussion groups, etc.
  • Pods can participate in creating the content for the TLA City Hub page .  Individual pods maintain their own local area blogs, which automatically feed into the TLA City Hub page via "Atom" blog feed technology.
  • To become recognized as a Pod, here is no particular application process.  Your group will be "ready" when you start offering ongoing Transition-related sessions and activities to the general public.  There is no required degree of progress along the 12 Steps or path toward Transition.  Pods may be defined by geography (ex: "Culver City") or by a pre-existing group where members feel a sense of belonging, even though they currently drive to get there (ex: a religious community).  Most likely, when the latter type of group operates inclusively (Transition Principle #3), it will eventually evolve into a geographic group.
  • Examples of Pods include Transition Mar Vista , Transition South Bay LA, and Transition Culver City (now an offical Transition Intiative).
 

RAYS

Rays are representatives from the local neighborhood groups (pods) who volunteer as part of the TLA core team.  During the Ray's term of service, she keeps her Umbel linked into the information and resource loop.  Rays help our individual neighborhoods work together toward our common goal.  Rays also help keep communications flowing within the greater Los Angeles area, and help convey cross-pollinating ideas from one pod to another.  Rays may speak at awareness-raising appearances on behalf of Transition Los Angeles.

 

BRACTS

Bracts are people who participate in the TLA core team who aren't really representative of any one umbellet.  Some people join the TLA core team to work on a specific issue, or to support one of the area-wide interest groups.  Bracts may speak at awareness-raising appearances on behalf of Transition Los Angeles.

 

POLLINATORS

Pollinators are like butterflies flitting from one floret or umbellet to another.  Some people like to attend many groups and activities all over the greater Los Angeles basin.  These people serve a very, very important cross-pollinating function within Transition Los Angeles.  They are the primary ones who keep ideas flowing, carry ideas from one pod location to another, and keep people talking to each other.

 

PEDUNCLE

The Transition Los Angeles organization -- called a "city hub" by the international Transition Network -- is like the peduncle to the umbellifer structure.  It provides basic support for Transition activities in the area. 

  • TLA's primary function is to keep the communications flowing between local Pods in the Los Angeles basin.  Our mission and aims are stated here.
  • TLA offers speaker's trainings, Training for Transition (T4T), and other events with area-wide focus.  It also has interest groups with an area-wide focus such as political action.
  • TLA runs a Speaker's Bureau for area-wide awareness-raising. TLA Bracts and Rays are ambassadors; they do area-wide outreach, appearing as speakers to develop parts of the Los Angeles basin where Transition ideas are not yet established.  They also help nearby areas outside the Los Angeles basin get Transition ideas established.
  • TLA offers an "all areas" Google Calendar of Transition-type activities.  This calendar gathers all of the individual pod calendars into one single display.  TLA tries to assure that each month there is at least one introductory level awareness-raising activity offered somewhere in Los Angeles.
  • TLA also maintains a City Hub webpage which compiles the action happening in the various local areas.
  • Participation in TLA activities is offered to local Transition-type groups rather than mandated.  But it is hoped that local groups understand the common goal (above) and see the value of connecting with other pods via the TLA peduncle.
 

ROOTS

The roots of Transition Los Angeles are our national and international Transition organizations, Transition United States and the international Transition Network.
 
 
last updated Nov 2009.
 
 
 
 
 

A BIT OF HISTORY ...

OUR STARTING POINT

Transition Los Angeles was founded in December 2008 by a group of people emerging from a Training for Transition.  The members of this initiating group were not people from a single neighborhood.  If you plotted their home neighborhoods on a map, the points would have been spread widely among the Western and coastal neighborhoods of the Los Angeles basin.

Many of these initiating members were representative of several groups interested in environmental activities: a church in Westchester, a yoga center in Marina del Rey, a community garden in Venice, a Permaculture group in Santa Monica.  The geographical spacing of these locations was greater than a convenient bicycle ride.  It was clear, even from the start, that in time each of these groups would likely become centers of Transition-type activity, perhaps even official Transition Initiatives.

It was thus obvious that the group coming together in December 2008 was more of an area-wide group -- a "city hub" in the lingo of the international Transition Network -- and that more-local neighborhood Transition groups would eventually form. 

 
 
 
 

THE EVOLUTION

Transition is by nature a process which blossoms forth from the creativity of local community members.  In Los Angeles, we realized that eventually the more-local neighborhood groups ("pods") would be the main attraction with colorful reskilling classes, working groups, and neighbors preparing for the future together. The newly-formed "city hub" would likely become mere support for these various local pods.

After some thought, we discarded the traditional top-down pyramid model of a hierarchical structure.  "City hub" didn't fit -- it sounded like a hierarchical term, as if somehow the neighborhood groups would be dependent upon it or revolve around it, which didn't seem appropriate for Transition groups.

The fennel flower that grows wild in the mountains surrounding the Los Angeles basin provided greater inspiration.  Delicate in appearance, yet tough and rugged when you tug on it, it's the fennel inflorescence that draws the attention.  While the support structure of rays and bract and peduncle hold up the flower, they are hardly noticed by the casual observer. 

The Transition process in Los Angeles wouldn't be about the support structure, it would be about the activities of the florets and umbellets -- the local neighborhood groups, their reskilling classes, awareness-raising events, and local working groups.  TLA would function as peduncle, stem, and leaves, nourishing the inflorescence, keeping it loosely connected to the whole, and making the beautiful florets possible.

 
     
     
  THE HISTORY OF TLA