1. Introduction

This email message provides you with an update schedule of training courses for Transition Initiatives in the United States. The East Coast courses described in Section 2 and the West Coast courses described in Section 3 have been organized by Pamela Gray, PhD, Trustee of the Transition Network. You can reach Pamela by email: pamelagray@transitionnetwork.org. The email addresses of contacts for the East Coast and West Coast courses are identified in each section.

More information about this training is available by “clicking on” the Transition Training link on the Home Page of the Transition Towns Wiki at http://www.transitiontowns.org/.

The West Coast training schedule includes a 4-day Training the Trainers course on Dec 11-14 in San Francisco. More information about this course is available of the “Become a Trainer for Transition” portion of the following website: http://transitiontowns.org/TransitionNetwork/TransitionTraining.

Section 4 describes a Transition Initiative training course being organized by Michael Brownlee in Boulder Colorado on September 13 and 14, 2008. Section 5 provides preliminary information about a Transition Initiative training course which is being organized in the Central Coast of California on January 17 and 18 of 2009.

2. East Coast Training Courses

The Transition Network is pleased to be able to offer the East Coast Transition Training in Portland Maine and Cambridge MA this October / November 2008.

The Transition Center in Portland Maine is now booking the following two-day courses in Training for Transition:

October 4-5 Location: Portland, ME Cost: $200

November 1-2 Location: TBD*, Portland, ME Cost: $200

or Cambridge MA

November 22-23 Location: TBD, Portland, ME Cost: TBD

or Cambridge MA

*TBD = To be determined.

The instructors are Alastair Lough, PhD and Pat Proulx-Lough MS, LMFT who have 36 years background in science and psychology, and have trained extensively with the original UK Transition trainers, Naresh and Sophy. Together, they are passionate and committed to teaching people how the Transition Model can be used to tackle Climate Change and Peak Oil in your community.

For further details, please email jlough1@maine.rr.com or call (207) 228-6461.

Please note: if sufficient interest exists in your East Coast community for the two day Training for Transition course, the instructors can travel to your area to provide the course, reducing the course-carbon footprint, while making it more affordable for participants.

3. West Coast Training Courses

The Transition Network is pleased to be able to offer the West Coast Transition Training in Northern California and Portland Oregon this December 2008. We have confirmed several training dates with Naresh and Sophy who put together the original Transition Training courses in the UK. We will be adding more to the list as time goes on.

Training for Transition (T4T) Portland: This 2-day course is scheduled for Tuesday & Wednesday, December 2 & 3 in Portland, Oregon. The exact location is yet to be confirmed. The cost of attending T4T is $200. Contact David Johnson for more information or to register for this event ecodave@mac.com.

Training for Transition (T4T) San Francisco: This 2-day course is scheduled Saturday & Sunday, December 6 & 7 in San Francisco. It will be held in the Presidio area (a haven of thriving nonprofits near the beaches of Crissy Field and the Golden Gate Bridge) in the Pachamama Alliance conference room. The cost of attending T4T is $200. Contact Carolyne Stayton for more information or to register for this event transitiontraining@gmail.com.

Training the Trainers (TTT): The first 4-day course is scheduled for Thursday through Sunday, December 11 - 14 also in San Francisco at the Pachamama Alliance conference room. The cost of attending TTT is $500. Contact Carolyne Stayton for more information or to register for this event transitiontraining@gmail.com.

For anyone that takes both courses, the cost is $600.

The trainers for both the West Coast T4T and TT courses are Naresh Giangrande and Sophy Banks, both long-term contributors to Transition Town Totnes initiative.

We would like to offer bursaries to those who want to take the training but are short of funds. If any of you are willing to make a donation over and above the course fees, we will apply your donation to the bursary fund.

4. Boulder (Colorado) Training Course

Training for Transition (T4T) Boulder: This 2-day course will be conducted in Boulder, CO on Saturday & Sunday, September 13 and 14. This course will be taught by Michael Brownlee and Lynette Marie Hanthorn, co-founders of Transition Boulder County, the first official Transition Initiative in North America. Michael and Lynette each bring more than three years of on-the-ground relocalization experience to the Transition Training, as well as long-time practice in organizational development, group process technologies, and psychospiritual processes. The cost of attending T4T is $200 if registration occurs before Sept 5 and $250 after Sept 5. More information is available at the following website:

http://www.bouldercountygoinglocal.com/transitiontraining.html

5. California Central Coast Training Course

Training for Transition (T4T) California Central Coast: This 2-day course will be conducted at Dancing Deer Farm in Templeton, CA on Saturday & Sunday, January 17 & 18 of 2009. Michael Brownlee of Transition Boulder County will lead this course. This course is being organized by Jim Cole and Bob Banner in cooperation with other for people interested in launching Transition Initiatives in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties as well as other California Central Coast communities. Please contact Jim Cole at jim.cole@mac.com for more information about this event.

6. Concluding Remarks

The Transition Network is hopeful that as many of you as possible take the T4T training - it will really help to get Transition Initiatives off the ground in your communities. And if we can increase the group of Transition Trainers through attendees at TTT, we will be able to offer more extensive and speedier coverage of the US. We have no time to lose!