This is a CTP of initiative: Transition Town Tooting (UK)
This CTP occurred towards the end of the interviewee’s period of chairing Transition Town Tooting (TTT). It is a critical turning point relating to the future direction of TTT. The activists had to consider to what extent their initiative would professionalise and institutionalize or remain as a loose knit group of voluntary activists. The latter are still important but it has grown bigger than that.
It was a critical turning point because it raised the issue of what kind of organization they should be. Although this question has not been fully resolved, the opening up of this question reflects an important ‘branching point’ in the trajectory of the initiative.
Previously, TTT has been driven by volunteers. However, they are increasingly involved in partnership with other organizations, taking on bigger projects and also looking to secure more external funding (e.g. Big Lottery Fund).
The interviewee suggested that they are at the stage in their development where they “need to know who they are”. People value and trust them, but they also need to be transparent, and that means they need a framework and, perhaps, a more formal organizational structure.
But that frightens some people who prefer a more informal and fluid organization. Some participants also just like to “do stuff” and deliver project-related activities rather than focus on organizational development.
Whether or not significant changes are made will depend on whether there are the people with energy and enthusiasm to push ahead with it. It is a potential turning point, but it is not clear whether they are going to take it.
A permaculture course. Belinda had attended a permaculture course at the beginning of the year (focusing on ‘permaculture for Transition Town development’). She though this was a really interesting way of thinking about the development of Transition Town Tooting. So she thought she would bring it to the vision and pathways day. This was like a ‘lightbulb’ moment, because they had the opportunity to put permaculture theory into practice on the course, and she used their Transition initiative as a case study. The permaculture ‘cycle’ and its techniques including observation and reflection seemed very relevant to the development of their strategy.
The vision and pathways day is an event that they hold every year and it is a chance for the whole core team (and others) to reflect and make decisions about the future of the Transition Town. It’s a celebration of what they have done as well as a way of pooling their resources and thinking about the future. The incumbent chair organizes the day. They are often very creative but it also supposed to be a strategic, planning day that brings people together. The event was held around April 20th 2015.
The interviewee (who was chair at the time) felt that she hadn’t done anything particularly exciting over her period. TTT had been pooling along and her leadership style had been to facilitate rather than impose direction. They had also reached a point whereby they were beginning to pay people for some of the work she felt they did not have the right policies or processes to deal with this. Similarly, they went from securing small amounts of funding to receiving larger amounts of money and, once again, the appropriate systems were not quite in place.
She knew that it could be divisive if a good framework was not put in place. Some people wanted to make a living from what they were doing, and they were beginning to feel uneasy or a little pushed out, and it had the potential to create internal conflict. So she though this would be a good opportunity to develop these issues. There was another colleague who was very experienced in developing charities and community interest companies and he agreed to lead a session at the vision and pathways day that was purely about organizational development.
The day was split into six parts and she asked someone who was interested to run each part (E.g. someone ran the marketing part, someone ran the section on finance, someone else ran the part on organizational development). The idea was that the different elements could be brought together at the end of the process in terms of what kind of organization they wanted to become.
They had a really good turn out (about 20 people) which suggested that people were interested in this more practical and pragmatic focus rather than a more general, aspirational type event.
Preceding events:
It was not so much that there were a series of discrete events which led to this particular CTP, but more an organic process of growth of the initiative. For example, the need to start paying people and the desire to secure external funding were drivers of this critical turning point. If they couldn’t operate on a ‘no funding’ basis any more then they had to think about organizational development. Another important issue at that time was burn-out. There was an issue that the loss of key people would mean that their knowledge would go with them and that people wouldn’t know what to do (issue of institutional memory).
There had been previous vision and pathways days. From the point of view of the interviewee, these events had tended to be focused around generating ideas. As a group, they are very good at creating post-it notes. But then, they go away and many of the ideas do not get followed up. There was a feeling (both for her and, perhaps, some others) that this was “not another visions and pathways day where we create ideas and post-it notes.” So the focus instead was on solutions and outcomes.
Following events:
After the Vision and Pathways day, the plan was that, throughout the following year, they would come together every three months and discuss aspects of the report that came out of the meeting (Potential Organisational Development - POD). The organization of this process was the responsibility of the new co-chairs and has gone in its own direction. They still haven’t come to any conclusions as the whether they are a charity or a Community Interest Company (a model of social enterprise), so the overall issue of organizational form is still to be resolved. However, a good financial protocol has now been drawn up as an outcome of this process.
The whole issue of organizational development has created some disagreement. Different personalities are attracted to Transition and people have different interests. There are people who just want to do and enjoy and there are those who are interested in being more strategic and ensuring that there is some kind of legacy and continuity.
Therefore, not everyone agreed that it was a useful process to spend time trying to work out what they are, who they are etc. Some people felt they should stick to focusing on the ideas and idea generation, whereas others were focused on this issue of institutional memory and the effect that losing key people would have in terms of loss of knowledge and activities ending. The former felt that that was just part of the process and the Transition approach.
The issue around people making a living was also slightly contentious. But It was agreed at the visions and pathways day that it was important that people could make a living out of what they are doing. That is a sustainable model. The whole idea is a sustainable local economy from what people want to do. They all agreed with that.
It wasn’t a turning point that was particularly anticipated beforehand, more the culmination of a number of ongoing developments, as already discussed.
This has the potential to be a significant turning point but it has not yet been fully realized because the overall decision, and therefore its consequences have not been felt.
In terms of contributing towards the goals of Transition Town Tooting, this critical turning point has helped to focus attention on the financial aspects of TTT. It has also made them think about evaluation and how they measure the impact of their work. They have developed a matrix that was developed at one of the POD meetings.
They are working on funding bids and the learning that has come from this process are feeding into the bids showing that they have systems in place and can show their impact etc. It is part of the world if you want to secure funding from external sources.
An important learning point has been related to developing a self-identity as an organization. You need to be clear whether you are going to do this for fun and not attract money, and if you are going to try and attract money then you need to be clear about the consequences of that and put the correct systems and processes in place. For example, who is responsible for administering wages? Be clear about whether you are doing it intrinsically for no money, or be open minded about why you doing it.
Stay informed. Subscribe for project updates by e-mail.
