What do we want from Transition Ferndale?

[Judith Culver]

On Sunday, Nov 15, 2009 we met for the first time at Transition Whatcom event, "Let's Walk the Walk". We are in the process of getting to know each other and finding out what we want Transition Ferndale to be. Here are notes I took during our group discussion and at other times.

Peggy is setting up the first monthly potluck and film night; probably “Power of Community” at WECU.
We will gather about twice a month. Post ideas for things you want to do in between the film nights.

Think about what we want to accomplish with Transition Ferndale.
Identify skills, tools, equipment to share.
Identify skills we don’t have.
Informal re-skilling; if you are doing something others might want to learn, notify others.
Justen stressed the importance of people learning to do simple bike maintenace.
Identify abandoned fruit/nut trees and see if the owners will let them be gleaned.
Book group.
Move our center of activity from Bellingham to Ferndale; carpool to Bellingham.
Ham radio person in our area
Reader boards in the community where we can post events; other ways to publicize to community?
Make a phone list
Emergency management class called CERT
“Mapping your Neighborhood” also through Emergency Management (city of Bellingham only?)

In the future:
Decide if we want to form an initating group and go through the process to become an official Transition Ferndale initiative.
Identify existing groups in Ferndale that have common purposes with us; don’t duplicate what already exists.
Talk to the city; perhaps make presentation to the city council.
I notice that many of us do not live in Ferndale city limits. We may be splitting off into Transition Custer, Lummi, North Star (that's us), etc. in the future.

Lastly, remember “nurturing relationships with people around you matters”

[peggy borgens]

thanks so much for that overview. i am working on setting up the film night for Dec 9th. still waiting to hear back from WECU. i am excited there are so many ready to start in our area and hopefully as more people come aboard there will be more localizing. i hope we will get better and better at connecting with those around us. thanks again Judith for keeping this moving.

[Terese VanAssche]

Hi Judith,

Thanks for putting together these notes!, great job. One thing I would say is I would miss our current core group as we are just all getting to know one anothe! I do a lot of localizing with my immediate neighbors, but many of the sustainably minded folks I have met do not live in the immediate Ferndale city limits. Most of the Ferndale Farmer's market & community garden folks are from other than the city of Ferndale ~ Custer, Blaine, Birch Bay, Everson, etc. So is TF thinking of the first or second Wednesday of the month for meetings? It would be nice to do a film night at WECU, and then a monthly potluck / book group meeting at each others homes, on a rotation. We used to do this with my church in Ellensburg, and I really enjoyed getting to know people this way. Happy holidays everyone if I don't see you again before Nov. 29.
Terese
Anyway hope y'all can come on November 29 for the Fern Hollow potluck / barter event.

[Alys Kennedy]

I think splitting off into small groups for the Transition Ferndale group would be detrimental. There aren't enough Transition people in each of the areas to really form a viable community that can be supportive of one another. (This I think is going to be true for some time in the Ferndale area due to the somewhat right-wing in denial mind set that still prevails in the area). However, perhaps in a few years that would make sense, if and when there are many more members. As you mentioned Judith, many of us don't have much family nearby and I also would like to see the members of TW/TF become my extended family....which means keeping the wee group we currently have together as much as possible.

[Alys Kennedy]

Hello to all TF people....I just re-read the above post, What Do We Want From Transition Ferndale, which was posted on Nov 17, 2009...and it appears that not much has happened since then...other than the 2 movies shown at WECU....sorry, I did not attend Homegrown, which I had already seen, and had other things going on that day or I would have come to the potluck........anyway, on to my reason for writing now. I am wondering what, if anything came out of the last meeting at WECU, and if so, what. And, I am wondering if we are still an active group, as I have not had a lot of contact with anyone in the group since November, other than a very short phone conversation with Judy in January....it would be good to follow through with the things listed from the meeting in November, like identifying skills, tools, equipment to share, sharing skills and ideas with others, etc. I would like to see us meet more often and actively make plans for things we can do to help one another, especially as spring arrives and there is much to do to get ready for gardening. There is an unofficial group I know of in the Everson area that is already living what we have talked about - meeting monthly, making plans of action and following through with various activities to help one another. I would like that to happen with the Ferndale group. Input anyone???

[Judith Culver]

Ideas from Gathering at Ro’s on 4/13/10

14 gathered, new and previous members. There were many ideas and statements of things to do and how to be. They aren’t in any particular order.


1. Change regulations in the community; such as, wind farms, solar, geothermal, ADU, chickens in the city, greywater
2. Figure out what is important to the community, how to put people to work
3. Support communities and businesses that produce things we need
4. Data base of human needs
5. Help meet fundamental needs
6. Talk to neighbors, present your beliefs, “I am preparing”, “I know we disagree”
7. Bring new people to film nights. Let them know we are there for them.
8. Learn new skills
9. Start new industry
10. Prepare the ground
11. Have a public presence, perhaps table at Ferndale Farmers’ Market, Pioneer Days 7/22-25, Ferndale St Festival 8/28
12. Some members want to provide Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) on their property
13. Rainwater collection is now legal in the state of Washington
14. Remember that everything doesn’t have to be legal. Do what is vitally important and then protect yourself
15. Don’t restrict Transition Ferndale to the middle class. We will be inclusive and help with transportation or child care money. Notice generational, class, racial gaps. Accommodate people with and without computers.
16. Be prepared for everything to fall apart any time now. It can get very bad quickly.
17. Connect with people
18. Grow a garden
19. Dignity is important; dignity comes from doing things well and making contributions
20. Live as though there is no structure to support you
21. Make an asset inventory, skills, tools, books
22. Learn food preservation, we want to do community/group preserving
23. Learn edible and medicinal wild food gathering
24. Collaborate on many levels
25. 4th Corner Exchange
26. Lending library
27. Invest in Ferndale business
28. Importance of a spiritual path
29. Emergency first aid; Rainbow and other members are leaders in DIY First Aid group
30. Book: Money by Greco
31. Help each to share gifts in the best way