Transition Buxton has been going since 2008 and grown to be an inclusive, proactive, self-sustaining not for profit organisation with roughly 150 ‘Members’ including up to 9 (we have some vacancies) ‘Directors’, and a further 350 people who receive our bi-monthly e-newsletters.
Here we share a little of the journey from good idea to busy social enterprise – if you want to learn more or seek support to develop a similar entity where you live, just get in touch.
Founded
For the first two years we ran with a steering group, on an interim constitution, while we worked out how we wanted to organise ourselves. At first we concentrated mainly on raising awareness and recruiting people to join our ranks. Later project groups were formed to take on areas such as Food, Energy and Transport, to develop schemes that would make a real difference in the community.
First AGM
We opened Transition Buxton to ‘membership’ in July 2010, when we held our first Annual General Meeting. This formally adopted the constitution and elected a coordinating group to replace the original steering group. Our guiding principles were:
- to act always in a manner consistent with the Universal Declaration on Human Rights;
- to act in a manner consistent with the aims and guidance of the Transition Towns Movement;
- to maintain and safeguard the independence of Transition Buxton from all political parties, corporations, statutory bodies and voluntary bodies;
- to remain a not-for-profit body whose members would never make a direct personal profit from any activity.
Formed CIC
We were aware that as an unconstituted body we were quite vulnerable, and possibly missing out on opportunities for fund-raising. At the Annual General Meeting on 15th June 2013 we formally became a Community Interest Company or CIC. A CIC is, as the name suggests a business operated for the benefit of our community; please see the Transition Buxton CIC page for details.
Minutes of meetings or other historic documents are available on request.