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What is a Transition Town?

A Transition Town generally means a community that has come together to creatively respond to the twin threats of peak oil and climate change. This movement has inspired many communities around the world to take the steps towards transition and react positively as a community. These Transition Towns are currently working towards ways of increase the resilience of their community as the majority of communities are currently vulnerable ie if there was an energy shortage or extremely high energy prices most people would not be able to afford to heat their homes or buy food. The Transition Town approach is not at all doom and gloom, the best way for communities to react to this issue is often to look at the opportunities that can be created. Those within the community with skills and knowledge can often be used to come up with solutions. The promotion of reskilling is also essential to community resilience as they can be traded with skills others may have as an alternative to money or to be used to start a business.

What is MASTT?

Please see the 'About MASTT' tab on the top on the page for information.

What is Peak Oil?

Peak Oil refers to the peak at which oil becomes harder and more expensive to extract, it does not mean that we no longer have oil available. Many people believe we are at the peak of oil production or will be very soon. After the peak has been reached, all of the oil that follows will be more expensive as it becomes harder to extract oil from various untapped sources such as tar sands. The affect of this will ultimately lead to higher food and energy prices.

Why not just wait for the Government to do something?

To quote the Transition Handbook 'Governments generally don't lead, they respond. They are reactive not proactive.' Many people have lost faith in the government and feel that if they want to see positive change happening then they will have to do it themselves. Governments hundreds of miles away cannot make decisions that will be suitable to an area in which they have never been, only the people that live there can make decisions that are suitable for their area and their culture. MASTT believe that the community has the ability to become resilient by working together and sharing ideas, resources and skills.

The whole concept behind MASTT is that the initiative is yours. If you have an idea or a plan that helps our community creatively deal with climate change and peak oil and you would like help to kickstart it, then let us know and we'll set up a group for you on this website and help get the ball rolling!

Set up an account and let us know what you want to do , its quick, simple and you can let people know what you want you think.

Or you could come along to our monthly meetings on the last Monday or every month in The New Inn in Marsden at 8pm (also known as collective genius).

Examples of this could include:

An event you think we should hold, like the community produce stalls we have held previously

Assisting in other local environmental projects that link in with Transiton Towns

Holding workshops to help the community learn skills that you think need to be re-taught such as food growing

The list is endless, just let us know!

Now's your chance to be the change you would like to see in the world.

Website Information

Anyone can visit this website and browse freely. The main menu above (the blue boxes) show you who we are , what we’re discussing and provide access to current news and views from the Transition Towns community and other relevant news sources. The right hand side of the page shows what events are upcoming - either click the topic (e.g. Collective Genius) or the bold numbers in the monthly calendar to get details on any forthcoming event. If you want to make a comment or start a new discussion - you need to register. This is easy (really) and only takes a few minutes:

How to Register

1. Click “Create new account.”
2. Fill in form. (You only need to choose a username and type in your e-mail address - everything else is optional)
3. Click the Submit button. MASTT will then send you an email which confirms your registration and gives you a long boring password.
4. Change your password. (By clicking on the long blue link towards the end of the e-mail you’ll be taken to a page which lets you reset your password, and gives you the option to include a picture, and some other useful bits and bobs.)
5. Click the Submit button.

And that’s it. When you go back to the site you can now type in your username and password and then you can start to get involved in debates and discussions in our forums or start you own.

Adding a blog

You can start a blog by clicking the “my blog” text which explains everything. Write as much as you like as often as you like.

Taking part in a Discussion

You can get into the various forums through the 'Discussion' menu item, which will show you a list of all the current forums on the site. Click on the one which you are interested in (e.g. Local Food ) and you’ll go to the list of forum topics concerned with Local Food. Click on one of these and you can catch up on the discussion so far. Click “reply” to get involved. You can start a new topic within any forum by clicking “post new forum topic”. This starts a new topic - you are asked to give it a name and then start the debate. Everyone else can then tell you what they think. Oh, and if you think it could be organised differently (better), please let us know by using the contact form.