Action Groups - TOP coordinating

Focus: We want to spend 2009 developing a vision of how Oxford might be in the future, and identify now the necessary steps for achieving an attractive, sustainable and resilient City.
We want to provide a means of integrating and disseminating the ideas and activities that many people in Oxford are engaged with, in a way that motivates and excites others.
To this end, we are inviting contributions to the ‘Transition Oxford Plan’

The ‘Transition Oxford Plan' is intended

• to be a means of developing a picture of Oxford's future as an attractive, sustainable and resilient place,
• in order to inform and influence real decisions and possibilities,
• in a way that involves everyone local who wishes to contribute.

Following a year of Transition Oxford activities, a small group to coordinate the Plan has started to meet (and discover how big a task we have set ourselves.)

We have a provisional list of chapters and some ideas of guidelines for contributors .

We are happy that different chapters are written by different people in different ways. In all of them we ask for some vision of the future – and a sense of the steps necessary in the meantime in order to get there. Some will identify contentious issues that need exploring and displaying clearly; others may require overviews of technical research and development. The geographic and time boundaries are open for negotiation, but we want to start from the City of Oxford, and within the life expectancy of at least some of us here now.

We imagine a collective process will chew over and supercede any individual's writings, so we ask all contributors to be willing to see their words edited beyond all recognition!

Ideally, we will have meetings about a handful of chapters this winter, with others to follow in the Spring, with a view to drafting as many chapters as possible by the summer, ready for a process of combining and negotiating how they fit together…

By October 2009 we aim to draw together what has been done so far, ready for a version to go public: this will be a living document, intended to evolve and respond to new information and ideas.

We intend developing a more suitable website for developing the Plan. Meanwhile, see the drafts at present available:

Remit and guidelines for Chapter Leads and Contributors

Contents page

January 2009: We have people working on a ‘Scenarios' workshop to inform all parts of the Plan, and a ‘Base Map' showing the present situation in Oxford. Of the chapters, outlines are being developed for Transport and the Built Environment.

If you would like to take the lead in another Chapter, or just collaborate with others, email us with your particular subject of interest, and also tell us of any other subjects you have expertise or knowledge in that you may be able to contribute to.

In any case, feel free to comment on drafts as they appear online.

Contact: transitionoxford@gmail.com