Rob Hopkins, author of the Transition Handbook, is coming to town!

Yesterday night we attended a planning meeting for the 2011 Sustainable Communities Conference. There were a couple dozen people from neighborhood groups, city and suburban government, congregations and green teams, and, hey, shout out to KBEM radio. The program for this year looks like a lot more inspiration is on the way, especially with guest speaker Rob Hopkins from Transition Totnes in the U.K. Closer to home, Krista Leraas from Backyard Harvest will talk about local food.

Want a sneak peek at the plans?

Think rain gardening, community gardens, organizing bike/walk advocacy groups, neighborhood transition towns, congregational green teams, advocacy skills, the Natural Step framework, tools for advocacy and awareness. It looks like a great place to meet people, to learn and recharge.

I’m particularly interested in the workshop on eco-psychology. This is really difficult stuff. Humans being what we are, how do we talk about this and work on this without getting distressed, depressed and burnt out? We need the energy of hope and creativity. The inner environment is as important as the outer environment for this work.

The organizers, The Alliance for Sustainability, are looking for volunteers to help with the event, which drew 600 attendees last year. They are putting together logistics teams, PR/communication teams, a speaker’s bureau and a database team. Call 612-331-1099 if you’d like to volunteer — that’s the number of the Alliance.

BTW, the database team is looking for people who know drupal. Anyone here who can help?