[Peakoil] Peak oil groups in Australia

[Keith Thomas]

Alex, could you keep an eye on these folk and be Canberra's "rep" on 
this list?  No need to do much - just remind them once a month or so 
that we exist and some of us are actually doing things. I don't expect 
you to take a more active role as you could easily get sucked into more 
than you bargain for. The Sydney folk could be creating a monolith, 
whereas I prefer a more anarchic, spontaneous, loose organization in 
which everyone finds roles that suit them, and does what they feel most 
driven to do - AND keeps the rest of us broadly informed of what it is 
they are doing, problems, successes etc.

I mention your name because (a) I know you drop in on ROEOZ every now 
and again and (b) you know pretty well what's happening here.
--------------------------------------------
Keith Thomas
www.evfit.com
--------------------------------------------

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dave
>   To: roeoz at yahoogroups.com
>   Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2005 6:31 PM
>   Subject: [roeoz] 3 Tiered structure of local and national groups.
>
>
>   The way I see it, we already have 3 groups forming. a "National 
> Academic Body", the local
>   City Peak Oil groups, and ROEOZ. our national chat body. Do we 
> really need any more?
>   Let me explain why I don't think so.
>
>   1/ NATIONAL ACADEMIC BODY
>   The focus of the national academic body (we'll be hearing from them 
> soon hopefully, so
>   that we can put a name to this group) will be credible scientific 
> reports. So if professor "Joe
>   Bloggs" writes a peak oil thing, and it's credible and not too 
> inflammatory, it goes up
>   there. They will present papers and run oil presentations etc. But 
> as they may have some
>   government funding, there are certain areas where they may not be 
> able to be as
>   confrontational as other groups of peakniks would like!
>
>   2/ CITY GROUPS
>   We already have 3 "City Peak Oil" groups (CPOs) that I know of. 
> Sydney Peak Oil,
>   Melbourne Peak oil and Kim's Postcarbon group. (I'm working on a 
> directory on my eclipse
>   site which I will also copy and paste into Sydney Peak Oil in case I 
> get hit by a bus.)
>
>   CPOs are rewarding just for their own sake. Just meeting with other 
> peak oilers is great.
>   This contributes to a vibrancy and energy that the leaders can tap 
> into and utilize. Things
>   get done.
>
>   EG: Sydney Peak Oil did not exist until February this year, and by 
> July we were presenting
>   to the NSW Upper House "Cross Benchers" (minority parties). Why? 
> Because when we
>   simply got together, we were able to use our different skills and 
> CONTACTS. The "6
>   degrees of separation" closes in and can be used to your advantage. 
> In a local campaign
>   focussed CPO someone usually knows someone who can help the CPO meet 
> with State or
>   Local politicians, universities, local community groups or some 
> other venue to run
>   presentations.
>
>   3/ ROEOZ  (I pronounce it Row-Oz, what about others?)
>   -Already facilitates national chat on everything about everything 
> peak oil.
>   -Good announcements forum (except some complain that it is very high 
> volume so they
>   miss some major announcements.)
>   -Can facilitate communication between the CPOs.
>
>   DO WE NEED ANOTHER NATIONAL FORUM?
>   So, with that three-tiered structure all interacting, do we need 
> much more?
>   The CPO's are campaigning locally in each city and spreading the 
> word peer to peer as well
>   as "up" to government. Canberra CPO (oh no.. my term CPO has the 
> same initials as
>   Canberra Peak Oil.) would be targeting the Feds.
>
>   Do we need another national campaigning body? What for? I understand 
> that ROEOZ yahoo
>   groups can send 2 types of email. one can be the general chat from 
> the bulletin board,
>   and the other can be a "Moderator's Announcement". I'm not sure how 
> that shows up in
>   your email list. but surely we could come up with some system where 
> Mike announces
>   any major Australian peak oil news over ROEOZ? Or is ROEOZ too 
> chatty, and we need a
>   focussed national campaigning chat room that ONLY focuses on 
> national campaign
>   information? I don't think so. but if we did, it would probably need 
> a better bb software
>   like SPO's. (Try following a thread on Sydney Peak Oil and see how 
> much easier it is to
>   read!)
>
>   So with Canberra PO already targeting the Feds, I think we'd risk 
> duplication!
>   However, if someone here has a burning vision for what a 
> www.peakoil.com.au national
>   campaigning body might achieve separate and in addition to the 
> existing CPO's. then by
>   all means run it by us.
>
>   Dave Lankshear
>   www.eclipsenow.org
>   Free peak oil posters.