Despite the thumping from dancers practicing their moves upstairs, the 20-plus people celebrating Transition Denver’s first birthday party at the Mercury Café were able to discuss the way forward for the next year. Adam Brock of Wild Green Yonder (below center), who showed up late after his recent trip to Burning Man, promised, “This year we’ve taken the first steps of a really long journey.”

The Transition movement, begun in England as a response to the concept of peak oil, appeals to me. Michael Anderson, one of the founders of Transition Denver and a self-described activist (below left), said he loves it because it’s growing something, not fighting something.

But Dana Miller (below right), another founder, noted that the original Transition model for promoting local resilience was designed for small towns of 5,000 people or so. It’s much harder to apply that model to a metro area of 3 million people. She wants their small group of volunteers to turn into an umbrella group to help to guide neighborhood transition groups.

Dana, whom I met years ago when she and Todd and I were involved in a cohousing project, is a natural leader. She’s good at inspiring and directing people and was able to extract pages of ideas from the crowd, from a barter guide to Skype conferences among Transitioners worldwide so they can share ideas.

Everyone agreed that the main activity of the first year—awareness raising—would continue, and the evening ended with gluten-free cake.