Transition Culture

I was recently in Lille in France as a speaker at an event called the World Forum for a Responsible Economy.  One of my fellow speakers was Judy Wicks, who I've wanted to meet for years. Judy is from Philadelphia in the US, and is a retired entrepreneur, and was one of the founders of BALLE, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies.  She now describes herself as an 'activist citizen', acting in a variety of ways which you'll hear about as we get into the conversation we had.  We met over breakfast in the hotel we were both staying in, so listen out for the rattle of tea cups and the distant munching of croissants.  I started by asking Judy to give us some background on BALLE.  What is it, and what does it do?