permaculture

["Ava Devenport" <essenheal@iname.com>]

On 06/10/00, ""Robert Jensen" <robertscroft@hotmail.com>" wrote:
> What an interesting and useful idea from Barry & Margarita!!!

If I may put my two cents in, I agree with this concept wholeheartedly!  At 
United Plant Savers they put together a slide show project along with some 
very basic educational materials in a small handbook.  Members are allowed 
to use or purchase the slides to conduct 'informational seminars'.  A few 
nominal fee is charged ($5-10.00) and then there is a question/answer 
period afterward.  Of course this presentation involves "Plants at Risk" 
and cultivation and restoration of native medicinal plants, but the concept 
is the same.  The seminars are always packed and the newsmedia, papers, 
etc. advertise the event free of charge as a 'community project'.

Brochures, resources and informational hand-outs are given out and the cost 
of the seminar helps cover these costs.  United Plant Savers supplies the 
brochures at no cost.  They've been trying for awhile now to put together a 
video, but it seems that all the volunteers who originally promised to get 
it together have gotten lost somewhere.

I've held many of these informal seminars and of course I don't have all 
the answers to all the questions sometimes, but I know where and how to get 
them and also direct the individuals to the 'right' people.  They also 
handout membership applications with a 10% discount for the seminar-goers, 
as UpS is a non-profit grassroots organization and they've gotten many new 
members and funds through these informal get togethers.

This is a terrific way to get the public interested, educated and involved, 
but as it's been said before in these posts, to keep the vision going, you 
have to be able to provide somewhere the people can go for hands-on, 
examples,additional training and support.

Now, who and how can this vision be assembled and carried through?  There 
are no boundaries with this type of concept, it can go global, annual 
conferences could be set up all over the world for members if it became a 
membership based effort.

Blessings,
Ava


> > This could be a very useful way of getting basic Permaculture facts into 
> > the
> hands of new people.   It could also lead to a series of "how to" video's,
> thus eliminating a great deal of cost associated with learning new concepts.
> > I like this idea.   What do others think???
> > Keep them flowing.
> > Revitalise, rehabilitate, rejuvenate...
> > Robert Jensen