permaculture

[Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>]

 Continental Bioregional Congress Coordinating Council
1357 N. 1000 Rd. Lawrence, Kansas 66046 *
785/843-0253 * bioregionalcouncil@gmail.com

September 20, 2005

Greetings!                                                           
We invite you and your local community to consider hosting the 10th 
Continental Bioregional Congress, set to occur in 2007 or 2008. This is 
an excellent opportunity to energize your community, and to invite 
bioregional activists, artists, writers, permaculturalists, musicans, 
poets, farmers, healers and educators to explore and celebrate your 
eco-region while sharing resources and inspiration from throughout the 
Americas.

Bioregional congresses, held periodically throughout the continent since 
1984, have been fertile ground for helping many individuals craft lives 
and livelihoods more in balance with their life-places.  The congresses 
have catalyzed many new communities and organizations - in addition to a 
myriad of publications, curriculums, tools and other sources - to help 
us deepen our commitment to reinhabit and better protect the earth.  
Perhaps the success of bioregional congresses comes from the 
participatory nature of these events - representatives of many 
ecosystems who gather to model human governance that explores the 
possibilities and obeys the limits of the planet. We co-create a 
ceremonial village for a week that has the potential to bring about 
dynamic shifts in consciousness and renewed passion to create a more 
sustainable way of life. The bioregional congress is potentially one of 
the most powerful organizing and transformative vehicles in existence - 
and in light of the escalating events of war, global warming, reaching 
peak oil and Hurricane Katrina, more essential than ever.

We have put together, over many congresses, detailed information on 
planning many aspects of the congress, including meals and food 
purchasing, site design and support, publicity and outreach templates to 
modify and use, recycling and composting suggestions, registration and 
transportation forms and templates, and more.  There will also very 
likely be seed money available to help support the group organizing the 
congress, budgets from past congress to help with financial planning, 
and help with outreach and organizing.

If you and folks in your area feel that you could funnel your passion 
for living bioregionally into collaborating effectively to host a 
bioregional congress, we hope you consider this opportunity.   Please 
review the organizing materials available in the Files section of the 
Yahoogroups Bioreg website 
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Bioreg/files/). 
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Bioreg/files/%29.>  You must be a member 
of the Bioreg listserv to access these files.  This can be done for free 
by applying for membership at the website.  These files should give you 
a good idea of what was entailed in organizing the last 2 congresses.  
Additional information is available at the www.bioregionalcongress.org 
website. After discussing these possibilities with local people who 
might be willing to undertake organizing a Congress, please answer the 
questions on the form, and return it with any supporting material to the 
bioregional coordinating council in as much detail as possible.  If you 
have any questions, please contact us at 785/843-0253.

Please submit this electronically by November 15, 2005 to: 
<bioregionalcouncil@gmail.com>

On behalf the bioregional movement, we look forward to creating with a 
local group an event that has the potential to create the changes needed 
at this time on our planet, and for the earth,

The Coordinating Council of the Continental Bioregional Movement:
Barbara Harmony, Ken Lassman, Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Laura Kuri, Fabio 
Manzini, Mary Meyer,
Richard Cartwright, Liora Adler, Kimchi Rylander, Bob Randall
Request for Proposal (RFP)
for hosting the 10th Continental Bioregional Congress

Name of Group submitting the proposal:
Contact person:
Address:
Phone:
Email address:

1) Do you have at least five people committed to be the core team for 
organizing this congress, including one of the five who will take 
responsibility as the key organizer?


2) What experience do the people involved have attending congresses? 
What experience do the people involved have organizing events?


3) What kinds of resources would your team need to pull this off (such 
as office support, site support, facilitation and consensus training, 
time, energy and enthusiasm; we intend to provide some financial support 
in the form of minimal stipends for key organizers)?


4) If you have a site already in mind, please describe the facilities in 
as much detail as you can, including tent space, cabin capacity, meeting 
spaces, kitchen, showers, toilets, etc. The last congress had around 250 
attendees. Can you handle this size, or even larger? If possible, 
estimate the maximum capacity you could handle. If you DON'T have a site 
in mind, describe in as much detail as possible how you would 
locate/create such a site. Please note that we are looking for a 
location that supports ecological sustainability, including ecovillages, 
spiritual retreat centers, environmental centers, etc.


5) How far is the site from a major airport? Do you have someone who 
would commit to coordinating  transportation (or ideas on who might be 
asked)?


6) How would this work as a cooperative project with organizations and 
other people in the area? Please give us as many details as you know.


7) What would be hard about this for you and your team? What would be 
great about this for you and your team? How could we best support you?


Please submit this electronically by November 15, 2005 to 
<bioregionalcouncil@gmail.com>.
Supplemental materials can be attached/emailed separately, or mailed to: 
Continental Bioregional Council, 1357 N. 1000 Rd., Lawrence, KS 66046. 
Please note any separately delivered materials in your emailed RFP. We 
will acknowledge the receipt of your application as soon as we receive 
it, and will be making a decision as soon as we can. The exact date of 
our decision depends on the number of applicants. If you have any 
questions while filling out the application, feel free to contact Ken 
Lassman or Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg at 785/843-0253.

--
Keith Johnson
Permaculture Activist Magazine
PO Box 1209
Black Mountain, NC 28711
(828)669-6336

also Patterns for Abundance Design & Consulting
Culture's Edge at Earthaven Ecovillage
http://www.permacultureactivist.net
http://www.earthaven.org
http://www.bioregionalcongress.org

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