permaculture

["Robert Waldrop" <bwaldrop@cox.net>]

Elfin Permaculture at the Barking Frogs 
Permaculture Center begins the first cycle of its 
new Online Design Clinic, Sept. 14, 2008.

This Online Design Clinic serves people who wish 
to receive support in the permaculture design 
process for their own homes. The clinic runs as a 
moderated 'listserve' type discussion group with 
scheduled topics following the format of our 
Permaculture Design Course Online. Anyone who is 
designing his/her home can participate in this 
program by paying tuition and completing the 
registration form. The program runs about six 
months.

The principal advantage to participating in the 
clinic is to obtain design support and consulting 
at a cost substantially less than comparable 
consulting by a professional permaculture 
designer. Because the entire group of clinic 
participants can critique designs, provide 
information, and make suggestions, including 
access to a highly qualified permaculture teacher, 
a much broader range of views, information and 
resources is available for consideration in each 
design effort than would be available from a 
single consultant.

The give and take discussion enables exploration 
of each idea far more fully than otherwise likely. 
Participants with permaculture certificates, in 
particular, gain opportunities for advanced work 
in supporting others in their personal designs.

The clinic is not certificate course, but rather 
complements such programs. The clinic offers more 
intensive design experience than possible in the 
certificate course. There are three levels of 
participation: Targeted Support, Class Design 
Support, and Full Design Support, each with a 
different tuition payment. Design elements for 
Targeted Support participants are reviewed by the 
class as part of the discussion. Class Design 
Support participants have their design discussed 
by the class and reviewed with detailed comments 
by Robert Waldrop. Full Design Support partipants 
receive "all of the above" plus a detailed review 
with comments by Elfin Permaculture founder Dan 
Hemenway.

More information is available at 
http://www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org/Clinic1.htm .

The moderator/discussion leader for the course is 
Bob Waldrop, of Oklahoma City. Bob is the 
president of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative, 
www.oklahomafood.coop, which links urban customers 
with rural producers. He is one of the founders of 
the Oklahoma Sustainability Network, 
www.ok-sustainability.org. He publishes the Better 
Times Almanac of Useful Information at irregular 
intervals. He began to self-study permaculture in 
1999, and has been involved with the Barking Frogs 
Permaculture Online PDC since 2005. He moderates 
numerous online discussion groups, including 
runningonempty2@yahoogroups.com, which has 7300 
members and has been discussing Peak Oil since 
2001. He is the founder of the Oscar Romero 
Catholic Worker House, which supports food 
security by promoting permaculture and delivering 
food to people in need who don't have 
transportation.

Dan Hemenway is the founder and lead designer of 
Elfin Permaculture at Barking Frogs Permaculture 
Center. He received permaculture training from 
Bill Mollison, permaculture movement founder, in 
1981. Dan previously developed systems similar to 
permaculture that he had taught disadvantaged 
teenagers from 1978-81. After three years teaching 
permaculture, sustainable horticulture, and 
related topics to prison inmates (1981-1983), he 
founded what became The International Permaculture 
Solutions Journal (1983). From 1978-83 he was a 
leader in the Massachusetts food self-reliance 
movement. In 1983, Mollison named him one of three 
North Americans then certified to teach the full 
Permaculture Design Course.

In 1984, Dan taught the first such course given in 
Mexico. Since then, he has conducted hundreds of 
permaculture programs worldwide, often introducing 
permaculture to 'new' regions. In 1983, he 
received the Conservation Award from Friends of 
Nature and in 1984, the Community Service Award 
from International Permaculture Institute, which 
awarded him five advanced diplomas the next year. 
In 1987, he founded the Permaculture Education 
Project and taught permaculture around the world. 
In 1991, Dan accepted an invitation to the Roots 
of the Future NGO conference in Paris, that 
contributed suggestions to the Earth Summit later 
held in Brazil. In 1996, Permaculture 
Foundation/Network Kenya, named him honorary 
chairman. And, in 1996, he was listed in the 
1996-97 edition Who's Who in America. Dan has also 
founded the Forest Ecosystem Rescue Network, 
published dozens of permaculture publications, 
authored many permaculture articles, served on 
boards of several related groups, and given talks, 
courses, and keynote addresses worldwide. Most 
recently, he designed a permaculture design course 
online which he has taught for 12 years.

Please feel free to pass this announcement along 
to others who may be interested.