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.
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.
[permaculture] Online permaculture design clinic,
Robert Waldrop, 05/14/2008