[Pil-pc-oceania] National Permaculture Day

[Graeme George]

Penny

PIL is the only national membership-based body we have and, as such,  
is the appropriate entity to declare a national day, irrespective of  
the extent of its membership. However, we first need to get some  
consensus to guide the PIL Directors - I had thought we were getting  
there.

Your initial proposal was to hold the NPD on the 4th May as that was  
Bill's birthday. There were several outright objections to doing that.  
You later suggested May Day. I recall Sue proposed the 1st May at the  
APC9 session and it didn't get a good reception, which caused her to  
vent her frustration at the meeting's inability to reach an agreement  
on a date. Of the 19 people who subsequently posting to the list on  
this topic, you were the only one arguing for May Day, though a few  
others were willing to go along with that as an alternative to other  
dates.

Discussion on this list stopped around 3rd April, a month ago. In  
response to a query from Deb about an International Pc Day I posted  
this comment to the list on 18th April -

> The reality is no-one is organising it - we don't have anyone in  
> charge. It's up to the whole Permaculture movement to organise it.
>
> I've proposed a bottom-up model for organising a National  
> Permaculture Day here based on the autonomous incorporated regional  
> Pc groups organising activities in their own areas, supported by 2  
> levels of coordination - a bio-regional level and a national one. If  
> we can get a NPD up and running here, it will be up to our sister  
> communities on other continents to follow up. There'll only be an  
> International Permaculture Day when we have more than one National  
> Day happening concurrently.
>
> I'm talking to my colleagues within Permaculture Melbourne at he  
> moment to flesh out a firm proposal for a range of activities around  
> the Spring Equinox this year in Victoria, to start the ball rolling.  
> This seems to be the preferred date, though we don't have full  
> agreement on this yet. I'll post details to the list as soon as I  
> have sufficient feedback on what we might be able to do here.  We'll  
> need early consensus on a date so we can start detailed planning of  
> the activities and their promotion. More soon.
>


This didn't elicit any further comments so it seemed reasonable to  
proceed on the assumption that the Pc community would go along with  
the majority view which favoured the spring Equinox.

If PN is busy around the Spring Equinox, I see that as a plus - your  
regular or planned events can simply be advertised as being part of  
National Permaculture Day. There's no need to conjure up new events if  
you are already busy promoting Pc at that time of the year.

My proposal was for PIL to declare Sunday 21st September to be NPD for  
2008. We feel we need to do something this year. Permaculture  
Melbourne has also been working on the idea of a National Open Day  
since APC8 in 2005, but the suggestion at APC9 that it should be a  
National Day rather than a series of Open Properties, breathed fresh  
life into the idea and we're now ready to run with that. We ran into  
difficulties trying to organise an event with a top-down approach.  
Doing it from the bottom up, as a coordinated series of public events  
doesn't entail any extra layers of organisation or expenses.

If we can reach a consensus that 1st May is a better date than the  
Spring Equinox for an annual event then there's no reason why we  
shouldn't try that date in 2009. I said earlier that we don't have to  
lock ourselves into a Spring Equinox date for evermore.

Regards

Graeme

On 05/05/2008, at 12:04 PM, penny pyett wrote:

> Could I please remind everyone that PIL represents it members only,  
> (130 people?) not the entire permaculture community and any  
> declaration or decision from PIL does not make it representative or  
> official to be obeyed by everyone. As far as Im concerned, the  
> debate is far from over and PN (300 members) and other Sydney Groups  
> who represent their members views also need to be considered. They  
> seem to prefer 1st May - MAY DAY  for International Permaculture Day  
> as we feel it would have more media impact around the world thus  
> being more effective.  Most of our people are not on this list or  
> members of PIL. Who and how its decided upon and announced is still  
> uncertain. My recollection of the discussion on this list was that  
> suggestions for the Equinox's were made without the following  
> proposal being fully presented.
>
> Here is an extract example of a media release we would propose to  
> use for getting the Medias attention to World Permaculture Day.
> ................................
> MAY DAY! SOS! MAY DAY! SOS! MAY DAY! SOS!
> Planet in Peril
> Urgent action required
> World Permaculture Day 1st May
>
> Permaculture can provide positive solutions
> to repair the planet and enrich our lives
>  See an event near you and take positive action now to save our  
> Planet.
> ................................
> Permaculture North runs a How to Do- It-Yourself Day which offers a  
> range of hands on practical workshops to the public which has been  
> really successful and like Permaculture Central Coast we will run it  
> on this day. (We couldnt do it in spring as our PN calender is full  
> doing shows and other spring activities. It would be too much on  
> extra work on our members).
>
> Our opposition to the equinoxes are:
> 1) The Equinoxes probably wouldn't  capture the medias attention  
> enough and general public (whom we most need to capture) dont  
> understand about them and couldnt care less.
> 2) This time of year is too busy and competing for media attention  
> is harder. PN is also too busy doing other activities this time of  
> year and it would not be fair to lump extra on our members.
> 3) Spring is Gardening time and most people want to do broader  
> things than just show their gardens. We struggle so hard to show Pc  
> is much more than just gardening and this could just reinforce this  
> misconception.
>
> There are others good reasons for May Day
> 1) May Day is a distress signal for emergencies saying Help Me! It  
> is used and known about all over the world internationally, locally  
> and individually.
> 2)  Its also a day used for celebrations and festivities - dancing  
> round the may pole etc.
> 3) quieter time of year for work schedules and gaining media  
> attention.
>
> There is no point having a day as important as this one if we cant  
> gain the media attention and make it really effective.
>
> Penny Pyett
> President 2008 Permaculture North Inc.
> (02) 9888 2575 or 1300 887 145
> "mail to: president at permaculturenorth.org.au"

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