[Pil-pc-oceania] A few rough ideas for National P-Day-design solution needed

[RussGrayson]

Hi Pat and others on this thread...

On 6/5/08 5:27 PM, "Pat" <clamshell at iinet.net.au> wrote:

> A few thoughts from me...

> On 06/05/2008, at 12:39 PM, RussGrayson wrote:
> 
>> Hi...
>> Wrote on the P-Day topic yesterday and sent it out earlier. Here's a  few
>> additional thoughts....
>> 
>> 2. May is the time around which, in Sydney, local governments hold  their
>> sustainability fairs. The day could be seen as environmental  overload and,
>> for those committed on weekends, there would be the decision as to  what to
>> attend - National P-Day or an environment fair? If there are  children, then
>> probably the latter would be chosen.
>> 
> Is there some reason that PIL and/or National P-Day could not be
> participants in these sustainability fairs?  It sounds ideal for
> advertising permaculture: cooperation, not competition.

Permaculture North in Sydney has had a stall and offered workshops and talks
at the Warringah Council sustainability fair.

Permaculture Sydney Basin people had a stall at the recent Randwick City
Council Ecoliving Fair to promote the idea of a Permaculture East
association.

These are not a national permaculture day that people are discussing,
though. 
> 
>> 3. A gardener said to me that gardens are starting to become bare at
>> that
>> time of year and that it is starting to get cold and the days
>> shorter, which
>> might discourage people.
> 
> It is probably better than the spring equinox, when everybody is so
> busy, gardens, etc.
> 
>> IS PERMACULTURE COHERENT ENOUGH TO ESTABLISH A NATIONAL DAY?
>> It may be that the regional nature of permaculture works against our
>> coming
>> to a collective - and national - decision. Permaculture may in fact
>> be a
>> prisoner of its own decentralised history.
>> 
>> If this is the reality, then it bodes poorly for future decisions of
>> the
>> type in question and for the presentation of permaculture as a
>> unitary and
>> national entity. What it could evolve into is a collection of regional
>> entities dominated by the strongest associations in a region all
>> going their
>> own ways while adhering to the ethics and principles as a metasystem.
>> 
>> For some, this will be a pleasing prospect because it fits into the
>> regionalist structure often promoted as desirable for permaculture.
>> For
>> those desiring a national, influential voice for permaculture, it
>> offers
>> little prospect.
> 
> Does PIL make any effort to recruit members; for example, an
> invitation to all graduates of certificate courses?  If not, why not?

PIL is not yet quite ready to go our and recruit. Following the cessation of
PIJ, energy went into the APT, as Pat notes in her email. Now that that is
going, and following the evident interest in doing more with PIL at APC9,
PIL decided to consolidate its current activities.

Your membership and ideas are always welcome in PIL, Pat. PIL remains a
member-driven organisation in which members interested in starting a project
- like this current P-Day, for instance - set up a team through the PIL
structure and proceed with it. The PIL board has only to agree that the
project is relevant to permaculture and PIL.
 
> Perhaps a brief explanation of my own situation is warranted here.  I
> have been a member of the Permaculture Association of WA since 1978.
> I have a certificate and a diploma, with a specialty in
> communication.  I have never been involved in teaching courses.  I am
> not currently a member of PIL, although I have been in the past.  The
> first time was years ago when PIJ was being published.  After a  few
> years of non-membership, I joined again.  The emphasis was very
> heavily on teaching, so I dropped out again.  I joined the previous
> PIL e-mail list that lost its hosting a few years ago.  I came upon
> the oceania list purely by accident.

You should have been automatially tansferred on to the PIL Oceania list.
> 
> So, how does PIL usually acquire members?  Accidentally?

Maybe we need a recruitment team.
 
> PIL seems to be the closest thing to a national body that currently
> exists.  

> In its 30 years of existence, permaculture has waxed and waned in
> several cycles (at least it has here in the west).  Right now, it is
> at a rather low ebb.  It's time for an effort to reinvigorate it.

Good luck with that.

...Russ Grayson 

PIL Board of Directors
info at pacific-edge.info
www.pacific-edge.info
0414 065 203

> Anyway, thanks, Russ, for your valuable, rational input.
> 
> Cheers,
> Pat