Today was the inaugural meeting of "Parkland Permaculture".  A group of seven met in the teepee around the rocket stove mass heater and BEGAN a conversation about what we might be interested in pursuing as a local permaculture group.  Here is a summary of the meeting:

Hey everybody!  You are the official “first recipients” of a Parkland Permaculture email.  The ball is rolling.

I’m excited by the possibilities of this group—It seems as though many of us are eager to share knowledge and resources—all that is required is the venue for making the connections. 

While I didn’t take formal minutes at this meeting, here are the more-or-less relevant pieces of information as they relate to the group’s future function:

1)      The name of the organization Parkland Permaculture

2)      We will meet on the FIRST WEDNESDAY of every month (location(s) TBA, as I gauge numbers)

3)      Parkland Permaculture is a Permaculture group, and is committed to the ethics of

1. Earth care
2. People care
3. Return of surplus

4)      Short-term goals of Parkland Permaculture include:

1. Coordinating a bulk seed order for group members
2. Establishing a seed bank for use by members (terms of use to be determined)
3. Organizing a database of skills and resources available within the group

5)      Other goals of Parkland Permaculture:

1. Holding “Permablitz” events
2. Sharing grafting stock
3. Establishing a tree nursery
4. (…)

That is, of course, an incomplete summary of the evening’s discussions, however, I think it captures the gist of it.  My expectation is that by February or March of the New Year, we will have sufficient momentum as a group to create some more formal structure (like, for instance, someone to record official minutesJ)

Over the next week-or so, if you’re interested/able, send me an email where you itemize:

1)      What you are interested in GETTING from Parkland Permaculture

2)      What you might be willing to OFFER to Parkland Permaculture

Our next Meeting will be on December 3^rd…PROBABLY at my house…but location TBA once I get a sense of numbers.  If you know of someone who you think might be interested in attending, by all means, invite a guest-or-two!  --Keep in mind that this is a YOUNG, FLEDGLING organization, and if we suddenly get 30 people showing up before we’ve got our act together, it might be a little too much, too soon.  If we grow slowly, with good, dedicated people at the heart of our meetings, we’ll be able to put together something with some stability.

Once again, it was great to meet tonight.  I will be sending out some seed catalogue information to you prior to the December 3^rd meeting so that we can make some ordering decisions beforehand and speed the process.

If you have any other thoughts/observations, please let me know.

Until next time…

-Tim

psà as mentioned, here is a link to the Worldwide Permaculture Network.  If you have spare time, you might find some interesting projects by surfing around the site:  http://permacultureglobal.org/