The Gathering will be September 9 to 11 [Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon] at Dharmalaya Center in the River Road Neighborhood


Update- Notes from Planning Meeting, Tuesday May 24 at East Blair

Planning for the 9th Annual NW Regional Permaculture and Bio Regional Gathering


Last night's [May 24] meeting at East Blair was very productive, thanks Christo for arranging the place. The E Blair community room is a nice place to meet.


Present were Ravi, Oleg, Stephan and Jan

We heard an overview of what a great event the Gatherings are. It was noted that since moving into to town, the focus has become more [sub]urban while more specifically adressing today's global, local political and environmental realities.

Ravi went over the proposed workshops. Most have "sponsors", that is, people who will be arranging and organizing those topics. We eliminated a couple that did not have sponsors considering we have a lot to fit in and want to allow opportunity for last minute workshop ideas for out of town perma pals.

We consolidated several workshop topics into a mini track for Sunday, they all relate to Suburban Conversion. They will be scheduled so anyone interested in all parts can go to all presentations. They are overview of suburban conversion, water catchment, greywater, solar design,greenhouses. This track will include a fascinating visit to on site examples of these aspects-all located at Dharmalaya and within walking distance, Jan's house and John Pitney's place.

We also discussed this year's Permatopia/Green Paper Track. That track will be presentations/topics specific to a bio regional economy and localized/downscaled way of life. Those topics and "sponsor" will be Food Security- Jude Hobbs, housing/built environment-Rob Bolman; energy systems- Ravi; Urban redesign-Jan; economic conversion- Ravi and then for the final plenary Sunday will be Community and Education, that is, how can we advocate and advance this Bio regional/Permatopia/Green Paper Vision responding to Peak Oil. [and many other reasons for culture change]

All of these topics are open to suggestions and thoughtful comments, we want to cover the bases as well as we can.

We are making scheduling efforts to avoid timing overlap between the mini track and the Bio Regional Track. Concurrent to both tracks will be a variety of other topics that are traditional Permaculture topics. See the website for more info.

There are a number of other items to prepare for. Some of these items already have "sponsors", others need sponsors, all will need help to make them happen. There is great need for more people to help out with planning the Gathering and certainly need for help in the week before and at the event itself.

Volunteer Opportunities

We need to prepare the site> bike corral, camping area, outdoor living room, hay bale amphitheater, and more. There will be several work parties to put all this together the week and days before the event > ravi[ 344 0553] ravi@dharmalaya.org; we need a kids program, what are fun perma friendly kid activities?; we need to do outreach, that is to invite/connect with other groups in town and to organize a table top display area>jan [686 6761] spencerj@efn.org ; lodging coordinator for out of town perma pals, 15 or so people can be accomodated at Dharmalaya and there are ohter locations if needed nearby; . We need publicity, which coincides with Outreach. Volunteer coordinator>Stephan [i need to find Stephan's contact info] has volunteered to be the volunteer coordinator, this is a very important task and deserves several others to help; . All of these logistical aspects will need others to help out. if you want to help, please call or e mail the "sponsoring" person. There will be more on all this as we approach the date of the Gathering.

There is a plan to have an exhibit area, Approvecho will be contacted. There may be a bike/electric generator, solar food dryer. We invite all manner of low/appropriate tech artifacts to display. Some of the cooking may be done with solar and hay boxes. Stephan and Ravi are coordinating this, call them if you would like to help out. People are invited to bring for display all manner of home/local made products needed for every day life.

Evenings, Friday will be a plenary session describing the Green Paper/Permatopia concept. Saturday evening we would like to see Toby Hemenway make comments on comparing life in boon dock Douglas County with Portland with Permaculture and Peak Oil in mind. Afterwards, we will invite Melanie and the Permatopia Players to perform drama. Could be some music after that and mingling and dancing. LOTS of FUN! Organizing all of that will be need volunteers.

If there is a social games/mixer kind of person, there can be space for that. Contact Jan.

Next meeting will be Tuesday, June 21 at East Blair 7 PM.

We will update the panels and focus on logistics like the budget, food scenario, site prep plans, outreach, volunteer needs, cost of participation/scholorships/work trade. That meeting will be a perfect opportunity to find a place where you can help out.

"It takes a Whole Guild to Raise a Gathering"