Short guide on how to create a network of permaculture public demonstration projects

 

 

Written by Alan Thornton (Permaculture Association), Louise Cartwright and Cathrine Dolleris (LAND Danmark)

 

For our permaculture movement to grow people need to encounter excellent permaculture design looks, feels, tastes, sounds and smells like. When people here at the Permaculture Association in Britain ask us where to encounter permaculture in action, we have a long list of suitable places to suggest through the Learning And Network Demonstration (LAND) network. Building a demonstration network meets these needs.

 

This guide draws on the development of the LAND networks in England, Scotland and Denmark and runs through the steps needed to create your own. There are helpful links from these countries for almost all of the steps at http://s.coop/demonstrate. We have found that the development of demonstration networks is easier when there is a national permaculture association and several permaculture demonstration projects.

 

This guide is a menu of steps, some of which will be suitable to your circumstances, and some not. Similarly you may need or want to set up your network in a different sequence. This guide will be useful to you even if you don’t have access to grant funding or are part of a self-organised peer-network, without a national or state body.

 

 

Roles

Projects: Places with people who can demonstrate permaculture to others.

Steering Group: Team that oversees overall strategy, but not day-to-day management.

Coordinator: Day-to-day coordination of the process.

Advisory Group: Body of expert permaculture designers who independently consider the recommendations of the tutors.

Tutors: Permaculture designers (ideally tutors of the Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design) who assess whether the projects meet the design criteria and support them to.

Centres: Projects that have been confirmed to be excellent public demonstrations of permaculture design.

Learners: Projects that are working towards meeting all the essential criteria to be an excellent public demonstration of permaculture design.

NB There might not be enough people in your country to fill all of these roles, if this is the case you could facilitate an open process where interested people identify themselves for specific roles.

 

  1. Recruit a Steering Group

It can be difficult for a coordinator to maintain the impetus and hold together practical management tasks with a strategic overview. It may be helpful to draw together a small steering group to guide the process. It may also be appropriate for this group to be a sub-group of your association's board of directors or trustees. The Steering Group brings together wisdom and experience with enthusiasm and encouragement.

 

  1. Recruit coordinator

The coordinator is the key role, involving: partnership development; administration of the process; encouragement and sign-posting to individual demonstration projects. If the network or organisation you’re working with lacks the capacity to appoint a coordinator, the coordinator can self- appoint for the initial period. It is worth considering applying for grant funding in order to pay the Coordinator. Grant funding will allow them to work intensively and consistently to develop the network. The coordinator may need training in the form of a visit to a permaculture demonstration network elsewhere in Europe.

Helpful links: England job description

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  2. Initial survey of projects to assess level of interest and capabilities

A short online survey helps to understand the number of potential projects and how ready they will be to participate in the development of the demonstration network. The link to the survey needs to be sent to as many potential projects and partners as possible. There are free online survey systems you can use including Google Forms and SurveyMonkey. It is good practice to conduct this survey before you start fundraising as it will support your grant application by demonstrating level of need. To establish a demonstration network you will need at least three Centres.

Links: Denmark survey; Scotland survey

 

  1. Secure grant funding

Grant funding is useful for the initial start-up of your network. Obtaining grant funding means that the coordinator can work intensively and consistently on the development of the network and other costs such as volunteer subsistence and travel are covered. At this point it’s important to think which of these project elements you can get for free and which you'd like to get a grant fund for including: part-time coordinator; office support for coordinator; tutor time and travel; website and promotional materials; training events and travel to them.

Helpful links: England business plan; Denmark plan

 

  1. Recruit to Advisory Group

The Advisory Group is a team of expert permaculture designers who independently consider assessor recommendations and decide whether the projects meet the criteria. An effective method to use for managing the group is email groups with shared document storage space (eg DropBox or GoogleDrive). Ideally the group is made up of well respected 'elders' of the permaculture movement as well as reflecting some of the diversity of the movement. In the likely event that Tutors are part of the Advisory Group they cannot comment on projects they have assessed or supported themselves – they need to declare an interest. The Advisory Group should be between 3 and 5 people to avoid unnecessary complexity over project decisions.

Helpful links: England Advisory Group job description

 

  1. Identify designers with appropriate skills and capacity to be Tutors

A simple benchmark for suitable Tutors is to ascertain whether they are tutors of the Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design. In many countries there is an insufficient number or geographical spread of tutors. This means you will need to run a training event to ensure that there is a body of suitable assessors in your network .These people can be from permaculture projects that apply to be part of the network. The training event could include presentations from coordinators who run developed networks, such as England and Scotland. You will need to determine how much the tutor will be paid for the assessment and support visits, and devise a suitable contract for self-employment. If you have grant funding this is an important cost to include in your initial budget.

Helpful links: programme of Scotland training event and Denmark training

 

  1. Development of assessment criteria

The criteria ensure that projects adhere to the ethics and principles of permaculture and follow a permaculture design approach. The criteria ensure that LAND projects can be confidently presented as the “shop front” for the permaculture movement. It is helpful to distinguish between the essential and desirable criteria and make sure the list isn't too long or onerous. The Steering Group, Coordinator, Advisory Group, Tutors and potential projects will all have useful insights on what the criteria should be. Feel free to use the criteria from England, Scotland and Denmark as starting points. You may want to include a clause about exceptional circumstances to allow you a little bit of flexibility.

Helpful links: criteria from England, Scotland and Denmark

 

  1. Develop information materials and website

Before you launch the network take time to develop well written and attractive resources. You will need web-pages that explain how the network works, how to apply and the potential to add project profile pages, linked to a map. A small set of exhibition posters is helpful. You will need to write an application form which could be a text document or an online form (like Google Forms).

Helpful links: LAND pages for Scotland & England, exhibition set, Danish application form, English application form

  1. Launch

Now is the time to tell the world about the recent network and recruit projects to apply. Have a think about the most useful communication channels available to you: email lists, personal invitations to people on your database, social media, articles other people's newsletters and magazines. The launch is a major milestone so it is good to have some sort of event focussing on the exciting potential of the network. The launch could be embedded in, or adjacent in time to, an event that is already planned (like a convergence or gathering). This helps reduce the amount of organising needed so you can focus on other important tasks.

Helpful links: England launch

 

  1. Projects apply to be part of the network as Centres or Learners.

The coordinator will receive questions from projects about whether they meet the criteria. Often these questions will come up again so document the response online to help other projects. The tutor support for Learners is intended to nurture them to become Centres, so if a project isn't quite ready encourage them to apply as a Learner. When a project applies to be a Centre or Learner they need to post a signed copy of the ‘project declaration’ form to the Coordinator.

 

 

  1. Visits by Tutors to assess how well the projects meet the criteria

Once a project has applied to be part of the network a tutor will need to conduct an initial visit to find out how well the project meets the essential and desirable criteria. The coordinator will identify a suitable tutor, usually the closest to the project. The initial visit should take between 2-3 hours and be documented using a template form with photographs of different permaculture design elements. If there is a lack of tutors the Coordinator could take on the tutor’s role, but it can be quite intensive and involve excessive travel On the other hand one person doing this can get more connections and enhance the network.

Helpful links: Template LAND assessment visit form.

 

  1. Recommendations passed on to the Advisory Group

The coordinator needs to assemble the relevant information for the Advisory Group to make a decision about whether the applicants are ready to be Centres. To do this they will need a report with their tutor’s recommendations, pictures of the site and a site design. It may be helpful to send several reports at once to the Advisory Group. The coordinator should give the Advisory Group a month to agree on a decision before informing the applicant. It might be appropriate for the Centre status to be conditional upon some unambiguous conditions (eg necessary insurance). This has the benefit that when the project fulfils the conditions the Coordinator can confer the Centre status without needing to consult the Advisory Group. If a project does not meet all the essential criteria they automatically become a Learner and benefit from the ongoing support of a Tutor (if you have the capacity and are in the position to afford to pay for the tutor’s time).

 

 

  1. Celebration of new Centres

Whoopee! Now we're sure we've got some excellent public demonstrations of permaculture that we can show off to the world. Confirm it directly with the project with a phone call, letter and certificate. This is also an excellent time to tell the rest of the movement the good news that the Centre is an example of excellent permaculture design and is open to visitors. Do this through all your normal channels of communication: newsletter, email, at events & convergences, social media, articles in other people's newsletters.

Helpful links: Template confirmation letter from England; exhibition set

 

  1. Learners supported by tutors

Learner projects need ongoing support from tutors to work towards fulfilling all of the essential and desirable criteria. It is good practice to do this using a Learning Pathway document. This is easier if you have funding to cover the tutor’s professional and travel costs.

Helpful links: England Learners Record of Progress

 

  1. Support for Centres to show permaculture to the world

To flourish in their role of being our permaculture shop-front Centres need support. Some of this can be coordinated centrally, like an attractive website profile page and a set of standard exhibition boards. The centre needs to be open to feedback from visitors. It is good practice to include a biennial check from peers to make sure that they are still meeting all the essential criteria. This should also be a learning opportunity about how to further improve the design. The coordinator can help the Centre monitor the number of visitors and volunteers.

Helpful links: England profile pages, http://s.coop/visvols

 

  1. Ongoing training events for Centres and Learners

Learners and Centres can learn a lot from sharing skills and experience. This can be online (eg Facebook group) or at skill-sharing gatherings. The projects themselves should decide the themes for these gatherings. How much the Coordinator organises these events will depend on their capacity. It is good for the Centres and Learners to play a leading role.

Helpful links: Manchester training gathering

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  2. International networking and twinning

There are emerging networks in other parts of the Europe. It would be good for your network to make links with other permaculture demonstration projects across the world to support theirs and your development. This could be done by projects in your country twinning with a project on another part of the planet to explore the strengths of how you demonstrate permaculture to the world.