Transition Economics

Transition Economics: Rural Community Targets Relocalization
(seen in the Summer 2009 Permaculture Activist)
By Jennifer Dauksha-English

The small town of Hohenwald Tennessee, population of around 4000 people, is taking small steps at greening up the community and region. Since 2006 a group of dedicated volunteers have been hosting events building on Hohenwald’s efforts to make Lewis County, population of around 12,000 people, greener, safer, and more economically viable. This group, the Sonnenschein Green Initiative (SGI), focuses on proactively supporting local economic and community development strategies (LECD). SGI strives to support the following areas: local business owners, farmers, artisans and service providers; the creation of quality and long-term local employment; community networking opportunities and social events; creating an economy that has a total and sustainable economic return; and increasing goods and services exported rather than imported. SGI also focuses on ‘green’ development, as we see that creating a ‘green’ economy and ‘greening up’ our production and consumption will be the quickest and most effective way to achieve sustainable economic and community development. To SGI the word ‘green’ equals efficiency and less waste.

What does LECD have to do with energy efficiency? Every time an average US citizen consumes 1 lb. or resources, it took 15 times that amount of resources to produce that 1 lb. On average goods travel thousands of miles to get to your home. By localizing production of goods and services, communities can cut down on their power drain. The less traveling for consumers and employees and less freight shipping for producers means that we don’t need to be such energy hogs.

The growing trend toward localization of food, energy, goods & services, and entire economies, away from a dependency on a teetering, global non-renewable energy based economy, exemplifies the transition culture’s response to massive resource depletion, global energy crises, rising fuel and food prices, plummeting markets, and the threat of global climate change. Towns, organizations, and entire governments are finding that localization is a “win” for the economy, environment, community development, and for quality of life. The Transition Town Movement-- one example of localization -- was founded in 2005, in Kinsale, Ireland and then Totnes England; and has since spread throughout Europe, and into the Americas. Towns across the world are asking questions related to energy decent planning and transitioning away from a centralized petroleum-and other non-renewable energy based economy. Our community of Hohenwald, TN began similar conversations in 2006.

The Making of Transition Town Hohenwald
Being a rural community, we found that the best way to communicate with local residents about energy efficiency was to talk about economics. We’re trying to invent or grow something locally that’s positive and within the existing boundaries. People have enough problems already and this makes them sensitive to talking outside their boundaries. The 2009 unemployment rate of Hohenwald and Lewis County is above 17% and our neighbor, Perry County has above 25%. With unemployment so high, people within our current cultural context, don’t want to talk about protecting ecosystems, they want to talk about jobs and saving money.

The Earth had become a dirty word over the past decades. As Permaculture Designer Stefan Geyer in his Spring 2009 Permaculture Activist article Permaculture in Business points out, “Permacultures potential applications in business have largely been passed over due … to its gems hidden under the dirty fingernails of radical tree huggers.” Hohenwald’s Vice Mayor Dustin Flowers, an active supporter of SGI and LECD recently spoke at a local Transition Town meeting, he shared, “In the past, green tended to cause fear. Green meant taking away our toys and telling us what to do. “Now,” he said, “Green equals gold.” Flowers believes that there are a number of opportunities for green economic development. He stated, “We are not the first to realize the beauty of a marriage of a sustained environment with the boost of opportunities from a green economy. We as a city realize these opportunities and those are a few reasons why the City supports becoming a Transition Town. Our first true step is renaming an industrial park on Swan Avenue the Hohenwald Eco-Industrial Park . . . In a green economy we’re all doing the right thing.” SGI is supporting the City and County in their efforts to target new green industries to our city and county industrial parks.

SGI would rather that green businesses seed from within the community, but the City and County are already focused on attracting outside businesses. SGI being proactive, tries to work with existing infrastructure and aims to have a three tiered approach to local business development: 1. Green existing businesses, 2. Educate and support locals in starting new green businesses, 3. Attract new green jobs to the area. To accomplish these three goals SGI in partnership with the Financial Permaculture Institute offers monthly green educational gatherings, quarterly green business tradeshows and an annual green business summit that focuses on participatory learning through business design charettes. SGI is also working with the local Tennessee Technology Center and Tennessee Career Center to create a Green Jobs Technical Training Program for residents of Southern Middle Tennessee. SGI is also partnering with the local Chamber of Commerce to green-up existing businesses.

Mark Graves, Chamber President and City Recorder gave his support and encouragement for the local Government and Chamber to partner with SGI in developing a local green economy. Graves, as Chamber President, recently formed a Green Business Development Committee for the Chamber. The goal of this new Development Committee is to educate current businesses to capitalize on green energy and efficiency. Graves stated, “Our current environmental situation can become our greatest economic opportunity, if we seize the moment.” He shared that his definition of Green equaled efficiency, hope, invention, ingenuity, entrepreneurialism, capital markets, commerce and profit. “There is a global investment to reinvent most of the things we do to become more efficient,” Graves said. He added words of encouragement: “ My hope is that the Chamber of Commerce become a key force in inspiring Lewis County to embrace a new, exciting and prosperous economic environment and not be afraid of it.”

The most effective and energy efficient strategy or “right thing” for SGI’s transition initiative has been to marry Permaculture with financial and economic literacy. Permaculture design and system thinking is at the core of SGI’s transition strategy. Our project development incorporates Permaculture design principles and ethics of earth care, people care and fair share. Over the years we’ve accessed and have shared a wealth of information on ecological design principles and community development tools, but found a lack of information on sustainable financial and economic development. In 2008, SGI through the Center for Holistic Ecology (CHE) and a partnership with Solari Inc. and other local organizations gave birth to the Financial Permaculture Institute (FPI).

Through FPI we’re both discovering and creating language, tools and design models towards transition economics or what I also like to call whole ecosystem economics. We’re using our home, Hohenwald as our base camp and grounds for proactive experimentation. While SGI is our local face, FPI is our international face. FPI aims to create and add value to existing templates for community economic development. Right now we’re working on some crosscutting mapping of the financial ecosystem of Lewis County and surrounding region. We’ll be holding the second Financial Permaculture Green Business Summit in Hohenwald September 22-26, 2009 where we will have trainings and then break out sessions on food and farming, building and housing, energy and fuel, solid waste and recycling, green business, community development and on mapping financial ecosystems.

The two greatest success of the 2008 Summit were that it: 1. Ignited the interest of our local residents, thus catalyzing our transition efforts, and 2. Brought together an interdisciplinary coalition of individuals from the government, business, non-profit and education sectors. Some useful catalysts were that we firstly, had about 14 local residents, aside from the organizers, attend the Summit and that we secondly, did well in our documentation of the event and post event process. This was like a mycelium effect. As these 14 people went back into the community, just two months later the word Permaculture and Transition Towns had permeated the culture and my friend heard people using the words as she got her hair cut at the local beauty salon. Overhearing conversations like these are a telltale sign of cross-pollination.

On documentation, we had about 12 people live blogging the Summit, Byron Palmer graciously volunteered to make a 30 minute documentary about the event and after the Summit I and others have been blogging about our local Transition efforts. This documentation toolbox has really helped catalyze our local transition efforts. We’ve given about 200 copies of the documentary to local residents and have shown it several times at public events. The documentary, which can be viewed on www.financialpermaculture.com has been like a huge business card or portfolio that locals are using to gauge our worth. The results are in and folks who see the documentary generally want to either get involved or find out more. The blogging on www.financialpermaculture.org has been really useful also because we’ve seen our blogs connected to several local links. Some of the links are positive and some negative. On the negative, a few people view our efforts as trying to take over the government. For their own reasons, they are aggravated and restimulated. Even negative input on our efforts is useful as it creates opportunities for conversations and educational moments.

We had a team of people organizing a course on complimentary currency and this provoked a number of local residents and city officials. Rather than force something that wasn’t ready to fit, we simply removed that project from the table and put it on the shelf. Our goal is to be effective community organizers and that means that we may need to occasionally reprioritize our projects due to community opinion. There are so many possible projects that we’ve learned to stack functions, be opportunistic and go with the flow to get the highest yield (long term sustainability) with the least waste of our efforts (total economic return).

We know that many people have different opinions on core issues like politics, religion, climate change and the economy. To us, diversity of opinion is very welcome and encouraged. We appreciate working with diverse demographics of age, gender, level of education and income – plus a wide dissimilarity in our shades of green. Our aim is to collaborate with as many types of people as possible. We also seek to bring as many conversations to the table as needed to move forward with our own unique transition efforts, while looking for key crosscutting patterns applicable to other communities. Our goal for Hohenwald is not to mimic other successful communities, but to learn about working solutions and adapt our findings to our own unique circumstances. This process of design from pattern to detail moves us forward, with occasional trials and errors. With every problem that we encounter we strive to find a useful solution. To stay proactive and effective, we regularly check in with the local group to discuss our core vision, objectives and to evaluate our process.

In March and April of 2009 SGI created a Transition Proclamation. The County and City Government and the local Chamber signed the Proclamation. The Proclamation has had both its high’s and lows. The high is that there are now key community leaders who consider themselves engaged and supportive of our LECD initiative. It has also motivated a lot of formally uninvolved ‘green’ folks to get active. On the low, getting the government involved now means that our initiative is in the political arena. Once something gets in the arena it’s a thing to take sides on and judge. Again, being proactive, we’re looking for opportunities to arise out of any and all challenges. We hope to share the ups and downs of our learning journey. This transition effort is a life long process and we want the community to embrace and feel empowered by change. Following are some tips that we’ve found useful in our transition efforts:

1. Become familiar with what is already being accomplished in the community and familiarize yourself with local history, plus it’s strengths and weaknesses;
2. Look to what people really need and want, and then match your actions and language to implement strategies that meet both their needs and yours. Remember we all share the same innate needs;
3. Find a common language that you can assist you in communicating with diverse groups of people;
4. Empower people to come up with their own answers and create opportunities for them to use their own voice at meetings, in writing, during interviews and at public events;
5. Identify the community stakeholders and survey their potential risks and opportunities. Figure out ways to engage or cooperate with potential stakeholders by identifying how they could benefit from involvement, let them know how they can get involved or how you can add value to one of their existing projects or goals;
6. Collaboratively identify your core vision for your initiative and your desired public image. Be sure that other members of the group can express this. Best to keep it simple and short or in easy to remember bullet points;
7. Be inclusive and identify many portals of entry into your initiative. Integrate rather than segregate and do not discernment. Every member of a community can be a potential collaborator. Avoid creating a separation between them and us. One thing I’ve learned is that for the most part, we all share a similar core set of values – we just often have different totems, thus we have different languages and actions around the messages we stand behind, or signs we carry and platforms we preach on. We’re all more a like than I’ve ever imagined;
8. Identify the skill sets and resources with in the active group and utilize them wisely, also become aware of people’s overall vision and purpose for being part of the group – be sure that they’re getting their needs met;
9. Be proactive – focus on working solutions and opportunities: Don’t tell people that what they’re doing is wrong, instead find something that they’re doing well and help them do it even better and stack functions by helping existing groups organize around these accomplishments;
10. Utilize non-violent communication;
11. Listen closely to the communities context and needs: be willing to reprioritize your projects and be ready to jump on new opportunities as they arise;
12. Value diversity but avoid taking political or religious positions – that way more people will be comfortable being a part of the initiative;
13. Hold frequent public social events where people can learn about and discuss topics related to your initiative;
14. Encourage and train up leaders within the initiative so that each project has a leader and an engaged support group;
15. Give attention to only those projects and tasks that have a clear working group;
16. Allow participants the opportunity to frequently evaluate group process;
17. Don’t throw around words like Permaculture and Transition Towns until people are ready to hear them – in the meanwhile talk in their language – and you’ll find that all combined people already have a lot of the answers and knowledge. It took us 2 years of outreach before we used our own language.

On June 6th, 2009 Hohenwald held a Transition Celebration. Hohenwald, Lewis County, TN is now the 25th official Transition Town in the United States. To find out more about the US Transition Network visit www.transitionus.org and for further information on Hohenwald’s transition efforts visit www.sonnenscheingreentn.org. The 10th Continental Bioregional Congress will be held at The Farm Community in Lewis County, 22 miles from Transition Town Hohenwald, check out www.bioregional-congress.org.



A Proclamation:
-- To Establish Our City as a TRANSITION TOWN --

WHEREAS, in order to make the economies of our city and county locally sustainable, the people of Hohenwald, Lewis County, TN, desire to build upon our industrious and conservative heritage, and recognize the importance of moving toward a more energy-efficient, beneficial and localized living arrangement, by making our businesses more productive, our educational system more effective, and by protecting and wisely utilizing our natural resources;

WHEREAS, we recognize that individuals are ultimately responsible for their actions -- collectively, we can set common goals that secure the localization of food, energy, production of goods and services, and proper waste management;

WHEREAS, irresponsibility and a lack of commitment for the wise stewardship of our natural resources can result in an increasing number of undesirable social, financial, and economic consequences to individuals, families, and to this city and county, as a whole;

WHEREAS, there is need for more positive educational and productive Permaculture initiatives among our citizens and young people, to produce a change in behavior for our future prosperity and welfare;

WHEREAS, if citizens pro-actively develop positive, forward-thinking permacultural preferences for the use of our resources; and forego dysfunctional, reactive options for same, the health, safety, and welfare of our people are better provided for and maintained, resulting in less financial burden on taxpayers;

WHEREAS, encouragement of our citizens to recognize the potential for cultivating home gardens, rebuilding local agriculture, rediscovering local building materials, localizing energy production, reconsidering preventative healthcare, and re-thinking how we manage waste, can result in increased local sustainability and local profits, and therefore, heightened local morale; and

WHEREAS, the emphasis of local sustainability in every sector of society can only occur as individuals commit themselves to exemplifying those practices in their personal lives, and inspiring others to do the same;

THEREFORE, BE IT PROCLAIMED, that the people of this city and county pledge our commitment to the responsible transition to local sustainability; doing all in our power to become a TRANSITION TOWN, by promoting sincere efforts toward the development of local food, energy, the production of goods and services, and to responsible waste management in our schools, businesses, homes, local government, media, and community groups. We urge the leaders of each of these jurisdictions to do likewise.

Transition Town Hohenwald

Transition Town Hohenwald: Rural Community Targets Energy Efficiency

On June 6th, 2009 Hohenwald held a Transition Celebration. Hohenwald is now the 25th official Transition Town in the United States. The event featured local food and music. Global Village Institute Director Albert Bates, Vice Mayor Dustin Flowers, State Representative Joey Hensley and Chamber President Elect Debbie Landers spoke on Green Business and the local Transition Initiative. To find out more about the US Transition Network visit www.transitionus.org and for further information on Hohenwald’s transition efforts visit www.sonnenscheingreentn.org.

Click here to read an article by Jennifer Dauksha-English on Transition Town Hohenwald that also appeared in the Green Living Journal.

Regional Sustainability Forum

Green Business Expo, Speakers, Forums,
Music, Arts & Crafts
Sonnenschein Regional
Sustainability Forum
June 5-7, 2009

June Forum Schedule
Friday, June 5 - Participate in a tour of The Farm Community Green Businesses, Community Dinner and an Evening Talk about the future of Eco-Entrepreneurialism and Bioregionalism.
Location: The Farm Community Center, Summertown, TN

5-6:30 Tour of Farm Businesses with Doug Stevenson of Village Media
- Donations Welcome, Must pre-register by contacting Doug at 931-964-2590 or Douglas@villagemedia.com
6:30-7:30 Dinner at Farm Community Center - meal by Roberta Kachinsky - MEAL $8
7:30-8:30 Green Business and Bioregionalism
8:30-9:30 Continental Bioregional Congress

Saturday, June 6
Join us for a Green Business Exhibition, presentations and forum discussions on important
issues related to the environment and economy of Middle Tennessee. Free - Donations Welcome!
Location: Lewis County Middle School, Hohenwald, TN

9-9:15 am Welcome - by Mayor Don Jones on Faith
Overview of Sustianability Forum by Debbie Landers

9:15-10:00 Fuel and Energy
Chris Gibson of Green Driving Solutions and Erik Daugherty or other member of E3 Innovate

10:15-11:00 Food and Farming
Tim Bodner of Avalon Acres and Bethann Easterly of Middle TN Food Security Partners

11:15-12:00 Building and Housing
Jerry Risner of Buffalo Valley and Fred Lawrence of Lawrence Brothers LLC

12:00-3:00
Lunch on your own, Music, Exhibitors, Kids Play shop, Auction
Silent Auction: 9 am - 3 pm - You may pick up auction items between 4-6 pm
Live Auction 2:30-3 pm

3-3:15 pm Forum Overview with John McFadden of Tennessee Environmental Council
Faith and Sustianability with Dodd Gallbreath of Lipscomb University

3:15-3:35 Solid Waste and Recycling
Van Ward of Lewis County Solid Waste

3:50-4:45 Green Business
Catherine Austin Fitts of Solari Inc. and Dodd Gallbreath of Lipscomb University

5:00-6:00 Break Out in Classrooms
- Fuel and Energy
- Food and Farming
- Building and Housing
- Solid Waste and Recycling
- Green Business
- Faith

Saturday - TRANSITION CELEBRATION - Join residents of Hohenwald, TN at the Emporium Cafe in downtown Hohenwald to celebrate their unleashing as a Transition Town. Hohenwald will join hundreds of other towns across the world in this Movement towards Re-Localized Economies. The event will feature local food and music, and will be aired live on-line. Dinning space is limited so please reserve dinner reservations 3-5 days before the event by calling 931-796-6965. Dinner and Music will be $15. There will be standing room and possibly extra tables for those interested in attending the celebration who do not want to eat dinner.

6:00-7:30 Transition Dinner, Music and Networking - Dinner and Music $15, Reservations Required
7:30-8:30 Speakers, Awards, Celebration - Free and open to the public without reservations.

Sunday, June 7 -- Sonnenschein's Sunny Sunday
Tour of Alternative Homes 9 am - 5 pm - View off-grid and grid-tie Solar Electric Homes, Passive Solar Designs, Windmills, Solar Hot Water Heaters, Natural Buildings, Permaculture Landscapes and more! Tour 5-7 homes, start location TBA. You can register and find out about the start location at the Saturday Sonnenschein Information Booth or by calling 888-878-2434 x5 or e-mailing info@holisticecology.org. You must pre-register by 6 pm Saturday, June 6. The tour is a caravan. There will be two start times at different locations to accommodate people who can only attend a partial tour.

GENERAL OVERVIEW
Exhibitors set up by 9 am and take down after 6 pm.

LOCATIONS:
Friday - Meet at the Farm Community in Summertown, TN
http://maps.google.com/maps?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hl=en&tab=wl
Saturday - Lewis County Middle School - Park Ave South, Hohenwald, 38462 - http://maps.google.com/maps?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hl=en&tab=wl)
Sunday - Start location in Lewis County to be announced - must contact 931-796-4874 or get information at Sonnenscehin information booth Saturday June 6.

Contact for event details:
931-796-4874 or 888-878-2434 x 5 or info@holisticecology.org

Contact for exhibitor details:
931-729-3694 or jmiller312@gmail.com

Contact for sponsorship and donation details:
931-628-1953 or sharprealtor@yahoo.com

Contact Information:
Friday events - contact:
Douglas Stevenson, 931-964-2590, Douglas@villagemedia.com and visit www.thefarmcommunity.com
Saturday and Sunday events - contact:
Jennifer Dauskha-English, 888-878-2434 x5, info@holisticecology.org and visit www.sonnenscheingreentn.org

This event is co-sponsored by:
Tennessee Environmental Council,
Greener Tennessee,
Cumberland Green Bioregional Council
and Tennessee Conservation Voters

4th Green Evening Cafe

As reported in the Lewis County Herald by Jennifer Dauksha English:

On Tuesday, April 28, 2009, the Sonnenschein Green Initiative hosted the 4th Green Evening Cafe. The public event was held from 6-8:30 p.m. at the Emporium. Transition Town Hohenwald was the theme for the April Green Evening.

To start the evening, former Sonnenschein Chair, Becky Newbold, gave an overview of how Sonnenschein started in 2006 and how the group felt that the green portion of the Sonnenschein festival was the most successful and beneficial to the community. Just after the June 2008 Sonnenschein Festival, the group had organized a Green Chamber Mini Conference. It was at this conference, Newbold pointed out, that the Sonnenschein group decided to move forward with its current green initiative. Newbold expressed that the group had been discussing giving out Green Awards for several years and that she was happy to finally be moving forward on the project. Newbold presented the McDonald Farm with the first Sonnenschein Award. The award was signed by City Mayor Don Jones, Chamber President Mark Graves and Newbold. The McDonald Farm, a free range chicken farm located just outside Honewald, noted in a previous interview that they were implementing many green strategies on their farm.

After the award, Graves gave his support and encouragement for the local Government and Chamber to partner with the Sonnenschein Green initiative in developing a local green economy. Graves, as Chamber President, recently formed a Green Business Development Committee for the Chamber, as a result of a recent Chamber retreat and strategic planning with the state of Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. The goal of this new Development Committee is to educate current businesses to capitalize on green energy and efficiency. Graves stated, “Our current environmental situation can become our greatest economic opportunity, if we seize the moment.” He shared that his definition of Green equaled efficiency, hope, invention, ingenuity, entrepreneurialism, capital markets, commerce and profit. “There is a global investment to reinvent most of the things we do to become more efficient,” Graves said. He ended with words of encouragement: “ My hope is that the Chamber of Commerce become a key force in inspiring Lewis County to embrace a new, exciting and prosperous economic environment and not be afraid of it.”

Vice Mayor Dustin Flowers spoke next. Flowers also shared his excitement to be part of the green initiative. “In the past, green tended to cause fear. Green meant taking away our toys and telling us what to do. “Now,” he said, “Green equals gold.” Flowers shared a number of opportunities for economic development, concluding, “strategies for municipal and ultimately global sustainablity require addressing our current unsustainable forms of energy and industrial processes by technical innovations that shifts us to renewable energy - in short, now environmental sustainability also equals economic sustainability - go green to make green.” Auto-makers, Ben and Jerry’s, GE, McDonalds, Sony, Phillips, Sanyo and Wal-Mart are all benefiting from green opportunities. Flowers stated, “We are not the first to realize the beauty of a marriage of a sustained environment with the boost of opportunities from a green economy. We as a city realize these opportunities and those are a few reasons why the City supports becoming a Transition Town. Our first true step is renaming the industrial park on Swan Avenue the Hohenwald Eco-Industrial Park . . . In a green economy we’re all doing the right thing.”

Next, Debbie Landers gave an update on the Transition Initiative. Landers said that she liked to break things down so they were simple. To her, transitioning meant identifying local business: the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. Landers explained that the Transition Initiative, a world-wide initiative, started in Ireland and England in 2005. There are hundreds of Transition Initiatives in Europe. It has since spread to the USA, where there are now 24 transition towns: Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle, Santa Cruz, Berea Kentucky, Portland and Ashland Oregon and Sandpoint Idaho, to name some. On June 6, 2009, Hohenwald will become the 25th Transition Town in the USA. The Emporium will host a Transition Celebration from 6-8:30 p.m. Saturday June 6.

Jennifer English, chair of the Sonnenschein Green Initiative, shared in a recent report that transitioning supports local economic and community development. The initiative strives to support the following areas: local business owners, farmers, artisans and service providers; the creation of quality and long-term local employment opportunities; community networking opportunities and social events; creating an economy that has a total and sustainable economic return; and increasing our goods and services exported rather than imported. English states, “We also focus on ‘green’ development, as we see that creating a ‘green’ economy and ‘greening up’ our production and consumption will be the quickest and most effective way to achieve sustainable economic and community development. To us the word ‘green’ equals efficiency and less waste. We appreciate a wide difference in our shades of green among the group and within the community. “The Initiative aims to collaborate with as many types of people as possible. We also seek to bring as many conversations to the table as needed to move forward with our own unique transition efforts. This said, we often look at tools and models used by other successful communities. Our goal is not to mimic other communities, but to learn about working solutions and adapt our findings to our own unique circumstances.”

During the Green Evening Cafe, Connie Sharp also gave a brief overview on the current projects on which the Sonnenschein Initiative is working. She gave a report on the Community Garden, the recently printed Lewis County Green Guide, the Summer Permaculture Series that begins June 13, 2009 and the June 5-7 Sustainability Forum. Sharp explained that the June Forum will consist of tours of sustainable homes and businesses in Lewis County Friday and Sunday, and that Saturday’s event will be held at the Lewis County Middle School. Saturday will contain speakers on food, farming, energy, fuel, green building, green business, solid waste and faith. The day will also have music, arts, crafts, a green business exhibition, auction and kids craft session. John Risner of Buffalo Valley Inc., sponsor of the Green Evening Cafe, gave a presentation to the group on a new green home that Buffalo Valley is building on the corner of Walnut and Second Street. Construction may begin as early as this month. The building will incorporate energy efficient materials, solar hot water, water catchment and a permaculture designed landscape.

At 7:30, there was a showing of the 30-minute Hohenwald Financial Permaculture documentary. English and Landers announced that the next Green Evening Cafe will be held May 26, 2009 from 6-8:30 p.m. at the Emporium Cafe. The topic has been changed from Complimentary Currency to Green Business Development. English stated, “Since the Chamber of Commerce started the Chamber Bucks program in 2007, there are a number of people excited about having conversations on Complimentary Currencies. There are also a few people in the community who feel as though that is not where our group should be placing its attention. As we are so proactive, we want to put our energy where it is most needed and effective. Thus we changed the topic, also because our priority is to gear up for the September Green Business Summit. ‘We hope that the community will help guide us in preparing for the Summit. The next Green Evening Cafe will partially focus on what green businesses Hohenwald and Lewis County could most benefit from.”

The public is encouraged to attend these planned series of free, once-a-month evening events building on Hohenwald’s efforts to make Lewis County greener, safer, and more economically viable. The Green Evening Cafe series will be the last Tuesday of every month. Call 931-796-4874 or e-mail info@holisticecology.org for more details. The community is also welcome to attend the Sonnenschein Green Initiative public meetings, held every other Wednesday. The next public meeting will be May 27, 2009 at the Career Center, located on Smith Street, from 11:30 a.m. -1:30 p.m.

Lewis County Green Guide

On Friday March 27 the Lewis County Green Guide was printed. The Guide was put together by Jennifer Daukhsa-English and the Sonnenschein Green Initiative. The eight page guide is loaded with GREEN events and projects for 2009, local businesses that support the Initiative, contact information for all the working groups and their mission and goals. The Green guide will be distributed throughout the city of Hohenwald, Lewis County and the surrounding Middle Tennessee region. It is hoped that the guide will serve to educate residents about local initiatives and that it will increase tourism to the area. Click here to download a copy of the Green Guide.

Green Evening Cafe with a Seed and Plant Exchange

The Sonnenschein Green Initiative hosted the third Green Evening Cafe on Tuesday, March 24, 6-8:30 pm at the Emporium Cafe, downtown, Hohenwald. Food and Farming was the theme for the March Green Evening. Fifty seven people attended the evening, which began and ended with a seed and plant exchange. Cassandra and Tom Warner of Cane Creek Nature Works Farm sponsored the event. Cassandra spoke on the benefits of gardening. Matthew English of Ecological Artisans spoke about applying Permaculture to your gardens, orchards and landscapes.

The Sonnenschein Food and Farming working group also gave a presentation on the development of food and farming businesses such as a local farmers market, community kitchen and community gardens. After the presentations Jennifer Dauksha-English led a World Cafe on Food and Farming. She explained that the cafe process was a cross pollination of ideas and that folks needed to remember that there were no right answers. The process is like an invention room - where all ideas are accepted.

Following is a small sampling of ideas that were harvested through the cafe conversations: Hold harvest dinners and potlucks; Host garden and farm tours with fun activities for kids; Contact your local farmers and get them to grow just what you need; Start a Freecycle; Incorporate crafts and art into plans for a new Farmers Market; Educate children through 4-H, Future Farmers of America and other unique activities; Need Market to have perfect location and lot's of participants; Co-op market and surplus taken to Nashville; Need a central person to disseminate information about initiative and tips; Support local farmers and businesses; Buy bulk produce from Amish and then sell at market; Give out awards for growing food at local fair.

Jennifer ended the cafe with a think and listen to give people the opportunity to discuss next steps. Although there were no specific plans to adopt any of these new ideas immediately, the evening was a great success as it is a great building block and networking opportunity. Throughout the event 15 door prizes were handed out, more than half of them were plants. On leaving, several event participants stated that they had a lot of fun and that the evening was wonderful for the community. Please join us for these planned series of free, once-a-month evening events building on Hohenwald's efforts to make Lewis County greener, safer, and more economically viable. The Green Evening Cafe series will be the fourth Tuesday of every month. Call 931-796-4874, 888-878-2434 x 5 or e-mail info@holisticecology.org for more details.

Below is a list of Green Evenings: January 17 - Green Talk and Trade Show Join us for a Green Home Products Trade Show with an evening presentation by Lawrence Brothers Construction.

February 19 - Recession To Sustainability - Getting From Here to There, by Adam Turtle of Earth Advocates Research Farm. Discuss the development of appropriate cooperative local trade.

March 24 - Food and Farming Join us for a Green Evening World Cafe to discuss the development of food and farming enterprises. A seed and plant exchange will take place.

April 28 - Transition Towns Join us for a Green Evening World Cafe with discussions on the making of Transition Town Hohenwald and Lewis County!

May 26 - Complimentary Currency Join us for presentations and discussions on appropriate cooperative trade and regional currencies.

June 23 - Home Grown Fuel We'll hear presentations on fuel efficiency and alternative fuels, and then discuss the development of local alternative fuel and energy enterprises.

July 28 - Green Business Incubation Join us for a Green Evening World Cafe on the development of green enterprises and economic development strategies.

August 25 - The Built Environment Join us for a Green Evening presentation, view a home energy and money saving video called Kilowatt Ours and then discuss the development of green building enterprises.

The series will continue the fourth Tuesday of each month September - December, 2009.

Fourth Transition Update

Transition Proclamation Signed

On Monday, March 16 the Sonnenschein Green Initiative presented a Transition Proclamation to County Lawmakers. Connie Sharp, Debbie Landers and Jennifer Dauksha-English stood before County Commissioners, the County Mayor, the County Executive Director of Economic Development, and the public, explaining the proclamation. In summary, they stated that Lewis County and the City of Hohenwald proclaim to be a community interested in relocalizing its economy through energy conservation, applying Permaculture designs, and through the creation of more green businesses. The proclamation will build on Hohenwald and Lewis County's efforts to make the town and county greener, safer and more economically viable. Members of the County Government gave an unexpected standing ovation after Ms. Sharp, Ms. Landers and Ms. English finished their presentation. A photo was taken of the County Government just before they signed the Proclamation. Attached here is the photo along with the signatory document. Click here to read Proclamation.



On Wednesday, March 18 the Sonnenschein Green Initiative held it's bimonthly meeting. There were 34 attendees to the meeting. Everyone applauded their own work and the success of the Proclamation. During the meeting we spoke about our plans for debuting ourselves as a Trainsition Town. We agreed to continue to wait. We began discussing moving forward with our plans to form a Resolution. Other items on the agenda for this meeting: plans for upcoming Green Evening Cafe's, completion of the Green Guide and new Sonnenschein website, exhibiting at upcoming green events and the Food and Farming Group gave a presentation.

On Thursday, March 19 the Lewis County Herald printed the following on the front page of the newspaper: Lewis County Government Supports Transition Town Declaration. County Lawmakers Monday Evening signed a document declaring their support in naming Hohenwald (and Lewis County) a part of the Transition Town movement.

The Sonnenschein Green Initiative has not yet declared itself a Transition Town or County despite the signed Proclamation. The group plans to go before the Hohenwald City Officials and the Hohenwald, Lewis County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors seeking support for the Proclamation during the month of April, 2009. A celebratory event has been planned for June 6, 2009 to unleash Hohenwald as a Transition Town. A date was also set for September of 2009 to unleash Lewis County as a Transition County. The process is moving much quicker than the Sonnenschein Green Initiative organizers had predicted, when they started writing the Proclamation back in December of 2008. When they began the process the committee agreed that they wanted the community at large to embrace the transition initiative before any public declaration was unleashed. Although this process is not at all a required step in transitioning, the organizers wanted to ensure that the support for transitioning came from the residents and that the community leaders were provided the courtesy of having a voice in the declaration.

Aside from the County Government support received on March 16, more than 65 businesses and organizations have declared their support for SGI, during the month of March. The Initiative has about forty active individuals who attend meetings and/or are involved with one of the Sonnenschein projects. To gain even more public support and understanding, on April 26, SGI will host a Transition Town Green Evening Cafe open to the public. During the evening a presentation will be given on the history of the world wide Transition Movement and our local process, there will be a viewing of the Financial Permaculture Documentary about Hohenwald and the evening will end with a World Cafe on Transitioning.

Third Transition Update

The Sonnenschein Green Initiative, Transition Committee held a meeting Wednesday, March 4, with 27 people in attendance. Here are the highlights:

OUTREACH EDUCATION: Jennifer Dauksha-English presented the details for our Summer Permaculture Certification Series, and our 3-day Regional Sustainability Forum, which will be held June 5-7. The group spent 20 minutes reviewing Jennifer's 8-page newly developed Green Guide for Lewis County, TN. The group is trying to raise $800 by asking local businesses and organizations to join the initiative and get their names listed in the Green Guide. The Guide will hopefully be posted in a few weeks.

YOUTH EDUCATION: Debbie Landers again introduced the four students from the General Assembly Academy. The students started a blog - to view their blog click here. They also wrote a letter to the editor about the Sonnenschein Green Initiative - to read letter click here. Debbie shared the students curriculum that they helped design. Click here to view curriculum.

GREEN PROCLAMATION: Debbie Landers and Connie Sharp reported on the progress of the Proclamation. The group decided that the Proclamation would be brought before the City and County in the month of April instead of March, so that we have more time to speak with the City Council Memebrs and Couty Commisisoners. By postponing we will have more time to educate them on the initiative before they vote. Connie Sharp made photocopies of all the Commisioners contact information and passed this out to our group so that the group can make calls over the next weeks.

Food and Farming Working Group also held a meeting Wednesday, March 4. The group is organizing the next Green Evening Cafe' on March 24, 6-8:30 pm at the Emporium in downtown Hohenwald. The Food and Farming Group spent time figuring out the itinerary for the Green Evening. Presentors during the evening will include: Matthew English and Cliff Davis of Ecological Artisans and Casandra Warner of Cane Creek Nature Works Farm. We will also have a cafe conversation (for details on world cafe click here) on food and farming in Lewis County. There will be a seed and plant exchange as part of the event.

After the event planning session we split into three breakout groups: Farmers Market, Community Garden and Community Kitchen. The Farmers Market group noted that the creation of a Farmers Market was being discussed on both the city and county level. One of the members of this group has started communicating with a number of Amish and Menonite in the community to gain their interest in participating. The Community Garden group announced that Buffalo Valley was going to lease the group some land to start a garden this Spring. The lease will be minimal, just enough to cover property taxes. Just after the meeting about 14 people took a field trip to the new garden site. The Community Kitchen group did not have much to report on as this was the first time the topic was discussed since November, 2008. They did identfiy an immediate need for the community kitchen for a potential alternative cheese business. The group came up with a few next steps to contact other operating kitchens.

The next Sonnenschein Green Initiative meeting will be held Wednesday, March 18 from 11:30-1:30 at the Technology Center in Hohenwald. The group meets every other Wednesday. For more details about upcoming meetings and projects contact info@holisticecology.org, 931-796-4874 or 888-878-2434.

Summer Permaculture Certification Series and Demonstration Site

The Center for Holistic Ecology and Ecological Artisans will be offering a summer Permaculture certification series in Hohenwald, Tennessee. This series, as part of the Sonnenschein Green Initiative, will provide local residents with a unique opportunity to receive training and certification in Permaculture at a very reduced price. The organizers of the series anticipate training up at least a dozen locals and hope that the price reduction will enable low-income residents to attend. Aside from receiving this valuable training, participants will partake in the community design and implementation of the local Museum’s new downtown Discovery Center Permaculture site. This training and the development of the new demonstration site will be a first for Hohenwald. In fact, prior to a year a go, there were only a handful of locals in Hohenwald city limits that could identify the term Permaculture. This has changed dramatically since the October 2008 Financial Permaculture Summit and the post-summit outreach efforts.

Permaculture is a design science that takes a whole ecosystem approach to sustainable development. The word Permaculture means permanent agriculture and permanent culture. Permaculture developed in Australia in the late 1970’s by Ecologist David Holmgren and Natural History Professor Bill Mollison and has since spread throughout the world. Leaders of the sustainability movement are applying Permaculture principles and design methodologies to everything from gardens, home sites, village designs, businesses and entire regional economies. The residents of Hohenwald Tennessee are beginning to use Permaculture a primary tool for redesigning their local economy.

The summer series will be taught by local Permaculture Designers: Matthew English, Cliff Davis, Greg Landua, Jennifer Dauksha English, Albert Bates and Adam Turtle.

Summer Saturday Series (click here for full itinerary)
June 13 - Permaculture and Systems Thinking
- Evidence, ethics, principles and design science
June 20 - Natural Systems - Forest, Trees and Climates
- Tour different forest ecoregions in Tennessee
June 27 - Natural Systems - Water and Soils
- Principles of bioregion repair to restore water and soil sheds for productivity
(water storage, conservation, and soil food web)
July 11 - Domestic Systems
- Alternative energy, natural home building and landscape design
July 18 - Cultivated Ecologies - Gardens
- Gardening, mulching, companion planting and composting
July 25 - Cultivated Ecologies - Agroforestry
- Orchards, forest gardens, propagation, aquaculture, bamboo, mushrooms and domestic animals
August 1 - Community Design and Infrastructure
- Business 101, financial ecosystems, regional currencies and strategies for earning a living
August 8 - Broad Scale Permaculture
- Urban design, village scale, ecovillages, transition towns, green ways, bioregionalism and carbon farming
August 15 - Elements of Practical Design
- Tools for site analysis (including zones and sectors), mapping exercises and conducting client interviews
August 22 - Design Day
- Tools for project management, giving presentations, costing and drawing
August 29 - Design Presentations (Open to the public)

COST of SERIES
$150 Lewis County Students
$250 Lewis County Residents or Chamber Members
$500-full series or $75/day for Non-Residents
Event Location - Downtown Discovery Center, Hohenwald

The event will be held in downtown Hohenwald. Meals, lodging and course books are not included in the course price. Classes will be taught at the Strand Theatre and Lewis County Museum Depot. In February of 2009 Directors from the Museum and Lewis County Historical Society approached the Sonnenschein Green Initiative Permaculture Team, requesting that the group design the Museum’s Discovery Center into a Permaculture demonstration site. Participants of the summer Permaculture training series will partake in the community design and implementation of this new downtown Permaculture site. The full implementation of the site may take many years to complete. The design will likely include: interactive Permaculture and soil food web areas, forest gardens, wetlands, water harvesting features and riparian zones, and a Native American and pioneer historical settlements with naturally built dwellings.

See picture of preliminary site drawing above right.

To register or to receive further details about the Permaculture training contact info@holisticecology.org or call 888-878-2434x5. For details about the Discovery Center project contact tonyturnbow@bellsouth.net. The Museum and Historical Society are accepting donations and volunteers to complete the development of the Discovery Center.

Second Transition Update

A lot has happened in the not so sleepy town of Hohenwald since my last Sonnenschein Green Initiative - Transition Update.

The Sonnenschein Green Initiative had a total of eight important meetings in ten days. Following is a brief summary of each meeting:

Complimentary Currency Working Group met on Monday February 9, with 5 people in attendance. You can read a full report on this meeting by clicking here. I will add that complimentary currency was later brought up during the February 18th Transition Committee meeting. There was so much interest that we'll be focusing our next Transition Committee meeting and an upcoming Green Evening Cafe on complimentary currency.

Sewage Treatment Working Group met on February 12, with 6 people in attendance. The City called for a meeting between their Engineer and our local Permaculture Designers. The meeting focused on designing constructed wetlands out of sewage lagoons and the development of bird habitat and a nature viewing area. The constructed wetlands would be designed to increase transpiration and seepage into the soil. This would decrease the flow rate and demand for electricity on a pumping station that directs water into a spay field.

Bioregional Congress Group met on February 15, with 12 people in attendance. The Farm Community in Lewis County, Tennessee will be host to the 10th Continental Bioregional Congress. The dates of the Congress are October 3-11, 2009. To find out more about the Congress, CBCX click here. Many Lewis County residents who are involved in organizing the Congress are also involved with the Sonnenschein Green Initiative. This group will be meeting every two weeks from now through October.

The Lewis County Chamber of Commerce held a luncheon on February 17, with 36 people in attendance. The Sonnenschein Green Initiative was the primary topic of discussion. The Chamber President invited Connie Sharp and I, Jennifer to talk about Sonnenschein. We were then asked to show the documentary of the Financial Permaculture Summit. View the documentary by clicking here. Several people came up to Connie and I after viewing the documentary saying that they were extremely impressed with the Summit and had not realized the extent of our outreach efforts. At least five new people showed interest in attending our upcoming meetings.

Transition Committee held a meeting Wednesday, February 18, with 19 people in attendance. Here are the highlights:

YOUTH EDUCATION: Debbie Landers introduced four students from the General Assembly Academy. Debbie and the students recently designed an ecological science curriculum. Attending the Sonnenschien Green Initiative's meetings and participating in related projects will be counted as school credit. The students volunteered to write the next article for our Green Living Column.

OUTREACH EDUCATION: I, Jennifer Dauksha-English presented the details for our Summer Permaculture Certification Series. The series will be 11 Saturdays, with 7 hour days, from June 13 through August 29 (minus July 4). The training will cost $150 for resident high school students, $250 for Lewis County residents or Lewis County Chamber Members, and $500 for non-residents. I also presented an overview of our 3-day Regional Sustainability Forum, which will be held June 5-7. Residents throughout Middle Tennessee will be invited to this forum to discuss and design working strategies for productive food, energy, water and resource sheds and for mapping the financial ecosystem of the region. Programs for both of these events are in draft form and will be posted online soon.

GREEN EVENING CAFE': Adam Turtle gave a brief overview of his presentation that he planned to give at the February 19th Green Evening. The group confirmed that logistical action items were completed. Lelia Ortel acquired cloth shopping bags to give away as door prizes.

GREEN PROCLAMATION: Debbie Landers reported on the progress of the Proclamation. She stated that more than five people had given feedback on the first draft and that with the help of the students, the final draft was near. There was discussion about the difference between a Proclamation and a Resolution. Debbie explained that a Proclamation meant that we would proclaim our intentions and that a Resolution meant that we would resolve to act out and implement what we proclaimed. A Resolution is a much more political process that could involve several months of drafting language that the City and County could agree upon. The group decided that the Proclamation would be brought before the City and County in the month of March. We decided that the Resolution could come maybe in six to nine months.

ECO-TOURISM: I, Jennifer Dauksha-English presented my plan for creating a Green Tourism Guide for Lewis County. The first draft is eight pages and incorporates all the green events, projects, business and organizations in Lewis County that our affiliated with the Sonnenschein Green Initiative. There is money left over from the 2008 Sonnenschein Festival, to print the guide. We'll also likely ask businesses and organizations to pledge $20 for printing. Also with tourism, Tony Turnbow asked us to put together a one page article on Sonnenschein to be inserted into the County's official Tourism Guide. Lastly, the Chamber of Commerce reported that several of our green events are now posted in regional tourist guides and are now posted on the Lewis County Chamber website.

Food and Farming Working Group held a meeting Wednesday, February 18, with 10 people in attendance. The group discussed the potential of creating a Farmer's Market in Lewis County. There was a consensus that maybe the best place to start was by creating a community garden. The group is currently in the process of seeking a site for this garden. Bob Ogden shared his intention of starting a worm castings business in Lewis County. The group is also organizing a seed and plant exchange as part of the next Green Evening Cafe'. Food and farming is the focus of the next Cafe' on March 24, 6-8:30 pm at the Emporium in downtown Hohenwald.

Economic Development Working Group held a meeting Wednesday, February 18, with 9 people in attendance. The group discussed their interest in creating a green demonstration building as an office for Sonnenschein. They also discussed the need to contact city officials and county commissioners - to inform them to put money towards local economic development, creating a green business park and for attracting green businesses to our area. The group also talked about incubating new green businesses and potential funding through the federal stimulus package. Lastly, a County Commissioner had asked our group to form a list of potential green businesses. Deben Tobias volunteered to compile this list.

Discovery Center Working Group met on Thursday, February 19, with 3 people in attendance. The group is progressing in its design of a Permaculture Demonstration Area behind the Lewis County Museum. Maps and drawings are being created. A meeting will be held in early March with the historical society to review the proposed design.

The next Sonnenschein Green Initiative meeting will be held Wednesday, March 4 from 11:30-1:30 at the Career Center in Hohenwald. The group meets every other Wednesday. For more details about upcoming meetings and projects contact 931-796-4874 or 888-878-2434.

IN HOHENWALD WE TRUST

The Sonnenschein Green Initiative had its first meeting on complimentary currencies, Monday February 9, 2009. Myself, Jennifer Dauksha-English, Patrick Gibbs and two members of the local Chamber of Commerce met over tea to discuss transition economics. We first assessed our current situation. Aside from talking about the state of the world's economy, our assessment was mostly over the experimental local 'Chamber Bucks' project that was implemented during the October 2008 Financial Permaculture Course. The ups: it happened; we circulated $4500 with local merchants in five days; new businesses joined the Chamber just so they could use the 'Bucks'; a number of businesses and residents got excited about the idea. The downs: only Chamber members could use the 'Bucks', the businesses were poorly educated about the experiment; some businesses refused to use the 'Bucks'; the majority of businesses took the 'Bucks' directly to the Chamber for reimbursement instead of circulating them in the community; there was also discrepancy around giving Federal notes as change - some businesses were giving change and others weren't. This became especially problematic when one business who gave change then went to use the 'Bucks' at a business who wouldn't give change.

From this evaluation of our active experiment, we determined that the following actions need to happen before we experiment with the 'Bucks' again at another event:
1. The Board of the Chamber of Commerce needs to create criteria for using the 'Bucks'
- for example: that it needs to be worth the face value and that federal notes should be given as change;
2. This criteria needs to be printed on the 'Bucks';
3. The criteria needs to be e-mailed, mailed, delivered by hand and announced at Chamber events to all Chamber businesses;
4. Someone needs to go door-to-door to get businesses educated and excited;
5. We need to educate our local Government and get their endorsement.

One of the ladies from the Chamber said that after reading up on Complimentary Currency, she was inspired by the Ithaca program using 'In Ithaca We Trust' on their Currency. That got us all going on Hohenwald, TN and we all agreed that our 'Bucks' need to read - 'in Hohenwald We Trust'. I wish I had my audio recorder with me that day. Both of the two ladies from the Chamber of Commerce spent most of their lives in Hohenwald. They were telling Patrick and I stories about milking cows, raising gardens and living in a way that took care of one another. One said, "It was just our way of life. It was the way I was raised. We didn't need a high paying job back then." They went on to say that they felt strongly that Hohenwald could return to that way of life it needed, because people weren't that far removed from the basics of living off the land and in community.

After this inspiring 'In Hohenwald We Trust' conversation, the four of us made some decisions that had the following action items:
1. Form a separate working group that would meet once a month. During these monthly meetings we would discuss reading assignments on complimentary currency. None of us felt like we had enough knowledge about the subject to feel comfortable explaining it to others in the community;
2. Invite others, especially a few key bankers to join in this working group - to learn;
3. Host an evening presentation and possibly a world cafe in June or July on complimentary currency and transition economics;
4. Organize a 3-day complimentary currency course September 18-20. We would hire someone from the USA or maybe Germany to teach the course and then have that teacher stay through the Financial Permaculture Course September 22-26 and lead a design on developing a currency for Lewis County;
5. Hope that at least four Hohenwald, Lewis County residents attend this course, just enough to get the seed planted in the community so that a stronger team can continue working on implementing a real local currency within the next five years;
6. Engage the regional sustainability forum that I, Jennifer am a part of organizing. It's a statewide forum but we also have a west, middle and east Tennessee forum. I would love to see that our middle Tennessee forum is engaged in thinking about a regional currency beyond just Hohenwald, Lewis County - I see this as more of a ten year goal;
7. Host another Complimentary Currency Design Course in 2010 or 2011 and have this second design be the real deal. The first design would be more of a teaser and a portal of entry. We could use the results of the first design to educate the public, further experiment with our 'Chamber Bucks' and of course further educate ourselves. By 2010 or 2011 we may have enough people in the community supporting the idea that a real design could be implemented, and I would hope that more members of the community would participate in the design process.

Complimentary Currency is a worthwhile conversation for our community to be having. We've determined though that it's not our priority right now. Our priority now is to educate the community about Permaculture and simple relocalization strategies; to get as many organizations and local Legislators involved; and to increase our communities ability to communicate about these important issues - by creating participatory social learning moments. Although the Complimentary Currency is in the background, completing the action steps outlined above is leap in the right direction. It's possible that more local people will want to join in the process and speed up implementation. It's also possible that new faces will arrive in Lewis County, wanting to live here because of the chance to work on these types of projects and live in a community that values earth care, people care and fair share. One of the ladies at the meeting is also a real estate broker. She said that five different families in the past month were interested in moving to Lewis County because they heard about our efforts to green the county! Yeah, is all I can say!!! Yes, in Hohenwald We do Trust!!

Proactive with Permaculture

Catherine Austin Fitts and I had a call this week about instructors for the September 22-26, 2009 Financial Permaculture Course in Hohenwald, TN. We agreed that the main criteria for our instructor search was that the instructor have these qualities: knowledge relevant to economic development in Hohenwald, tools easy to replicate and that they themselves have hands on experience not just theory. We both felt that all of the 2008 FPC instructors fit this mold and are confident that we'll bring in even more instructors in 2009 who can be proactive with Permaculture. We will be bringing back many of the original FPC cast and adding some new faces to the team for diversity and depth.

Being proactive with Permaculture also came up several times during our local Sonnenschein Green Initiative meetings in Hohenwald, while the group has been declaring its mission and purpose. We were all in agreement after someone shared that our groups efforts need to be proactive and focused on designing and implementing working solutions. In the past 10 meetings we've had, I can't remember the group once getting bogged down by the woes of the world. No one gets hung up on the problems or focuses on taking sides. It's been probably the most inclusive proactive group that I've been a part of. We seem 100% committed to taking constructive action. That's the other exciting news about this team of people - they're not just sitting around talking - change is happening - the transition is under way - these folks are taking action.

After a general round of check-ins and proposing the agenda, our meetings usually start with updates and reports from folks who've worked on projects and implemented actions since the last meeting. We generally go through a round of defining our goals, marking priorities and discerning our action plans and next achievable steps. Most folks volunteer for tasks. We have breakout sessions on specific projects for deeper discussions. When problems arise the group looks for solutions. Everyone's learning to be opportunistic and optimistic. We're a bunch of networking wizards, cycling energy in the system - I'd like to think!

The dynamic of this proactive group of doers and designers reminds me of a productive Permaculture site. The group is diverse and inclusive to newcomers. The group looks for and acts on opportunities around all the margins. Our first motto was Green = No Waste. We've learned to stack events and projects and collaborate with any and every person or organization who has something to offer. We're also creating some working routines based on evaluated successes. Permaculture is so at the core of our process that we are using the Permaculture principles to steer our meetings, relate to one another and the community and in our proactive stance we gather around.