We currently have a few people working stuff in our permaculture bootcamp.  We need to fill that out to six, and do it long enough that we might be able to handle 12.   And maybe two years from now, we might be able to carry 24.  

There are three pieces of property next to mine.   I like the idea that those properties are purchased by permies and they each carry out their own vision in community.  

I would like to see more ants and deep roots people on the lab, pushing projects forward.   I would like to get to the point that we have several natural building instructors and we have at least one person that manages the seppers program.

Steven Kovacs wrote:

Maureen Atsali wrote:I am all in with this idea, although I am under qualified and stuck out here in the sticks of Africa... If I can help, here I am.

You mean, you're ready to learn, not overconfident in your capabilities, and located in a frontier for permaculture where you can spread the word?  Perfect!  

I totally agree - we need to get a few Seps, Bills and Pauls going in other parts of the world. Where do we find them and get them going? No chance they will hop a plane to the Alps and learn something usefull for Kenia.  

Travis Johnson wrote:The United States tends to drive the rest of the world, and as such we tend to be fickle people. What I see happening is a resurgence away from the traditional Kubota-Organic farm to a more Fossil-Free Organic Farm type system. Sepp might have proposed using more people to replace fossil fuel powered machinery, but there is one inherent problem with that concept and this is...people suck. quote]

There is actually a lot of progress that Paul and other leaders cannot see. Yes, the nature of people is a problem, but as a retired teacher, let me tell you:
1/ a great idea has a lot of power. People easily get discouraged and always have self doubts, but once they latch on to a winner of an idea, they will never let go. You can kill people a whole lot easier than you can kill a good idea. And permaculture is a great idea.
2/ People rise in an organization not just on the terrific job they do but on KNOWING that they do a great job, and while awards are fine, this inside little person inside you that lets you know: "Hey, you did well there" is a lot more powerful than all the naysayers put together.
3/ In order to rise in an organization, or even to join in, folks have to sense that success is possible and have the right personal skills for that organization. I have that sense [that Permaculture is the only way to go], but while I know I can raise bees and chicken and have a beautiful raised garden bed and a small forest I'm still trying to grow into a farm forest, all of it without chemicals, I do not yet have the confidence to be a leader in the field. I suck at creating videos or organizing in general and I really do not have a head for business. Learning how to work my 7 acres observing the best principles of Permaculture is in itself a daunting task, but progress is happening out of sight: I advocate for clean water and clean air in Central Wisconsin, and I make suggestions here and there at town meetings. Voltaire once said "you must cultivate your own garden". and indeed, each one of us is focused on his/ her tiny world, and it is all of us, each one of us in our own puny ways that end up changing the world. This is the real way that things change. Some, like the great leader in the Permaculture movement are the visionaries. Here, in the trenches, so to speak, we are the ones absorbing the ideas and communicating them, little by little, through friendships. Just this year, I had a person who came to visit on a different matter and while she was waiting for her husband, I showed her my garden. Raised beds, watering from barrels in which I steep comfrey, a rebar at the corner of each bed and a short piece of PVC impaled on it so I can drag hoses around the beds without killing plants, gathering clean leaves at the end of the season. Simple stuff, really. Nothing revolutionary. She was all ears and kept saying "Ooh, I like that. I'm going to do the same thing in my garden". My husband later told me that she was a Master Gardener. She gleaned at least half a dozen ideas. Will she follow through? Maybe. Maybe she will pick one or two and feel she can improve her garden. I approached my town board about not putting chemicals to rid the ditches of certain weeds and pointed out the savings the town could make if they seeded the edges of the ditches with short flowers, perhaps Birds' foot trefoil, which never needs mowing and is good for pollinators and won't poison the ditch water. Some listened attentively, others were looking at their watches, but there will be other town meetings, and I'll keep pounding on that nail.
4/ The other difficulty is the sheer vastness of the task and of the field. Permaculture is a huge idea, with lots and lots of components, and what works here may not work in the next county, with a different fauna and flora. And so we hesitate and spend a lot of time thinking and rethinking the ideas we think we understand until it fits just right... for each one of us.
So in short, to all of our great leaders in Permaculture, let me say: It is working. You may not see all the progress being made quietly at the local level and I'm sure it is disheartening at times, but each and every one of us is gleaning new ideas, new ways of doing things. Montaigne once famously said that we should travel and "rub and sharpen our brains against other people's brains". In this very excellent forum, that is what we are all doing, and that is really the way that we get the best movement going and progressing. Thanks for creating a place where we can all grow in Permaculture.

Tyler Ludens wrote:

Joel Bercardin wrote: Not everybody has a rural acreage, and not everybody has even a back yard (many condo and apartment dwellers do not).

People often post on permies offering free land in exchange for working it.  Permies.com could become a clearing house for connecting land-havers with land-needers.  There's no lack of land available for people who want to work it.  It just might not be in their personal yard.

Alan Loy wrote:...
It seems to me that there might be a way for me to use my retirement money to setup a property that could sustain me and "others"  There are lots of people like me that could help establish permiculture properties if we could get a system that gives us old "rich folks" what we want.