Supporting the vision...

Notes from inaugural meeting3rd August 2000 (left) and a laterrevisioning of the trustee role (above)

Yield 1:South EastConvergence2000-2002

Workshops about personal barriers to sustainability,making a windowbox, Wholism & PcDesign,plus veg stalls, info reBrighton Earthship…We had a crêche, food, entertainment...

Yield 2: ‘Policy’!

arising from

legal obligationsHealth & safety, public liability,organisational status, financial reporting, employment law...

demand by people forservices, support, adviceHave you got…? I want to get an allotment, can you help? Can I volunteer for BPT? Etc

• Volunteer employment policy• Brighton EarthShip planning permission• Can you support our application for £

from the council?

critical issues, such as…Development of a Working with Schools Policy to ‘round up’ someone falsely representing BPT.

BPT Management of Projectswhich developed out of 1. a need to show “fair share” in allocatingpaid work to members…, then2. Other groups without a constitutionwanting to draw on grant funding forsustainable projects…we developed a ‘badged’management system for a % of the grant.

72 hourPermaculture DesignCourse, retitled BPTBuilding SustainableCommunities & OCNaccredited

Yield 3: educational development expertise

Short courses suchas Fruit Tree Pruning,basket making, & the Introto PCD and Practicalities ofPermaculture (also OCN’d)Development of resources, often

arising out of grant-fundedactivity such as • Working with Nature - a book listing the permaculture-related activitism in Brighton & Hove (soon to be updated & webbed)• Grow Your Own - school-based Pc about foodgrowing• Gluts ! - recipes for overabundant yields!

We also enjoy ourselves!

BPT management group & trusteesSummer 2003

November 2003Course numbers for BSC are low - we push the dates back to January 04 and recycle the first residential weekend intoa Redesigning the Visioning session, led by Trustees

Our plan for the revision&

flower of existing activities

Trustees, management group members, recent graduates, members such as our designer

As the ‘client’ we list our needs anddecide we have 3 targets to reach with our redesigned organisation

A stronger local public face and influence

Knowing our limitations and working with them

Symmetry - becoming a demonstration of how permaculture organisations can work with national connections

positive elements

and minuses...

We analyse our Core Functionbased on themes & elements

We find some solutions !

core function

We shake up our policies as another theme

We decide what to do next!

Being a trustee

Grows straight, usefulIn short lengths, gets

cut to givenew growth

Makes the soil fertile and prepares for futuresmall seeds to get sownin the ground

Knows it can’t go onforever, and plans the nextgeneration in

Native species where possibleor those that adapt to the localconditions easily

Accepts small yieldto begin, knows it willbe subject to exposure

Pioneering...

Sow at the best time, enough?… 1 evening every two weeks, we can’t do it all at once

Seek a nurturing medium… find 1 year’s money to set up & administer

Plan the ground… “after the Launch, do the Vision, find funders..”Gather resources … do a skills audit, group them, identify the gapsGuilds & companions… like-minded groups - affiliating

What’s most appropriate … devise a checklist for quality growth Know what doesn’t grow with us … create policies to give boundariesSeek support … don’t try to do it all yourself… plan in succession

Forest Gardening as another metaphor … where are Trustees & management placed?

perennialsneed feedingfor long life

biennials &annuals … do they self seed?

nourishment & hold

learning fromwild zone visitors

climbing to the light,threading through...

Being a trusteeTheory in action: as can be seen from the analysis of trustees as pioneer species, we are very much examples of theory in action…within the conventions of the role as demanded by the legal constitution we attempt to use design theory & practice at as many stages as possible.

We take care to take care of people, though this has proved to be a difficult balance sometimes - working with natural patterns, using energyflow, thinking of ‘niches’ for people’s talents, however diverse they may be. Sometimes it feels like a parentalrole, remembering that it’s a natural pattern to have ‘elders’ and ‘novices’, at other times there is more of a Guild feel - all, we would hope, are beneficial relationships.

Taking care of ourselves has been the hardest… at the beginning, too few people and too much to do, struggling for light we become etiolated, depleted, it’s hard to bear fruit. As a founding trustee I was managing, teaching, coordinating, chairing… all too much, but I was able to withdraw gradually, and after three years as a Trustee became the Course petal rep for the management group… and just about to take on a Web-petal role, to gain another yield from my Diploma study.

So we have had to redesign the system more than once … the Flower Petal idea was one yield from 2003, which did result in more people being involved. Re-visioning is now built in, with the new management group leading the next one in November...