AUSTRALIA:
Location: Melbourne
Doris Pozzi, an ICA Australia member for 24 years, with Steve O’Loughlin, and Katherine Williams, discusses how she strives to incorporate sustainability into her daily life.
Permaculture – together with biodynamics – I believe represents the greatest prospect for saving the earth’s agricultural systems and facilitating the move to sustainable living for communities across the globe. Last year, I completed a Permaculture Design Course (PDC) and my family and I are currently implementing the learnings at our new home in Badger Creek - near Healesville, in the Yarra Valley - an hour from Melbourne. We are on six acres with the beautiful Badger Creek on our boundary. We set up our initial vegetable gardens over the past six months with the help of a group of wonderful WWOOFERS (Willing workers on organic farms). And now we are putting in a 100,000 litre water tank which we hope will look after our trees along with the small dam also just completed. The key task at the moment is planning our initial orchard – a mixture of fruit and nut trees.
We are members of the Yarra Valley Permaculture Group and the Mountain Districts Permaculture Group. Both groups meet regularly to share ideas about topics such as edible gardening, livestock and sustainable living generally. I recently spoke at one of the Mountain Districts’ meetings on edible weeds and other speakers have covered a range of topics including bee-keeping, pruning, and the making of pickles and preserves. I am the YVPG Website project manager tasked with the job of setting up the group’s website, a key initiative given the group is having trouble keeping up with all the interest it is now generating.
Another local community group we are involved with is our local Fireguard Group. We meet to discuss preparation for the fire season and it is a great way to stay in touch with our closest neighbours. I have just taken on the role of Contact Person for our Fireguard Group – a role for which I feel woefully unqualified!
The hills area near Melbourne is just magnificent in terms of the number of fantastic people working on community projects. There is the Community Harvest Project, the permaculture groups I have already mentioned and Transition Towns is getting up and running here in Healesville.
The Heritage Fruits Society is another community group based in the hills area focused on saving the broad range of heritage fruits which are in danger of disappearing. Scion wood is collected where possible from existing collections and grafted onto trees cared for and maintained by the group’s members.
The Community Harvest Project in particular is very exciting. Its charter is to:
- Help individuals and groups to grow and/or access healthy, sustainable, affordable, locally produced food,
- Help the community deal with climate change, peak oil and the rising cost of living,
- Provide an environment in which individuals and communities can reflect on and review the worldviews out of which we create our lives and societies, and where appropriate, challenge and develop new approaches and responses to meet the changing needs of our world.
We are very excited about becoming a part of such a vibrant and positive community and we hope to contribute as best we can as we develop our own sustainable living model here at home.
Richard unfolding@smartchat.net.au
CANADA:
Location: Toronto
ICA Canada held its AGM on May 17th, and it was an overwhelmingly positive event with 25 people in attendance, including Renee Hebert of ICA International. Our outgoing Chair, Virginia Varley, led the business portion of the meeting, and I presented my report pictorially, outlining the foundational pieces we are putting in place to build a strong organization. Dr. Sheila Mae Young presented from a medical perspective her analysis of the HIV/AIDS work that we had just recently visited in both Il Ngwesi, Kenya and Monduli, Tanzania, and photos of that work were projected. We concluded with the appointment of two new board members, Helene Fournier and Mohamed Khaki, and elected our new Chair, Jeanette Stanfield.
Following the business portion of the meeting, those in attendance met in four table groups to reflect upon the program work of ICA Canada, our use of the ToP methodologies, the Courage to Lead Program, the Youth as Facilitative Leaders Program, and the Listen to the Drumming Program. We adjourned to a desert of fruit and carrot cake to finish the fine dinner catered by Miriam Gibson and to socialize together. It was a wonderful AGM indeed.
Nan Hudson nhudson@icacan.ca
ICA ASSOCIATES INC. (Canada)
Location: Canada
Jo Nelson facilitated our first online ToP methods training workshop. She taught the workshop method entirely in the virtual environment.
Associate Erwin Allerdings taught Facilitated Planning in Regina.
Wayne Nelson wnelson@ica-associates.ca
TAIWAN:
Location:
It continues to be a spring of dispersal in our engagements.
Dick is involved with coaching and mentoring, taking time out for a trip to Palawan in the Philippines. He and Jessie Hsiao taught the Group Facilitations Methods course for a client who had participated in a GFM in the US and wanted to provide it to her foundation’s facilitators, who work on projects in Africa and the Philippines. Prior to that, Dick facilitated a Dialogue for Lucy Hobgood-Brown, an ICA colleague from Australia, and her Board of Directors.
While visiting family in California, Evelyn also participated in the Archives Project in Chicago and the PJD in Arizona.
Larry continued working with two long-time clients in Indonesia, Hong Kong and China, before heading for Vienna and the UN Project and on to the US for vacation.
Gail has been in Germany at the Berlin Open Space Conference. While there she spent time with Sabine Winteler, the daughter of Ursala, a past ICAI President, and other ICA colleagues living in Kreuzberg. It was a great opportunity to walk around the old Human Development Project site.
This week is an Open Space Learning Workshop.
Laura Hsu has been doing presentations to groups and organizations on ORID to introduce the new Chinese edition of the Focused Conversation book.
Gail West icataiw@ms69.hinet.net
ICA International:
Location: Montreal
This week ICA International is excited to have finalized and distributed the Network Exchange newsletter. We’d like to thank Peter, our dedicated volunteer, who helped us with distribution. To view the full newsletter online please click here. If you have comments on any of the articles, or suggestions for future articles, we’d love to hear your feedback at info@ica-international.org.
Last week was a shortened work week for us, because of National Patriot’s Day this past Monday. National Patriot’s Day is held annually in Quebec to commemorate the importance of the struggle of the French Patriots in 1837-38 to achieve national recognition of French Canadians, political liberty and a democratic system of government.
As the involvement of ICAI in international engagement continues to grow in the area of collaboration with other international institutions, Lambert was invited and sponsored to participate in an international workshop from the 24th – 27th of May in Frankfurt, Germany. The event was aimed at networking and collaboration with other international bodies engaged in organizing international meetings, and attracted more than 6000 participants. Also present were other international institutions that provide assistance in various aspects of organizing international meetings. Some of the issues covered at the meeting were international associations, choosing a venue, seeking funding for international meetings, securing sponsorships for international meetings etc. Our participation in the event has provided opportunity for us to build partnerships for our future international events.
Staff info@ica-international.org
