Diploma Gathering 2020

Only 20 tickets left!

If you're planning on joining us next month, don't delay.

As previously announced, we'll be meeting at the home of environmental education charity Roots and Shoots, set in a half-acre wildlife garden near Lambeth North underground station.

The £70 ticket price includes lunch and light refreshments on both days.

If there are any issues/topics you'd particularly like to see covered at the Gathering, please drop Cath a line. Better still, think about offering a workshop. A draft timetable will be circulated soon.

Proposed changes to Diploma financial system

In response to the Diploma Working Group's strategic review work and their Recommendations report, the Association is now looking at how best to implement the proposed financial changes.

In a nutshell, the proposals are: All apprentices will pay a fixed monthly amount for the duration of their diploma pathway. This fee will include membership of the Association and a contribution towards Diploma administration costs. Any fees for tutorials and assessment work will be paid direct to tutors by apprentices and not included in the monthly fee.

We would really appreciate feedback from apprentices on this. Please take a moment to answer our survey (there are only two questions so it won't take long!)
 

Design tools

We love them! As permaculture designers, there is a huge range of design tools to help us – ones that we apply at the start of the design process, the middle, the end, before, afterwards and everywhere else. We all have favourites, that we probably over-use. We all have ones that we have tried but haven’t really worked, and there are probably loads that we don’t even know about. The Knowledge Base section of the
Permaculture Association website has many fantastic tools and examples of how to use them.

We thought it would be a great idea to include a design tool
or two every newsletter, to encourage us all to diversify (which of course is a permaculture principle). So to start this off, my most used tool is Positive, Negative, Interesting (PNI).
I use this before, during and after designs, when wondering where to go for a holiday, what to plant in the garden, where to put the bookshelves and about 1,000 other ways. It’s a really easy concept to get across
to others. Recently, it helped us look at the Allotment Show in a different way, which in turn helped design the next Show, and it gave us points of reference when we were looking to move house. I am
aware that I probably overuse PNI, and am sure there are many other quick and easy tools that are easily adaptable, and quick to learn and explain. Over to you all ....
Helen
Feb 2020