Dear Permaculture Design Course graduate,
As a PDC graduate, we invite you to deepen your commitment to the learning you have gained by becoming a member of the Permaculture Institute of North America Your instructor gave us permission to send you this one-time mailing to let you know about PINA and why you should join. As part of our current membership campaign, we are offering a complimentary one-year subscription to Permaculture Design magazine when you join. You can become a member by registering on our website.
Why PINA
The PINA idea took form in 2012 among a small number of senior teachers. The initial vision was to help everyone who had completed the PDC live up to the transformational potential of the course and of their own commitments to regenerative practice. We began by publishing an authoritative edition of the PDC curriculum and offering diplomas in site design and education to new graduates and recognized veterans. Six years on, we have passed some important milestones, but we need your help to fulfill the promise of a continental organization providing services to PDC graduates from coast to coast.
Permaculture graduates have much to learn from each other and strong interests in common which we don’t often get to articulate. Our ideas and values could dramatically improve the quality of life in many communities if they were taken seriously and allowed to influence public policy and private development. Leading practitioners have already shown this is possible. We now need to help many others step into similar leadership in their own communities.
The questions that motivated the PINA founders are still relevant: Could the community of permaculture course graduates, organized for mutual support and improvement and acting as a group
• Impact the whole of society more effectively?
• Address the profound interlocking crises of climate change, social injustice, and ecological degradation?
• Improve professional practice and so gain access to the levers of change?
• Make it easier for PDC graduates to earn income working for permaculture ethics rather than against them?
• Enable people who want to teach permaculture or design systems to do it as well as possible, and provide standards so that there would be a way to judge success?
• Make it easier for PDC graduates to find further quality training near where they live?
• Share ideas, knowledge, and resources?
• Make the public persona of permaculture more visible and accurate.
This is an ambitious agenda, but one we think is achievable.
Our latest offerings
2018 DESIGN CONTEST
To highlight the power of permaculture design, PINA is running a design contest this fall: applications from PINA members will be accepted through December 1, 2018 to fund the implementation of a design vetted by the PINA board, with the final winner chosen by a vote of the membership. Five thousand dollars ($5,000) will be awarded to build out the winning design. Full details are avaiable at pina.in. We intend to publicize not only the winning design, but the primary runner-up candidates and to seek support for those projects as well. We believe that PINA can showcase excellence in our profession, and by doing so, elevate the status of all permaculture practitioners in North America.
PINA PERMACULTURE DIPLOMA
The PINA professional diploma recognizes excellence in design, education, site development and implementation, or community development. We connect diploma candidates with field advisors and mentors to pursue a self-directed program of action learning. The standards are clear and rigorous; the learning pathways are highly flexible; the cost is very modest. More diplomas tracks are under active consideration.
Our services and accomplishments
To support our diploma candidates and our members, and to address inquiries from the general public, PINA maintains an office with a small paid staff. We have developed a newsletter for members to disseminate ideas and information. We have applied to the IRS for 501c6 status as a professional association, and our geographically diverse and gender-balanced board has grown to represent regions from the Atlantic to the Pacific and the Great Lakes to the Gulf.
We have figured out an efficient way to train teachers and designers past the PDC. In particular, we have
• established criteria for advanced permaculture certification;
• created evaluation and training methods for certifying beyond the PDC;
• developed four diploma specializations; and
• awarded more than 70 permaculture diplomas in teaching and design.
We have two regional hub affiliates in the Midwest and Northeast and are actively supporting other groups to organize similarly across the continent. You could help this come about.
Expanding the PINA project to your bioregion
PINA’s regional hub organizations are intended to provided services to permaculture graduates and the public. These hubs might start out as groups of graduates organizing to offer skill training and networking around common issues. They could easily grow to sponsor regional convergences, establish an office, provide job information, project training, and more. In short, new and old graduates would have pathways to professional development and community empowerment beyond the PDC without having to travel long distances. The public profile of permaculture would spread faster. If you think this is a good idea, please help us move it along.
Why join PINA?
All of this can only happen with lots of people working on it. So we are asking you to join the effort. The first and easiest way to connect is to become a PINA member at the $30/year basic level. To do this, please go to the Membership page to register or if you wish to work on advanced training, go to our Diploma information In addition to members and diploma candidates, PINA is seeking volunteers to support the function of its committees, to work on establishing regional hubs, and to shape the development of this multi-generational project. We also welcome donations of any amount. Can we count on you?
If you join during our current campaign, we will sign you up for a complimentary 1-yr subscription to North America’s own Permaculture Design magazine.
PINA is committed to reciprocity and solidarity within our community, for the betterment of society as a whole. Whether you practice permaculture professionally or simply appreciate the impact it has had on your own life, we ask you to help us create opportunities for many more to advance our common aims and values.
We hope you will join us,
The PINA Board of Directors:
Monica Ibacache, President, NY
Paula Westmoreland, Vice-President, MN
Bob Randall, Secretary, TX
Darrell Frey, Treasurer, PA
Wesley Roe, Southern CA
Koreen Brennan, FL
Liora Adler, Northern CA
Andrew Millison, OR
Melanie Mindlin, Administrator, OR
Peter Bane, Coordinator, MI