Afternoons
The first two afternoons will be divided between time for workshops and time for interest and working groups to meet. The third afternoon will offer an Open Space and the last afternoon a reconvening and synthesis of the week’s work.
Afternoon Working Groups – July 12 and 13
Afternoon Working Groups Include |
Afternoon Workshops
Agro-forestry in the Pasture: New Cropping Ideas for Temperate Region Master Units – Geoffrey Steen
Combining improved types of fruit & nut bearing trees & shrubs along with a grass based dairy it is possible to get maximum yields of vegetarian food from even marginal, steep land. At Raven Ridge Farm, adjacent to Prama Institute, we are using a swale-and-berm system to spread water out along the ridges, then planting these swales with chestnuts, hazelnuts, mulberries, persimmons, apples, pears and also nitrogen-fixing fodder trees to boost available forages for cattle. This cropping system is also the beginning of a plant breeding program that is selecting for improved genetics of hazelnuts and chestnuts (which contain oil, protein & carbohydrates) that could offer a new way to obtain staple human foods from trees and thus avoid the eradication of topsoil endemic to most cropping systems worldwide. Participants in this workshop will take the 10 minute walk (or 3 minute drive) to Raven Ridge Farm for an onsite learning experience.
Afternoon Open Space – July 14
In addition there will be one Open Space Afternoon for those wishing to offer other workshops.
Workshops offered so far:
Principles of Design for Ecovillages and Spiritual Communities – Peter Fleury
Dance Workshop – Prakash Laufer
GNH – Gross National Happiness – Tom Barefoot
Developing and Marketing Adult Education Programs for the Pubic – Jody Wright
Cultural Program Rehearsal
The Afternoon of Wednesday, July 15th
Bringing it All Together: Growing the Gurukula Community – The Next Ten Years
Time for Synthesis: The last afternoon, led by Dr. Marcus Bussey and Dr. Sid Jordan, will be dedicated to a reconvening of all together and a synthesis of the previous days’ activities. We will begin by having a World Cafe session in which we mix with others from different faculty groups and then move to an activity that helps us focus on where would like our AMGK Community to be in ten years and what we as individuals and teams can do to help us get there.