Midwest Permaculture

Foundations of Permaculture
Webinar Series

A Self-Study Program
...that can also be applied towards one's
Permaculture Design Course (PDC) Certificate

Newly Revised - April 2011

New Webinar Package Includes
     - 8 Recorded Video Webinars - A Computer DVD (11 Hours)
     - 5 New Teachers - Wonderful Diversity (scroll down)
     - 3 Additional Audio Webinars (5 hours)
     - PDC Course Textbook - Earth User's Guide to Permaculture by Rosemary Morrow
     - 150 Study Questions
     - Over 2-Dozen Handouts from our Design Courses
In Addition (more details)
     - Continue to Receive Updated and New Webinars - Indefinitely
     - Invitation to all Live Q&A Sessions with Bill and Wayne (5 or 6 per year)
All Accessible Via the Internet Shortly After we Confirm Registration
                 The Textbook & the DVD hard copy of Webinars are shipped promptly by snail-mail.

Note: The full price of this webinar series can be applied towards
any of our future PDC Courses (for up to three years).

How This Works
We have pulled some of the best webinars we have hosted in the last couple of years covering some of the foundational subjects related to permaculture along with some great stories and examples of individuals applying permaculture thinking and actions in their lives.

These are not canned or edited presentations. You will receive the recorded sessions just as they unfolded live for the students who participated in the original webinar.

Begin Now - Order On-Line or by Phone

Within hours of registering, webinar students receive a welcome email from Midwest Permaculture with instructions on how to access the networking site where the full webinar series is posted for immediate downloading.

For those that don't wish to download the large webinar files, a DVD of these, along with the textbook (The Earth User's Guide to Permaculture by Rosemary Marrow), will be shipped via snail-mail shortly after registration and should arrive in under a week, if not a few days.

Computer Requirements for Webinars
For immediate access and downloading of the webinars, students need a computer that is connected to the internet and should have the modest ability to download standard internet files (.mp3, .mp4, .doc, .pdf). Included with the links to the werbinars is information and access to two video players that are free to download off the internet. Students can begin their studies immediately if they'd like because the webinars are available instantly from the internet as are the handouts and study-questions.

Technical Assistance
Midwest Permaculture's technical support person, permaculture teacher and all round great guy, Milton Dixon, is available via email or cell phone to assist all webinar students with any start-up quirks. He will help any webinar student with full access to the webinar materials. It's pretty easy once you get started. Don't let the technology part of this keep you away from these great webinars if you are truly interested.

The Webinars - All as Computer Videos

About the Presenters

Webinar #1 -- Bill Wilson The Case for Permaculture: This is the foundational material from Bill's 3-hour "Introduction to Permaculture;" Bill holds two PDC Certificates and two Advanced Permaculture Training Certificates (one in design, the other in teaching). He is cofounder of Midwest Permaculture with his wife Becky and has taught at over 25 PDC courses. "Listening to Bill was like a breath of fresh air. I knew that there had to be a way out of the energy and societal challenges before us,  and now I see it.  Very inspiring and hopeful...!" Webinar Student

Webinar #2 -- Larry Korn Larry Korn Larry is a soil biologist, an ecological landscaper, and is the translator/editor of one of the most influential books to touch the lives of scores of natural farmers, The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka As a young man, Larry spent five years in Japan, two of those with the author, Masanobu Fukuoka, on his farm in southern Japan. He lived in one of the mud-walled huts in Mr. Fukuoka’s orchard and performed farm chores with the other workers and students, learning all he could about Masanobu's unique form of farming. Pictured below: Larry in the field with Masanobu Fukuoka   When Larry returned to the states he promised Masanobu Fukuoka that he would do all he could to see that his book The One-Straw Revolution was translate from Japanese into English and then published. This is a fascinating story that Larry shares during his presentation with many slides and much detail. We end up hearing stories about Robert Rodale, Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson, Bill Mollison, Gary Snyder and more. Robert Rodale Wendell Berry Wes Jackson Gary Snyder

Webinars #3... #5... #7 -- Wayne Weiseman Wayne holds a wealth of information and experience which becomes obvious as soon as he begins to teach. Wayne has deep experience in farming, horticulture, alternative building methods, renewable energy, teaching and music. Wayne Weiseman has been certified by Bill Mollison and The Permaculture Institute of Australia to teach the Permaculture Design Certification Course. He is also the Founder and Director of The Permaculture Project, a full-service, international consulting business promoting the ideas of eco-agriculture, renewable-energy resources and eco-construction methods.

Webinar #4 -- Robyn Streeter (L) and Donna Smith Learn many of the details about how these two farmers (who had little money and no land) set up and now run 53 "mini-farms" for a great income. Your Backyard Farmers Portland, Oregon Donna and Robyn were the first we ever heard of who run their farming operation from other peoples back yards. And they don't rent peoples back yards, they charge the homeowners yearly to have much of their own family's food grown for them right in their own backyards. Robyn and Donna visit each home once a week, attending to all that is necessary in the vegetable garden, leaving a full basket of produce on the residents doorstep when the little farm starts producing.

Webinar #6 -- Helen Cameron Uncommon Ground Restaurant - Chicago Helen and her husband Michael had been restaurateurs for almost 2 decades. In 2007 they decided to open a second location for their successful restaurant and chose a building on the far North Side of Chicago because of the large-flat roof. Helen wanted to grow at least some of the food and herbs that they serve to their customers. In the process, they decided to become organically certified and as it turned out, became the first certified organic rooftop 'farm' in the United States. A very inspiring story.

Webinar #8 -- Marcus de la fleur Marcus de la fleur and wife Cathy Haibach, didn't stop with just rain barrels to capture the bountiful rainwater falling on the suburban home they lived in. They also incorporate: bio-swales... porous pavements... rain gardens... a green roof... a cistern... and gravel grass. Marcus de la fleur is a Registered Landscape Architect and owner of the design and consulting firm de la fleur LLC in Chicago, IL. He received his horticultural degree from the School of Horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK, and obtained his Masters in Landscape Architecture at the University of Sheffield, also in the UK. In the webinar, Marcus takes us for an intimate journey through this website that documents the work that he and Cathy did on this very-suburban home.

5-Hours of Additional Audio Webinars

For many of the Permaculture Design Certificate Courses we host a 1-2 hour Q&A period where students are invited to ask any sort of question they might have about permaculture. These turn into some very interesting discussions so we wanted to add several of these webinars to this series as well. These are audio files only (there are no pictures to view) and are immediately available to students on-line following registration.

Begin Now

Within hours of registering, webinars students receive a welcome email from Midwest Permaculture with instructions on how to access the networking site were everything is posted for immediate downloading. For those that don't wish to download large webinar files, the DVD will arrive several days later in the same package with the text book, The Earth User's Guide to Permaculture. Start with the handouts and the Q&A sessions while waiting for the DVD and book to arrive.

In Addition      - Continue to Receive Updated and New Webinars - Indefinitely Whenever and however the webinars are updated in the future, you will always receive the latest version of the webinar series via the internet. It's sort of like a "life-time membership" except, how can we really predict the future like that? Let's just say that we feel that you have become part of our Midwest Permaculture family when you have ordered these webinars and we want you to have access to continued permaculture resources to the extent that you are interested. For example -- all of our previous webinar students will now have access to all of these new ones.      - Invitation to all Live Q&A Sessions with Bill and Wayne (5 or 6 per year) For each PDC courses we typically host a live Q&A session with Wayne Weiseman and Bill Wilson. Sometimes Milton or Becky join in too. It is an informal time where we can explore the concepts and ideas revolving around the webinar series. You will receive notices of the webinar dates and times as they arise.

Registration - On-Line or by Phone

	Price of Webinar Series -- $195.00             Option 1 Register Online. We take MasterCard, Visa and Discover.            Option 2 Call Becky to register over the phone at 815-256-2215 with credit card or to mail in a personal check.

Institutional Pricing Below -- For Colleges, Universities, Non-Profits, etc.

A Few More Details

PDC Course Textbook    Included with these Webinars 'Earth User's Guide to Permaculture' by Rosemary Morrow This gem of a text, shipped to students upon registration, is written by Rosemary Morrow, an Australian, that has taught permaculture around the world for decades. The book is straightforward and loaded with illustrations, depth and substance. It covers theory and also focuses on the practical aspects of how to implement permaculture design. This book is a must read for the serious permaculturist and is a requirement for students of our design certification courses.

Internet Connection
High-speed connections are great, but students with just a 56K dial-up modem are able to access all of the handouts and even download the webinars. In these cases, students download their webinars overnight while they are sleeping and then can then view them instantly in the morning or anytime thereafter once they are saved to their computers. And with the DVD's arrival, students don't really need to access anything via the internet except possibly some of the handouts (which are small files).

Windows, Mac & Linux? - No Problem
As long as you have a computer connected to the internet and you can open these standard files (mp3, .mp4, .pdf, and .doc), you'll be fine.

Additional Networking Site (optional)
For those who take this webinar series there is the networking 'home room' where all registered students can post their personal bios (if they wish), share ideas or questions and just get to know other webinar students. It is similar to FaceBook (if you are familiar with that) but private.

This is completely optional (to interact with others) but the networking site is where you will go to access a downloadable copy of the webinars, the over 2-dozen handouts and the 150 self-study questions.

Feel free to look around our Midwest Permaculture networking site. You won't be able to fully access the 'Foundations of Permaculture' webinar page for this is only for registered students, but all of the "Public Forums" are fully available for everyone to visit and you will get a feel for how the networking site works.

http://midwestpermaculture.ning.com/

Our hope is that people interested in permaculture will be able to meet others in this 'networking site of like minds' to share ideas, questions, personal projects, and inspiration.

Bill and Becky Wilson

Institutional or Group Pricing 6-16                                                  $175/ea.    (Includes a 90-min. live webinar with Bill Wilson of MWP) 17-48                                                $150/ea.    (Includes two 90-min. Live Webinars with Bill Wilson of MWP) 49-96                                               $140/ea.    (Includes four webinars or a half-day of on-site teaching with Bill Wilson) Benefits to Each Student Each student receives the full webinar package with textbook , DVD and study guide. In Addition:     -  a $ credit commensurate with payment for any or our future PDC Courses (up to 3 years)     -  Access to our regular live Q&A sessions     -  Access to all future updates of the webinar series Further Details The institution or group typically registers each student by name, mailing address, and email address (for delivery of book and on-line information). Institution can sign-up everyone at once or simply set up an account and we add their students as they register. Institution pays for travel (and lodging if necessary) for Bill' visit.

Please contact Becky at Midwest Permaculture for further information, other variations on the above, registration of students, and payment. Email Phone (815-256-2215)