This is a people-based design to bring local people together who have an interest in permaculture. The approach I'm taking to bring people together is through building and running a permaculture network here in Richmond, North Yorkshire.

To keep the design process simple, I will divide it into two sections. Each section will have an initial setup phase followed by maintenance, and an evaluation, at which point any tweaks in the design can be planned and incorporated back into the design.   

The first section will be the technology-focused half of the design, moving to the people-focused half in the second section.

Technology Section - Website

• Timeline
• Build a website – To be used as a community hub
• Add content to the website – Post regular updates on the website
• Maintenance – Install updates, backup website

People Section - Find the others

• Timeline
• Talk to people about Permaculture
• Get people involved
• Maintenance – Discuss with other people in the network what they need

Timeline

A key observation from the previous sections is limited time to devote to the network at this moment. This is mainly due to spending my free time either working in the gardens or working towards completing this diploma by September 2022.

Therefore, it makes sense to build a timeline into this design to help prevent failure and to allow me the time to focus on the completion of the diploma.

Timeline

The technology section will be planned and completed by the end of May 2022.

Build a website – to be used as a community hub

The purpose here is to build a basic website to give people a focal point, a community hub where they can go to learn a short overview about the network, view news and project updates, along with a contact form.

What the website will not be is a resource for permaculture material. There are already many websites out there that contain extremely good information on permaculture that do a far better job than I can so I’m not looking to reinvent the wheel.

The website template should contain

• Landing page – to include the aims of the network
• Community hub page – this will be in a blog format
• About page – who I am, what the network is
• Contact page – a simple form

Domain name

The site will have a straightforward and easy-to-remember domain name richmondpermaculture.org.uk

Add content to the website – Post regular updates on the website

As much as I do not want to get tied down constantly posting content to the website, it will add value to post news updates every few weeks. I envision to start with these will mainly be regarding what’s taking place in my gardens, followed by news from others around the town with regards to their permaculture-inspired projects.

Social Media

I’ve purposely kept away from using social media to promote the network at this stage in its development. In the past, I’ve run email groups, built and administrated web forums, and Facebook groups, along with content posting on Instagram all of which take far too much time to administer.

I also do not want a group that solely exists in cyberspace, the whole intention behind this local network is to create a community on the physical level with people interacting in person and not over the internet.

Maintenance – Install updates, backup website

As with any website, there is work needed to be completed in the background to keep the website up and running. This involves making sure all updates are installed for the WordPress platform, the theme template, and all widgets. SSL certificates will also need to be applied.

After the website has been updated, a backup will be taken.   

Timeline

The people section is much more complicated than the technology section. Engagement will need to be kept when communicating with people. If I could not provide people with enough of my time due to other commitments the network will not be off to a good start. Waiting to engage with people until I’ve completed the diploma will be of greater value than trying to do too many things at once.

The timeline for this will be October 2022 onwards, with a focus to have people engaged with the network for the 2023 growing season.

Talk to people about Permaculture

After talking to many people over the past five years when working in my gardens many of whom have become people I now talk with regularly as they pass by, I shall begin to mention my plans to create a local permaculture network. 

“If you build it, they will come.” I appreciate I’m taking a very grassroots approach to promoting this network through word of mouth, this is a conscious decision. I’m looking to create something that will not get carried away with the first strong wind never to be seen again. Having strong roots in the ground with people of a like mind will produce a better foundation to build on.

The placement of a small sign on my garden gate stating, “this is a permaculture design garden, to know more ask me.” The sign will act as a hook to engage the people who often view the garden as they pass. Of course, I’m not in my garden all the time, my neighbours often mention to me the number of people that stop to have a look at the garden when I’m out. For those interested a sign with a random word on it, “permaculture” could encourage a conversation next time they pass when I’m in the garden.

The path at the end of my garden is used by local people as a thoroughfare to town, it’s a nice alternative to walking next to the main road encouraging many people to often use it.  

Get people involved

A community needs to have other people to be involved otherwise it’s just my private empire. Running an empire sounds too much like hard work. Empire building is not on my list of things to do, not this year anyway. A network sounds more accessible and less organized than a community whilst at the same time having a structure, often unseen that holds it together.  

I’m more than happy to provide a space and host a group of people to allow a conversation to take place. People will need to be able to meet each other to share stories. I have no intention to be a permaculture teacher, but I have enough passion for practising permaculture to lead a conversation around it.

My goal is not to commit to an agender but to listen to what people need and to design around these requirements.   

Maintenance

Maintenance will be in the form of evaluation, a key part of a permaculture design. If I treat the requirements of the people involved with the network as permaculture designs, each design will have an evaluation phase built into it. If something isn’t working, then it can be changed.

The goal is to be a grassroots network that will be a working permaculture design

Overview

Here I will evaluate the progress of the design so far focusing largely on the technology part. From this evaluation, I want to pick out key focal points that need to be improved. These will become the focus of the next planning phase of the design.  

SWOC Analysis

SWOC is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Challenges. Here it is used as a tool to evaluate the design.

Strengths

In the collect section, I sent out a short questionnaire, I found this very useful, and provided me with some valuable information. It was interesting to hear what people’s understanding of permaculture is. Even though I talk to people about permaculture it’s still a bit of a mystery. I put this down to the complexity of permaculture and not my description of it!

The addition of timelines has also been important, I’ve consciously stepped back from doing any major changes to my garden this year to allow me time to both enjoy the gardens as well as complete this diploma. Before I added the timeline into the planning stage, I was struggling to figure out how I could complete this design without it taking up all of my time. Waiting until I’ve completed the diploma before getting people involved with the network has allowed me the breathing space required. All I need to do now is complete the diploma.

Whether it’s another excuse for me not having this design finished when it was one of my early design ideas just after the start of the diploma, waiting until the end has given me a greater understanding of permaculture design. I feel much more confident talking about permaculture now than five years ago when I thought I knew much more than I currently know.

So, onto the technical section of the plan. Having a background in IT has helped in this part of the design. Even though web design is not something I do often, knowing the basics when it comes to using the WordPress platform for building websites has been a great strength when setting up the website.

Another big plus is having content in the form of my other diploma designs, this has provided me with material that I can write about for blog posts. Showcasing your design is of much more value than just posting what other people have said or done. It also shows other people what is possible in the local area.

Weaknesses

It would have been good to have had somebody local to work with on this design who also has a passion for permaculture. During my PDC we visited the Shift Bristol permaculture site and enjoyed learning from Sarah Pugh what they were up to. Then on Saturday for our day off from learning about permaculture, we all went back to Shift Bristol for their open day to learn even more about permaculture. The site was overflowing with hundreds of passionate permaculture people. Sadly, as great as living in Richmond is I’m guessing the permaculture revolution is not going to start here.

Opportunities

Up until now, this design has been very much me setting up the back-end framework, I’m hoping that once I start engaging with other local people there are a few who are also passionate about permaculture, but they just don’t know it yet.

As mentioned in the strength section, six years further on from starting this diploma I’m in a better position to support people both in permaculture and from a person-to-person perspective. Life certainly has not been at a standstill these past six years.  

Having a local permaculture network, I feel will provide many opportunities for me and those involved. What those opportunities are I’m yet to discover, all I know is this is something I feel I need to keep pushing on with.

Challenges

The question to ask is "Why am I even setting up and running a people network whilst at the same time being an introvert?" This has always baffled me and I’m still not able to answer the question as to why I’m doing this. I’m just trusting in the patterns of nature that it will be for good reason when that day comes.

It’s also been a challenge having to work so much on the computer for this design. Working in IT is all well and good, but I do like to switch off occasionally. Building websites can become very time-consuming and quite obsessive trying to get it working and looking how you want. 

Evaluation Conclusion

The foundation has now been laid for Richmond Permaculture Network with the creation of the website. I have a few people who are interested in the network, and who hopefully will get involved.

The next phase of the design will commence later in the year once this diploma is complete. For now, I feel the design is worked well and I’m looking forward to progressing the design later in the year.

A tweak

Between now (May 25^th, 2022) and the second phase of the design probably in October, is quite a while away. Even though I’m not going to be focusing on the network during this time, there seems to be an opportunity to invite those interested people around for a garden visit, an informal meetup over tea and cake to see what happens.