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Workshops

Friday

Humanitarian Outreach

Konbit Sante: Working Together for Health

When American medical volunteers  work side-by-side with Haiti's Ministry of Health and with Haitian colleagues to build capacity within the public health system of the poorest country in the world -- where one in twelve children do not survive to age five and and HIV, TB, malaria and Dengue fever rates are the worst in the hemisphere why can't we do this in America?   Our public health system is a shambles.  Why take groups and doctors  out of our country when there's so much need at home?

HospitalGeneral El Buen Samaritano in the Dominican Republic and President and Board member of Seeds of Independence,  a new non-profit founded to help that country's at-risk youth grow into their full potential and Dr. Ann Lemire,  an internist and pediatrician specializing in HIV medicine for the City of Portland's Public Health Division for a  powerful look at the work of these humanitarian organizations in the cane fields and clinics of  these island nations.  Dr. Lemire,  a member of Konbit Sante's Board has participated in Konbit Sante's partnership with the pediatrics department of one of Haiti's largest public hospitals.  She will be assisted by Konbit Sante staff member Marianne Ringel.

The Ark of Hope

Sally Linder and Peter Blaze Corcoran

It’s hard to imagine a more powerful symbol to inspire us to build a just, sustainable and peaceful society than The Ark of Hope, the wooden chest designed and painted by Vermont artist Sally Linder in 2000 as a refuge for the Earth Charter document and Temenos Books- Images and Words for Global Healing, Peace and Gratitude. This sacred vessel with its precious cargo has traveled to the United Nations, to remote tribal villages and sustainability summits around the world.

Linder and Corcoran will lead participants through mindfulness into the creative fires of the right brain where thoughts and love for the Earth may be shapeshifted into painted images on paper born of trees, papyrus and cotton. The principles of the Earth Charter will guide this hands-on creation of visual affirmations. They will then be bound into a Kindle Bioneers Temenos Book, joining thousands of other Temenos pages inside The Ark.

Learning from the Emerging Future

Michael Thorne Kelly, Ph.D. and Neil Cambridge

Like waves in an ocean storm change sweeps careers, institutions, communities and countries towards reefs of obsolescence and undiscovered islands of opportunity that lie behind them. In the emerging future more and more of us must work together to meet increasingly complex challenges. As we understand the need to evolve our ability to function collectively we must learn new behaviors, thinking and tools and do nothing less than raise our collective intelligence.

Meet Michael Thorne Kelly, Board Chairman and Director of Research at Advanced Management Catalyst Inc., a national consulting firm dedicated to supporting individuals and organizations in transforming change into opportunity. Joined by Neil Cambridge, business advisor, facilliator and mentor for over 30 years now President of the Board of Maine Youth Leadership where he works with teenagers on leadership tools and thinking, volunteerism and character building, Kelly will inspire participants in ways to evolve new tools to help us achieve deeply felt, mutually sustaining and shared goals.

Casco Bay Estuary Partnership

Working Together to Protect Casco Bay

Business owners, developers, fishermen, residents, preservationists, scientists all have a stake in the health of the Casco Bay Watershed. Come hear about successful coalition building to preserve the abundance and diversity of one of this region’s most precious resources with CBEP Director Curtis Bohlen, Matt Craig, Mike Doanefrom Friends of Casco Bay and Chris Hall from the Portland Regional Chamber ofCommerce.

The Partnership was formed in l990 when the Environmental Protection Agency Designated Casco Bay an “estuary of national significance. “ CBEP consists of local, state and federal officials, schools, civic organizations, businesses and individuals. Bohlen, who holds degrees in ecology and biology has brought deep experience in environmental management and policy development to CBEP.

Food and Farming

Bioneers Spearheading Grow Local Movement

In the 1940s Eleanor Roosevelt appealed to the American people to grow their own food in response to the crisis of World War II. Today most of our food travels an average 1500 miles from farm to table trailing a huge carbon footprint. We see an unprecedented rise in obesity. What are our best responses to these new crises?

Join MOFGA Board President Amanda Beal, co-creator of the Maine Harvest Lunch Program, Roger (Eat Your Lawn!) Doiron of Kitchen Gardeners International, Melissa White-Pillsbury of MOFGA’s Community Supported Agriculture and Farmer’s Market program and Maine state legislator John Piotti , representing Maine Farmland Trust for a stimulating workshop on finding our way back to the garden.

Penobscot River Partnership

Penobscot River Restoration

John Banks, the Penobscot Indian Nation’s Director of Natural Resources heads a panel that includes Laura Rose Day, Executive Director of the Penobscot River Restoration Trust, Kate Dempsey, Senior Policy Analyst for The Nature Conservancy and Jeff Reardon, New England Conservation Director of Trout Unlimited, -- coalition members who will share their stories of the unprecedented effort to revitalize 1,000 miles or river habitat by removing two dams and building a state-of-the-art fish bypass around a third.

They did by an inspired coming together of the diverse parties representing conservation interests, industry, government, local communities and indigenous people in a model of creating positive change through full on collaboration.

Urban Villages and a Public Transit Spine

Development Within the Highway Right-of-Way to Preserve Maine’s Farmland

The looong view, 50 to 75 years ahead focuses this workshop squarely on a visionary future for Maine’s small farms and urban growth without sprawl along a rapid transit spine within the I-95 right of way between Boston and Portland. Come listen to how to preserve farmable open space and engender carbon neutral growth with architect Elizabeth Chapman and a panel of planners, a farmland protection specialist and creative conservationists that includes sustainable landscape architect Mitchell Rasor, Stephanie Gilbert of the Maine Agriculture Department, planners Stacy Benjamin and Tracy Perez and conservationists Andrew Whitman and Jerry Bley.

Their discussion of this vision will look at how such a pattern would work and what needs to happen in the next 50 to 75 years to make it happen.

Saturday Workshops Session 1

The Pachamama Alliance:  Awakening the Dreamer,  Changing the Dream

Anita Sanchez (Session 1)

The Pachamama Alliance is a strong new voice for preserving the Earth's tropical rainforests by empowering the indigenous people who are its natural custodians. Its further mission is to contribute to the creation of a new global vision of equity and sustainability for all.  As a facilitator for and a member of the International Leadership Team of the Pachamama Alliance Awakening the Dreamer initiative,  Dr. Sanchez dedicates herself to the work of "Bringing forth an environmentally sustainable,  spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on this planet as the guiding principle of our time." 

During this inspiring three hour workshop she will teach and guide participants to visualize and experience their own positive imagery,  a source of the sacred power to create positive change.

New Media

J. Carl Ganter, Melissa Paly and Mark Dixon

How do we convey the truth,  from nuance to sweeping impacts of a challenge as  huge and complex as climate change?   How to get people to understand that climate change affects every aspect of life?   Faced with the Biggest News in modern history what can the media do to help people grasp the gravity and convergences of the larger story?

Brainstorm solutions with this dynamic panel of three  engaged in what Carl Ganter calls "comprehensive,  all hands on deck, crucial, relevant reporting that needs the talents of every staff member in the newsroom."

Citizen of the world Mark Dixon launched YERT – Your Environmental Road Trip, in July 2007 as evidence of global warming moved into prominent view on an international scale.   He will share stories and short videos from a year-long eco adventure through all 50 states that allowed Mark and companions Ben and Julie Evans to record interviews with over 800 green experts,  academicians, politicians and average folks while keeping all their garbage in the car with them the entire way.    Producer/Director/Writer and consultant Melissa Paly has produced environmental and science media for 20 years,  first as a staff producer for the EPA and since 1991 as the principal of Cross Current Productions.  Her work has been broadcast on PBS and cable and she has won numerous film festival awards at home and abroad.  Circle of Blue's Director Carl Ganter is co-founder of MediaVia,  a multimedia journalism firm and is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative.

Social Enterprise

Melvin Murrell and Ted Regan

Resilience Thinking

David Borden and Dorn Cox

Tuckaway Farm's Dorn Cox emphasizes energy solutions at  his Lee, New Hampshire farm.  The goal of his operation is to reduce production costs  by eliminating off-farm inputs such as processed feed, antibiotics, fuel, fertilizer and soil amendments.   The farm has three main parts - custom machine work, crop and agriculture research and development and livestock and crop production.  Last year the farm produced its own biodiesel from sunflowers and other high oil crops.  Cox's innovative renewable energy strategies were  honored by the New Hampshire Farm Bureau which named him winner of the Young Farmers Achievement Award for 2007.

Permaculture

gkisedtanamoogk and Joline Blais

Permaculture and Indigenous Culture share a deep love and appreciation for Mother Earth,  and both hold  the promise of the wisdom and practical knowledge needed to restore natural wealth and survive peak oil, empire collapse and climate change.   In this profoundly hopeful workshop we'll explore he basis of each of these "erotic" and ecological practices.  The presenters will also share a living model of how  they come together in a child-centered community called LongGreenHouse where they guide the Wassookeag Home School Coop. Joline Blais,  associate professor at the University of Maine and Wampanoag elder, teacher and  fellow UMO faculty member gkisedtanamoogk will explain how placing the Children and the Earth at the center of their practice grounds and informs permaculture practice and Longhouse living in a way they hope will transform their town and nearby university and build the lasting peace to which the early treaties between our peoples once aspired.

Art Activism

June LaCombe

Environmental Art is a broad term encompassing art that helps explore relationships between humans and the natural world and bring our attention to environmental issues.   It's an evolving,  growing worldwide movement.  Much of it is ephemeral and site specific.  Other projects involve collaborations between artists and scientists, educators or community groups. Within the movement Ecological or Eco-art serves as a catalyst for environmental action such as reclaiming and remediating damaged environments and ecosystems.

Naturalist, artist and educator June LaCombe works to weave together art, culture and nature,  blurring the boundaries between art and life.  She will inroduce a range of art activist practices using rich visual imagery and discuss the potential and planning of Eco-art projects that address environmental issues.

Why LEED certification? What does it mean? Discussion and tour of  campus LEED "green spots"

 

Sondra Bogdonoff, Director of Planning and Development, USM Muskie School
Dudley Greeley, USM Environmental and Economic Sustainability Office
Carol Potter, LEED certiified USM Building Engineer 

We will be discussing the purpose and process of LEED certification and touring the 2 LEED buildings on the Portland campus to review 25 - 30 "green spots" that are part of the LEED points certification process. Materials provided by Wright Ryan Construction and Harriman Associates.

 

Social Enterprise

Join aquaculture farmer extrodinare Melvin Murrell and serial social entrepreneur Ted Regan as they explore the question: What is a social Entrepreneur? Melvin Murrell Operates a Dynamic social enterprise farm in Deering New Hampshire and he will serve as a case study as he discusses his operation and explores the qualities often found in the character of a social entrepreneur. What does it take and what does one do to pursue the rewarding yet challenging life of a social entrepreneur. This workshop will be most helpful for non profit executives who are interested in evolving their mission based businesses into one with recurring revenue from sources other than philanthropy.

Saturday Workshops Session 1

Climate Change

Richard Barringer, Charlie Colgan, Mark Lapping and Sam Merrill

Rising temperatures,   roller coaster weather,  northward species migration,  changed growing zones,  rising sea levels,  droughts, hurricanes, floods.    Climate models seem to have greatly underestimated the rate and magnitude of change.     As  legendary Bioneer Bill McKibben  has been saying for 20 years climate change will be  the mother of all disruptions for humans accustomed to 10,000 years of climate stability and security.  If we've already broken the thermostat,  what are we gonna do now?

Explore probable impacts of climate change and sea level rise on Maine's coastal communities with a panel of faculty members from USM's Muskie School of Public  Service.   Examine the effects these may have on Maine's people and places and learn about  plans for our unstable future.   Professor Richard Barringer,  organizer of the Governor's Blaine House Conferences on Maine's Natural Resource-based Industries and Maine's Creative Economy is joined by Professors Charlie Colgan,  Mark Lapping and Sam Merrill for a super brainstorm about how we'll live with the 800 pound gorilla we may be sharing our home with for the foreseeable future.

   

Rethinking Sewers and Sewage Treatment:  May The Second Law Be Our Guide!

Abby Rockefeller

Founder of ReSource Institute for Low Entropy Systems and of composting toilet and greywater systems maker Clivus Multrum,  Abby Rockefeller shares some revolutionary and evolutionary ideas for simultaneously maintaining the purity of water and the fertility of soil.  Join Abby as she presents a short entertaining history of the ways human animals have dealt with our excreta from pre-agricultural times to  the industrial present.  Critically examining sewers and sewage treatment she discovers a fundamentally flawed system and proposes a complete reorientation away from technologies that use water to transport wastes and towards technologies that provide source separation,  appropriate recycling and prevent pollution.

   

The Pachamama Alliance:  Awakening the Dreamer,  Changing the Dream

Anita Sanchez (Session 2)

The Pachamama Alliance is a strong new voice for preserving the Earth's tropical rainforests by empowering the indigenous people who are its natural custodians.

Its further mission is to contribute to the creation of a new global vision of equity and sustainability for all.  As a facilitator for and a member of the International Leadership Team of the Pachamama Alliance Awakening the Dreamer initiative,  Dr. Sanchez dedicates herself to the work of "Bringing forth an environmentally sustainable,  spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on this planet as the guiding principle of our time." 

During this inspiring three hour workshop she will teach and guide participants to visualize and experience their own positive imagery,  a source of the sacred power to create positive change.

   

Cuba:   Food for All,  Saving the Environment

Barbara West and Stan Lofchie

In word and deed the Cuban revolution has prioritized both the egalitarian distribution of food supplies and long term environmental and ecological planning that supports human survival and dignity.  Cuba's amazing example is increasingly relevant to a world beset by diminishing availability of fossil fuels, the likelihood of catastrophic  climate change and looming food shortages in the global South. 

Activists Barbara West and Stan Lofchie have traveled to Cuba  and have worked with Let Cuba Live for many years.  They are also engaged in a variety of other political projects.  Let Cuba Live is  an initiative of a group of Maine citizens engaged in political education and action aimed at promoting a relationship of mutual respect between the United States and Cuba.

 

Green Buildings

Jennifer Richards and Gunnar Hubbard

   

Strategic Collaborations

William Ginn

Busiinessman-turned-conservationist Bill Ginn has helped The Nature Conservancy protect over 3 million acres of forestlands through dozens of innovative deals.  He is currently Director of the Conservation Markets and Investment Program and lead staff member for Forest Conservation Projects within the Campaign for a Sustainable Planet at The Nature Conservancy.  Ginn is also the author of "Investing in Nature,"  an Island Press book about engaging the private sector in conservation drawn from nearly 25 years  of his work with conservation organizations and environmental businesses.   A human ecologist by training,  he also served as Executive Director of the Maine Audubon Society.  Following that he founded several successful businesses and spent years as a consultant doing mergers and acquisitions for major public companies.  For the past ten years he has worked for The Nature Conservancy in the Asia-Pacific region,  in South America and the United States integrating business finance strategies into conservation projects.

Saturday Workshops Session 2

Transition Towns: Tackling Peak Oil and Climate Change, Together

Alastair Lough, PhD and Patricia Proulx-Lough, MS, LMFT

This presentation introduces the global Transition Town movement, intended to inspire, encourage, enable to network, support and to train communities as they consider, adapt and implement the transition model to establish a Transition Initiative in their locale. The Transition Model emboldens communities to look peak oil and climate change squarely in the eye and unleash the collective genius of their own people to answer to this big question.

For all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how are we going to:

• A. Significantly rebuild resilience (in response to peak oil); and
• B. Drastically reduce carbon emissions (in response to climate change);

while creating a positive, and fulfilling life?

Dr. Alastair Lough, a professional hydrogeologist of 20 years experience, and Patricia Proulx-Lough, a licensed marriage and family therapist, have formed the Transition Center in Portland, Maine to bring the Transition Town model to communities in the US and Canada as a means to address Peak Oil and Climate Change. The Transition Model stands out from other green efforts in that it is bottom up and adaptive to a given locale, and incorporates the creation of a positive vision to guide the rebuilding of local resilience, and the restoration of community.

Sunday

Water Rights

Thomas Linzey and Gail Darrell

Right action in the environmental movement and rights where they rightly belong drives the work of activists Tom Linzey, co-founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund and CELDC organizer and water rights warrior Gail Darrell. Gail, founder of Citizens of Barnstead for a Living Democracy pioneered the passage of the first New Hampshire law banning corporations from withdrawing water within threatened towns.

Join these warriors for a workshop focusing on how they did this in Barnstead and several other New Hampshire towns that are the first municipalities in the nation to ban corporate water predation. They'll talk about a new mode of organizing which seeks to pit the rights of communities to govern themselves against corporations trying to privatize these communities' resources. They'll explore how the work in New Hampshire is part of a broader organizing drive across the United States. Over a hundred Pennsylvania, Virginia and New Hampshire communities have adopted similar laws. This broad movement has begun the crucial work aimed at eliminating the claimed legal rights and powers of corporations while recognizing the real rights of communities and of nature. Tom and Gail will also spend time describing "Democracy Schools" to educate community leaders interested in this crucial work.

Fresh Farms

Marika O'Brien and Martha Putnam

Why am I here and how am I going to make a difference in the world? This is the question that lights the path for Bioneers such as Marika O'Brien and Martha Putnam. After leaving the largest non-profit in Maine Marika with support from husband Denis O'Brien planted a ¾ acre garden and built a farmstand for her now thriving organic and locally grown products business. She also works in animal welfare with a primary focus on horses. Martha Putnam, who Marika says taught her "The true meaning of sustainable development," owns and operates Fresh Farms, a wholesale marketing and distribution company for Maine farmers and food buyers in the restaurant, retail, school and processing sectors. Martha and her husband John grow 5 acres of vegetables, raise chickens and lambs and operate a farm stand in Freeport.

Slow Money

Sarah Reuf-Lindquist and Anders Ferguson

Having good intentions for your investments is not enough. There's a lot of skillful navigation involved in creating, managing and administering endowments, charitable trusts, private foundations, pooled income funds, gift annuities and facilitated 8-figure gifts. Sit in with Sarah Reuf-Lindquist, former Vice President for Southern Maine at the Maine Community Foundation, former Vice President and Administrative Trust Officer at Union Trust Company and founder of Planning for Good and Anders Ferguson, former Chair of Northeast Cooperatives, an organic distributor, Co-Chair of the Global Leaders Academy and Co-Chair of the 14th Dalai Lama Global Fellows Initiative and co-founder of Veris Wealth Partners for enlightening conversation on how to slow your money down to the speed of true sustainability and well-being.

Groundwater Challenges

Sam Meacham and Jorge Gonzalez

Cave diver and conservationist Sam Meacham has spent more than a decade coordinating underwater expeditions to survey the Yucatan Peninsula's Sistema Ox Bel Ha, currently ranked the eighth longest cave system on Earth. He directs an NGO – El Centro Investigador del Sistema Aquifer de Quintana Roo (CINDAQ) that partners with The Nature Conservancy and receives support through the National Geographic Society and The Waitt Institute for Discovery. Committed to raising awareness about the fragility of this region's aquifer and its sustainable development, he considers himself global messenger on the challenges facing groundwater. Sam has worked with National Geographic, BBC, CNN, Discovery Channel and others to tell the incredible story of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Where Did I Put the Past?

Robert Bernheim Ph.D.

More info soon...

Transition Towns

Dr. Alastair Lough and Patricia Proulx-Lough

The global Transition Town Model emboldens communities to look peak oil and climate change squarely in the eye and unleash the collective genius of their own people in confronting The Big Question -- For all the aspects of life this community needs to sustain itself and thrive, how are we going to (a) significantly rebuild resilience (in response to peak oil) and (b) drastically reduce carbon emissions (in response to climate change) while creating positive and fulfilling lives?

Alastair Lough, a hydrogeologist for 20 years and Patricia Proulx-Lough, a marriage and family therapist have formed the Transition Center in Portland, Maine, to bring the Transition Town model to communities in the US and Canada. The Transition Model stands apart from other efforts to green our way of life in that it's bottom up, locally adaptable and incorporates creating a positive vision as a guide to rebuilding local resilience and restoring community.