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7th Addison County Conservation Congress

October 25, 2008 • 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Mount Abraham Union High School, Bristol

Addison County in Transition:
Visioning Our Community in 2020 and
Mapping the Next Steps to Get There

Suggested donation: Adults $10.00, Students $5.00
Localvore Lunch Available for $8.00
Download registration form here

Overview

The 7th Addison County Conservation Congress is taking shape under the careful and creative direction of Jonathan Corcoran. It was Jonathan who brought Paul Hawken to the Congress and who packed the house many years ago. The Congress will be co-sponsored this year by the Addison County Relocalization Network (ACoRN). Mark your calendars: Saturday, October 25, 2008.

This Congress promises to be a very exciting and active one. There will be theatre, song, great local food, and pageantry as we come together to design the transition. After John Elder sets the stage for what Addison County may be like when we are 12 years deeper into climate change, peaked oil supplies, and a significantly altered economy, participants will head off to one of the 12 different rooms of our community for deliberation and design.

The rooms of our community will include: Food & Farming Housing & Shelter Heat & Power Health & Wellness Business & Enterprise Transportation & Communication Money & Banking	School & Life-Long Learning Governance & Public Security Family & Community Support Community Arts & Culture Spirituality & Consciousness
*For topical descriptions of the rooms listed above, click here.

Participants will arrive at visions for each of the rooms, action plans, and even artistic renderings. The Addison County Localvores and NOFA-VT (Northeast Organic Farmers' Association) will prepare a delicious, locally-grown lunch. The day will climax with a Community Declaration of Interdependence in written words and graphic arts.

So hang on to October 25th. You will not want to miss this one!

Some articles of interest:

• Middlebury Creative Communities Program: Final Report and Action Plan: July 2007 (PDF)
• Council on the Future of Vermont: Middlebury and Addison County Community
  Forum Notes, April 17, 2008 (PDF)
• Addison County Relocalization Network (ACoRN)
• World Oil Health Check: Interview with Fatih Birol, chief economist with the International Energy Agency
  (website)
• Global Warming Twenty Years Later: Tipping Points Near (PDF)
  by James Hansen, Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
• Story of Stuff: A 20-minute animation on consumerism
• Interview with David Walker, former Comptroller General of the U.S. on the unsustainability of U.S. finances
• Cradle to Cradle: Re-making the Way We Make Things - Regenerative Design (website)
• Cradle to Cradle Certification (website)
• Transition Culture: An evolving exploration into the head, heart and hands of energy descent
• "2030" from The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependence to Local Resilience by Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition movement (PDF)
  Please note: This is large file (5MB) and will take some time to download if on dial-up internet service.
• The Principles of Permaculture (website)
• What is Permaculture? (website)
• The Agrarian Standard by Wendell Berry (website)
• If Nature had Rights by Cormac Cullinan (website)