Dynamic Groups, Dynamic Learning Dynamic Courses, Books, Resources and Tours for Healthy Groups, People and Culture with Robin Clayfield

In July it will be a year since Robin was in Italy offering her ‘Dynamic Groups, Dynamic Learning’ six day course and a Wise Women’s Weekend. This time last year she was in Germany with her sights on Switzerland.

Italy was a delightful adventure which saw Robin divinely hosted by Francesca Simonetti and John Button (of Nature Designs), up in the mountains behind Domodossola. She began her visit there, entranced by all the stone buildings, and also had some time off there at the end to relax after the courses. She was joined and supported by Kym Chi from Canada as her assistant for three weeks which gave more ease and grace to the trip.

A theme that emerged during the Dynamic Groups course, which was held at an old abbey, now a community, in Northern Italy, was supporting refugees and cross cultural communication. Ironically there were three Australians, one Canadian and one American in the course while five participants worked with refugees in Italy in some way, three of them as a teaching team.

The Women’s Weekend was organised by Francesca and hosted by Ellen at her beautiful family home named Edan Sangha. It’s 1000 meters up in the mountains was a flowing stream and rock pools tumbling wildly through the property. With Kym Chi’s help the pair made a beautiful ceremonial spiral labyrinth for the women to walk and use as a sacred space throughout the weekend. See the last eNewsletter for a photo.

After the two events Robin and Kim spent five days at Damanhur Community, famous for its magnificent and much visited underground temples and extraordinary art, glass, sculpture and mosaic work below and above ground. Another feature of Damanhur are it’s many above ground spiral labyrinths and the sacred forest which is considered an outdoor temple. This was a dream come true for Robin, to finally visit Damanhur. As a spiritual community, a ‘Federation of Communities’ and an EcoVillage it leads the way for anyone wanting to explore another way of living in harmony with the land, with each other and with new ideas and research. Here’s their website.

The first in a series of Robin’s Mini books, entitled ‘Dynamic Teaching and Facilitation – The Foundations’ is almost ready to go to several proof readers before then being updated and finally making its way to the Editor.

The reference book list is complete and ready to add to the appendixes.

A briefing with the artist for the structural design of the book and artwork is imminent.

Two pertinent questions will be sent out to over 200 of you who have done either of Robin’s ‘Dynamic Groups, Dynamic Learning’ courses, any of the versions (TAA or BSZ) of the CERT IV in Training and Assessment or the original Skye and Robin’s ‘Advanced Permaculture Creative Teachers Facilitation course. The questions will be aimed at what really worked about the course and its content and where you’ve used, grown and developed the gifts from the course. Many of the responses will be used in the book with acknowledgement of your name and ‘title’/work/profession (with your permission of course). If you don’t get an email from Robin about this in the next two months and would like to comment please email robin@earthcare.com.au

Thanks to the many of you who are giving financial, physical and moral support to this huge endeavor.

Here’s a snippet of the Book Resources and Reference List – the section on Dynamic Groups, Group Dynamics, Group Work, Facilitation, Teaching, Planning, NVC, Problem Solving, Communication, Governance

• The Zen of Groups: A Handbook for People Meeting with Dale Hunter, Anne Bailey and Bill Taylor. Tandem Press, Auckland, Aotearoa/NZ. 1992. ISB: 0-908884-18-4
• The Art of Facilitation. Dale Hunter. RandomHouse. NZ. 1994. ISBN: 978 1 86941 817 5
• Manual for Teaching Permaculture Creatively. Robin Clayfield and Skye. Earthcare Education. Australia. 1995
• Effective Group Work. Michael Preston-Shoot. Macmillan Education Ltd., London, England. 1987. ISBN: 0-333-40988-4
• Silver Bullets: A Guide to Initative Problems, Adventure Games and Trust Activities. Karl Rohnke. Kendell/Hunt Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa, USA. 1984. ISBN: 0-8403-5682-X
• Participatory Learning and Action: A Trainer’s Guide. Jules N. Petty, Irene Guijit, Ian Scoones and John Thompson. IIED Participatory Methodology Series. International Institute for Environment and Development. London, England. 1995. ISBN: 1-899825-00-2
• Nonviolent Communication. Marshall B. Rosenberg PhD. PuddlerDancer Press. US. 2003. ISBN: 978 1 892005 03 8
• Nonviolent Communication Companion Workbook. Lucy Leu. PuddlerDancer Press. US. 2003. ISBN: 1 892005 04 2
• The Ongo Book: Everyday Nonviolence. Catherine Cadden and Jesse Wiens. Baba Tree International. US. 2017. ISBN: 978 0 9825578 1 5
• Turning to Each Other. Simple conversations to restore hope to the future. Margaret J. Wheatley. Barrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. US.2001. ISBN: 1 57675 145 7
• The Circle Way. Christina Baldwin and Ann Linnea. Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc. US. 2010. ISBN: 978 1 60509 256 0
• Why Don’t People Learn? Hugh Mackay.Pan Macmillan Publishers Australia, Sydeney, NSW. 1994. ISBN: 0-330-35595-3
• Conflicts: A better Way to Resolve Them. Edward De Bono. Penguin Books Ltd., Middlesex, England. 1985. ISBN: 0-14-022684-2
• Effective Meeting Skills: A Practical Guide for More Productive Meetings. Marion E. Haynes. Crisp Publications, Inc., Los Altos, CA, USA. 1988. ISBN: 0-931961-33-5
• Powerful Peacemaking: A Strategy for a Living Revolution. George Lakey. New Society Publishers, Santa Cruz, CA, USA. 1987. ISBN: 0-86571-097-X
• People Skills: How to Assert Yourself, Listen to Others, and Resolve Conflicts. Robert Bolton. Simon and Schuster Australia, Brookvale, NSW. 1987. ISBN: 0-7318-0031-1
• From Conflict to Cooperation: How to Mediate a Dispute. Beverly Potter. Ronin Publishing, Inc., Berkeley, CA, USA. 1996. ISBN: 0-914171-79-8
• Winnie-the-Pooh on Management and Problem Solving. Roger A. Allen and Stephen D. Allen. Reed International Books Ltd., London, USA. 1998. ISBN: 0-416-19513-X
• The Persuasive Presenter. Stephen Kozicki and Gary Peacock. Bennelong Publishing Pty Ltd. Australia. 2004. ISBN: 0 9579189 0 9
• Effective Speaking to A Group. John Mulvey. Creative Presentations, Po Box 466 Spring Hill, Brisbane, QLD., 4004. (07) 3398 6190
• We The People – Consenting to a Deeper Democracy. John Buck and Sharon Villines. Sociocracy.info US. 2007. ISBN: 978-0-9792827-0-6
• Secrets of the Damanhur Political System. Coboldo Melo. Damanhur Con TE Series. Italy. 2017. ISBN: 978-88-99652-50-0
• The Book of the Board – Effective Governance for Non-profit Organisations. David Fishel. The Federation Press. Australia. 2008. ISBN: 978 186287 689 7
• Mentoring in Australia. Ann Rolfe-Flett. Prentice Hall/Pearson Education Australia. Australia. 2002. ISBN: 1 74009 468 9
• Goals and Goal Setting. Larrie A. Rouillard. Crisp Publications, Inc. US. 1993. ISBN: 1-56052-183-X
• The One Page Business Plan. Jim Horan. The One Page Business Plan Company. US. 1998. ISBN: 1-891315-07-2
• A Decent Proposal – How to Sell Your Book to an Australian Publisher. Rhonda Whitton and Sheila Hollingworth. Common Ground Publishing. Australia. 2003. ISBN: 1 86335 045 4
• Doing and Writing Action Research. Jean McNiff and Jack Whitehead. Sage Publications Ltd. UK. 2009. ISBN: 978-1-84787-175-6
• AFN (Australasian Facilitators Network) or <mailto:afn-l-request@lists.scu.edu.au?subject=subscribe>

Robin will be amongst the presenters for the Sustainable Living Guide’s Global Summit from 21^st to 24^th of this month. Robin’s 30 minute audio presentation is a Q&A interview by the Guides’ creator Lisa Pavati and focuses on Social Permaculture and Robin’s life journey with Permaculture, groups, education and empowerment.

See the Facebook page and links to some of the presenters and several beautiful Promo clips.

Join the Summit on this link.

Robin will then be offering nine presentations and workshops as part of the Sustainable Living Guides’ program over months to come. It is envisioned that they will be offered regularly and will have a project based outcome to integrate all the learnings towards the end of the nine sessions.

Keep an eye on the website for further details or to sign up to receive more information about offerings by Robin’s and other great Presenters from around the globe.

Hey, Check out these cool ideas at Samantha and Franks home at AWOL (Another Way Of Living) at Wamboin near Canberra which is part of the Southern Harvest Association.

Southern Harvest is an educational and marketing non-profit, incorporated, local food association at the forefront of supporting and promoting local and regional food production and consumption in South East NSW and ACT. 

Sam and Frank organised, hosted and participated in as well as cooked for the Social Permaculture Course Robin Clayfield and Robina McCurdy did at their property in April. 

The course was their first ever at the new venue that they have created in their home and all went very well. Wow! Fantastic food, fantastic people, fantastic family farm.

• A Creative Menu Board
  

  

• A Rocket Stove Made from a Dumped Gas Outdoor Heater
• An Old TV for a Book Shelf

The Planting Festival at Woodfordia in early May was a magnificent event. Robin and her troupe of five friends worked together as instillation artists, ceremony holders and workshop facilitators creating ‘The Sacred Union Labyrinth’ for the festival patrons to enjoy.

They were joined by musicians Andy Copeman and Laurel Hefferon from Awakening Centre in Maleny for the two special Ceremonies. Malcolm Fielding also performed two sessions, one each afternoon, for people to walk at their leisure, with the presence of his soulful sounds.

The theme for the Saturdays Ceremony was ‘Weave Together Selfcare, Earthcare and Positive Action’ where participants wove a wrist band for themselves and walked the Labyrinth surrendering anything that could get in the way of their full integration of the different aspects of self. As they emerged from their sacred walk, accompanied by music, the Ceremony team tied the wrist bands on each person for wearing throughout the festival. This first Ceremony followed a one hour workshop entitled ‘Weaving and Labyrinth Beautification’ where the team taught bamboo splitting and bamboo fence weaving to create a small bamboo garden edging all the way around the outside heart shape and a reed woven edge to embrace the central heart. The result was really beautiful as this photograph shows and the participants loved their learning and experience as did the facilitators.

The Sunday’s theme was ‘Plant Seeds for Your Future’ where everyone walked in a swoosh of energy, opening the possibility of everyone’s needs being met for their future. People got to plant some Marigold seeds into a small pot of soil and walk the Labyrinth again, with the intention and care to support their dreams to manifest.

Please enjoy this delightful snippet of the Sunday’s Ceremony showing beautifully Andy and Laurel’s music, which supports our Ceremonies so powerfully.

This clip created by Andy Copeman.

And a track by Malcolm Fielding playing solo on his beloved Ngoni.

Thanks to ‘The Planting Festival’ for inviting us. A truly fantastic festival.

Robin and Erin recently enjoyed the company of Delvin Solkinson at a special dinner to celebrate his flying visit to Maleny as part of the Visionary Permaculture Pilgrimage he and Annaliese Hordern were organising. The four shared an Aussie style Indian Feast and honoured Delvin’s visit from Canada, especially for the Pilgrimage. Delvin and Annaliese trained with Robin in her ‘Dynamic Groups, Dynamic Learning’ course back in 2011 as part of the inaugural Pilgrimage that they also initiated.

Delvin has produced many fantastic and supportive Permaculture card games, teaching notes and resources which can be found at https://www.visionarypermaculture.com/

He has always had the most honouring respect and words to shower Robin with. Here’s some that arrived recently by email.

“Dear Robin, A thousand blessings of life to your sacred journey through the ever magic. Your shine has uplifted so many of us around the world, empowering us to our potential as teachers, creatives and visionaries. Endless thanks for the countless gifts you continue to give the world community, making highest use of your unique intelligence and precious time in this planetary reality.”

As you may imagine, this brought tears to Robin’s eyes.