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

Robin was delighted to re-visit Lebensgarten after 19 years and be hosted by the amazing 82 year old Declan Kennedy for her ‘Dynamic Groups, Dynamic Learning’ course and then have some gentle time off for a few days, including witnessing a ‘Global Water Dance’ and receiving a visit from Queensland friend Kestral who’s now living in Netherlands.

Lebensgarten is one of the original three EcoVillages that started off the GEN (Global EcoVillage Network) along with Crystal Waters Permaculture Village, (Robin’s home in South East Queensland) and The Farm in Tennessee.

One of the ‘Glue’ aspects of the 32 year old community, established in a cluster of old disused WW II barracks, is Circle Dancing which happens every Saturday and Sunday morning and on weekdays if there are courses or gatherings running. Declan’s leading of the dances during the course was energizing and empowering as well as promoting health of the body and mind. This was a great way to start each day before the Dynamic Groups sessions started.

Also of great note is the use of electric vehicles in Lebensgarten and in Germany in general. Lebensgarten has over eight charging stations for their shared or privately owned cars. Even 19 years ago there were two electric cars owed by the community that everyone could book the use of for their outing or shopping trip. These days it’s such a part of life there. Robin got to have several rides in the Tesla, an amazingly sleek, silent and powerful electric car.

E-mobility is a much used word in Germany and also Europe wide and there are charging stations at regular intervals throughout the road systems. Also, wind generators everywhere. We are yet to catch up in Australia.

You can find out more about Lebensgarten and the PALS (Permaculturepark at Lebensgarten Steyerburg) by clicking here.

by Mandy Merklein 9/6/17 on FaceBook

A big thank you to Robin Clayfield for her time here on Mallorca, six workshops, PDC support, over 60 participants and sharing loads of information and materials on dynamic groups, decision-making and facilitation!

In addition we shared fun, gardening, sailing, sunsets, garden meals and inspiring stories.

Thanks to all the workshop participants for your creative involvement, and to Ana Digon for your amazing translation, and Miquel Ramis of Artifex Balear for co-hosting.

And thanks to the PermaMed and Escola Kumar team and Bruce and Elias Robson for your support!

Robin left us with lots of ideas and resources to share. Today Robin heads off to continue her tour in Europe. We highly recommend her upcoming workshops- for more information see https://snow-albatross-888556.hostingersite.com.

Locally on Mallorca Ana Digon will be offering a follow up workshop on dynamic groups June 14 at the Biogranja La Real.

We will be working on including and presenting Robins inspiring ideas into our social permaculture workshops and materials especially for educators, youths and groups interested in working together in ways that are more dynamic, effective, creative and fun.

To contact Mandy or PermaMed via their website click here or visit their FaceBook page here.

An invitation from the Education Team at Braziers Park Community enticed Robin to the experimental group work and social research community in South Oxfordshire for four days. This completed her stay in UK.

Members were interested to participate in a ‘Dynamic Decision Making’ one day workshop and Robin also encouraged some community cross pollination by giving a presentation about ‘Crystal Waters Permaculture Village’ on her last evening there.

The community is housed in a small Gothic style castle, quite an extraordinary building that was originally a farm house built in 1688 and extended with the Gothic turret type wings in 1799.

The community has a large Permaculture garden and hosts many volunteers, workshops, seminars and four festivals a year including WOOD which Robin was luck enough to participate in on her first day there.

Each day the community has a half hour morning circle where people share anything they feel to in a round then tasks and support jobs for the day are allocated. One evening a week they have a ‘Sensory Meeting’ where many things are discussed but no decisions are made and on another evening that have a ‘Executive Meeting’ where decisions are made. There are 12 places for permanent residents, lots of opportunity for one to three months volunteering and also for being part of the wider support non-residential community that looks after the building, estate and philosophy.

Here’s a link to their website

Robin’s seven country ‘Dynamic Groups’ course tour began in the UK at The Sustainability Centre in Hampshire in mid May.

The centre is an educational trust and offers facilities and experiences for adult workshops, school tours and a diversity of learning opportunities, volunteering and ways to be involved.

Half the property is a natural burial ground where people are laid to rest in a simple earth friendly way. Such a beautiful thing to witness.

The centre is also home to a delicious vegetarian cafe and Permanent Publication, a book publisher and producer of the UK Permaculture Magazine, a very quality and informative publication. Here’s a link to the centre.

There were many highlights from the Dynamic Groups course, one being a large and very colourful, facilitated group design painting. A quick simple process that created a stir of excitement and satisfaction.

We managed to gather from the participants and the Centre some paint, puppets, juggling balls, dress ups and scarves, a small library and even some clay dug from the site.

Robin’s visit to Italy promises to be fruitful and exciting with her ‘Dynamic Groups, Dynamic Learning’ course and a ‘Wise Women’s Wisdom Weekend’ being organised by Francesca Simonetti.

Dates for the Dynamic Groups course are

8th to 13th July

Dates for the Women’s Weekend are

15th and 16th July

Kym Chi from Gaiacraft in Canada will be supporting Robin with both the courses and they will then have a well earned rest and visit to Damanhur Community in Northern Italy.

To see more information and express interest Click here for the Dynamic Groups course Page 1 and Page 2.

Click here for the brochure for the Women’s Weekend Page 1 and Page 2.

or Email Francesca

or Visit the Nature Designs website for the full course details and bookings.

The image here to the right represents some of the energies that will be part of the Women’s Weekend. You can see it will be full of magic and mystery. This will be a wonderful opportunity for women to gather together and retreat for the weekend while doing some deep work for themselves and having lots of fun. Come and Enjoy 🙂

Robin will be a speaker in the wonderfully crafted Regenepreneurs Interview Series! The host, Karryn Olson-Ramanujan*, created this series to highlight women leaders in Permaculture and shed light on the entrepreneurial skills that help us thrive in our regenerative right livelihoods.

The interview will be live on Friday April 21st 6pm EDT in the U.S. (UTC-4), which is Saturday April 22nd at 8am in Australia (UTC+10). Please mark your calendars, because if you attend the live interview, she will answer your questions about her approach to thriving in her work. If you can’t attend at that time, the recording will be available for 24 hours.

Click here to sign up to receive information about how to join us!  There is a small investment for listening and being. (Karryn is dedicated to mutually beneficial relationships—she and the other speakers are crowdsourcing outreach so that  all benefit from helping get the word out. The link above lets Karryn know that you heard about the interview from Robin. If you aren’t comfortable with that, you can simply go to https://regenepreneurs.com/interview-series/ to sign up.

*In 2013, Karryn wrote “A “Pattern Language for Women in Permaculture” and hosts a compilation of “Best Practices to Support Women in Permaculture.” If you haven’t read them yet, check them out on her website, under “Blog.” There are also other great interviews with Permaculture women which you can access through the link to Robin’s interview too.

Support Robin and yourself by listening to the interview and engaging with this valuable sharing. Feel most welcome to share this link with your networks and friends. Thank you 🙂