Dear Friends,

1 Week left for early Bird Registraton to the 10th Continental Bioregional Congress!

It's going to be an amazing Gathering and Continental Council. 

Considering attending as a delegate from your bioregion.

It was at the first Continental Bioregional Congress in Missouri in 1984, that a group of environmental activists launched the Green Party, which has sense moved on to become a political force across the globe.

Check it out.

http://www.livingmandala.com/Living_Mandala/Bioregional_Congress_09.html

-Living Mandala

__________________________


ANNOUNCING:
The 10th CONTINENTAL BIOREGIONAL CONGRESS (CBCX) 
OCTOBER 3-11, 2009
Hosted by The Farm, Summertown TN

Amidst the hills and hollows, tribes and councils new and old will gather 
to share and collaborate finding ways to re-inhabit mother earth.

Visit www.BioCongress.org to read more and register!
Early Bird Registration ($50 Savings) Ends 7/15/09

The team for CBCX has been busy at work getting everything prepared to host this landmark event! The new website and online registration system are live, and we hope that you will join this year's Congress as a delegate, facilitator,sponsor and/or regional captain!

Email BioregionalCongress@LivingMandala.com to learn more and offer your support.

Twenty-five years after the first Continental Congress, this year's Congress is poised to help catalyze tremendous synergy for the growing global sustainability effort!

Hosted by the Farm in Tennessee

CBCX will be held on The Farm in the Swan River watershed of the Cumberland Green Bioregion, Summertown, Tennessee. Founded in 1971 by a caravan from San Fransisco, The Farm started as a spiritual community that has served as a model for sustainable development and community living for over 35 years. The Farm now encompasses over 2,000 acres, houses many ecologicaly-based businesses (including the Ecovillage Training Center), and hosts bioregionally-related events of many kinds year-round. Holding this event at a successful ecovillage will allow participants to experience life in a permaculture-designed village full of earth-friendly housing, cooperative forestry, and consensus-based decision-making.

Featuring a Certification Curriculum in Bioregionalism

Congress organizers are weaving in content that reflects the cutting edge of the bioregional movement, such as Transition Towns, within a Certification Curriculum in Bioregionalism, a toolbox of workshops and speakers focused on building, sustaining and re-localizing communities, reinvigorating culture and arts and organizing for ecological restoration, economic prosperity and policy change.

The proposed curriculum will cover the following topics:

Bioregionalism
•History of the Bioregional Congresses
•Decentralization and Ecoregional approaches to sustainability
•Reinhabitation and Ecocentric philosophy
•Decision-making: inclusion and empowerment
•Action learning
•Pageantry and Celebration
•World Café

Tools for Sustainable Communities
•Bioregional grassroots community organizing and stewardship
•Strategic planning
•Bioregional right livelihood
•Group process and consensus-based meetings
•Community-making through the arts, ecological
•Outreach and Web-tools for organizers
•Event planning
•Rites of passage and other ceremonies

Relocalizing Communities Toward Sustainability
•Transition Town Movement
•Ecovillages
•Permaculture
•Renewal Energy/Energy Conservation
•Re-storying the Landscape and Communities
•Relocalizing Education

Reinhabiting and Restoring Local Ecosystems
•Landscapes and Bioregional Mapping
•Orienting to Watersheds
•Ecoregions
•The Seasons and Migratory Patterns: Charting
•Planetary Connections
•Reinhabiting the Body: Health, Wellness and Restoration

As is tradition, the content of the congress will be determined by the participants.
Register at www.regonline.com/cbcx to let us know what you would like to facilitate!

BECOME A REGIONAL CAPTAIN TO ORGANIZE YOUR LOCAL NETWORK

Regional Captains embody the decentralized local empowerment that is core to the philosophy of Bioregionalism. Individuals and groups are encouraged to become Regional Captains by taking an active role in Congress development and outreach including:

• Distributing fliers
• Inviting local delegates
• Fundraising
• Coordinating regional events
• Organizing biofuel caravans
• Producing/distributing press releases

Regional captains are encouraged to identify at least ten leaders in the Bioregional, Transition, and/or Permaculture movements to bring to CBCX. Each captain will help raise the money from their own bioregion for the 10+ delegates to come, and through that work, gain free entrance and a recognized position at the congress.

Email BioregionalCongress@LivingMandala.com to find out more about becoming a regional captain.

SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THE CONGRESS...Earn $40 toward your registration fees for every person you refer!