My first Design Support Tutorial was with Simon Shakespeare on 29th January 2001. I met him in Exeter to put in a display at the Central Library & afterwards we discussed my designs for a couple of hours.

 My main concerns were centred around the Hooke Court School design which I was finding rather challenging. I was keen to know more about how the Langford Environmental Education Project had dealt with the issue of fundraising & so I had asked if Simon could bring a copy of the L.E.E.P. funding document along with him. This gave me a much better idea of how to go about compiling my own & how to start estimating the budget for the School project. As well as focusing on these elements, we also looked at my other designs that I had created up to that point & the processes I had used within them.

 Having had my first Design Support Tutorial within a few months of registering for the Diploma, I managed to wait a further two & a half years for my second. As you can see from my Activities Review, I was keeping myself very busy in the intervening period & yet I didn't feel at the time a need for tutorial assistance. However, having got to the point where I was looking to finally write up all that I had been doing, I realised that I once again needed some input from a Design Support Tutor.

 My second Design Support Tutorial was with Steve Charter & took place on 25th July 2003 at Paddox Farm. This time the tutorial focussed on the design that I was doing for my Portfolio & my Accreditation process. I asked him as he was already familiar with my basic ideas, having been at the Brazier's Park European Diploma WorkNet event where I had conceived them & discussed them with him initially. A few weeks on I now had the basic Portfolio structure created on the CDROM & a good selection of my content typed into it's pages. Firstly, Steve sat down & browsed the CDROM without any external guidance from me (I wanted to find out how easy it was to navigate & to that end I got him to fill in a feedback questionnaire for me afterwards). My design process was based around a mindmap that I had created with a program that I had on my PC. This became the focus of our discussion around this design & afterwards I had yet more ideas to develop it further.

 I had been having difficulty deciding how to present some of the elements of my designs within the different pages that I had created. It was obvious to me where certain elements went, but others were not so clear. Having produced the portfolio mindmap for instance, I immediately placed it on the Final Design page, but then thought that perhaps it should go on the Design Process page. So what would I put on the Final Design page? My discussions with Steve also helped to clarify these issues for me, so that I could set my designs out how they made the most sense.

 As a part of the process, Steve also gave me an Action Learning Tutorial. Steve's feedback proved very useful to me in further developing my Portfolio design to include more elements & in creating a pathway forward to my Accreditation event.

 My third Design Support Tutorial was with Looby Macnamara & took place on 6th September 2003 at her home. This time the tutorial focussed on checking that my Portfolio was ready for me to Accredit the following weekend at the AGM & convergence in Leeds. It was a good opportunity to check out how the CDROM worked on another computer & to discover the little things that needed correcting; like missing clipart for instance. Looby's computer was also not set up to show the text that went with the pictures which left a bit of a hole where the explanatory text was needed. Because of this omission, a few of my jokes went astray too - some may even argue that this might not be a bad thing! I realised that I needed to look into how to change this, so that I could give instructions for people to change it on their own computers.

 There is a lot in my Portfolio to look at; as no doubt you are finding out, so we decided that it would help to do the DST in two halves. We therefore took the opportunity to also have an Action Learning Set, to provide a bit of a change mid-way through the DST.

 Looby gave me some recommendations from her experience with the CDROM. Her main ones were:

• Include a brief tour of the CDROM which could be looked through in ten minutes or so & give an overview of what I have been doing.
• Recommending consideration of the time constraints of the presentation & careful planning to ensure that I get across my key points.
• To not forget to evaluate my designs once I have accredited, even though I won't be writing them up in the same way.
• To focus on my local community as well as the permaculture community & think about my transport issues.

 She then recommended me for my accreditation, enabling me to do so at the Permaculture Association's AGM & Convergence in Leeds the following weekend. The end (of this part of my journey) is finally in sight!
 

Academy Action Learning Tutorial with Andy Langford -
10th August 2003

 These are Andy's notes from the tutorial that he sent on to me afterwards. I have amended them using my own notes, in the couple of places he was unsure what his own notes meant. I did say rather a lot & barely paused for breath! I covered the whole of my Diploma process in my responses as writing up my Portfolio had reminded me again of so many things.

What's going well

 Portfolio gathering and collecting coming on nicely and chosen format (CD ROM) working well - this is potentially a format for other presenters and for web site use and this development of format is part of the accreditation effort. Information structure is readily accepting the flow-in of data. The whole process proving a very good exercise in reviewing my pathway - done much more than I thought I had. I can also do my own critique of the designs in the portfolio and can see how my skills have developed over time.

 My action learning sets are good - have been all through the process. I shall be the first in the group to go for the diploma (even though I was the last in).

 CoM activities developing nicely too, some of this is written up in my portfolio - been doing this work for 3 years so far and consequently the meetings are really productive - getting the hang of it at last.

 My garden is going well even though it is not getting the attention it deserves - maybe this is a good sign as if it can do so well without much attention then it must be well designed - very dense planting a big advantage and the garden has a lovely ambience.

 Review has meant rediscovering elements of lost activity. Activities that were live once but which never got very far. Thinking about library display stuff - would like to work up materials to go out to libraries covering lawns and traditional gardens and how these could be permacultured.

 Ready to start teaching and tutoring - have been appreciating the grounding coming from own process - have now good knowledge of the Diploma WorkNet system and would like to guide others through this.

 I have good sets of connections - Ireland for example - arising from my travels and independent studies.

 General life path more than satisfactory - some diet issues but I am not stuck. This partly down to attending the Aikido club - doing a design using this connection to see how to maximise yields.

 Feeling settled and grounded at Paddox Farm - abundance in all departments, except money!! which is actually OK. Valued for my contribution which is what matters. Have received a small legacy and used this to collect together some good tools (sound recording studio).

 Managing to generate an embryonic poly-income flow although making this coherent and congruent is not easy. Currently have a good indoor - outdoor balance, a mind/body/heart wholeness.

 Schools connection still there - given the right resources and the appropriate curriculum materials could make a significant impact in this area.

What's difficult

 Getting started on the portfolio and finding a structure for the content to follow - this has been a design process in its own right - working out what goes where. Had some good insights about my own processes - good for me to give up if things get difficult and come back to it later when refreshed and when unconcious processes have had a go - also works well to do the easy bits first - (Andy - I have some notes here about synapses and chunking which don't quite make sense to me now but probably did at the time - sorry). Multimedia approach has been challenging - steep learning curve as they say - and very easy to disappear down technical black holes whilst losing sight of the overview - I have sought some useful help and feedback from other people with a technical bent - also showed Steve CDROM and asked him to trial navigation systems and instructions - pleased to have been able to make feedback forms, but generating blank emails.

 Questions - how is a CV different from a designers profile? Have got 9 designs and not sure how to make the 10th if that is important - could finish music and/or land in Spain (Andy - sounds as if you already have plenty to offer - no need to generate more than is there).

 Whilst work relating to CoM has become less alienating (paper work, bureaucracy, office issues AAARGH!!) it is still difficult - have had to learn to avoid getting excited and over-commiting (and consequently not being able to deliver and being disappointed) Developing better time-management strategies and ability to say no around picking up extra tasks.

 Finding budgetting a hard activity - how do you work out what something unknown will cost? Raising money also a problem - have some idea how this might be done but still a struggle none the less.

 Teaching opportunities - have set up a couple of these which have then not materialised due to lack of numbers - frustrating when I have put in some energy in anticipation. So where are the opportunities? No hurry though as I am sure they will turn up soon enough.

 Yurt has been very challenging - many technical problems especially around kit and how to proceed. Toxic dust problems.

 Money is a challenge - such slim resources means taking great care with expenditure - a good thing but sometimes tiresome.

 I have a share in a piece of land in Spain - no time to get to it and develop the permaculture there - could be great and part of my heart is there.

 Generating a complete poly income portfolio is taking a long time and hard to know what to do in the meantime.

 My body is getting older, can't do some of the more demanding Aikido things, sometimes tired out by heavy gardening work, old injuries through accidents playing up too. Have some sense that I am accident prone and would like this not to be the case.

 My attempt to set up as a permaculture designer thwarted by no-one knowing what it was about in my area so no market, frustrated by not being able to raise funds for providing classroom materials for the Schools project - don't understand the technicalities of the national curriculum - HELP!

 I still have some residual anger around how Robert Hart's situation was when he died.

 For me it is difficult living 5 miles out of town, wanting to be able to get there easily without wearing myself out on my bicycle - could run my van on vegetable oil but that's quite involved - oh dear, what to do?

Long term goals and visions

 Here I am at Paddox Farm, pleased to be here and feeling settled. I've got lots of kit here and plenty of ideas of how to develop it. I am looking forward to having an adequate, maybe even surplus generating, poly income stream. Maybe make some money from letting the yurt. The time has come to become an attractor, to be doing things so well and with such delight that the resources and income streams I need just come to me - this is how I see the Diploma WorkNet developing for me, as a stream of income as a tutor.

 I'd love to go back to the Schools project with adequate resources, especially teaching materials as this is an eager client group. I'd like to work up dissemination kit, especially for libraries. And maybe it is time for me to start working on my local community - am expecting opportunties to arise in this respect. I am excited by the Best Designs idea and hope that my work with CD-ROM formats will help people to get this together - could offer to be a persons production assistant to help them make the most of their designs and get them up on the web - is this an income stream too I wonder? (Andy - yes - sounds very likely to me)

 My little recording studio could be doing some more too - latest thinking is around learning through words and music - learn permaculture by songs, YEAH!! Need to learn a basic level of musicology to enable this but don't want to become creatively compromised through this approach. Could get other people in to sing their stuff - minimum effort, maximum effect reggae style - permaculture compilation CD here we come. Can we do more trading of our own stuff I wonder? Also ready to let sound studio to other people with similar ethics.

Next achievable steps

Finish portfolio off, go for accreditation at the AGM in September. How to present - seems as if a video projector is best idea - need to borrow that. Do another DST, get CD's ready to copy and send out for pre-accreditation previews by peer group people. Use Looby for some final level support and tutorials.

 Next steps on Best Designs project is to let people know I am leading an initiative on this and send them a request for materials. See what is out there, both designs and songs.

 Do the urgent jobs about the place.