[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: What Bill says




Marcus wrote:
>Once/if trademarking takes place:
>1. Will PDC teachers have to submit course curriculum to Bill's
>Institute for approval (both PDC courses and short specific courses)?

They are already doing this (since Sept 2000) if you apply for Pc Inst 
PDC certificates and charging a fee (initially was $45 but I've been 
informed it's now gone up to over $100)
The teachers curriculum outline is compared to a checklist comprised of 
the list of contents of the designers manual and if enough boxes are 
ticked off you're in otherwise you're out - the teachers course outline 
is subject to the interpretation of the assessor as to how narrowly or 
broadly subject areas are defined.  Appeals re unfair 'judgement' are 
ignored.
The whole process is quite unsound and out of step in terms of 
contemporary education philosophy and basic concepts of social justice 
and equity.

>7. What is the future of the Institute - will (or is) it be democratic
>and open in its activities?
>
The institute was not set up to be democratic - Bill scorns democratic 
organisation or the concept of advisory boards or any form of peer review 
& monitoring. There was an informal 'democracy' of the graduates meeting 
together at convergences and making policy but those decisions were held 
to be binding only on those who made them - Bill always firmly stated 
that no one had the right to make decisions on behalf of others (himself 
being the obvious exception) 

>As someone who was told during my PDC course (like many others) that
>the ownership of "permaculture" was vested in the holders of the PDC
>and that we were able to use that term in the process of our work, I
>have invested a lot of time, money and energy in developing a
>not-for-profit business around 'permaculture'.
There are many of us in this situation sharing the same concerns

>The basis for starting a 'permaculture' business was my belief that
>permaculture was a generic term. This may now be subject to trademark
>infringement.  
Not unless this application is successful which I think is unlikely but 
there's no room for complacency


Robyn