August/September 1977 The Center for Local Self-Reliance (CLSR) 3302 Chicago Ave. South Minneapolis, MN 55407 612/824-6663 If I were still living in Minneapolis, this is a group I would be involved with-I wish there was a CLSR and a Farallones Inregral Urban House in eaery city getting the word out, showing how it's done. CLSR is housed in a storefront in the Powderhorn Neighborhood (right across the srreer from the elementary school), and the nature of their projects takes them into people's homes daily. They're building a solar collector for one resident's house and plan several more. They have a fine insulation and weatherization program, providing 1ow-income homeowners with free materials and technical assistance to save energy and money in their homes. Among other things, the homeowners must agree to help organize a block club around the installation of the materials (rhereby helping to spread the word) and do fuel use monitoring on their own homes afterward. A recent grant from the National Center for Appropriate Technology (the first NCAT grant?) will provide them with the means to experiment with a solar hot water system for an apartment building. They also have a food and urban gardening program with workshops on canning and food storage, nutrition, indoor gardening and rhe like. A solar greenhouse is planne d for one of the community gardens they are involved with. All very pracrical and exactly the kinds of hands-on projects community groups should be up to. LdeM Another Place Rt. 123 Greenville, NH 03048 There's a whole genre of groups springing into existence that are-what shall I say-facilitators? They help things happen. They are at the center, the hub of several networks. Brian Livingston and Marshall Landman at CAREL in Eugene are one such group, the Movement for a New Society in Philadelphia area another. Marc Sarkady and the people at Another Place are a third. They sponsor 20 conferences a year in their big house and woods in New Hampshire and host an equal number for other groups. They see themselves serving as a center for the "transformation of culture, values and institutions." Thus the process by which they bring people together is as important as the topic areas covered. [t's an area where there's always more to learn-and a lot to share: "Physically, we speak to people's needs by providing a warm home to come into with clean and simple rooms, great firepiaces and a big kitchen. There are also 70 acres of fields and forests for walking and running. During the conferences we hold volleyball games, often dance to a live band or to our own music, and especially during the summer we engage people in doing physical work together. We see that sharing in these physical experiences brings a group closer together and helps people be relaxed." Their Social Healing Conference "focuses on political change in its broadest sense, including citizen's lobbying, nonviolent civil disobedience, the development of popularly based political units . . . as well as the polirics of human awareness, social dynamics and differenr aspects of lifestyies." A Right Livelihood Business Conference "focuses on economics as a spiritual-political discipline. Itt] looks ar the inrerrelation between the nature of the work process/how work gets done, the management of work, the finances of work, and human fulfillment." Other regularly recurring conferences include the Healing Arts Fair, the Massage Conference , the Alternative Education Conference, the New Age Childraising Conference, the New England Community Conference, the Music and Dance Conference, and the Networking Conference. Write to them (please. include a self-addressed, stamped envelope) for more information about the center, their processes and the dates of upcoming conferences. -LdeM numbers. Take a good look at The Griffin House and the Thermal Performance sections. What it boils down to is that for much (most?) of the country there is not a more efficient or cost effective solar collection application. Also, I find publications like the NOTI solar greenhouse book could be misleading to Mr. or Mrs. John Doe. Solar greenhouses belong or homes. They should oniy be stuck out in the back yard if no acceptable site is found on the home. About a 30 percent probability. There are several books and plans, excellent in themselves, that give independent greenhouse designs and construction details. lf they are the only point of reference for the novice solar greenhouse builder, the builder has missed several billion BTUs when he copies the plans in the back yard. Not to mention the philosophical solidarity of tying your food production and living space together. When we get back on August 6, I think we're going to put our travelling thing, hetp Ken Kern build a bamboo underground house. You know, whatever comes up. I've got to get away from here to get a perspective on what's going down. Love to all of you, Bill and Susan Yanda The latest publication Bill refers to is his Solar Sustenance Report, Pbase II, Final Report, which covers all the things learned in doing their solar greehouse workshops and in monitoring cost/ benefit of various operational dwellingattached bio-solaria. It's available for $2 from: New Mexico Solar Encrgy Assn. P.O. Box 2004 Santa Fe, NM 87501 If you're into solar grcenhouscs, add another 50d and a self-addressed, stamped envelope for a copy of the . July '77 NMSEA grcenhousc issue. You'll find them both extremelv uscful. -LJ dog and pony show on the road. We'll just kind of boogie around the country in some kind of mini-motor home, drive 70 miles an hour and get 8 miles to the gallon. Do lectures, sell books, show slides and our new movie of a gh workshop. See people . . . maybe learn some-
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