a $1,000 guarantee from their Gift Fund. The·School Board did the same; it had recently formed a citizen's energy conservation task force, which would perhaps find answers to their specific questions at ttie Workshop. They also generously offered the . Workshop free use of the High School and its facilities. With this initial momentum, the involvement of the rest of the community in the project was extraordinarily successful. Or maybe it's just a matter of what a town iike Frankfort can,, accomplish when its sights are set on something positive. LocaUy pr~minent community members were found to be host homes for the guest speakers. Members of high school clubs volunteered to par.k cars, usher and work in the kitchen. The Frankfort Historical Society, 4~H and Boy's Club were recruited ,to prepare meals, an·d even the school anp library trustees volunteered to help out during the day of the..wo_rkshop. The library staff handled pubqcity fot the workshop, taking good advantage of the early commitments of well-known speakers. A thorough promotional campaign was mounted covering national energy-related magazines, commercial and •public broadcast media in Indiana and surrounding states, as well as libraries, college newspapers and schools of architecture, engineering and agriculture throughout the Midwest. The ,regional television and ra_dio stations responded with good coverage; the finahcial page of the Indianapolis Sunday Star pre- • viewed the workshop two weeks early by-interviewing Malcolm_ Wells. . An effort was also made to attract local, state and national political leaders to the workshop. "We even invited President Carter, pr a representative from the Department of Energy," says Bill. "What we got was Jimmy's Sun Day proclamationtwo days late." Appropriately, Frankfort's Congressman, John Myers, ·and Mayor Mary Jal}e McMahon did accept the invitation. • By the time May 6 rolled around, all this advance work and community prep~ration had paid off. A tremendous number of , early registrations had.com~ in, and the local community was primed and ready. On the eve of t_he workshop over a hundred people ·welcomed the guest speakers with a country-style reception at the home of the Library Board President. "It was a great opportunity for everyone to rub elbows, and for community leaders to s.ee that these advocates of engaging hew ideas were real folks," recalls Jim Laukes. "In the process, they were able to learn that people or average means could take advantage of uncommon opportunities to do exceptional things." There was a real connection in all this for the practical people of a small Midwestern town. The next day 1,000 people crowded Frankfort High for a full day's activities, representing a healthy mix of backgrounds and politics. There were farmers, homeowners, back-to-the-land folks an_d people into alternative lifestyles. These were.groups that don't normally mix well. But each had paid the $10 registration fee-more than admittance to the State Fair or a concert-and they were·coming to seek answers to very similar questions. The day's Schedule was a blend of speeches, slide . shows and question and answer sessions. There w3:s free time to buttonhole speakers or view a.t. exhibits am:l information tables set up by non-profit groups. Tours of local earth-bermed and solar homes, wind and water power sites, were also pre-arranged by the workshop staff. But the emphasis was on more than energy self-reliance. A lot of attention was focused on Why Do All This? This was good background for the Frankfort audienc;e. Speakers examined what attitudes had taken us in hopeless directions, and what the , impetus was for changing. Somehow, on the home turf, these dead serious insights took on a compelling directness. "Qur science and technology is addressing itself to _cosmetics," said July 1978 RAIN Page 19 John Todd, "clear:iing up a little bit, but not tampering with the system that is based on the limit_less consumption of materials. . : . Any society that builds itself on an unforgiving technology, , w:hose waste products are leaking into the environment daily, is simply commiting,itself to a long-term folly." As Todd spoke, one of the Indiana Alliance groups leafletted outside against the construction of Public Service Indiana's Marble Hill nuclear reactor. These critical realities were balanced by the presentation of the disarmingly logical alternative: that wind, water,'sun and wastes can be integrated into bur li~estyles, to do the jobs that need doing while enhancing our quality of life and survival_on the planet. Malcolm Wells showed how the destruction of the land's topsoil and vegetation could be reversed by building underground homes ahd offices-even a.irports. Steve Baer discussed his 7,700 sq. ft. passive solar warehouse/office building in Pecos, New Mexico, which last winter had a $30 heating bill. Alex Wade emphasized the tremendous potential in recycling used lumber, bricks and glass in construction as a form of energy conservation in it~elf. Mike Evans outlined how mass production and rising co~ts of conventional energy sources are quickly making small wind generators economically competitive and a hedge agair:ist future inflation. A whole realm of possibilities was opened up to workshop participants. Like con_ferences and discussion occurring all over,the coun- ·try, the Frankfort event was not only an introduction to new technologies, but also a probe ~nto the cha,nging values and economics that underlie them. A lot ofthis is new territory for small town folks. Yet in the process ofseeking out new tools, our attitudes about how and why we are using them start to change. And so there were glimmers at Frankfort of the need not only to change the way we do things, but to change our expectations and our understanding of what the "good life" really is. • ' • At day?s end quite a lot of information had been laid outso much so that one can't help but wonder if there wasn't a little overload on the part of newcomers. It was also true that enough small group encounters did not happen within the .heavy · schedule-during which the participants themselves could swap ideas, make contacts and plan future activities. With a little guidance, these tactics could take future workshops beyond individual information-seeking into more community-oriented endeavors and local political arenas. At this point, however, people were urged to retu.rn to their home towns and work through_local institutions to make more information on renewable energy and appropriate technologies available to the public. Special classes and materials acquisitions, especially through local libraries, were highly recommended. After all, that's how all this had started in Frankfort. Each pragmatic step forms the basis for other possibilities. •In.Frankfort small changes are already starting to occur: The Times of Fra.nkfort did a series of articles on the workshop continued +
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