You are invited to The 35th Annual Convening of the
Ozark Area Community Congress
@
Hammond Mill Camp, West Plains, MOzarks
Hi Friends,
All those who love and care about the Ozarks are invited to gather together once again to celebrate, appreciate, and learn from this phenomenal part of the Earth and each other…
Spread the word!
OACC IS....
-The first and longest-standing bioregional congress.
-An ecologically-aware child- and family-friendly community village where together we learn, play, relax, and take care of each other.
-A meeting place for ecologically-informed, creative, talented people, growers, activists, operators of small businesses, musicians, writers and innovators; where you can meet with others about what’s of interest to you. OACC is just plain useful, valuable, and often life-changing!
-A decades-long forum for a sustainable and regenerative economy for the Ozarks.
-A place to network and get informed about significant issues affecting our lives in the Ozarks, in an ecological context.
OACC is a celebration of the Ozarks and all things restorative and ecological!
WHAT TO EXPECT….
– Workshops and presentations on ecologically-related subjects, campfires, music, poetry and readings, and homegrown Ozarks culture in general.
-Good food, as locally grown and organic as possible. Vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free? No problem, we have food for most lifestyles.
-Please come ready to help out daily with your choice of volunteer, community-sustaining work, whether in the kitchen, child care, grounds cleanup, and whatever it takes to keep our little village going. It’s fun to work together as well as play, and this is one way OACC keeps its costs so low. When you register we will sign you up for your choice of enjoyable volunteer opportunities. Your wholehearted volunteer help enables OACC to continue, and be so inexpensive to attend.
OACC 35 CO-SPONSORS….
For $125 (or more if you are able), you or your organization can be an OACC 35 Co-Sponsor. Co-sponsorships help us keep our registration costs down while giving good people and organizations recognition.
Your co-sponsorship gets you-
- Two (2) adult admissions for the entire 2 1/2 days ($90 value)
- Exhibit space at the event ($15 value)
- Recognition at the OACC 35 event
- Recognition in the printed brochure
- Recognition on the website as a Co-Sponsor.
- Recognition on our highly visited Facebook page
- You will also be recognized in multiple OACC email updates between now and the event, giving you and your business or organization a wider exposure and more recognition than ever.
You can submit your co-sponsorship information to us online here or mail it to us using the Downloadable Co-Sponsor form here. (Un-linked until updated)
For more information, please contact Co-Sponsorship Coordinator Chris Day at OACCleaf@gmail.com.
OACC 35 Co-Sponsors
– Acupuncture and Herbal Solutions of Springfield, MO
– Alford Forest, Inc. Brixey, MO
– Boden & Otter, Colombia, MO
– Celestial Spring Herbs, Ava, MO
– Chris Day, Springfield, MO
– Coco Gordon, SuperSkyWoman, Lyons, CO
– David Haenke, Bryant Creek Watershed, MO
– Debra Giannini and Kris Nelson, Portland, OR
– Doug and Cathy Strubel, Pettigrew, AR
– Gene Dunaway, Sustainable Strategies, Mtn. View, AR
– Gloria and Rick Scarlet, Springfield, MO
– Golden Light Center, Sasha Daucus, Doniphan, MO
– Hawk Hill Community Land Trust, Drury, MO
– Mara Bosch and Susan Minyard, of Sweetwater Community Land Trust, Mansfield, MO
– Martin Turner, Columbia, MO
– Our Healing Roots, Merry Schepers & Katrina Bogdon, ND, Tulsa, OK
– Oran Mor Community, Squires, MO
– Planet Drum Foundation, San Francisco, CA
– Regenerations Intellotech, LLC, Newkirk, OK :
– Renaissance Books & Gifts, Springfield, MO
– Rod Buckner, Springfield, MO
– Sunshine Market-Natural Foods, Mountain View, MO
– Sweetwater Pottery of Sweetwater Community Land Trust, Mansfield, MO
– Terra Char, Columbia, MO
– Thomas Hubbard, Southern Stars, San Francisco, CA
GREAT THANKS TO OUR WONDERFUL C0-SPONSORS!
Program
OACC includes both pre-scheduled and spontaneous presentations. Pre-scheduled topics are listed here. Previously unscheduled events are added to the roster on Friday evening, during the Open Space Process after the Opening Circle. Join us for Open Space to add your presentation to the OACC mix.
This year’s presentations include:
Fracking in Arkansas
Emily Lane, .co-director of ArkansasFracking.org, will present an overview of hydrualic fracturing and natural gas production in Arkansas, including environmental, health, and regulatory concerns.
From root to fruit
The inspired careers of early OACC participants. Jacqueline Froelich, NPR reporter, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and Lavinia McKinney, owner of Elixir Farm, Brixey. Other panelists to be announced.
State of the Ozarks
Returning this year is a mainstay of early OACC congresses, a session geared for participants to briefly address the full group. Come prepared with a 2-4
minute summary of any issue or project of importance to the health of the Ozarks.
Local food systems: A study of resilience
Leesa Johnson and Anna Nassiff will talk about the “eight faces of resilience” and share what they’ve learned while assisting with a study in Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi.
EPA scrutinizes tank farm on Eleven Point headwaters
Longtime environmental advocate Tom Kruzen will talk about contamination risks posed by 2.8 million gallons of asphalt, ethanol, petroleum products stored near the river within the Greer Spring recharge area.
Breakthrough in organic leek growing
Daniel Roth, manager, Elixir Farm, Brixey, Mo., will talk about research into coppicing and root cloning that has yielded new propagation methods for year-around leek production.
Communicating with Nature, Sasha Daucus
Become more aware of your connection to nature and make it more fully a part of your experience at OACC. Sasha has been a practicing Ozarks herbalist and energy healer for many years.
Wood gas energy and soil enhancement from biochar
Panel and demonstrations. David Yarrow, a founder of the ecological food movement in the Northeast, is now promoting biochar farming and wood gas energy. Ozark native Doug Brethower will discuss and/or demonstrate his woodgas powered truck, pyrolysis greenhouse heating stove, and technology that can run gas engines and generators on biomass and biochar. Phil Blom, Columbia, Energy Americas Soluctions LLC, and TerraChar, is a researcher on biochar and woodgas production and a biochar distributor. Al Denninger, Theodosia, has a model woodgas energy setup using a small amount of char to power a 4 kilowatt electric generator.
SWEPCO high voltage powerline generates opposition
Doug Stowe, organizer with Save the Ozarks, Eureka Springs, will talk about the group’s fight against construction of a 50-mile, 345-kilovolt power line through Benton and Carroll counties in northwest Arkansas. (almost confirmed)
OACC 101
Longtime OACC organizers David Haenke and Denise Henderson Vaughn will provide background on OACC’s founding, history, philosophy and ideals.
OACC Resolutions revisited
The OACC resolutions are statements of congress participants’ beliefs and goals, which were adopted in the early 1980s. During this work session, the group will discuss which resolutions should be updated for possible adoption by the 2015 congress.
OACC 101, An Orientation to OACC
Denise Vaughn and David Haenke.
Program Subject to Change.
Program Coordinator- Denise Vaughn
denisevaughn@littlepinecreek.net
417-934-6673
GENERAL SCHEDULE….
Friday
We highly encourage you to come to OACC on Friday afternoon, register and be a part of the Opening Circle at 6 PM. The Opening Circle is our first chance to be together as a whole group, and one of the most important aspects of OACC. It gives everyone a chance to introduce themselves to each other, find out what others are doing and what they are passionate about, where they are from, and start participating actively in OACC right away. It is at the opening circle that you get to see those who you most might want to get to know more and meet with during the rest of OACC.
– Noon: set up begins
– 3 pm: registration opens
– 5pm: Early dinner and potluck. (We will have some simple snack-type food, and if you could bring some potluck additions, we will save our food folks much work early on as we are getting set up. Thanks in advance if you can bring something to share!)
– 6pm. OACC overview, Opening Circle. This is your chance to introduce yourself, meet all the other participants, and find out what they are doing. Very important! Tell us where you are from, especially your home watershed, and what you are passionate about!
– 7pm or just after Opening Circle, Open Space Process- facilitated by Ruth Lewis– for those who are not on the schedule and who want to give presentations at OACC. What is Open Space Process? At any given OACC, people attend who are working in, for instance re-localization, organic gardening and agriculture, appropriate technology, alternative health, communities, land trusts, ecological protection, forestry, home schooling, conservation, responsible media, sustainable businesses, biodiversity preservation, ecological restoration, culture, music, arts, eco-villages, and the list goes on… OACC’s program will have pre-scheduled presenters PLUS time available for anyone who wants to conduct a session after arrival. These previously non-scheduled presentations will be scheduled during an Open Space process on Friday evening after the Opening Circle. Got something to say? Here’s the place to say it! If you want to be part of the Open Space, be sure to come on Friday.
Saturday
– 7:30 to 9:00am: Breakfast
– 9:00am to noon: Presentations
– Noon to 1:30pm: Lunch
– 1:30pm to 5:oopm: Presentations
– 5:00pm: Memorial gathering by the bonfire: come if you’d like to share with others in honoring the losses our community has experienced this year. Feel free to bring photos and mementos.
– 6:00pm: Dinner
-7:30pm: Coffeehouse. This is our own talent show, where everyone, from the smallest child up, is encouraged to perform, be it with music, poems, theatrics, dance, or jokes. (Major fun.)
Sunday
-7:30-9am: Breakfast
– Morning: workshops, presentations, discussion groups
-10:30am: OACC 35 CONGRESS PLANNING SESSION. All are encouraged to attend this session of the congress which determines the future of OACC, and even if we will have another OACC!
-12:30n to 1:30pm: Lunch
– After lunch: Silent auction for leftover food (great bargains possible!), Clean up
-3pm: Closing circle.
More details on these sessions can be seen HERE.
FOOD….
We serve fresh meals from Friday dinner to Sunday lunch, prepared as much as possible with organic, local, or fair-trade ingredients.
Please help us keep registration costs low by donating food and/or bringing food to share. It could be a covered dish for Friday night’s potluck, if convenient, or perhaps your garden produce, or bulk food, or wholesome items like bread, fruit or cheese. Visit the food donations page to see a list of foods that are particularly needed to fill out our menu for the weekend.
WHAT TO BRING….
- food donations
- drums, musical instruments, your songs
- acts for the coffeehouse talent show
- your kids, your friends
You will need
- your own soap, shampoo, towels
- sleeping bags and bedding
- Clothes suitable for being outside in the Ozark fall weather: Be prepared for Ozark fall weather, which can range from mild and dry to cool and wet.
Childcare will not be provided. Parents are welcome to work together and with us to organize cooperative childcare during the Congress.
WHAT NOT TO BRING….
PLEASE DON’T BRING DOGS AND OTHER PETS
PLEASE DON’T BRING ALCOHOL OR OTHER DRUGS
LODGING….
Hammond Mill Camp has dormitories, bathrooms, hot showers, a dining hall, excellent group meeting places, play area, and more. If it rains, we are well covered.
Bunks and mattresses are provided in the dorm rooms.BRING YOUR OWN BEDDING, SLEEPING BAGS, PILLOWS…
Tent sites are also available.
DIRECTIONS….
From West Plains: Turning off of Hwy 63 (Jan Howard Express Way) and onto CC (Gibson Ave), go 15 miles to the turn into Hammond Mill Camp on the right. (5 miles before that Hwy AD goes off to the left from CC, as a landmark). Also, the turn off to Hammond Mill Camp is 1.6 miles into Ozark County.
Hammond Mill Camp Phone: (417) 256-2025
COSTS….
Registration fees for all three days, covering everything (meals, lodging, programs, etc.) are: cheaper than staying home
-Adults (ages 17 & up): $45;
-Young ones (ages 5 to 16): $25
-Youngest ones, 4 and under: no cost
Attendance for the whole three days is encouraged, but day rates will be pro-rated. Please help us out and register as soon as you get to OACC.
Attendees under 18 must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
Registration Rates for Partial Attendance. For those of you who want to come for less than the whole time, such as a day, or part of a day, we will pro-rate in a fair and equitable way.
WHY IS OACC DIFFERENT AND EXCEPTIONAL? WHAT IS A “CONGRESS”?
OACC as a “congress” is distinguished clearly from a run-of-the-mill “conference” in that it is a gathering of peers (not just conference attendees passively consuming information from paid “experts” and “professionals”) who inexpensively and on a volunteer basis organize and conduct the event themselves as a temporary green “village,” take care of themselves (preparing food, providing their own entertainment and presentations from within the group itself, cleaning up, etc.), and decide among themselves by consensus the present and future directions and content of OACC as an informal “organization.”
HOW YOU CAN ENSURE A FRUITFUL AND INSPIRING OACC 35…
1) Come to OACC and contribute your talents and energies to the community!
2) Invite and bring one or more like-minded folks who you would like to be there with!
For Further Information:
Stuff We Need If You Can Bring It.
– We need a PA System for Coffee House on Saturday evening
-We need a portable projection screen
-We need Firewood
If you can bring either of these please contact David at the email below
OACC 35 Coordinator: David Haenke
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