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COMMUNITY TASK EDUCATION
While growing up in Montreal suburbs, it was through apprenticeship to my father in design, architecture, machining, mechanics & other life-tasks and later when I became active during the late 1960s in social advocasy (United Farm Workers Grape-boycott, Cree James-Bay biosphere sovereignty-solidarity, Canadian divestment from Vietnam, group-dynamics, communications and hitch-hiking 100,000 miles, that I began to learn about my role in community & life.
WHOLE SYSTEMS DESIGN & CULTURE
These roots led me during the 1970s to living and working with Dukobours, Mennonites, Quaker & First Nation 'peace' communities where I learned ecological heritage & design. I was attracted to helping to build the natural food cooperative network of British Columbia & eventually helping to operate this system in Quebec, however experience in building 'participatory' multi-stakeholder investment and ownership in Pulp & Paper in study of the original indigenous economic systems of the Americas & the world helped me understand the errors of co-op 'one-member/one-vote' systems.
PARTICIPATORY MULTI-STAKEHOLDER ACCOUNTING
Participatory incorporation includes accounting modules for primary human resource (time-based accounting & equivalences) contributions from Founders, Workers, Suppliers and Consumer member contributions & associations. I helped innovate a multi-stakeholder progressive ownership charter for a natural food participatory store based in the Production-Society & Guild indigenous model during the early 1980s.
CAUCUSSING
Group dynamics include 'caucussing' (Iroquois = 'grouping of like-interests') for cultivating diversity as well as 'consensus' for cultivating similarities. Both-Sides-Now equal time recorded dialogues facilitate the sharing of meaning & understandings between diverse stakeholder groups. Progressive ownership Economic Democracy empowers each person in their field of expertise. Non-competitive systems of representation align individual share values with representatives of choice.
MIXED MULTI-LEVEL ORCHARD PRODUCTION
During the 1970's I owned a ten acre orchard & worked in orchards as well as 'agriculture' (Latin 'ager' = 'field'), but learned from observing indigenous traditions about three-dimensional mixed multi-level orchard productivity and later from United Nation studies how 3-D orchard production can be 100 times (10,000%) more productive for food, soil, materials, water, air & life ecologies, than 2-D agriculture.
ELEMENTAL DESIGN
As a builder, I've innovated Elemental (Sun, Soil, Water, Air and Life) design in buildings so as to complement each element's interaction with buildings, equipment & environment thus providing sustainable long term durability. Three kingdom Bio-digestion urine-fecal separating toilets handle all compostables.
MODULAR DESIGN
Modular design (all indigenous design is modular) has allowed me to develop Modular Multi-functional interior wall room divider panels. Panels include floor to ceiling (space maximization) shelves, folding drawers, cupboards, desks, chairs, beds, gravity-fed food & material dispensers. These functional cement-board & gyproc fire-proof and resistant panels recapture some 7% of lost interior space in buildings as well as facilitate easy demolition-free renovation as human space needs change over months, years & decades.
ERGONOMIC DESIGN
An ergonomic Bio-Cycle bicycle with the rider standing high in urban traffic & adjustable recline on rural roads, brings legs into natural running & walking ranges of running / walking elliptical motion determined by the legs themselves, recaptures braking at stops & downhills for restarting & up-hill assistance, large narrow wheels create rolling ease over all surfaces as well as cutting through snows, wet & slippery conditions (eg. gravel). The Bio-Cycle eliminates some 90% of the standard bicycle drive train for ease of maintenance.