Regional Forum for India

Hi folks,

We have a 252 member Whatsapp group named Permaculture India. Majority members from Central India, but quite a few from North and South too.
Lots of great discussion and networking happens on that group. So many topics are specific to India too...

We recently had a first get-together with around 20 people, near Mumbai.
Few of us felt that we are loosing a lot of Permaculture related experience and documentation of discussion that is happening on this Whatsapp group.

Can we have a Regional group for India here?

Regards,
Sandeep

This might help:

What do we need to build the forum?

a. a name - preferably one word that describes everything
b. a volunteer staff member to do the work (it takes about 20-40 hours)
c. a thread introducing the forum that we can link to at the top of the forum
d. some words to put at the top of the forum to describe it.
e. at least 50, but preferably 100 threads that would populate the new forum

Fulfilling all of the above doesn't guarantee the new forum will happen.  But it's a good first step.  

https://permies.com/wiki/160660/forum

We do have regional forums, so this concept will certainly have a place if work is put into it!

A few questions, Sandeep:
1. Do you know, or could you give us an estimate of how many of your whatsapp group have a permies membership?
2. Are they going to be willing to post topics relevant to India in the forums relevant to the topic in the short term?
3. Are you aware of our English Language posting rules?

So an example: The other day, I asked a friend of mine, (my newly-minted Canadian who was born and raised in the Punjab) whether she had ever eaten persimmon before. She hadn't, so I was left wondering if they grew there or not.
However, the first thing she did was translate the word 'persimmon' to see if there was an equivalent in her mother tongue.
So a thread under growies - fruit trees - one of several persimmon threads , specifically about growing this fruit tree in India would be welcome, and we wouldn't complain if the subject line called it something like, "growing persimmon (Amarphal) in India" so that it might be easier for your friends to search.

I would encourage your members to join and contribute. In the short term, I'd suggest you keep a list of any threads focusing on information relevant to your ecosystem. Eventually, when you've got a strong foundation of relevant threads, a forum can be built to house them. Many subjects have more than one forum that they are linked to.

Hi Sandeep, Nice to hear from you! I'm up in Ladakh and have been active on permies forums for several years.

Sandeep Suryavanshi wrote:
We have a 252 member Whatsapp group named Permaculture India. Majority members from Central India, but quite a few from North and South too.

I thought I used to be in a fb group with a name like that but now I can't find it, only one called "Seed to Soil - Back to Basics" started by the same person, so maybe the group name changed. So now I searched for the name "Permaculture India" and only found a page, not a group. Groups are more active.

Jay Angler wrote:
So an example: The other day, I asked a friend of mine, (my newly-minted Canadian who was born and raised in the Punjab) whether she had ever eaten persimmon before. She hadn't, so I was left wondering if they grew there or not.
However, the first thing she did was translate the word 'persimmon' to see if there was an equivalent in her mother tongue.  

Just coincidence, but by chance, this past November was the first time I saw persimmons for sale in the normal market here, in north-of-North-India (in my 30 years here). They came from Himachal state in the foothills of the Himalayas (I'm not in the foothills, I'm in the trans-Himalayas or the Tibetan Plateau). I asked two different people who were selling them what they are called and was told "I don't know, they're called japani phal, Japanese fruit." I think they were Japanese type, the squat wide ones and none of the ones I tried had any bitter or astringent edge. I know they've been grown in Himachal state for decades but maybe they are now being grown on a larger scale.

Hi Ann,

Here are my responses:

a. a name - preferably one word that describes everything
>India

b. a volunteer staff member to do the work (it takes about 20-40 hours)
>Sandeep (myself)

c. a thread introducing the forum that we can link to at the top of the forum
>Do we need a thread or a small writeup? There is a private discussion between me and another permies member Serafina on Whatsapp. Not sure if that is useful.

d. some words to put at the top of the forum to describe it.
>Members based or interested in Permaculture projects in India, India specific discussions

e. at least 50, but preferably 100 threads that would populate the new forum
> I think I can search India on the existing threads and they can be tagged under the new forum. I have read so many posts related to India already.  I am happy to this tagging once the forum is ready.

Cheers,
Sandeep

My responses inline...

A few questions, Sandeep:
1. Do you know, or could you give us an estimate of how many of your whatsapp group have a permies membership?
>>>I am sure there are at least 5-6 people here already. Probably many more.  

2. Are they going to be willing to post topics relevant to India in the forums relevant to the topic in the short term?
>>>WE are already having a host of discussions about Indian species, farming practices, tradeoffs, sharing seeds and plants, homesteads etc. So I guess yes there will be lotsof topics to discuss.

3. Are you aware of our English Language posting rules?
>>>I am aware of forum rules in general, and most people in the group are fluent English speakers, so I don't see a concern from that angle.

4. Many members have run farms for many years and are highly experienced with vast knoweldge of plants, practices, India species etc.  

Sandeep, if you can come up with a list of already existing posts on Permies that have to do with India, and assemble them into one or a few posts below, I think that's going to be your strongest tool in moving forward on this. Something simple like this (but with 50-100 entries):

https://permies.com/t/222603/South-India
https://permies.com/t/225011/Alternative-Mexican-sunflower-India
https://permies.com/t/222626/Newbie-permaculture-design-project-Pune (it's OK to include your posts)
https://permies.com/t/222187/Permaculture-Teacher-Training-Darjeeling-India
https://permies.com/t/60952/White-clover-equivalent-southern-India
https://permies.com/t/175285/Rocket-Heating-India-Himachal-Pradesh
https://permies.com/t/56132/permaculture/Vegan-Organic-Farm-Animal-Recovery
https://permies.com/t/101756/task-turning-barren-land-food
etc.

Hey Sandeep, I'm glad you've offered! It sounds like a big job and I was hesitating.

May I request you consider calling it South Asia or Subcontinent, and including our neighbors? I've seen some nice posts from people in Pakistan, and I have heard of some good permaculture happening in Nepal. And the tech guy who helps Permies.com run smoothly is in Sri Lanka!

Another suggestion is to make full use of the Asia forum. Report any threads you think are appropriate (or add them to the forum if you have that permission). Start new ones in that forum. That will make finding threads in future to create the new forum a whole lot easier, and give your members somewhere to 'gather' in the meantime.
Thanks for volunteering to help, but it usually needs to be an existing staff member that actually has to do the work of creating the forum.