The invitation

Cost

There is no registration fee. The only costs are modest reimbursement of food costs for your stay and a $20 per night camping fee for those staying and camping Sunday night. There is also lodging in the nearby town of White Salmon, WA which you would have to arrange on your own.

Dear Gaians,

You are warmly invited to join a small, focused gathering of leaders working at the intersection of bioregional regeneration, ecovillages, digital infrastructure, network weaving, regenerative economics, and flow funding. The Protocols of Place Leaders Workshop will be held at the Atlan Collective Ecovillage near White Salmon, Washington, immediately following the Turtle Island Bioregional Congress.

Our purpose is to move from promising but largely separate initiatives toward practical collaboration. Together, we will explore how interoperable digital tools, open protocols, trusted relationships, and place-based governance can connect regenerative communities across silos—while preserving the autonomy, culture, and ecological intelligence of each bioregion.

What we’ll explore

The working conversation will include leaders associated with Kinship Earth, Atlan Collective, SEEDS, the SEMO Network, LocalScale, Regenerate Cascadia, and the wider Protocols of Place and bioregional movements. We expect to focus on:

the essential functions of cross-silo digital bridge-building infrastructure;
practical interfaces among SEEDS, SEMO, LocalScale, ecovillages, and bioregional networks;
shared protocols for identity, needs and offers, resource exchange, evidence, and governance; and
a collaborative implementation pathway, including pilot demonstrations and flow-funded core support.

The two days

On Day 1, Sunday, September 20th, we have set up arrival time to commence at 8:30am and start time for the workshop will be 10am. The schedule of the day is attached. The agenda is set up to be flexible and to promote cross collaboration and interactive discussion with the workshop presenters. There will be a networking lunch break at 12:30 to 1:30pm. Workshops will resume at 1:30pm with a dinner break at 5:30pm–6:30pm. Dinner will be followed by one more workshop and then a Q&A and open discussion scheduled from 6:45pm to 8:45pm. There will be an optional Day 2 morning session for those who would like to stay till Monday. Breakfast will be available at 8am–9am. There will be one more workshop commencing at 9am. At 10am there will be a special global equinox uplink with the SEMO, SEEDS and Kinship Earth networks. The final departure session will begin at 11am with a recap of the workshops and final Q&A. Lunch will be served at noon. Departure by 2pm.

Replying

Please reply to confirm whether you will attend and whether you expect to camp, arrange nearby lodging, or commute. Also mention if you have any allergies or preferred menu preferences (ie. primarily are you a vegetarian). This is a remote setting; so menu options are very limited. Please bring any specialty foods that you require with you as chances are that they will not be available locally. Because this is an intimate working session, an early response will help us plan food, accommodations, and the workshop process.

The accompanying articles

I am also transmitting the accompanying articles as background for our discussion:

Please read these articles prior to joining the workshop. I hope this background will help us arrive more prepared to understand and participate in the discussion and be ready to identify concrete bridges we can build together.

With appreciation and anticipation,

Signed, Stephen L. Gomes

Dr. Stephen L. Gomes
Co-founder and Chairman, Kinship Earth
Convener, Protocols of Place Leaders Workshop