Daily Briefing For Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Latest 2014 SDS Preparedness Conference News:

 

·         Conference speaker currently serving in Philippines on disaster recovery mission

·         Well-known horticulturalist leads off this year’s conference

·         Planning underway for disaster preparedness workshop in Summer 2014

·         Many taking advantage of this year’s early bird pricing for registration

 

 

Conference speaker currently serving in Philippines on disaster recovery mission

Brian Brown, who will be speaking on bug out gear and strategies, is getting some intensive experience in this subject matter.  He’ll spend two weeks living out of a backpack in the Philippines while serving with Team Rubicon, helping that nation recover from one of the worst typhoons to ever hit the island nation. 

Prior to leaving the U.S., Brian messaged me to say “Living out of a bag for the next two weeks should give me some good material for the conference.”  We wish Brian and his team well, and we look forward to hearing the lessons he’s learned from his extensive disaster recovery experiences.

 

Well-known horticulturalist leads off this year’s conference

I’m pleased to let you know that Rosina Newton, a fixture in the Austin gardening community, will be our first speaker at this year’s conference.  She’ll be presenting on the basics of backyard gardening.  Last year’s attendees scored this subject matter as the most desired presentation for this year’s conference. 

An Aggie (Class of 1984), Rosina serves as Horticulturalist and Education Coordinator at the award-winning Natural Gardener in Austin.  In addition to her work at the Natural Gardener, she started bioMUNDO (www.newbiomundo.com) to further serve the gardening community. 

You may have seen Rosina on KLRU’s Central Texas Gardener.  I’m pleased she’s able to join us.

Planning underway for disaster preparedness workshop in Summer 2014

I’m working with Karl Rehn of KR Training to develop a hands-on workshop in disaster preparedness next summer.  We’ll be polling the January attendees about what they’d like to learn in a summertime workshop.  We expect to put on demonstrations of utilizing solar cooking, communicating with ham radio, building rainwater collection and filtration systems, and designing food storage plans to be among some of the topics covered. 

 

Many taking advantage of this year’s early bird pricing for registration

We’ve had a very good early response for registrations.  Early bird pricing - $40 per person or $70 for two – runs through November 30.  After that, registration goes up to $60. 

You can sign up by PayPal using paultmartin@austin.rr.com as the PayPal address or by going to KR Training’s class sign up page.  NOTE WELL – FOR THOSE OF YOU REGISTERING FOR THE CONFERENCE AT THE KR TRAINING PAGE, YOUR REGISTRATION IS NOT CONFIRMED UNTIL YOU HAVE PAID THE REGISTRATION FEES.  If you register but don’t pay your fees by November 30, the fee will go up to $60 per person. 

Save money by registering early! 

And if you’re interested in a Friday night dinner at Logan’s with me and other attendees, please email me so I can get your name on the list.