The Oilforest Plan^™: Workshops

The first phase of The Oilforest Plan comprises 3 workshops, where you'll create a vision, strategy, & plan for economic & environmental renewal.  Replace unsustainable crops--and restore damaged lands--via biodiesel production.

The Oilforest Plan has 4 Phases.  The first phase is a series of 3 workshops that form an educational, 3-step process, allowing you to explore the program--and develop your own Oilforest Plan--at minimal cost.  The step-by-step process gives you complete freedom and flexibility, so you can proceed at whatever pace you choose, and you can leave the program at any point, should you decide either that it's not appropriate, or that you no longer need RSI's assistance. These 3 workshops are held in your country, at a facility of your choice.

During the course of these 3 workshops, you will create a vision, a strategy, and a plan for implementing the program, and you'll locate any needed financing.  Research agendas (for us and for you) will be identified at each workshop, so your local experts (and our instructors) can arrive at the next workshop in the series, armed with the information you need to move forward. Ongoing research and consulting assistance is available after you've completed the 3 workshops.

Here's a quick overview of the 3 workshops (a detailed description appears below):

1. You'll start with a half-day "Vision Workshop."  Invite as many of your local stakeholders as you wish: The more who understand how the program works, the more support you'll have for it;

2. After you're leaders have had time to digest the ideas and are ready to move forward--even if it's just on a trial basis--it's time for a 2-day "Strategy Workshop."  Attendees will come away with a comfortable understanding of the approach, the methods, the tools, and the technologies. 

3. Finally, when you're ready to take action, you enroll up to 24 of the public and private leaders who will design and implement the program locally in a 10-day "Planning Workshop." Each of the 10 business days consists of a half-day workshop, so they can meet the daily responsibilities with minimal disruption over the two-week period.

Here are the 3 workshops, in order:

1. The Oilforest Plan Vision Workshop (1/2-day): First, you'll learn about the rapid, recent growth of the trillion-dollar global restoration economy, the twelve sectors of restorative development, and the basics of The Oilforest Plan. 

   • Format: This 3-4 hour workshop (you determine the length, according to your preferences) begins with a 90-minute presentation which combines an introduction to the twelve sectors of the global restoration economy with an overview of The Oilforest Plan.  The balance of the time is spent in dialogue with the leaders and stakeholders you assemble, exploring the potential value of The Oilforest Plan to your region or country.  It's recommended that you limit participants in the ensuing dialogue to no more than 24, to keep it manageable. 

   • Preparation for next step: At the end of the workshop--if you decide to take the next step in the workshop series--research agendas will be assigned to those individuals and organizations in the room (as well as to our faculty), so everyone will arrive at the next workshop in the series, armed with the information needed to make informed decisions.

   • Faculty: One instructor from Resolution Fund, LLC staff (usually CEO Storm Cunningham).

   • Cost: $9500, plus travel expenses.

2. The Oilforest Plan Strategy Workshop (2 days): Here's where you'll learn the concepts, principles, and tools of integrated revitalization, and its application to The Oilforest Plan.  During this session, a local business, NGO, or financial institution will be selected as the local partner should you decide to pursue financing: We are connected with agencies who are ready, willing, and able to finance the purchase of a biodiesel manufacturing facility, provide funds to help farmers finance the switch from bananas to oil production, etc. It's recommended that you limit participants to no more than 24, to keep the session manageable:

   • Format:

     • Day One Morning: Integrated Strategy. This session begins with a 90-minute presentation on the global trend towards Integrated Revitalization.  A 30-minute dialogue concerning the relevance of this trend to your socioeconomic and/or environmental situation ensues, followed by a 60-minute facilitated brainstorming session to generate specific ideas on the areas and assets that would be most productive to focus on. These could be specific communities, industries, or assets (such as infrastructure, historic buildings, watersheds, rivers, contaminated properties, hurricane-damaged areas, etc.)

     • Day One Afternoon: Integration Tools. This session begins with a 90-minute introduction to the leading-edge tool recently developed at the non-profit Revitalization Institute: the Integrated Revitalization Guide.  The remaining 90 minutes is spent discussing how these tools could be effectively incorporated into your development policies and organizations, in order to accelerate the socioeconomic and environmental renewal of your nation or region.

     • Day Two Morning: The Oilforest Plan. This session begins with a detailed 60-minute presentation on The Oilforest Plan, showing how it can fit perfectly with an integrated revitalization strategy.  The balance of the time is spent in a facilitated brainstorming session with the leaders and stakeholders you assemble, exploring your country or region's strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities as relate to the appropriateness and timing of this program.

     • Day Two Afternoon: Next Steps. This session has no lecture component.  It's entirely focused on a facilitated dialogue that explores the best ideas from the previous session, and documents potential ways to design, implement, fund, and build public support for the program in your region or country. 

   • Preparation for next step: At the end of the workshop--if you decide to take the next step in the workshop series--research agendas will be assigned to those individuals and organizations in the room (as well as to our faculty), so everyone will arrive at the next workshop in the series, armed with the information needed to make informed decisions. 

   • Faculty: One instructor from Resolution Fund, LLC staff (usually CEO Storm Cunningham), plus at least two industry experts; one expert on tree-based vegetable oil agriculture and production, and the other expert on biodiesel production, distribution, and use.

   • Cost: $25,000, plus travel expenses. 

3. The Oilforest Plan Planning Workshop (10 days): Here's where the integrated revitalization of your nation or region really begins. By the time this 10-day (half-day session each day) planning workshop ends, you will have your own multi-stakeholder integrated revitalization team. They will understand what needs to be done, how to do it, and will have a printed Oilforest Plan Implementation Guide customized to the specific needs of your nation or region. This Implementation Guide will be used to guide decision-making in the years to come (especially by people who did not attend this session), to help ensure continuity of follow-through.

   • Format & Curriculum: The Oilforest Plan planning faculty will come to your area for 10 weekdays of 1/2-day sessions to work with your local government, non-profit, citizen, and/or business leaders in an intensive workshop setting. The workshops should take place in the mornings, with the afternoons available for the planning faculty to tour the area,  interview stakeholders, and (if desired) do news media interviews to help build public support:

     • Day One: Introduction to The Oilforest Plan.

       • 09:00 - 12:00 (90-minute lecture + 90-minute discussion). This first lecture and group discussion familiarizes attendees with the background of the ACP/EU banana trading protocols, the environmental and economic problems of over-dependence on bananas, the advantages of sustainably-produced (agroforestry), tree-based vegetable oils, and the advantages of biodiesel technology.

     • Day Two: Introduction to Restorative Development & Prioritization of Restorable Assets.

       • 09:00 - 11:00 (1-hour lecture + 1-hour discussion). This first lecture and group discussion familiarizes attendees with the principles of restorative economics, and with the 12 sectors of restorative development.

       • 11:00 - 12:00: (1-hour facilitated discussion). This session arranges the twelve sectors of restorative development in rough order of their importance to revitalization. The sectors that are critical enablers will be dealt with earlier in the week, as they often lay the groundwork for the restoration of the less-critical sectors. The relationship of each of these sectors to The Oilforest Plan is a factor in their prioritization, so Restorative Agriculture is always sector #1 and Watershed Restoration is always sector #2.

     • Day Three: Introduction to Integrated Revitalization & Identification of Goals.

       • 09:00 - 11:00: (90-minute lecture + 30-minute discussion) After lunch, the second lecture and group discussion familiarizes attendees with the advantages of integrated strategies in general, and with the concepts of Integrated Revitalization in particular.

       • 11:00 - 12:00: (1-hour facilitated discussion) This session identifies the area's most urgent problems & crises, which are used as touchstones throughout the balance of the workshop. We also discuss how restorative development can contribute to alleviating those problems, which initiates the process of forming a shared vision of economic growth for your area, based on the restoration of your built, natural, and cultural assets, all within the context of The Oilforest Plan.

     • Day Four: Cataloguing & Analysis of Restorable Agricultural, Watershed, & Terrestrial Ecosystem Assets.

       • 09:00 - 12:00: (3-hour facilitated discussion). Restorable agricultural, watershed, and terrestrial ecosystems assets are identified and analyzed. These three sectors are done together because a strategy for restoratively-grown tree-based oils addresses all three of these restoration agendas by definition.  A prioritized list of target properties (existing and abandoned banana plantations and other properties damaged by unsustainable land use) is created. 

       • Note: The primary analytical tool for all 12 restorative sectors is Revitalization institute's Integrated Revitalization Guide, which identifies 3 key restorative factors for each sector. Each of these 36 factors is a potential point of integration among the 12 sectors. The integration of each of these sectors with The Oilforest Plan is, of course, a key focus: How restoring each sector can advance the program, how not restoring them might hinder the program.

     • Day Five: Cataloguing & Analysis of Infrastructure assets.

       • 09:00 - 12:00: (3-hour facilitated discussion).   This day will focus on one restorative sector: Infrastructure.  While the focus will be primarily on energy, drinking water, sewer, transportation, education, and telecommunications infrastructure will be survey for relevant renovation/replacement opportunities.

     • Days Seven & Eight: Cataloguing and Analysis of Restorable Assets in the remaining four sectors.

       • 09:00 - 12:00: (3-hour facilitated discussion). A repeat of the last four days' format, except that these two days will tackle two sectors each.  These four sectors are likely to be less-critical to your Oilforest Plan, so less time is spent on each.  Three of these sectors will be heritage, brownfields, and catastrophe damage.  The fourth will be either ecosystem restoration or fishery restoration, depending on which of those was rated a higher priority on Day Two.

       • We will briefly discuss the four sectors of Cultural Assets on this day, but this is such a complex field that a separate series of events should be assembled if you wish to address cultural issues properly.

     • Days Nine & Ten: Assembling your The Oilforest Plan Implementation Guide.

       • The last two days are spent assembling the materials and insights of the previous eight days into a custom Implementation Guide that will help your various stakeholders 1) clearly grasp the local impediments to greater health and wealth; 2) expand the local revitalization dialogue to include all stakeholders; 3) identify the projects that will produce the most benefits in the shortest time (to quickly build momentum); 4) identify follow-up projects that will help initiate a self-sustaining revitalization cycle, and 5) create a comprehensive, long-term revitalization strategy, centered on the replacement of your banana dependence with clean-energy independence. The Implementation Guide is designed to be a decision-making tool for future planning, policy-making, strategizing regarding integrated revitalization in general, and implementation of The Oilforest Plan in particular.

   • Preparation for next step: At the end of this final workshop, you'll have an Implementation Guide for your oilforest-based integrated revitalization plan.  If you desire further input from Resolution Fund staff, or any of the workshop faculty from our partner organizations, we will work out such ongoing involvement on a case-by-case basis. (see below)

   • Faculty: One instructor from Resolution Fund, LLC staff (usually CEO Storm Cunningham), plus at least two industry experts; one expert on tree-based vegetable oil agriculture and production, and the other expert on biodiesel production, distribution, and use.

   • Cost: $95,000, plus travel expenses. 

The Oilforest Plan Consulting Services:

• After you've completed the three workshops that comprise Phase 1 of The Oilforest Plan, any ongoing consulting services from Resolution Fund, LLC will be contracted on a case-by-case basis.  Your strategy for executing Phases 2 - 4 will be outlined in the Implementation Guide that is produced during Workshop #3, but you will determine how much and what kind of assistance, if any, you desire from us in order to implement your Oilforest Plan.

  • Our hourly rate without retainer is $350/hour for in-office work, and $500/hour for remote work;

  • With a $12,500 annual retainer, our hourly rate drops to $250 for in-office work, and $400 for remote work.

  • The remote rate is higher because we do not charge for travel time.  All expenses are billed separately. All prices quoted are U.S. dollars.

Optional Feature: If you wish, and at no extra charge, RF will add a "trade mission" component to the 3 workshops that comprise the first phase of your Oilforest Plan.  We'll invite restorative investors, developers, designers, entrepreneurs, and technical experts to attend any or all of the events in your 3-step program. Adding a trade mission to your program could provide you with additional financial and intellectual resources to help accelerate the revitalization of your nation or region. 

To learn more:

• Contact us if you have any questions, or to schedule a 1/2-day The Oilforest Plan Vision Session and become one of our two Pilot Nations, saving 50% on the fees quoted above for the entire workshop series.

• Subscribe to the free publications of Revitalization Institute, the alliance for community renewal and natural resource restoration. Learn more at www.RevitalizationInstitute.org

• Read The Restoration Economy (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, November 2002) by Storm Cunningham. You can read the Introduction, Preface, and Table of Contents free of charge online at www.RestorationEconomy.com