The best friend on earth of man is the tree: when we use the tree respectfully and economically we have one of the greatest resources of the earth. - Frank Lloyd Wright
Planning is an important part of the life of your TIST small group. When all the members in your small group have discussed, created and agreed upon a plan, each person understands the goals your group is seeking to achieve. Action steps make it possible for the group to reach those goals.
If a tree is treated as a living organism, with an understanding of its vital functions, it will be a constant source of profit and pleasure to men. – N.T.Mirove
Building Up – Don’t Miss The Blessing For Your Group!
Building Up, one of the TIST Small Group Best Practices, is a very important part of your small group weekly meeting. Each member in the group can build up the other members in the group.
Developing and living with a covenant is an important best practice for your Small Group. To develop a covenant, the members of each TIST Small Group need to discuss and agree on a list of group values, expectations and behaviors. It is very important that everyone in the group understands and agrees upon the guidelines of the covenant.
The TIST Small Group Members have willingly and purposefully agreed on the following strategy, the best practices of TIST in addition to planting trees.
1. Meet weekly for at least 2 hours.
2. Have a leader and a coleader for every meeting.
Small Groups of 8-10 (but not more than 12) people are the foundation of TIST - The International Small Group and Tree Planting Program. The Small Group is a community of people who willingly and purposefully gather together to support one another and perform agreed upon tasks. TIST Small Group members identify local sustainable development goals that include tree planting and conservation farming.
Ever since the development of industries and great increase in growth of population, the stress on agricultural sector for increase in food crops production has increased, which consequently increased deforestation and demand for more water. Rainfall has become a misfortune for Tamil Nadu. A Hydrogeomorphological study on Tamil Nadu says, that, the available ground water resources are very low in graph. There are lots of areas in Tamil Nadu, which face acute water scarcity.
Tel. 044-22246844, No. 4, Lakshmi Nagar, E-Mail prabakar@tist.org November 2003 6th Main, Nanganallur, Chennai 61
By P.Sundaram – Member of SindhuKavi Group in Chittoor Village
Tel. 044-22246844, No. 4, Lakshmi Nagar, E-Mail prabakar@tist.org September 2003 6th Main, Nanganallur, Chennai, 600061.
By Sarah Fraser, I4EI
TIST is in the process of getting the Host Country Approval from the CDM Authority – Ministry of Forest & Environment. Green House Gas (GHG) agreement is very important for this approval, i.e, the GHG Agreement between the Small Groups and TIST is the most important supporting document which is to be produced to the CDM Authorities of India.
The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now – Plant Trees.
