As always when in Purton I was up with the lark. By the time I moved from the study to the kitchen for breakfast with John at nine o’clock I already had a good day’s work behind me. The two memorable events of the day were to be the monthly meeting of the Conference Planning Group at five and dinner at seven with mystery guests.

The day was wet and rainy so we stayed in and chatted between nine and two when John took his nap. The specifics of what we chatted about escapes me. But I remember being astonished to find John was swinging round to my position on Global Warming. The next morning John was remarkably enthusiastic about the value of my presence over the weekend. So something we talked about clearly struck some nerves with him.

After lunch I arranged web hosting for www.radcon3.net with Fasthosts in Gloucestershire and typed up a memo for the Conference Planning Group on development plans for the website. Much of our conversation would have been about the September conference because when I went to map out the Conference Timetable at crack of dawn the following day everything I needed was in my head…except the launch date for Village Democracy.

Paul Kingsnorth has replaced Zac Goldsmith on the Any Real Questions panel. The Ecologist connection is important to us. Next Saturday Paul is interviewing John for the Ecologist…immediately prior to John’s appearance as Guest of Honour at the first Oxford Academic Inn Dinner-Discussion at the Church of St Mary the Virgin.

After the Bank Holiday weekend 18 000 brochures will be distributed with the Ecologist. Racdon III is picking up the £800 of printing costs. But Zac has done us proud by waiving fees for the privilege of being distributed as an Ecologist insert. Apparently these inserts represent a lucrative part of the business for a magazine like the Ecologist.

The Conference Timetable contains three distinct projects. Their working titles are the REB Project, the Radcon Charter Project and the Resurgence Human Scale Institute Project. Each has a timeline…but they have yet to be resourced. Any Real Questions is a Public Meeting on Thursday 7th September and the Academic Inn is a Dinner-Discussion in Swindon on Saturday 9th September with Douglas Barker of Purton House as the Guest of Honour…and Henry David Thoreau as the Ghost at the Feast. These two events are linked to the REB Project.

It would be nice to record both events as they are formats for some future Fourth World Radio or Radical Television Station by way of RSS feeds coming from around the world. Perhaps I can persuade my fellow REB directors Toni Pinschof and Alan Pryke to put in a bid for the radcon franchise…Cultura Communications looking after media production while the Cliff’s Edge Signalling Company (cesc) takes on sales and distribution.

Toni Pinschof could very successfully play the role of a sort of multilingual Michael Palin. If the money started rolling in visual content could always be added by sending Toni on location shoots around the world. Paul Kingsnorth’s One No Many Yeses lends itself to this REB Approach too so we should talk to him about the film and television rights.

The Real Charter Project begins on Friday 16th June when Dr Aidan Rankin delivers the final draft of the Real Nations Charter and I deliver the final draft of the Neighbourhood Communities Charter. The following Wednesday John Papworth as Conference Convenor calls a meeting of the Radcon Steering Group (RSG) for Wednesday 28/6 to approve the two Charters and discuss post-conference organisations. Afterwards we have a Press Conference to launch the charters while individual patrons do video interviews with journalists like Jane Taylor of Positive News for TV, radio etc. and provide footage for our own Radcon Media team. Hopefully the team is in place by then.

On Wednesday 26/7 final proposals on the structure of the post-conference Radcon Charter Organisations are to be ready…to Share Prospectus quality. These will provide details on legal status…Common Ownership or Private Limited Company, Charitable or Equity Trust etc…with their purpose, mission, shareholders and/or trustees in place.

Scheduled for Wednesday 2/8 is the first get together for the two Working Group Leaders Angela Bates and Dele Oguntimoju and their recorders…myself and Jagdeesh Singh erespectively. Our job is to deliver a rousing endorsement of the Real Nations Charter & Neighbourhood Communities Charter and oversee the election and/or appointment of the trustees and/or officers for Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization and the Edward Goldsmith Institute for Human Scale Ecology at the Final Plenary on Saturday 9th September.

On the Monday following the conference we will be holding the first of three press conferences with the catchy title of Beyond 9/11: Five Years On. The third press conference is scheduled for Guy Fawkes Day and will announce UNPO’s 2007 Programme and include the launch of specific projects like Village Aid International.

Either at the same time or at a date in between Nine-Eleven and the Fifth of November the Edward Goldsmith Institute will announce its programme for 2007. One of these post-radcon III press conferences will include an announcement of the establishment of a Planning Group for radcon IV on Cantonisation for small nations and real communities.