Our team
We are a team of experienced and emerging Art of Hosting practitioners, coming together from the South East of NSW and across Eastern Australia to host you and offer our experience, learning and practice.
It is a partnership between the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal, Vinnies and Campfire Co-op. All of us have been in collaborative practice and learning for many months to prepare and host this training. We all look forward to welcoming you, your curiosity and your contributions. |
Mel GeltchI'm a participatory designer, host and harvester of meaningful conversations and collaborative work. I am a steward of the Art of Hosting, and committed to building capacity in this practice wherever it is invited.
I care deeply about co-creating workplaces, communities and systems where people can participate and thrive, and that contribute to a healthier and more peaceful planet. I’m a co-founder of Campfire Co-op, practicing a more human way of doing business, and doing purposeful work to help improve human systems. I feel fortunate to live on Yuin country, place of the Djirringanj language speaking people, at Mystery Bay on the NSW Far South Coast. |
Peter PigottI live in Berry on the NSW South Coast, Yuin Country. I have spent the past 15 years working as a Landcare Facilitator and, recently, in bushfire recovery with Resilience NSW.
The Art of Hosting practices underpin what I do - bringing human-centred ways of working in these complex and uncertain times. I bring hosting practice to leadership, collaboration, and engagement capacity building with communities and organisations, and in contemporary rites of passage work with young people. I am passionate about working with people in participatory and generative ways that build islands of sanity where conversation, connection and relationship thrive. |
Jane O'BrienI am a passionate person who loves witnessing people discover their connection to nature and each other. I’m a nature lover, bush walker and food grower. I live with my family on Gamilaraay Country in the north-west NSW town of Inverell.
I dream of vibrant and thriving communities that include urban food farms for the wellbeing of all. As a member of Campfire Co-op, I’m called to work with people, organisations and communities that want to explore, grow and practice better ways of being and working together using participatory and collaborative processes. I'm looking forward to this opportunity to deepen my Art of Hosting practice and learning. |
Daryl CookI’ve spent most of my working life helping organisations and their leaders see the world differently and influencing change.
This work has been strongly informed by complexity science and its application. My purpose is to do meaningful work in ways that honour people and evoke our best human qualities. As an active co-creator of Campfire Co-op, I’m privileged to learn, apply and show how participatory leadership practices work. I’m excited by the opportunity to explore self-organisation and participation with others. I live, with my partner Donna and our adult daughter Georgia, on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri people (Melbourne). |
Kate DezarnauldsI live with my husband, three children and too many animals between our house in Berry and a farm in Dalgety - grateful to the Dharawhal and Ngarigo peoples for their care and custodianship of these special places.
My passion is to connect communities and inspire a can-do spirit. As the Nowra Faciliator for the Investing in Rural Community Futures program, I am working to strengthen local not-for-profit (NFP) organisations. The rest of my working life is devoted to my social enterprise - WorkLife - a network of coworking spaces on the South Coast which provides space, community and connection to remote workers and local businesses. I am excited by this opportunity to extend my practice with The Art of Hosting - it’s such a great methodology for sustainable impact. |
Alasdair StrattonI live in Shoalhaven, on Jerrinja Country, within the Yuin Nation. I have two children and one gorgeous wife who keeps me honest.
I love playing in the ocean, diving, surfing or just lazing around. I currently work for Vinnies as a Bushfire Recovery and Community Development Coordinator. My passion is for enriching communities to develop into what they envisage for themselves that will sustain them, as individuals and as a whole into their future. I also have a deep connection to nature and self sustaining systems, be they natural or built, that nurture and improve our wellbeing and health. I am really excited to be stepping into an apprentice hosting role for this training. |
Tim CollingsI live in Bangalee at the southern end of Dharawal Country with my wife, son and daughter and our furry kin Frida, along with the many native beings of this place.
I have worked my whole career enabling people, groups and organisations to transform their ways of being, over the past 6 years leading a collaborative collective of coaches, facilitators and experience creators. My work is informed by lived experience of personal and place-based trauma which informs my great love of eco-centric way of being. I am a practitioner of Art of Hosting along with other living systems centred ways of organising and being in the work, including regenerative practice, narrative coaching and participatory decision making. |
Alexa PeggieI grew up on Ngunnawal country and currently live and work on Djiringanj land at The Crossing, a permaculture and environmental education camp for young people.
I’m passionate about the theory and practice of how we relate; to one another, other beings, and to place. I enjoy bringing these curiosities into my work with young people, with the hope of enabling them to live unique, connected, and purposeful lives. I love to dance, swim and explore the coastline and surrounding mountains of my area. I’m looking forward to continuing my Art of Hosting learning as an apprentice. |