The Transition Team Cooperative Initial Plan

I have been working on a concept for quite some time. I finally have a concrete proposal to put forward. So far, this is what I have...

Step 1- Fundraising enough money to create the cooperative business structure. We will do this by making contacts with small business and soliciting donations. All finances will be kept completely transparent. If you would like to donate, please do so at either of these two links. https://www.wepay.com/donations/thetransitionteamcooperative or https://www.crowdtilt.com/campaigns/help-me-form-a-workers-cooperative-to-help-communities-relocalize-production-and-end-corporatocracy
Step 2- Recruit the subject matter experts, and when we reach enough funding, have an Open Space Technology meeting to formalize the arrangement, by consensus.
Step 3- Recruit the ground team. These individuals will approach community organizations, local businesses, and lo cal municipal officials about how we can help their community.
Step 4- Find depositors in these communities and form the local credit union with the following features. It will have a dual currency system; US dollars and a local currency based on a composite of locally-produced goods, preferably the products of the next step. It will also be a not for profit entity, and preferably a cooperative. The dealings of this institution will be completely transparent, and any excess funds at the end of the fiscal year will be given to other not for profit entities in the following way. Depositors will get to choose 5 organizations meeting the not for profit criteria, and whatever percentage of the current holdings of the CU they own will be distributed to those 5 entities. For example, if someone owns 1% of the current holdings, the 5 entities they choose will get.2% of the excess funds each, totaling 1%.
Step 5- Local business and municipal officials will be approached and will be offered the opportunity to participate in the local currency program. If they accept, any purchases using the local currency will be exempt from sales tax, or at least a significant discount. The purpose of this will be to provide an incentive for the use of the local currency.
Step 6- When the credit union is formed, we will find members of the local community that want a stake in the ownership of the vertical farm, based on the toolkit being developed at http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Category:Holistic_Aquaponics_Greenhouse_Toolkit
The preferred format for this business will be a workers cooperative, but other structures may be allowed, dependent on what is decided in step 2. The construction of the vertical farm will also be accomplished using local resources and open source technology from the Global Village Construction Set being developed by Open Source Ecology, were possible. For more details about the GVCS, visit www.opensourceecology.org
Step 7- The goods produced by the vertical farms will be sold at farmer's markets and premium grocers in the 100 mile area surrounding the community first in order to reduce food miles. After that, it will be sold at 125, then 150, and so on miles out until all the products are sold.
Step 8- As the funds that were used for the loan for the vertical farm come back to the credit union, it will be added to a local microloan funding pool administered by the credit union, with the goal of increasing the funding the pool by 20% per year, adjusted for inflation. Local businesses in need of construction services will be given preference if they choose to use a builder that uses GVCS tools in the construction process.
Step 9- When the GVCS approaches completion, a loan will be made available for a local fabrication shop and a retail location for locally-made durable goods.
This is by no means formalized, but is a good starting point for the consensus that will occur at Step 2. Thanks for reading! Feedback is always welcome!
Here is the Facebook page to visit: https://www.facebook.com/TheTransitionTeamCooperative

The Next 1000 Mile Journey

Every journey begins at the end of another, just as the mythological phoenix is reborn out of the ashes of the old. This is no different. Today, I am going to start something new. Today, I am going to start a new effort to help communities transform from an unsustainable path that benefits only a few, and leaves others destitute, without the means to have the life that they want and steals the source of life from future generations.

I will be walking the Pacific Crest Trail in order to raise awareness of this issue.
The PCT is a 2700 mile long trail from the US border in California to British Columbia. I will get tired, my feet and shoulders will burn as I carry all the equipment I need to survive this long trek. But this a labor of love, I want the next 7 generations to have the same benefits we have, and not have to concern themselves with how they, and countless other species, will survive a world changed by the darkness that is the greed and desire to dominate of the few that own the mortgage of our world's future. Pain is temporary, but our actions resonate in eternity.

I will be forming an elite team over the coming months to help create a plan and implement it in as many places as possible. This plan will be to create open-source, transparent, dual-currency (USD and a local currency based on a composite of local commodities), worker and depositor-owned community credit unions, vertical farms in distressed downtown buildings in small communities based on an open-source toolkit of greenhouse technologies to cultivate good, organic and ethically produced food for communities, and relocalize production, and provide work for those with disabilities. As the fine people at Open Source Ecology perfect more Global Village Construction Set technologies, we will use them for new economic development projects to demonstrate the true power of an open source enterprise economy, based on lifetime design and intelligent use of resource and innovation. We are the future, we need only demonstrate it. In fact, the vertical farms will feature and utilize some of the open-source technologies already created, the Lifetrak, dimensioning sawmill, compressed earth block press, soil pulverizer, Powercube, and others as they near completion.This team will not just be a think tank sitting in an ivory tower giving orders, it will be a consensus-based organization that will have boots on the ground helping build these communities and providing excellent customer service. It will be a not-for-profit worker's cooperative of consultants and developers that want to shift the world from a scarcity-based economy to one that benefits all of humanity. 

The initial funds will go to launching the Indiegogo campaign, with swag for donors, provide for my needs (which will be documented with transparency), equipment, and tools needed to make this a success. You, the donor, can choose which part of the campaign you wish to support, or just place it in the general fund. You can choose to give me a per mile walked donation (I am shooting for 40 miles a week). I will be visiting the communities that provide resupply points along the way, and will be interviewing and writing about local business owners, conservationists I meet, and other noteworthy people and endeavors to see what they want in an economy, and will be posting them here on this blog! Stay tuned!

After enough funds have been gathered, subject matter experts recruited, and intial gathering of information, we will have a meeting in California using Open Space Technology to develop the concrete plans about this. We will then go to small communites in progressive areas that want to revitalize their local economies to build consensus about plans for action there. We will maintain boots on the ground working with local people and business owners building frienships and good working relations with the communities that have turned to us for help, so that they can turn to us again in the future, and, perhaps, join us. A network of communities is a powerful thing, and we will demonstrate the ethic of thinking globally while acting locally by starting local offices where we have been doing projects.

So what does it take to do all this? I don't completely know yet, but it begins with you providing support to help me find out. Let's begin shall we? If you can donate, please do, and contact me at 972-533-8857 or visit the wepay provided below, until the Indiegogo campaign is set up. Thank you!

https://www.wepay.com/donations/ecophoenixcommunitydevelopment

Profit and Loss, a Human Perspective

We have all, in more or less words, heard the expression “It's just business.” Usually, when we here it there is negative karma associated with it. However, if we consider it from a global perspective, it represents something all-together more dreadful. It reflects opportunities lost, and opportunities are what make life worth living.

I am just one person, but my experiences are not altogether different from other people's experiences. For example, something recently happened to me in the context of “It's just business.” I started work on a farm in California, 1500 miles away from my friends and family. The terms of work were that I would work about 45 hours a week for room (a small travel trailer), partial board (vegetables from a farmer's market), and 500 dollars a month. While not the best deal in the world, I took it because it would place me in a position for greater opportunities, namely starting to market my laundry soap and line of teas at above-mentioned farmer's market. However, in the first week I got moderately injured and sick, something not all-to-uncommon doing hard manual labor in animal husbandry. I was willing to persevere, however the farmer was in need of something more. He let me go, as he is in dire financial straits, and could not afford to wait for me to get better.

In the end, both of us lost out. He did not get the farm hand he needed to be a financial success, to take care of his family, and to have the life he works tirelessly to build. I lost out on an opportunity to do the above-mentioned things, lost respect from peers, life needlessly turned upside-down, and was left penniless, and why? Because of the insidious nature of money. It does not just affect the microcosm, the farmer and I, but those who's lives touch ours! Promising friendships put under undue and untimely strain, small children who want to have time to spend with their dad, and the quality time spend on things that matter, not where next months mortgage payment is coming from! This is why we need post-scarcity! Not Socialism, because it does not nurture innovation, not free market capitalism and its endless pursuit of profit to the degradation of all else, but radical abundance, so that everyone has the tools they need to climb the ladder of human achievement!

My story is not unique. If anything, it is far less disastrous than some, where people actually lose their life due to not having what they need. I am fortunate, I had another opportunity available to me, and my wounds will heal. It is not microcosmic, it is macroscopic and systemic. Let's do better! Let's build a future where stories like this are not common, where “It's just business!” is a phrase of a by-gone era. We have the tools we need, let's use them intelligently, so that humanity does not have to endure another generation of broken dreams and false hopes.

I will be discussing this more fully in my upcoming book “Perspectives of Someone of No Particular Consequence, 99 Reasons to Occupy” #POSONPC99RTO

Help the helpers!

Here at Factor e Farm, words are valuable, but pale in comparison to action. When something needs to be done, it is imperative that it happen sooner rather than later. This is especially the case when it comes to the geologic survey work I am beginning out here, as it is of prime importance to meeting the development timetable so that we can bring build the new 4000 square foot workshop where the new phase of prototypes will be completed, thanks to many incredibly generous individuals that have given their money, time, and passions to do the good work that is going on out here and on the internet. Now it is your turn to help us help the world by allowing the work on the GVCS to continue. Right now, we at Factor e Farm need your help in procuring the needed survey tools to ensure that the new workshop and housing units for the people out here are the best they can possibly be. So please, if you find it in your heart to please help us help the disenfranchised, the impoverished, and those that do not have the tools to help themselves. With your support, we will not stop working until hunger does not exist, and everyone can have the life that they both need and deserve, and we propel Mankind into a new age where every voice is heard and every heart is content.
To donate to funding the geologic tool kit, please view this Amazon wishlist.
If you are not able to purchase a complete item, please feel free to donate by gift card.  Once you haved decided how much you can help, feel free to contact me @ greenlinepcs@gmail.com or call 972-533-8857. If I miss your call, I will return it as soon as possible. Remember, every bit helps! Thanks so much in helping us achieve a better tomorrow!
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