Comments on: Moving A Mountain

By: David Smathers Moore

David Smathers Moore — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 04:07:12 +0000

Bravo! Keep ‘em coming, John. (I think I mistakenly posted my comment to the Zero Energy Homes entry, which of course, bravo for that too but I meant to be responding to your first post. I’ve never been a blog reader, but now I have one to subscribe to!) Among other things, loved the Belgian Congo quote!

By: jabrams

jabrams — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:16:48 +0000

Thanks Julie. I’d like to hear more about what you’re doing in Orlando. I’m excited about the Community Supported Enterprise concept, which has emerged as a broader form of the widespread Community Supported Agriculture movement. An early and wonderful example is the purchase, in 1995, of the Mad River Glen Ski Area in Waitsfield Vermont. As this crusty old throwback mountain faced financial difficulties and other ski areas were facing consolidation and homogenization, the skiers who loved Mad River – several thousand of them – formed a co-op and bought the ski area. It has been a great success. In future posts I’ll talk about a similar effort that is taking shape here on the Vineyard.

By: jabrams

jabrams — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:03:14 +0000

Thanks for your support, Anne, and your advice. I was advised that my posts should be short, and I stubbornly resisted on this first one. In the future they will be far more brief; it is a bit daunting to begin this flow; it’s starting to feel like a swift river already!!

By: jabrams

jabrams — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:00:22 +0000

You raise an important issue, Will. There are many insecurities associated with transitions to employee ownership, on the part of both owners and employees. From the employee side, there are often concerns that they may be sold damaged goods, or that the owner is just looking for an exit strategy that may leave them high and dry. In many cases it is – legitimately – an exit strategy, and an especially good one, but it requires long-term future planning and an open, gradual educational process that empowers and prepares the employees to take the reins. A great way to start the process is to have someone who has actually done this – and has broad experience with others who have – speak to a gathering of the employees and talk about the benefits, the difficulties, and the components of a process that will lead to a seamless and successful transition.

By: jabrams

jabrams — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:52:15 +0000

Thanks Rodney. The US Federation of Worker Co-ops has done a wonderful job, and I have added them as requested.

By: Julie Norris

Julie Norris — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:57:23 +0000

I am so glad to be able to glean your wisdom on a semi-regular basis! I’ve been talking about the “changing economy” in my hometown and have seen a lot of success in the past two weeks with a Community Supported Enterprise (CSE) approach to opening an honest dialog with my patrons. Even though times are tough, we are blessed with an empowering moment of true communication. Good luck with this blog, I look forward to reading more thoughts!

By: Anne Alexander

Anne Alexander — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:24:47 +0000

John – It’s exciting to see you kick off your blog, with amazing thoughts and high quality reflection and writing I have come to expect from you I love your update on what has transpired at South Mountain in the past year. As many others have noted, we don’t need an easy life, we need a meaningful life and South Mountain obviously provides that in the work world for it’s employee/owners. I read a similarly inspiring article (or was it an interview?) in Inc. magazine by Jack Stack, author of The Great Game of Business about how they have prevented lay offs through their collective creativity and commitment.

I appreciate how you have laid out the challenges & opportunities of the next few decades, which I agree are surely to be times of incredible change on our small planet.

On another note, it can be a challenge to keep up a blog, so keep in mind that blog posts are generally shorter and can be very short. We want to keep reading your thoughts, so please keep it up!

By: Will Clarke

Will Clarke — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:04:24 +0000

I read Companies We Keep last winter, and have been anxiously awaiting this blog ever since! One of things I kept wondering as I read the book was: how is all this working out in the now tanked economy? This first entry answers the question, not surprisingly, in a very positive way.

I have a small landscape gardening business, and I’m excited about the possibility of employee ownership. As John predicted in the book, the benefits are less obvious to my employees, than they are to me. I’m hoping that there will be some discussion here, about how to educate potential new co-owners. I’m not sure I can get them all to read the whole book!

Thanks for blogging John!

By: Rodney North

Rodney North — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:37:10 +0000

Thank you for embarking upon this and for letting us know about it. I fully expect that – like your book – there’ll be much here that I’ll want to share with others.

By the way, for your blog roll you might consider The US Federation of Worker Co-ops http://www.usworker.coop
They’ve been working hard to make it easier for the little co-ops to hang in there and grow, and for new entrepreneurs to adopt the worker-owned co-op model.