Faith Morgan

75 Years of Pragmatic Idealism 1940 – 2015 Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions Photo courtesy of Antiochiana, Antioch College. Antioch Antiochiana, of courtesy Photo New Solutions Number 22 • Spring, 2016 CONTENTS Our Work – Susan Jennings 1 Power of Community Film 20 Philosophy of Community – Arthur Morgan 2 Passive House Revolution Film 21 Back to Yellow Springs – Scott Sanders 4 Current Program Areas of Focus 25 Fruits of Vision: 5 The Answer to Energy Poverty is Antioch Student Inspired – Ralph Keyes 5 Community Richness – Peter Bane 26 75 Years of Publications and Films 6 100 Year Plan – Jim Merkel 27 World War II Correspondence Course on Beyond Too Little Too Late – Peter Bane 28 Community – Stephanie Mills 7 Community Assessment Questions – Don Hollister 30 Mitraniketan in India – Lee Morgan 8 Life in Yellow Springs 31 Community Land Trust Pioneer – Emily Seibel 9 A Shared Adventure – Arthur Morgan 31 Ferment of the 1960’s Distilled – Don Hollister 11 Energy Navigators Program – Jonna Johnson 32 A Griscom Passion — Demurrage Economics Environmental Dashboard – Rose Hardesty 33 vs. Compound Interest – John Morgan 12 Tools for Transition – 2015 conference report 34 Jane Morgan Years and Conferences 1975 – 1997 14 Arthur Morgan Award 2015 to Stephanie Mills 36 Marianne MacQueen Reflections 15 Arthur Morgan Award 2014 – William Beale 37 The Community Journal – Krista Magaw 16 Our People, Members, and Supporters Community Solutions to Climate Change Fellows and Board 39 – 40 and Peak Oil – Don Hollister 17 Donors 41 Curtailment and Community – Pat Murphy 17 Sponsors 44 Fossil Fuels vs. Community – Megan Bachman 19 Our 63rd Conference – Charting a New Course 45

New Solutions No. 22 Spring, 2016 Edited by Susan Jennings, Don Hollister and John Morgan. Layout by John Morgan

Founding Purposes of Community Service, Inc. Articles of Incorporation, 1940 The purposes for which the said corporation is formed books, magazines and other periodical articles, newspa- are as follows: per items, newspaper columns, and bulletins; talks, cor- 1. To study the history, nature and possibilities of small respondence, adult education, vocational guidance, and communities as basic cultural units of society, as the education through educational institutions. major sources of population, and as the most persistent 5. The establishment and operation of a school for com- and pervasive media for the preservation and transmis- munity life. sion of fundamental culture. 6. The encouragement of and participation in research, 2. The development of community interest in the need for demonstrations and experiments in community conscious, deliberate effort to understand, to plan for, development. and to develop, the full possibilities of community life 7. For carrying out these purposes, to receive gifts and in cities, small towns and rural areas. bequests, to borrow money, to purchase, sell, lease, 3. To be a clearing house for the collection and dissemina- mortgage, or otherwise to obtain or to dispose of real tion of knowledge and information concerning possi- and personal property. bilities and achievements of community life. Reincorporated in 2009 as 4. Preparation, publishing, issuing and distribution of Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions Our Work – Susan Jennings Arthur Morgan founded Community Service in November author and social observer; and present-day partners and col- 1940 at the tail end of the Great Depression and 13 months laborators, including Jim Merkel, William Beale, and Peter before Pearl Harbor. The times were as unsettled then as Bane. they are today, when interconnected political, environmental, Sifting through and choosing what to put in this collection and economic crises have made the past that we were born has been a daunting task—nearly everyone associated with into seem innocent and irretrievable. Author of dozens of the organization has been a prolific writer. Though boxes books and pamphlets, President of Antioch College, and first of Community Service-related books and papers have been Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Morgan was an donated to Antioch College and Antioch University Midwest, engineer, a decentralist, a utopian, a pacifist, and a Quaker. In our office shelves are still filled with pamphlets, newslet- addition to being lauded in a eulogy as the greatest American ters, books, and compilations. Our media has evolved from of his time, one biographer called Morgan a ‘pragmatic ideal- mimeographed newsletters and hand-illustrated pamphlets to ist’. In his “Philosophy of Community,” included in this col- YouTube videos, full-length films, and Kindle editions of CS lection, Morgan wrote: publications, yet our message continues to point to the small To a very large degree the failures of our lives are due community as the ‘seedbed of democracy’ and the antidote to globalization. Our recent gathering, Tools for Transition, not so much to the inherent limitations of human nature or nd human mastery of the physical world, as to the poor visions was the 62 conference hosted by Community Solutions, but or patterns of life which we live by. The world today is show- the conversations and presentations would have been famil- ing vast capacity to develop and organize its resources and to iar to our founder. Morgan started the first Yellow Springs indoctrinate peoples with political and social purposes, yet Exchange, an alternative currency, in 1934, and today, the how distorted or primitive are the dreams or patterns of life organization is a founding member of the new Yellow Springs to which these vast efforts are committed. Even among the Exchange. Our global focus likewise spans the decades, allied nations, what a mixture of visions we have—imperial- from Arthur Morgan’s impact on higher education in India, ism, vested privilege, economic ambition, ancient feudalism, through our focus on Cuban community and German build- dictatorship and vestiges of the un-Holy Roman Empire, ing techniques, through to our current film which highlights along with various immature and partial visions of democ- Kerala in India, Cuba, Slovenia and Vietnam. racy, freedom, tolerance and goodwill. The chief limitations We hope that what we’ve chosen to share here offers a of humanity are in its visions, not in power of great achieve- snapshot of the richness of our history, the clarity of our ment in realizing them. vision, and the catalyzing force of community. Today, Community Solutions is moving into our next 75 years as a The twin threads of pragmatism and idealism are woven throughout Community Solutions’ 75-year history, a history of envisioning vibrant futures, and attending to the patterns of life that will get us there. In these pages you’ll meet many pragmatic idealists. In addition to Arthur Morgan, they include Viswanathan, founder of Mitraneketan; Griscom Morgan, originator of the term “intentional community;” Jane Morgan who nurtured a far flung network of community builders; Marianne MacQueen, village leader in Yellow Springs; Pat Murphy, whose concern with peak oil and climate change spurred the organization to focus on energy curtailment; Faith Morgan whose films highlight ways of energy transition; Don Hollister, co-founding publisher of Communities magazine; Megan Bachman, writer; Stephanie Mills, bioregional thinker and biographer of Bob Swann, Community Service staffer and community land trust pioneer; Ralph Keyes, Photo by Faith Morgan

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 1 vibrant and purpose-filled organization. You can read about ing human society to exist, if at all, on another plane—of our current work, and about our friends, Board Members, power, skillful design and external controls, on the basis of Fellows, and partners in the final third of this collection. We “enlightened selfishness” rather than of being motivated by a are strengthened by our visions of a future that is healthy for spirit of goodwill, brotherhood and mutual confidence. . . . all who share our planet, while cognizant of the long shadow Yet the time may not be very long. Humanity is in flux. New that humanity now lives within and casts on the broader patterns will emerge. If some of those are inherently sound biotic and planetary community. their support may grow more rapidly than we expect. There In the last chapter of The Community of the Future and are qualities in humanity which crave freedom, dignity, Future of Community, published in 1957, Arthur Morgan good will, absence of suspicion and strategy. People will tend wrote: to congregate where those are in evidence or to support them where they appear. . . . We have a deep foreboding that perhaps the recognition To insure that the spirit of community is not lost is the of the value of community has come too late. Perhaps the adventure on which we are engaged. currents of life that are running against it are so strong that the pattern of community will be entirely washed away, leav- We look forward to sharing this adventure with you.

The Philosophy of Community – Arthur E. Morgan There is much wisdom in the saying, “Beware what you rialism, vested privilege, economic ambition, ancient feudal- dream in your youth, for those dreams may be fulfilled dur- ism, dictatorship and vestiges of the un-Holy Roman Empire, ing the years.” To a very large degree the failures of our lives along with various immature and partial visions of democ- are due not so much to the inherent limitations of human racy, freedom, tolerance and goodwill. The chief limitations nature or human mastery of the physical world, as to the poor of humanity are in its visions, not in power of great achieve- visions or patterns of life which we live by. The world today ment in realizing them. is showing vast capacity to develop and organize its resources The same is true as to community. By and large the and to indoctrinate peoples with political and social purposes, American community is a fair expression of the dreams or yet how distorted or primitive are the dreams or patterns of the social philosophy of those who have created it and who life to which these vast efforts are committed. Even among lived in it. In its physical layout of streets, blocks, and lots it the allied nations, what a mixture of visions we have—impe- expresses the vision generally held by those who drafted the legislation which controls the plotting of land for municipalities, and of those who actually laid out the towns. Had there been a clear vision the public need for areas for recreation and other public use, and of the rights of the public to such places, 10 or 20 per cent of such areas might have been provided for those purposes. In many hundreds of cases men or corporations have created the towns of their dreams. We see the minds of those creators revealed in the long dreary rows of company shacks or of multiple houses in mining and manufacturing towns. In towns like Gary we see the fullest expression of visions of modern industrial technology, along with expressions of pathetically rudimentary social vision. Even many “ideal” industrial towns reflect well-intentioned but immature and totally inadequate philosophy of what constitutes community. When people in an unforced, democratic manner give expression to their vision of community they often do somewhat better; but how inadequate to the full realization of human personality is the average prosperous farming village. The vision of what constitutes community still is rudimentary. By and large, we repeat, our limitation is in our vision or philosophy of what community might be, not in our ability to give our philosophy expression.

2 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 Therefore we say again that great communities will not philosophy of community life. Every essential human need and cannot appear in America except as a great philosophy of and aspiration must have a place in it. There must be sense of community life emerges. No such philosophy exists at pres- fitness and proportion, of beauty, discipline, and aspiration. ent. It will not spring full and complete from the brain of any An adequate economic basis for community life must be genius. It will grow gradually by the contributions of many envisaged in that philosophy, but must not be over-empha- minds and personalities and by much experience. sized. Education, cultural development, recreation, ethical refinement, health—all must have place. A spirit of full, free inquiry must be related to stability of purpose and of action. Social interdependence must be harmonized with respect for There must be conscious, deliberate effort to individuality and for privacy. Community autonomy must achieve a full, adequate, humane, sensitive be maintained along with inter-relations of communities, and and sophisticated philosophy of community communities must be integrated with regions, nations and the world. life. Every essential human need and The philosophy of community will find expression, not aspiration must have a place in it. There must in vague aspiration, but in specific community projects, and be sense of fitness and proportion, of beauty, in daily work and self-mastery. A philosophy which does not find such expression ceases to be a vision and becomes vision- discipline, and aspiration. ary. A program of practical effort which does not constantly and repeatedly appraise that effort in the light of an overall philosophy, as the builder of a great structure constantly refers Yet time alone will not produce such a philosophy. to his plans and conforms to them, will soon begin to mar the Uninspired time brings its values, but also its senseless taboos design, and perhaps irretrievably pervert and debase it. and monstrosities. There must be conscious, deliberate effort America needs to give attention to the philosophy of to achieve full, adequate, humane, sensitive and sophisticated community.

The Greatest American – Aaron Purcell On December 14th, 1975, senior minister Donald S. Harrington addressed the members of the Community Church of New York City. He began the sermon with a simple question: “Who will history record as having been the greatest American of our age?” After a discussion of what constitutes greatness and how to measure significance, he concluded that, “the greatest of them was a man whose name you may never have heard. He died last month in the little village of Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he lived most of his life, and he was in his ninety-eight year.” Harrington continued, “There are some who would consider him to have been a failure, for he lived to see some of his dreams discarded or damaged and distorted by less able, less honorable men.” Then Harrington proclaimed that “the greatest American of our time—was Arthur Ernest Morgan.” During the hour that followed, the minister described and celebrated the life and legacies of a largely-forgotten figure in American history. Harrington closed the sermon saying, “Of all the gifts that he had left behind, there is nothing more powerful or more beautiful than his life itself, which shines like a great star in the dark skies of our time. He was, in all truth, the greatest American of our time.”

Aaron Purcell is the author of Arthur Morgan: A Progressive Vision for American Reform and Director of Special Collections at Virginia Tech University.

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 3 Back to Yellow Springs – a Far Reaching Life Comes Home to Reach Farther

Given his lifetime of accomplish- Army Corps of Engineers, they most attracted industrialists such as Sergius ments, few would have blamed Arthur always worked, and in the case of the Vernet of Vernay Laboratories to Yellow Morgan for choosing retirement fol- Miami Valley, his solution has held Springs and inspired many an Antioch lowing his high profile dismissal in back floods for a century. Along with graduate to found businesses that 1938 at the hands of no less a person ingenious engineering, Morgan further directly serve their own communities. than the President of the United States. brought a keen sense of the law to the Though he retained his office at Conversely, few would have suspected job, conceiving of a plan for regional Antioch College until 1936, after 1933 that, at that point in his already emi- flood control that became the Ohio Morgan had little time to concentrate nently productive life, his most person- Conservancy Act of 1914 and has since on college affairs. That year President of ally satisfying accomplishments were been copied around the country. the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt yet to be achieved. Morgan had directly As he was also vice president of had appointed him to the directorate of observed the urbanization of the the American Unitarian Association, the Tennessee Valley Authority, perhaps United States and found it wanting (the he was appointed trustee of Antioch the most ambitious public works project U.S. Census first reported a majority of College in 1919 to look after Unitarian in human history. Bringing many of the Americans living in cities in 1920), and interests there. Though not trained as lessons he learned in the Miami Valley, so he began to champion small town an educator, he had long maintained Morgan’s TVA boasted low accident life as “the seedbed of American civi- an interest, was an active member of rates, high worker morale, and ingenious lization” by establishing Community the national Progressive Education solutions to tame the wild Tennessee Service, Inc. in 1940. Association and a collaborator with River. To house the project’s workers, Arthur E. Morgan (1878-1975) other civic leaders in establishing the he established the permanent city of was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and inventive, project-based Moraine Park Norris. Morgan ran afoul of New Deal raised in Northern Minnesota. With School in 1913. By 1920 he had for- politics, however, and in 1938 he was a formal education limited to just mulated a plan for “industrial educa- fired by President Franklin Roosevelt for three years of high school and six tion,” which stressed on-campus study insubordination and returned to Yellow weeks at the University of Colorado, alternated with off-campus work, Springs. He maintained a strong inter- Morgan seemed an unlikely author, broad general education, and personal est in Antioch College for the rest of his engineer, and college president. He development in the student. His fel- life, serving as a trustee for many years had instead received a broad experi- low trustees declared him the obvious and a perennial lecturer. In retirement ential education, as a logger, surveyor, choice for president, and asked him to he founded Community Service, Inc., to ranch hand, miner, typesetter, and take the job. He became a tireless pro- devote the full measure of his remaining even a beekeeper. It was in his father’s moter, launching the “New Antioch” energies to promoting recognition and engineering practice, however, that into prominence in the national press. development of the small community, Morgan discovered his calling. In He fostered a climate of creativity for an effort to which the organization 1910 he formed Morgan Engineering Antioch, inviting research concerns remains dedicated to this day. Company, quickly developing a such as the Fels Institute for the Study national reputation for brilliant of Human Development and Kettering By Scott Sanders, Antiochiana and Morgan flood-control solutions. In 1913 he Laboratories to do their work on the Papers Archivist for 20 years, he is author of was appointed Chief Engineer of the campus. Morgan’s entrepreneurial spirit Antioch: An Episodic History. Miami Conservancy District, an enormous dam building project in Dayton, Ohio, following that city’s historic, devastating flood. Morgan devised unorthodox flood control solutions, such as the placement of “dry reservoirs” behind the MCD dams that served as public parks when not holding back floodwaters and a system of model worker’s settlements. While his designs frequently found him at odds with other experts, most notably the

4 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 Fruits of Vision Though Arthur Morgan was seen by the British for his leading Christian lished a regular newsletter or journal, some in his middle career at Antioch missionaries during the 1930’s in held an annual conference and main- College and the TVA as auto- support of the Gandhian indepen- tained wide ranging consultation and cratic and domineering, the record dence movement; Robert Swann who correspondence with similarly minded shows that at Community Service later promoted the community land individuals and organizations. The he attracted a talented staff and trust model through his Institute fruit of this work is reflected in the worked with them as respected col- for Community Economics and the lives of the few thousand people who leagues. Besides his son Griscom and Schumacher Center. Imagine, for applied ideas and information from daughter-in-law Jane Moore Morgan, instance, such a team conversing at a CS programs and publications in their early staff included Eleanor Switzer staff luncheon in 1948 while Morgan daily lives in their home communi- who after 16 years with Community was serving on the Higher Education ties—for generations. Although there Service became co-editor of the Commission of India. is no definitive way to measure the Yellow Springs News; Ralph Templin For 75 years Community Service, results of this kind of work, we share who had been expelled from India by now Community Solutions, has pub- in this booklet a few of their stories.

Antioch Student Inspired to be a Writer and Social Observer When I studied at Antioch I’d see Arthur Morgan in the It: Why We Take Risks; Timelock: How Life Got So Hectic study window of his home near the college, a tall, serious man and What You Can Do About It; Whoever Makes the Most who nearly always wore a suit jacket and tie as he crouched Mistakes Wins: The Paradox of Innovations; The Post-Truth Era: Dishonesty and Deception in Contemporary Life. over his typewriter. For one of my co-op jobs I helped him research a book on the Army Corps of Engineers. This three- month assignment lasted for 15 months. Other than my parents, no one influenced me more than Arthur Morgan. The main gift I took away from him was a sense of openness, of possibilities, and of curiosity. Among Morgan’s conviction was that one ought to regularly reevaluate one’s basic assump- tions. In a letter he wrote while I worked for him, Morgan told his correspondent that for the first time in a long time he had no engagement on his calendar that evening. Instead of spending a pleasant evening at home, however, he was going to hear a lecture on Martin Buber. “I should like to know what I have been missing,” he wrote. “It is desirable now and then to listen again to views one has discarded.” Before going to work for him I’d been warned that Morgan was getting senile. During my period as his assistant, I only saw him grow vague when talking with people he didn’t want to talk to. I seldom left a conversation with this 87-year-old man without feeling my own mind expanded. Morgan felt firmly that brain cells needed exercise no less than muscle cells (a belief recently confirmed by research). I fully believe I’m a freelance writer today because this self-edu- cated engineer, college president, author, and visionary taught me by example that there is no reason not to pursue interests as broad as the range of your curiosity.

By Ralph Keyes, author of We, the Lonely People: Searching for Community; Is There Life After High School?; Chancing

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 5 75 Years of Publications Periodicals The Community of the Future (1956) Community Service Pamphlets: Community Service News 1942 –1957 (Published by Community Service) Bottom Up Democracy (1954) Community Comments 1959 – 1969 Observations (1968) Reprinted from CS News volume XII Community Service Newsletter Dams and Other Disasters: A Century numbers 3 & 4 1970 – 1998 of the Army Corps of Engineers in It Can Be Done in Education, Arthur Civil Works (1971) Morgan, (1962) revised (1966) The Making of the T.V.A. (1974) The Heritage of Community (1956), reprinted 1971 Books by Pat Murphy: The Shape of Things to Come (1981) The Peak Oil War (2005) Compendium of Land Trust Plan C: Community Survival Documents, (1981), from School of Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Living/Downhill Farm (1976) Change (2008) Hope for the Future, The Green Tragedy: Griscom Morgan (1987) LEED’s Lost Community Journal 1999 – 2003 Guidebook for Intentional Decade (2009) New Solutions 2004 – current Community, Griscom Morgan, ed. Spinning Our (1988) Wheels (2010) Revised from An Intentional Community Handbook 1978 The Human Scale in Schools, Griscom Morgan & Earl Holliday (1988 ) (expanded from 1970) Intentional Community and the Folk Society, Griscom Morgan, ed., (1971 & 1991) Future of Cities and The Future of Man, (1993) (revised from Dec. 1971 Books by Arthur Morgan: Community Comments) My World (1927) The Seed Man (1932) The Long Road (1936) Films directed by Faith The Small Community Morgan: (1943) The Power of Community—How (new edition by Cuba Survived Peak Oil (2006) Community Service 1984) Passive House Revolution (2013) Edward Bellamy: A Biography (1944) Nowhere Was Somewhere (1946) A Business of My Own (1945) Climate Solutions Channel The Idea of a Rural University (1949) The Miami Conservancy District 1951 Industries for Small Communities (1953) (Published by Community Service) Search for Purpose (1956)

6 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 World War II Correspondence Course on Community – Stephanie Mills Arthur Morgan, these days lamentably moved into cities could cities survive.” munities that would function much little known, was at the time of his Peace, Civil Rights, and the Search for in the timeless ways of villages, yet flourishing in the first half of the 20th Community: An Autobiography by be modern. He concluded The Small century celebrated for both his civil Robert Swann. Community with this reflection on the engineering and his work as an educa- In addi- interplay of scale and freedom. tor. His flood control projects around tion to a close the country include a system of dry reading of his The genius of democracy is to eliminate compulsion to uniformity, reservoirs still protecting Dayton, Ohio book The Small whether that compulsion be physi- from floods; he was the first chair of Community, cal force or social pressure, and to the Tennessee Valley Authority; he was Morgan’s syl- develop common outlooks and aims President of Antioch College from 1920 labus for the by mutual inquiry, mutual respect, until 1936. course required and mutual regard. That process Wonderful to say, Arthur Morgan, then current th seldom if ever takes place on a large one of those 20 century decentralist books and scale. Rapid large-scale changes gen- luminaries whom Bob Swann regarded pamphlets on erally come by ignoring individual as “something of a folk hero,” became rural community, democracy, social variations and by enforcing large-scale a preceptor to the imprisoned COs in organization and government. Reports uniformities. True democracy results Ashland and other Federal prisons. He of the Ohio Farm Bureau’s advisory from intimate relations and under- offered them a correspondence course council meetings, works on the coop- standing, with the emergence of com- in the small community. His curricu- erative movement, adult education, mon purposes. The community is lum consisted of writings that went credit unions and eugenics were in the the natural home of democracy, and with the grain of human dignity and list. Among the major works assigned, it can be the home of tolerance and nature’s patterns as well. books big enough to undergird a com- freedom. Teachers live for good students, mon faith, were Liberty Hyde Bailey’s and Morgan was an inveterate educa- The existence of those virtues in tor. Recognizing that the COs were a society’s members, Morgan believed, self-selected, extraordinarily principled was largely a function of the scale and group of men, he invited them, by mail, The genius of democracy moral quality of their communities. to become his students. This story has is to eliminate compulsion The long road of character formation yet to be fully told. Dozens of men in has to be traveled in community and prison or work camp because of their to uniformity, whether that entails sobriety and self-sacrifice, quali- religious or conscientious objection to compulsion be physical force ties that may, in a world where resources war took this course during the World or social pressure . . . and energy grow scarcer, have to come War II years. Bob Swann describes the to the fore. This passage from Morgan’s course thus in his autobiography: “For The Long Road is as resonant today as it me, the most important experience of was when it was uttered in 1936: my prison term was a correspondence The Holy Earth, Lewis Mumford’s The For Americans as a whole, the course organized by the COs. Fifteen Culture of Cities and Peter Kropotkin’s great need of the coming years in of us studied a book called The Small Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. whatever field they may work, is the Community by Arthur Morgan. The Throughout the course Morgan’s own building of great character, the defin- book was the fruition of Morgan’s writings and his extensive comments ing and clarifying of purposes and life work. He once said that he had on the papers would sound a baseline motives, the development of integrity searched all his life for the lever which of discipline and prudence, as well as a and open dealing, the increase of self- could change or mold character, and concern for practicality and application. discipline, the tempering of body and he decided that the secret lay in the Morgan’s championing of the small spirit to endure hardship, the growth small community. He called the community may have been idealistic of courage, the practice of tolerance, concept ‘a seedbed of civilization.’ An but was not utopian or sentimental. He the habit of acting for the general important premise for the book was his sifted through history, sociology and good, and the growth of human idea that cities weren’t self-renewing; his own working experience to distill a understanding and neighborly affec- only because people from rural areas program for the development of com- tion and regard.

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 7 Mitraniketan – an educational community in India – Lee Morgan This account by Lee Morgan, grandson Viswan had studied at Tagore’s col- The changes! Oh what changes! In of Arthur Morgan, introduces perhaps lege, Sanitiketan, and the Quaker com- the early ’60s there was no radio, no Arthur’s proudest success, the work munity Pendle Hill in Pennsylvania. electricity, no television and no running of Viswanathan in Kerala, India, fea- He lived for several months with water. The closest phone was six miles tured in the booklet It Can Be Done in Arthur Morgan, attended courses at away. The closest paved road was two Education by Arthur Morgan. Arthur Antioch College, and worked briefly was the initial patron and fundraiser for at the Antioch Bookplate. Viswan Mitraniketan. also visited Danish folk schools and I’m not sure if Viswan other European contacts which Arthur How did the Morgan family get Morgan had. ever heard of an idea for involved in Mitraniketan in the first In 1956, Viswan returned to improving the quality of life place? his home village of Vellanad in the in rural India that he didn’t After an illustrious career in flood Southern Indian state of Kerala to pur- control and education in the U. S., sue his dream of a rural, educational, think was worth a try. Arthur Morgan was appointed to the community development project. The first India Education Commission. project was called Mitraniketan, or The Commission convened in the late “abode of friends.” The idea had strong miles away, and a trip to Trivandrum, ’40s, soon after Indian independence, roots in Arthur Morgan’s ideas, and about 15 miles away, was an exhausting and was chaired by the first president of Arthur Morgan was the earliest sup- all-day affair. Latrines were few and India, Radhakrishnan. porter of Mitraniketan, becoming far between and sit-down toilets—well At the time of the commission, Viswan’s good friend. The Morgan sup- I can’t remember any. The fields were about 75% of the Indian population port for Mitraniketan has transcended tilled with water buffalo and goods lived in rural India. Arthur Morgan three generations of Arthur’s family moved by bullock cart. There were advocated setting up rural educational and two generations of Viswan’s fam- concerns about malnutrition and, institutions. His first ally in that idea ily. Viswan died in 2014 and has been in the mid-’60s, about serious food was a fellow Commission member, succeeded by his widow, Sethu, and shortages. Zakir Husein. Husein went on to son-in-law, Reghu Ram Das. become Vice President and then the That has all changed. second president of India, as well as a My personal association with The roads are paved right to good friend of Morgan’s. The result of Mitraniketan Mitraniketan. Cell phones are ubiqui- Arthur Morgan’s idea was the establish- On January 1st, 1961, at the age tous. Electricity, TV, and radios are the ment of 13 rural universities in India. of 17, I walked across the border from norm. There is direct bus service from Arthur Morgan was considered an Pakistan into India and traveled in Mitraniketan to Trivandrum. Latrines influential and innovative educational India for a month before ending up for are almost as ubiquitous as are cell leader in India. In the years that fol- two months at Mitraniketan as a guest phones and, at Mitraniketan, there are lowed the Commission, there was a of Viswan and his family. At that time numerous sit-down toilets. In many steady trickle of Indians visiting him Mitraniketan consisted mostly of farm- homes there is cold running water. in Yellow Springs. One of those was K. ing and after-school enrichment activi- There are almost no water buffalo and Viswanathan, known as Viswan. ties for local youth. most recently I did not see any bullock In 1965, with the support of carts. Agricultural production has the Unitarian Universalist Service jumped way up, and there is no talk of Committee, I returned to Mitraniketan food shortages or malnutrition. for two years to manage a printing I am struck by the programs that operation that had been purchased have come and gone over the years. I’m with funds from Dutch friends. not sure if Viswan ever heard of an Perhaps my most enlightening work idea for improving the quality of life was doing the bookkeeping for in rural India that he didn’t think was Mitraniketan for a few months. I worth a try. This was facilitated by a have returned many times since, most steady stream of visitors from all over recently in October, 2014. the world, from the Dalai Lama to the

8 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 wonderful successes. Of Mahatma Gandhi, who modeled course, many national chal- the behaviors and life style to which lenges remain—among Viswan aspired, including his politi- them solid waste disposal, cal engagement, and Arthur Morgan, environmental protection, who provided ideas and support for and increasing sectarianism Mitraniketan from the very beginning. all over India. If you visit Mitraniketan, you will find Viswan was fueled by a portraits of these three men promi- wonderful optimism about nently displayed for everyone to see. the nature of humankind. The optimism included just Lee Morgan is former President of the about everyone, regardless Antioch Publishing Company and former Chairman of the Antioch College Board of Viswan and Lee of the many things that Trustees. divide people. Viswan lived Vice President of India. Viswan was his life in one small geographical area prepared for Mitraniketan to be a test but his vision was global. site for new varieties of crops, agricul- At the center of Mitraniketan was tural techniques, and infrastructure Viswan’s vision for education. Like development—including irrigation, his vision of the world, Viswan’s edu- water systems and environmental stew- cation work was all-inclusive: young, ardship. Programs have ranged from old, men, women, rich, poor, local, formal schooling to craft shops, agri- foreign—all were invited to partici- cultural research to indigenous music, pate as both students and teachers. biogas production, incense production, The three major influences in a medical center, and an eco-campus Viswan’s life were: Rabindranath project. There were a multitude of Tagore, who founded Santiniketan experiments, a lot of failures, and some where Viswan went to school, Sethu and Viswan

Community Land Trust Pioneer – Emily Seibel Community land trusts are nonprofit Community Solutions, and the Village and Branches: A Gardener’s Guide to the organizations where a charitable trust of Yellow Springs. Origins and Evolution of the Community owns land as a means of securing long- In The Community Land Trust Land Trust (http://greenfordable.com/ term assets to empower individuals Reader, author John Emmeus Davis clt/), the Hall of Fame is reserved for and communities. The primary vehicle points to Arthur Morgan, self-taught individuals and groups who have: of change is permanently affordable educator, engineer, social planner, • “Demonstrated an extraordinary housing. The roots of the community Community Solutions founder, and degree of innovation, leadership, com- land trust are deep and varied, with a Antioch College president. Morgan mitment, and vision in service to the strong foundation in the civil rights believed that “a great home needs to be community land trust movement; movement. supplemented by a great community”– • “Achieved identifiable and lasting Community land trusts are based on a concept he wrote about in perhaps changes to promote CLTs; and a composite of philosophies, critiques, his most influential book, The Small • “Inspired and persuaded others to and social movements spanning multi- Community: Foundation of a Democratic incorporate values and features of the ple continents and cultures. The model Life. Morgan was instrumental in lay- CLT model in their own work.” addresses fundamental questions about ing the groundwork for the community the nature of poverty, our relationship land trust (CLT) model. As noted on the “Roots and with the land, how we might achieve Morgan’s invaluable contributions Branches” website, after an engineering racial and economic equality, and the emphasized community-oriented land career designing flood control dams interaction between the individual and stewardship. Morgan was recently in Dayton and the Midwest, he served the community. The movement has inducted into the Community Land for more than 15 years as president historic ties with Arthur E. Morgan, Trust Hall of Fame. According to Roots of Antioch College. In 1933, he was

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 9 appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt as Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). While at the helm, Morgan “seized the opportunity to realize his vision of an ideal community, a utopian dream influenced by the writings of Edward Bellamy and by Morgan’s familiarity with the Garden Cities of England and the single-tax colony in Fairhope, Alabama (where his eldest son had attended the School of Organic Education).” He then oversaw construction of a planned community in Norris, Tennessee, to house Photo by John Morgan dam workers. The land was 50th Reunion at Arthur Morgan School in Celo Community owned by TVA, and leased for both residential and commercial as Community Solutions) to “promote “Village Gift” movement influenced uses. In 1938, Morgan “made a second his ideas about economic development by Gandhi. In 1969, the two worked attempt to establish a planned commu- and social improvement centered on with the National Sharecropper’s nity on leased land.” With the help of a small-scale enterprises, small towns, Fund, Charles and Shirley Chicago philanthropist, he purchased and family life,” furthered the CLT Sherrod, and others to form New 1,200 acres near Asheville, NC. A non- model. A correspondence course based Communities, Inc.—the nation’s very profit owned the land, while Morgan on his teachings inspired Bob Swann, first CLT. developed a leased-land settlement he another pioneer of the CLT movement. New Communities, Inc. was called the Celo Community. Inspired by the writings of Arthur intended to rebuild self-sufficient, com- His son Griscom Morgan went on E. Morgan, Swann came to Yellow munity driven, rural economies on to establish the Vale Community near Springs in 1944 to work for a year at leased land. According to Davis, with Yellow Springs, an early form of a CLT. Community Service. Drawn to the New Communities, Inc. Swann and Both Celo and Vale continue today. southern civil rights movement, Swann King started a movement that they Arthur Morgan’s work through eventually began working with Slater believed “might have the making of a Community Service, Inc. (now known King, cousin to Dr. Martin Luther land reform program capable of easing King, Jr. in the the residential and economic plight of south. African Americans living in the rural While engag- South.” With holdings of almost 6,000 ing in a five-year acres, New Communities was the larg- conversation about est tract of black-owned land in the land reform and country at the time. economic self- In 1999, then Community Service sufficiency for Executive Director, Marianne African Americans, MacQueen launched a non-profit hous- King and Swann ing development corporation on the drew inspiration CLT model, Yellow Springs Home, Inc. from the Jewish For more information on that initiative National Fund’s visit yshome.org. cooperative agricultural com- Emily Seibel is Executive Director of Yellow Springs Home, Inc. Photo by John Morgan munities and the Barn raising at Arthur Morgan School Indian Gramdan

10 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 The Ferment of the 1960’s Distilled – Don Hollister Arthur Morgan saw community as the initiatives in Yellow Springs. Morgan director when Arthur stopped traveling vehicle for long-term cultural change saw Yellow Springs, and later the edu- and began writing retrospective books: and as the key to fostering a better way cational community of Mitraniketan Dams and Other Disasters, a critical his- of living. In founding Community in Kerala, India, as evolving models for tory of the Army Corps of Engineers; Service (CS), Arthur aimed to establish communities of the future. Rather than The Story of the TVA; and the unpub- a center for promoting attention to presenting a prescription for a utopia, lished Wholemanism. Jane, in turn, the small community. He saw it as an a specific ideal village model, Arthur became director in the mid 1970s and ancient and universal pattern that was promoted the processes of community continued through 1997, nearly 25 years. suffering in our modern industrial- review, self-awareness, critical ized and urbanizing world. Others in thinking, and open discussion. the 1940s and ’50s shared his concern The broad arc of our civiliza- about community and postwar settle- tion seems to have continued ment patterns. By the 1960s, Rural on the path of social disintegra- Sociology, Community Development, tion. The prevailing view still and Community Organizing had seems to be that bigger is better. become professional labels and career Robert Putnam tries to quantify networks. this continued trajectory in his Though Arthur advocated for the book Bowling Alone. He shows revival of small towns and neighbor- that membership in traditional hoods in such books as The Small civic and social organizations

Community and Community of the has declined. However, there are Photo: by John Morgan Future, he also saw more broadly many examples of more hopeful Jane and Griscom in the mid ’60s and more deeply into the future. He growth. For a child growing up expressed this in his books, The in one place, it only takes one close-knit During the 1930s, while Arthur Long Road, Community – Seedbed of neighborhood, one vigorous village, was at the TVA, Griscom spent time Democracy, and The Great Community. to serve as a living example of caring at Highlander Folk School (now the He felt that the village, the small local for others, respect for one’s neighbors, Highlander Research and Education community, would be fundamental to and sensitivity to strangers. We may Center) and with its leader, social activ- a social and cultural renewal. indeed be in a crumbling civilization, ist and early civil rights icon Myles but small local communities can be Horton. Griscom’s Quaker upbringing the seeds for new patterns of living that and his time at Highlander seem to We may indeed be in a will be better able to adapt to chang- have shaped his informal, open-ended crumbling civilization, but ing times. This brings us back to the style of group gatherings, in which even original premise in the founding of large conference sessions were likely to small local communities Community Service: that the combe seated in a circle. Griscom wrote on can be the seeds for new munity is the medium for social and many subjects and worked with many patterns of living. cultural evolution, where children learn allied organizations over a fifty-year behavioral norms and adults can share period. experiences and evaluate the impact of In 1972, the Morgans recruited In addition to writing, he worked each other’s behavior--over generations. Arthur Morgan’s biographer, Roy by encouraging others. Community Talbert, to move from Vanderbilt to Service became an institution that Arthur’s son Griscom and daughter- Yellow Springs to serve as Director of CS. helped individuals and organizations in-law Jane Morgan were involved Talbert resigned after one month and around the country serve their own with Community Service, for most of Griscom resumed as director. Talbert’s neighborhoods and towns. In the their adult lives. While Arthur Morgan former wife, Marianne MacQueen, 1940s and ’50s, while Arthur and oth- served as director until the mid 1960s, joined the staff. Kathryn Layh (now ers on the CS staff toured the country, Griscom and Jane were engaged in the Kathryn Hitchcock), Don Hollister, speaking to church groups and com- writing and programs of Community and Griscom’s daughter, Faith Morgan, munity councils, they also encouraged Service all along. Griscom became were hired. Staff all worked part-time

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 11 size for social interaction, opposition to school consolidation, Intentional Communities Ralph Borsodi’s school of living model, Gandhian education, and the work of the Highlander Center. After Jane regained “The term ‘intentional community’ originated from a her health, the community engagement that informed their meeting held during the 1949 Community Service Con- ideas on education included her teaching in The Vale School ference which was attended by around sixty people from for 35 years and Griscom’s involvement in such organizations over the world. A group of people were delegated the task as the Ohio Coalition for Educational Alternatives Now, and of defining and naming the common subject of shared the Folk Colleges Association of America. interest. The term ‘intentional’ was chosen to emphasize the basic characteristic of intent, purpose and commit- . . . the people’s college is also needed, organized around ment. . . . This was the beginning of the continuing orga- vision, not around some buildings, a board of trustees con- nization of the Fellowship of Intentional communities.” trolling an endowment, or a modified academic curriculum. – Griscom Morgan in The Guidebook for Intentional Only those who see can lead, . . . Without vision, as the Communities prophet said, the people will perish. – Griscom Morgan Population Density in Schools and Cities for Community Service and had parallel projects of their own. Griscom believed that there is an optimum range of Marianne founded the Yellow Springs Infant Center, and Don human density for our schools, cities and communities. became co-publisher of Communities magazine. A healthy society requires social control within groups or During the counterculture ferment of the late 1960s communities small enough that people can know each other and early 70s, hundreds of communes and other experi- well. For each species of animal, biologists have found that mental communities sprang up across the continent. CS if groups are enlarged beyond a certain limit, social order became a destination for individuals “searching for com- breaks down. Among human beings this has always been munity.” Griscom’s writings and his leadership in The Vale true. . . . For some time ecologists have been gathering infor- intentional community and in the Fellowship of Intentional mation on the effects of crowding on lower animals—effects Communities (FIC) made him a personality in that move- similar to that of our modern school systems on children ment. He was a co-founder of the Homer Morris Loan Fund and teachers. The findings are that animals . . . are disas- that provided seed money for business ventures in intentional trously affected by crowding. . . . Susceptibility to disease, communities and was a regular participant at the annual mental and emotional breakdown in health and impairment meetings of the Fund and FIC until 1986. of parenthood all increase as the group grows beyond the Education. optimum size. – Griscom Morgan Griscom and Jane edited the “Education for Community” Griscom wrote repeatedly about this and his concern that section of Community Service News until Jane contracted population density in our cities is too high for optimum social polio in 1953. Enduring themes included the experience of and individual health. N.F.S. Grundtvig’s Danish folk schools, optimum school

A Griscom Passion — Demurrage Economics vs. Compound Interest – John Morgan My father, Griscom Morgan, had the passionate conviction and Islam all had prohibitions against usury (interest). that structural changes to our economic system could greatly According to Wikipedia: “Historically in Christian societies, alleviate our persistent problems of poverty, exploitation, the and in many Islamic societies today, charging any interest at concentration of wealth, and economic boom and bust cycles. all can be considered usury.” He believed that free markets can be made to work without Economist Michael Hudson explains that the problem of the shortcomings of capitalism or the stifling disadvantages compound interest used to be more widely recognized: of centralized planning. He repeatedly promoted his ideas in . . . There developed throughout the ancient Near East Community Service publications, correspondence, and letters a tradition of clean-slate edicts, which “proclaimed jus- to editors. tice”. . . and “righteousness” by canceling debts and restoring Griscom used to point out that a penny, invested at 5% forfeited land to farmers. Clean-slate proclamations date compound interest at the time of Jesus, would long ago have from . . . around 2400 years BCE. Eventually, the tradition been worth the weight of the earth in gold. (Today it would became known as the Jubilee Year. . . . be worth about 47.4 million earths in gold.)1 Recognizing the [Jubilee Years] were a conservative tradition in Bronze Age inherent problem with interest, early Christianity, Judaism, Mesopotamia for 2,000 years. . . . [Eventually] the idea of

12 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 progress . . . [came] to connote . . . freedom for the wealthy to more so to those who sell their time, 100 percent of which deprive the peasantry of their lands and personal liberty. . . . disappears each day it goes unsold). The result is an increas- Rome was the first society not to cancel its debts. . . . ing polarization of wealth because everyone essentially pays a Classical historians such as Plutarch, Livy, and Diodorus tribute to the owners of money. attributed Rome’s decline and fall to the fact that creditors Gesell advocated currency decay as a device for decou- got the entire economy in their debt, expropriated the land pling money as a store-of-value from money as a medium and public domain, and strangled the economy.2 of exchange. Money would no longer be preferred to physical capital. The result, he foresaw, would be an end to the Charles Eisenstein, author of Sacred Economics, (2011) artificial scarcity and economic depression that happens explains the detrimental impacts of our present system: when there are plenty of goods to be exchanged but a lack . . . It may be more in our “rational self-interest” to liqui- of money by which to exchange them. His proposal would date all natural capital right now—cash in the earth—than force money to circulate. No longer would the owners of to preserve it for future generations. . . If this seems like an money have an incentive to withhold it from the economy, outlandish fantasy, consider that it is exactly what we are waiting for scarcity to build up to the point where returns doing today! . . . We are making the insane but rational on real capital exceed the rate of interest. . . . [Gesell called choice to incinerate our natural, social, cultural, and spiritual demurrage money] “free-money”; freed from the control of capital for financial profit. . . Just like King Midas, we too the wealthy, money would circulate freely. . .5 are converting natural beauty, human relationships, and the An intriguing historical example of demurrage is presented by basis of our very survival into money. . . . Hugo Fack. He suggests that the 300-year period of widespread . . . Money perpetuates the fundamental illusion of inde- prosperity of the Gothic era in Europe, resulted from the fre- pendence from nature, . . .[it] is now wholly abstract from quent re-minting of the coinage, with seigniorage charges that physical commodities and thus abstract as well from natural 6 laws of decay and change. Money as we know it is thus an served as demurrage, keeping money in circulation. integral component of the discrete and separate self. . . . During the Depression of the 1930s, demurrage was tried Obviously, there is a problem when something that does in both the U.S. and Europe. The most well-known effort not decay but only grows, forever, exponentially, is linked took place in Wörgl, Austria, where it was, by all accounts, a to commodities which do not share this property. The only huge success. In Wörgl, roads were paved and bridges were possible result is that these other commodities—social, built. The unemployment rate plummeted, and the economy cultural, natural, and spiritual capital—will eventually be thrived until the central government abolished the Wörgl 7 exhausted in the frantic, hopeless attempt to redeem the ulti- currency, pushing the town back into depression. mately fraudulent promise inherent in money with interest.3 In 2003 Christian Gelleri, a Waldorf School economics teacher and his students started “Chiemgauer,” a regional cur- The late Dr. Margrit Kennedy explains in her book Interest rency in Germany. It is now accepted by over 600 businesses and Inflation-Free Money (1995) that, because the cost of with turnover over 5 million Chiemgauer per year. Backed by debt is included in every price we pay, we cannot escape the the Euro, Chiemgauer incorporates a demurrage and circulates impact of interest simply by not borrowing money. She cites about 2.5 times faster than the Euro. Gelleri hopes Chiemgauer figures that show that the cost of capital (interest) adds, on will eventually finance 50% of the regional economy.8 average, about 50% to the price of our goods and services. The number of countries implementing negative interest Furthermore, we are not all affected equally. The bottom rates (i.e. demurrage) to stimulate their economies,9 as well as 80% of the population pays that cost as a hidden wealth the growing number of experiments and proposals for alterna- 4 transfer to the richest. tive economic models, suggest that the times are ever more Griscom was among those who drew on the insights of the ripe for change. Griscom would be delighted with the ferment. German merchant, Silvio Gesell, who observed that surplus Notes money, unlike all other goods and services, has no holding 1 www.live-counter.com/compound-interest/ costs (without inflation), so no incentive to be used unless the 2 http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/living-economies/532 price is right. In his book The Natural Economic Order, (1906) 3 http://charleseisenstein.net/money-a-new-beginning-part-1/ Gesell proposed that a demurrage fee on money could put 4 Interest and Inflation Free Money (1996) available for download it on an equal playing field with goods and services. Charles here: http://base.socioeco.org/docs/geldbuchenglisch.pdf Eisenstein, also building on Gesell’s insights, writes: 5 Charles Eistenstein Sacred Economics chapter 12 (online version) 6 Hugo Fack pamphlet History’s Greatest Lesson - The Gothic (1944) . . . Today, as in Gesell’s time, money is preferred to 7 http://p2pfoundation.net/Worgl_Shillings goods. The ability to withhold the medium of exchange 8 Many good alternative currency articles, including on allows money holders to charge interest; they occupy a privi- Chiemgauer, can be found at realcurrencies.wordpress.com leged position compared to holders of real capital (and even 9 http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35436187

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 13 The Jane Morgan Years, 1975 – 1997 During the 25 years that Jane Morgan directed Community 1978 Building Community Where You Are Howard Cort Service, she maintained a steady networking operation, helping 1979 Children and Community members “build community where you are.” As the New Age 1980 The Shaping of Things to Come passions of the 1960s and ’70s subsided, Community Service 1981 Human Scale nurtured individual and local community work through the Kirkpatrick Sale, The Human Scale bimonthly and then quarterly Newsletter, a membership direc- 1982 Human Ecology—Becoming Agents of Change tory, mail order book sales, workshops, annual conferences, William Becker, The Making of a Solar Village and The Indefensible Society and topical booklets. 1983 Democracy in the Workplace Jane was a letter writer, reaching out to the likes of Mark The Mondragon Experiment film Satin (New Age Politics, Radical Middle) and Kirkpatrick Wes Hare, Director of Twin Streams Center, Chapel Hill, NC Sale (Human Scale, Dwellers in the Land), among many John Handley – The Cedar Works Cooperative others. Often her correspondence led to a newsletter article 1984 The Small Community—Foundation of Democratic Life Donald Harrington; Ernest Morgan or a featured speaker at the conference. Conference top- 1985 The Role of Community in the Economics of Peace ics generally reflected an annual theme developed in earlier John Looney – American Friends Service Committee issues of the Newsletter. For example, Jane discovered the Tom Schlesinger; Ernest Morgan; Hal Barrett book Neighborhood Caretakers by Burton and Elizabeth 1986 Bioregionalism and Community Dyson. She contacted the Dysons, and they were featured in Kirkpatrick Sale, Dwellers in the Land; Ruth Traut Gregg Galbraith – Ozark Regional Land Trust the 1990 conference “Family Clusters: Engines of Effective 1987 The Self Reliant Community Community.” 1988 Building Community as if the Earth Matters Community Service member Howard Cort of the New Susan Meeker-Lowry, Economics as if the Earth Matters; Bob York Department of Community Development wrote an arti- Swann – Institute for Community Economics cle for the Newsletter, Building Community Where You Are, Chris Weiss – Women’s World Banking and was a speaker at the 1978 conference with that title. 1989 Building the Regenerative Community Larry Martin – The Other Economic Summit; Liz Cook – Conference subjects ranged widely from education to Friends of the Earth; Ron Shegda – New Generation Press health, bioregionalism to sense of place, simple living to alter- Dick Hogan – Village Services, Woolman Institute native currencies and local scrip, and interpersonal relation- 1990 Family Clusters—Engines of Effective Community ships to land trusts. Burton & Elizabeth Dyson, Neighborhood Caretakers The annual conference was the high point of each pro- John & Anita Gibson – Institute of Cultural Affairs 1991 Living More with Less gram year, drawing 30-80 participants. Community Service Jocele Meyer, Earth Keepers; David Wheeler, Katuah Journal arranged housing in the homes of Yellow Springs residents Audrey Sorrento – Grailville; Robyn Arnold – Appalachia- or in the Glen Helen Outdoor Education Center dorms. Science in the Public Interest The small group discussions and family-style meals created 1992 Simple Living, Gentle on the Land Warren Stetzel, School for the Young – Raven Rocks an atmosphere that exemplified the spirit of fellowship and Peg & Ken Champney – Vale Community neighborliness that exists in the small community at its best. John Morgan – Raven Rocks Community Christina Glaser – Indiana University, Bloomington Conferences 1975 – 1997 1993 Creativity and Sharing in Community This list of conference titles and featured speakers during Jane William Alexander – Earthwatch expeditions in Kerala, India Morgan’s decades as Community Service director is a record Walter Tulecke, Antioch College; Meskerem Assegued Brown, “Toys From Trash”; Ernest Morgan of her work bringing together social practitioners with a wide 1994 Building Community with Affordable Housing range of unique experiences. The people who gathered at the Ken Norwood – Shared Living Resource Center, Berkeley community conferences of this era were activists and writ- Mary Meyer; Richard Cartwright ers less likely to be known in the more institutional world of 1995 Conflict Resolution in Community academia and government agencies. Many had been shaken Julie Mazo – Shannon Farm Marianne MacQueen – YS Mediation Program by the upheaval of WW II or of the 1960s and undertook to 1996 The Value of Simple Living build a better society one community at a time. These confer- Scott Savage – Plain magazine ences were gatherings devoted to sharing and reviewing expe- Eileen & Jim Schenk – Imago riences of people walking the talk of cultural change. Joe Jenkins – Humanure Handbook, Slate Roof Bible Peggy & Ken Champney 1975 Small Community Economics 1997 Committed Living for Sustainable Community 1976 Interpersonal Relationships in Community Joe Jenkins– Humanure Handbook, Slate Roof Bible 1977 Health and Community Tova Green – Insight and Action; Greg Coleridge

14 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 Marianne MacQueen Reflections In 1966 I moved to Nashville, considered ourselves to be a collective. Tennessee to attend a graduate pro- It was rather a heady experience for all gram at Vanderbilt University. There of us as young adults. It was a heyday I met Roy Talbert, a history graduate of the “back to the land” movement, student whose field was social intellec- counterculture and communes, and tual American history. Roy’s focus was Community Service seemed to be in American Utopian movements which the thick of it. I believed, as Arthur and fit very nicely with the times during the Griscom espoused, that the small com- sixties. He had wanted to do his research munity was the ideal place for humans on the Utopian writer Edward Bellamy, to thrive. And I was living that life to but his advisor suggested that he study a great extent in the village of Yellow Bellamy’s biographer Arthur Morgan. Springs. While the focus of Community Roy and I married. Over the several Service had always been the small com- years that Roy researched Morgan munity, during the early 1970s it espe- for his thesis and PhD, I became as cially served as a clearing house for those entranced with Arthur Morgan and interested in communal living. his ideas. In 1972 Roy and I moved to Yellow Springs and, shortly thereafter by a member of the Morgan fam- separated and I began to work part- I believed, as Arthur and ily—first Arthur, then Griscom, and time at Community Service, Inc. (now Griscom espoused, that the then Griscom’s wife, Jane. When I was Community Solutions). Arthur was hired, Community Service was at a still alive and actively writing. Living small community was the crossroads. There was no clear focus to in the village of Yellow Springs and ideal place for humans to sustain the organization and member- getting immersed in the ideas of the thrive. And I was living that ship had been dropping. During the small community through my work at four years that I headed the organiza- Community Service had a profound life to a great extent in the tion, I examined areas where Morgan’s impact on my thinking and on my life. village of Yellow Springs. concept of the small community could During this time at Community impact current issues. Living simply Service, I worked with Faith Morgan, had always been an area of focus for Don Hollister and Kathryn Layh (now Faith, Don, Kathy and I all left the organization and continued (and Hitchcock). Arthur’s son Griscom was Community Service after a couple continues) to be a perennial concern. the director. Faith, Don, Kathy and I of years, each moving on to different “Simple living” was the focus of the endeavors. I continued to live in Yellow 1996 conference which included pre- Springs and continued to be influenced senters Eileen and Jim Schenk, found- by Morgan’s ideas. A couple decades ers of the urban ecological educational later in 1998 I became the Executive Cincinnati neighborhood IMAGO. Director of Community Service. This created an important linkage Times had changed, of course, as had between Community Service and work I. Yellow Springs was changing and the being done in urban settings. values of the 1960s and ’70s were no By the mid-1990s, increasing subur- longer so popular. Issues of gentrifica- banization and mobility of Americans tion were facing the village of Yellow had created a sense of isolation for Springs. At the national level, progres- many. The grounding that could sives were understanding the serious- come from a sense of place—which in ness of climate change, natural resource earlier times was a given—had been depletion, loss of farmland, and the lost for most people. Community destructiveness of global capitalism. Service hosted two events with ‘sense Since its founding in 1940 of place’ as a theme: the 1998 confer- Community Service had been led ence “Nurturing a Sense of Place”

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 15 with Stephanie Mills and Bill Vitek as Saved the Farm”—the exciting Yellow use; sustaining a diverse local economy; presenters; and a story-telling session Springs story of protecting a 1000 acre and making Yellow Springs affordable. exploring the linkages between Yellow farm from development. The Whitehall The featured speaker at that conference Springs and the historical African- Farm is adjacent to the village, encom- was Sister Paula Gonzalez, a Cincinnati American village of Wilberforce. The passing almost the same land mass as community and environmental activ- latter was held at the Afro-American the village itself and would have radi- ist who constructed her home—a Museum in Wilberforce and hosted by cally changed the nature of the village former chicken coop—out of recycled Scott Russell Sanders author of Staying had it been sold for housing develop- materials. Put: Making a Home in a Restless World. ment. That issue of the Journal entitled I continued to look for ways for In 1999 we changed the format “Sustainability and Community” cap- Community Service to link the current of the Community Service Newsletter. tured what became the predominant issues of sustainability with the prin- Author and former Yellow Springs theme for Community Service during ciples of Morgan’s small community. News editor Don Wallis became the last two years I headed the organi- Marianne MacQueen became the first the editor of the new Community zation. The 1999 conference entitled Director of Yellow Springs Home, Inc., an Journal whose issues highlighted vari- “Creating a Sustainable Community” affordable housing community land trust. ous aspects of community including engaged local residents in grappling Marianne is now in her second term as a “Women in Community,” and “A with issues such as housing and land Yellow Springs Village Council member. River Story: Communities Fighting for Environmental Justice.” The articles in “A River Story” were written by Antioch College students who had participated in a field program visiting African American communities along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers that had become dumping grounds for industrial waste. The 1999 summer issue of the Community Journal featured an article by a Yellow Springs resident Judith Hempfling—“How Our Community

The Community Journal – Krista Magaw I remember fondly working with of writers on the Community Journal We videotaped the interview to Don Wallis and a very talented group starting 1999. I’ve never been entirely capture the conversation. The kids’ sure how I got asked to join this cre- praise and critiques of living in ative crew—Bill Felker, Gail Taylor, small community were honest and Anne Filmeyer, and Marianne insightful! MacQueen. But it was an enlivening My hope for learning from our process to be at the table! experience in small community We got together once per issue to soared! Later I got a chance to work brainstorm ideas and take assign- for the Tecumseh Land Trust. ments. My favorite was the issue on I’ll never stop learning what com- “Children in Community.” Don had munity can do. such a devotion to kids’ empowerment!! The amazing potential for Krista Magaw is Executive Director kids here was the biggest factor that of the Tecumseh Land Trust in Yellow had brought my family here in 1997. Springs, protecting over 25,000 acres of My assignment was to interview the farm land and open space in Clark and “Older Group” at Antioch School. Greene Counties of Ohio.

16 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 Community Solutions to Climate Change and Peak Oil When Marianne MacQueen left in collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990. 2002, Community Service entered Inspired by Cuba, they went again in a transition period with Pat Murphy 2004 to film for their first documen- and Don Hollister as co-Directors. tary film. Pat is married to Griscom and Jane’s Pat Murphy assumed the role of daughter, Faith Morgan. Faith and Pat Executive Director and Faith Morgan cleared out their home in Occidental, became Board President in 2004. From Office manager Jeanna Gunderkline, with California, while Pat worked on Com- then through 2013 the organization Faith Morgan and Pat Murphy munity Service plans and developed focused on the implications of peak a new website SmallCommunity.org, oil and community solutions to the conference was in 2004, triggering featuring the Community Course that climate change crisis. In 2009 Com- widespread interest and contacts around Arthur Morgan had initially developed. munity Service re-incorporated as the the globe. The books and documenta- Don kept the Yellow Springs office Arthur Morgan Institute for Commu- ries were accompanied by travels and open, organizing the 2003 conference nity Solutions, Inc. talks throughout the world paralleled “Creating Sustainable Alternatives to Pat’s book Plan C: Community Sur- by engagement with groups in Yellow Centralization,” in conjunction with vival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Springs. the Fellowship for Intentional Com- Change, describes this core effort. Faith The annual Peak Oil and Commu- munities. Community Service spon- and Pat produced two documentary nity Solutions conferences and initia- sored Don’s teaching of two courses at films, the Power of Community, How tives on energy issues in Yellow Springs Antioch College, “The Quest for Com- Cuba Survived Peak Oil (2006) and The anchored the work. As in other periods munity” and “The Small Community- Passive House Revolution (2013). The of Community Solutions history, work Modern Models.” Pat and Faith moved Power of Community has received wide with neighbors in Yellow Springs con- to Yellow Springs in 2003 and they acclaim. One outcome is the chapter tinued. Pat initiated the YS Energy joined Don and board member Rich- “Cuba: Lessons from a Forced Decline,” Forum and worked with the Village ard Zopf in a review of the organiza- in the Worldwatch Institute’s State of of Yellow Springs to reconfigure their tion’s mission and direction. the World 2013: “Is Sustainability Still electricity supply portfolio. Community Faith and Pat had become interested Possible?” Passive House Revolution illus- Solutions outreach director Megan in Peak Oil and in 2002 attended trates how building energy use can be Bachman was a catalyst in a renewed the Association for Study of Peak Oil reduced by 80 percent. Pat expanded on Buy Local campaign and facilitated (ASPO) 2nd international conference in energy themes with his books The Peak a daylong workshop on community France. They traveled to Cuba twice in Oil War (2005), The Green Tragedy- economy featuring Michael Schuman 2003, studying Cuba’s response to the LEED’s Lost Decade (2009), Spinning of Business Alliance for Local Living sudden loss of oil imports following the Our Wheels (2010). The first Peak Oil Economies (BALLE).

Curtailment and Community – Pat Murphy [from the Introduction to Plan C: Community Sur- The time for scientific and technological solutions to problems vival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change] caused by science and engineering is long past. Survival requires “We are facing multiple grave world crises—peak that we begin to see that energy technology is the root cause of oil, climate change, inequity and species extinc- many serious world problems. As William Jevons pointed out tion to name just a few. When I began this book decades ago, ever more efficient machines designed by scientists our situation was very serious—now it is life threatening. The and engineers means ever-increasing consumption of fossil fuels survival of industrial society as we know it today is in doubt. and more generation of CO2. Twenty years of so-called sustainability conversations have led Our problem is cultural, not technical. It is a character nowhere, and green has degenerated into a marketing term. issue, not a scientific one. We have never bothered to ask or

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 17 answer the question “What is energy for?” We have allowed cheap fossil fuels to change us from citizens into mere consumers. We in the modern world have become addicted to consuming energy. In the past, our spiritual traditions warned us against materialism— an older name for our current addictive consumerism. But contemporary religions seem to concede that humanity’s main purpose is to consume the products of a fossil fuel- based, perpetual-growth economy. . . Plan C offers an alternative perspective to the ever more frantic technical proposals for continuing our soul destroying and life endangering way of living. This book opens with a few chapters intended to “make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves,” a starting point for many 12 step programs. In Part I, I take that moral inventory, describing the morally central core issues of fossil fuel depletion, human-caused climate change and global inequity. I relate peak oil to our economy– a word which, together with free market, defines us principally as self-centered consumers rather than as caring citizens. The growth economy has been Courtesy of PlanCurtail.org, by Pat Murphy based on the principle “greed is good,” and the results are disastrous. I review the history of imperialism, new consciousness that must replace the consumer driven especially in the West, and the greed and violence it displays mentality. Next I define some of the expertise and abilities towards the planet’s human and non-human inhabitants. we need to develop to live in a low energy world. This brings I show that US imperialism has its own history of greed, abstract national problems down to the personal level so we aggression and cruelty, extending within as well as beyond the can recognize our own culpability for our personal day-to-day national borders. The automobile—possibly the most destruc- choices and habits. It also describes the major areas for indi- tive machine ever built, both of the physi- vidual energy reduction in the household cal world and of human communities—is sector—our cars, our homes and our addressed along with the electricity gener- . . . a new set of values and food . . . ating power plant, the fixed counterpoint a new consciousness that My thesis is that the best of American to the automobile. The automobile and culture has been seriously degraded since power plant are the key technologies that must replace the consumer becoming addicted to oil. We used to produce the CO2 that is so dangerously driven mentality. have fewer material goods but better rela- altering the planet’s climate. Finally I tionships. The country was less violent. summarize the two institutions, the cor- Our citizens sought to avoid entangle- poration and the media, that deliberately foster the delusion ment in foreign affairs. The United States had cleaner water, that the pursuit of personal satisfaction will advance the social healthier ecosystems, and more caring human relationships. It good, which keeps us in a trance that all will be well. had neighborhood schools and unlocked doors. It had com- Part II is solution focused and covers strategies and action munity in the best sense of that word. Much of this has been plans. Curtailment and community define the underlying lost. We have gained wealth but we are losing our souls. The philosophy of this book, with curtailment being the action national soul desperately needs rework. Our best examples of and community the context. Curtailment accepts the facts community-focused living, and the sustaining relationships that we have squandered our children’s birthright, and so it fosters, show us exactly what to strive for. But the time must now radically reduce our consumption of fossil fuels. remaining is limited, and the urgency of engaging ourselves Community is the core aspect of a new set of values and a in this work cannot be overstated.”

18 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 Fossil Fuels vs. Community – Megan Bachman Community Solutions was in the right others at the organization, even while with information and inspiration, they place at the right time—with the right the rise of suburbs and agribusiness struck out on new paths that called to message. devastated our small towns, global them. And instead of serving a decay- The place was Yellow Springs, Ohio. industrialization replaced our small ing industrial system and its corrupt The time was September 2005. More economies, vapid consumerism alien- leaders, they took the lead in their own than 400 people from 39 states and ated us from each other and from place. lives and communities in service to the five countries were packed into Antioch Later on, within the peak oil and alternate vision we together shared. College’s Kelly Hall for the Second broader sustainability movement, the Annual U.S. Conference on Peak Oil message of community resonated, or re- and Community Solutions. A new sounded, because it spoke to something Community Solutions movement—the peak oil movement— fundamental within each of us—that had taken off, and attendees shared a we so deeply desire to love and be loved, changed lives in those years. mutual understanding that fossil fuels’ to compassionately care for each other People left their meaningless imminent demise would unravel indus- and the planet. Where the more fear- and mindless jobs, started trial civilization, with no technological based peak oil prognosticators saw an miracle on the horizon to save us. But impending descent into chaos as we gardens, . . . started small instead of engendering fear of collapse, competed mercilessly for the world’s businesses, became farmers, the conference fomented inspiring remaining energy resources, we saw the spent more time with their visions of more sustainable, equitable, possibility for working cooperatively in healthy and caring ways of living. small communities to share diminish- family, got in touch with The “right message” was commu- ing fuels while building a low-energy nature, and the like. nity. It was not a new message, but a society for future generations. perennial one. The idea that humans Unfortunately, the world was, in develop their potential best in small, many ways, not ready to hear our Looking back, the peak oil move- message. The 2005 conference was ment probably peaked in those years. featured in a dismissive cover article for What was a new and powerful frame Harper’s magazine entitled, “Imagine for understanding our present crisis lost There’s No Oil: Scenes from a Liberal its novelty, and proved to be too lim- Apocalypse,” in which the peak oil ited. But Community Solutions seized movement was compared to 19th cen- the opportunity of peak oil to share the tury apocalyptic Christian churches. vision of community with a new gen- Instead of the conference’s eloquent cri- eration. It will find new audiences and tiques of the social and spiritual deficit new ways to spread its message of com- of modern, high-energy lives—lives in munity, its message of love. which we are plugged into fossil fuels Arthur Morgan called small, local and disconnected from each other— communities the “seedbed of society” the author focused on anxieties caused and the “garden in which human char- by the crumbling infrastructure and acter is grown.” Much work remains in paradigm. preparing the soil for Morgan’s “commu- But there were those who under- nity of the future.” Because of our work, stood the message, and took it to heart. today there are many more seeds scat- Community Solutions changed lives in tered about, waiting, ready to take root. Photo by John Morgan Megan Bachman those years. People left their meaningless and mindless jobs, started gardens, Megan Quinn Bachman, Community Solutions fellow and conference speaker, supportive local communities was got out of debt, took permaculture was the Outreach Director of Community elaborated by Arthur Morgan in books courses, moved to ecovillages, pulled Solutions from 2004 – 2010. She is cur- in the 1930s, which formed the seed for their money from Wall Street, started rently an adjunct instructor of environmen- Community Service, Inc. small businesses, became farmers, spent tal policy at Antioch University Midwest. The flame of this idea was kept alive more time with their family, got in She can be reached at megbach06@gmail. over the decades by Jane Morgan and touch with nature, and the like. Armed com

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 19 The Power of Community film When the Soviet Union collapsed in The Power of Community, directed 1990, Cuba’s economy went into a by Faith Morgan, has sold over tailspin. With imports of oil cut by 20,000 copies in 37 countries, more than half—and food by 80 per- has been translated into 14 lan- cent—people were desperate. This film guages (most recently Turkish), tells of the hardships and struggles as and has been accepted into more well as the community and creativity than 80 film festivals, win- of the Cuban people during this dif- ning nine awards, including the ficult time. Cubans share how they Grand Jury Best Documentary transitioned from a highly mechanized, Award at the Washington, DC industrial agricultural system to one Independent Film Festival (2007); the Best Documentary Film at the Malibu International Film Festival (2007); and the Most Attended at the Global Visions Film Festival (2006). In May 2015, it was shown at the Kawasaki film festival in Japan, with Japanese subtitles.

“It’s a great guide for people who have come to understand the peak oil using organic methods of farming and concept, but aren’t thinking ahead or local, urban gardens. It is an unusual are overwhelmed by the seriousness of look into the Cuban culture during this it all. This documentary gives hope and economic crisis, which they call “The explains the transition that we need to Special Period.” The film opens with a embrace. Well done on the great work!” short history of Peak Oil, a term for the “Everyone concerned about Peak Oil time in our history when world oil pro- should see this film.” duction will reach its all-time peak and Comments About the Film begin to decline forever. Cuba, the only “The group loved the movie and country that has faced such a crisis— were emotionally moved; we had a the massive reduction of fossil fuels—is great discussion afterward. This was an example of options and hope. their first exposure to peak oil, group of 25. A number of university faculty involved, they are a progressive group looking to make a difference, but not religious really. The group started off with a peace movement effort and anti- war stand. One faculty (English professor) took the film to show to all of her classes and plans to buy it.” “Get this production out for others to share. This is the most positive & solution solving information I have heard of. This is a job well done.” “I recently saw your beautiful film The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil. As a first generation Cuban-American it touched me very

deeply in ways that one could expect.” Cuba photos: by John M. Morgan

20 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 Passive House Revolution film Declaring, “The time for incremental improvements in energy efficiency is over,” Faith Morgan directed and produced Passive House: a Building Revolution (later revised to Passive House Revolution), released in 2013. Given that 48 percent of energy used and CO2 generated in the United States is from buildings, any significant reduction in our carbon footprint must involve aggressive retrofitting to a high standard and a dramatic change in new construction design. Photo by Faith Morgan The film shows builders in action brief two years since issued, this film as they construct some of the first pas- has not generated the industry-wide sive house buildings in North America. shift in construction practices that is There are examples of building retro- needed. Community Solutions is work- fits, illustrating some of the super insu- ing with building professionals to make lation options, house envelope sealing the film more widely known and used. 10-20 and ventilation solutions. Based on the Cutting carbon emissions and fos- work of Wolfgang Feist in Germany sil fuel dependency will require not and brought to the U.S. by Katrin just more solar panels, but a dramatic Klingenberg, the seeds of the German reduction in wasted energy. The pas-

Passiv Haus standards were in the sive house movement offers practical

American passive solar house designs ways to reduce energy consumption of the 1970’s. Faith Morgan worked in buildings by up to 90 percent.

with Pat Murphy as co-producer and Everyone who cares about our climate 60

co-writer. Eric Johnson was film editor and energy future needs to under-

and Jeanna Breza narrated. stand the principles clearly outlined in Passive House Revolution is a vital 85 this timely, informative, and hopeful

tool in working with architects and film. builders to improve their practice. 100 – Richard Heinberg, author of Though well received by viewers, in the The Party’s Over

130

Passive House,

Cleveland, OH

10-20

Passive House 100

130 uz, CA Passive House Deep- Energy Retroﬁ t, Santa Cr Passive House Passive House, Palo Alto, CA Revolution

Directed by Faith Morgan

44:53 minutes DVD Region 0, NTSC Revolution For more information, visit: PassiveHouseRevolution.org A building standard that cuts CO emissions 80-90%. 937-767-2161 2 © . e 2 id 01 w 3 rld Ar o th w ur ed M rv or se ga re (48% of all U.S. energy used and CO generated is from buildings.) n I ts ns gh 2 titu ll ri te fo ns. A r Community Solutio Photo: by Faith Morgan

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 21 Milestones 1937 | Celo Community 1940 1940 (to circa 1965) Arthur Morgan (d. 1975) 1942 | The Small Community 1942–45 | Correspondence Course on Community (in prison for conscientious objectors)

1943–56 | COMMUNITY SERVICE NEWS 1960 1945 | A Business of My Own 1947 | Finland – Small Industries

1948–49 | India – Commission on Higher Education 1949 | Fellowship of Intentional Communities founding conference 1980 1953 | Industries for Small Communities 1956 | Mitraniketan in India

22 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 key: green caps (and in timeline) = stewardship caps (and in timeline) = periodicals Roman = conferences Italic = publications in 75 years of Community Service/ Milestones Community Solutions 1940 Building Community Where You Are | 1978 Human Scale | 1981 Human Ecology — Becoming Agents of Change | 1982 1950 Democracy in the Workplace | 1983 Building the Regenerative Community | 1989 — 1960 Family Clusters Engines of Effective Community | 1990 Simple Living, Gentle on the Land | 1992 | 1994 1970 Building Community with Affordable Housing Marianne MacQueen | 1998–2002 COMMUNITY JOURNAL | 1999–2003 1980 Nurturing a Sense of Place | 1998 Consensus | 2000 Pat Murphy and 1990 Faith Morgan | 2003–14 2003–4 | Experience of Community/ Antioch College course 2000 NEW SOLUTIONS | 2004–present First U.S. Peak Oil Conference | 2004 The Power of Community — Cuba film | 2006 2010 Plan C: Community Survival Strategies | 2008 Passive House Revolution — film | 2013 Susan Jennings | 2014– 2020 present Climate Crisis Solutions: Tools for Transition | 2015

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 23 key: green caps (and in timeline) = stewardship caps (and in timeline) = periodicals Roman = conferences Italic = publications Community Solutions has a new home As of January 2016 we are in a new home on the Antioch Solutions. Antioch faculty, staff, and students have also con- campus, which will enable us to build on our collaborations tributed to our conferences and work in the village. Our first with the college. Over the past years, we have benefitted enor- joint venture is scheduled for April 14-15th , 2016--a confer- mously from Antioch’s Miller Fellows program, which has ence on refugees. funded several student internship positions at Community

Pictured in front of our new office entrance are: Susan Jennings, Executive Director; Leah Newton, Antioch LEAF Fellow; Don Hollister, Development Director; Jonna Johnson, Americorps VISTA; Rose Hardesty, Antioch Miller Fellow; Scott Montgomery, Antioch Miller Fellow; Lance Hetzler, Operations Manager; Eric Johnson, Videographer

Pictures of Antioch Hall from the Anrtioch archives

24 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 Community Solutions’ Current Program Areas of Focus Susan Jennings became Executive the planet. This work is woven into our Restorative Economics Director of Community Solutions in longstanding commitment to permac- Arthur Morgan founded the Yellow June of 2014 and since then, with the ulture and local organic growing. Peter Springs Exchange in the 1930s, a local guidance and support of The Board of Bane, Community Solutions Fellow currency that “helped people exchange Directors, has been reweaving the com- and Board member, and author of The what they have for what they want.” munity and energy work of Community Permaculture Handbook, is at work on This year, Community Solutions will Solutions into five focus areas, which are a Community Solutions-sponsored lay- be a founding member of the new reflected in our media, on-the-ground man’s guide to restoring water cycles— Yellow Springs Exchange time bank. projects, and educational events. This research that is also being propagated Restorative economics—economics has been made possible by an expansion through our YouTube channel and an that repair both the fabrics of ecosys- of grant support and increased engage- upcoming conference. tems and communities—are also a ment of our member volunteers. Energy Democracy focus of our conferences and Fellow’s Resilient Communities An umbrella term that combines a writing. Resilient communities have rich con- recognition of the need for community Being-the-Change nections that help them to withstand clean energy systems with the need to The macrocosm of our shared soci- dramatic shifts due to climate change equitably share the energy resources ety and environment is a reflection and economic disruptions. Community that are available. Underneath this of the microcosm of our individual remains the core of our educational ini- umbrella are Community Solutions’ thoughts and actions, meaning that tiatives and Yellow Springs projects. In decades-long concerns with energy our character and choices resonate partnership with Community Solutions conservation, appropriate technolo- more broadly than we imagine. Our Fellow Jim Merkel, we are currently at gies such as the passive house, and “Charting a New Course” conference work on the development of The 100 the development of renewable energy and educational work highlights home Year Plan, a film that highlights interna- systems. These interests are reflected and work-based skills and tools that tional communities that are healthy for in our media and written materials. enable us to ‘be the change.’ their inhabitants and the environment. Our Energy Navigators project brings We are developing work-teams for Regenerative Agriculture energy literacy to our low-income each of these areas that consist of board A recent focus for Community neighbors in Ohio and beyond and the members, staff, volunteers, members Solutions is research and writing on the Environmental Dashboard project will and neighbors. Please let us know how possibilities of restored soils and water likewise make plain the environmental you’d like to contribute to this next systems to sequester carbon and cool impact of our activities. phase of our work.

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 25 The Answer to Energy Poverty is Community Richness – Peter Bane

When I joined the board of Com- cycle of expansion and further levels of social ladder of rank and privilege. On munity Solutions, the impetus came integration between the twin threads of the negative side, there is no manual from its recent focus on the challenges small community and global conscious- for enjoying a life of material abstemi- of energy descent. I met then Execu- ness. The urgent matter of discerning, ousness, and few examples to be seen. tive Director Pat Murphy and his wife announcing, and understanding the No one is awarded a medal for choos- Faith Morgan a decade ago as they were critical inflection point of modern his- ing lima beans over hamburger, while investigating the nexus of intentional tory was met with a laser-like focus the route to energy curtailment seems community and permaculture at Ear- on the role of energy in society and fraught with financial and logistical thaven Ecovillage, where I was living in the need to curtail and conserve its hurdles and marked by the skeleton 2005 and of which I was a co-founder. use. What we have learned in the past of Jimmy Carter in a sweater hanging It turns out that in May of that year, decade points to other needs that must from a tree at the corner of Morning-in- about the time of their visit, world con- accompany this prime directive, and America Lane. ventional oil production began to falter which are required to achieve wide- To build resilience into our lives from a lack of supply for the first time in spread adoption of its dictates. we need help and support. To reduce history. Only a few sages had an inkling energy use we need to exercise our of what lay in store, but that small blip sharing muscles, which have atrophied. of economic history laid the foundation . . . we need to exercise our And all of this takes encouragement for the momentous events that would sharing muscles . . . and a happy state of mind, because we follow three years later. We are all down- are required to learn many new patterns stream of that awareness now. and practices quickly. Fear and depriva- A year later, I was presenting per- The atomized nature of our energy- tion are not conducive to learning. maculture to the organization’s annual rich economy has pummeled the struc- It is fortunate indeed that Peak Oil conference, but it took several tures of social capital that sustained Community Solutions’ work on energy more years for me to plumb the depths thrift, moderation, and mutuality for rests on a broad foundation of under- of kinship and connection that lay in much of our nation’s history. Those standing the power of small commu- Community Solutions’ long history. individuals and households who would nity, of face-to-face relations, of sharing While I knew something of Arthur be inclined to respond to our mes- and mutual aid, because these are the Morgan’s advocacy for small commu- sage of energy curtailment are many tools we must wield now to regenerate nity and I had been aware in the 90s more than those hardy few who are our way of life, our landscapes, and our of the existence of Community Service able to pioneer, alone, the changes in communities. as a part of that legacy, it still surprised consumption, lifestyle, mobility, and I look forward with excitement me when I learned that CS had been resource use that so clearly belong to to this next phase of our work as we instrumental in helping to establish the the future. Americans smart enough embrace the end of growth, not merely Fellowship for Intentional Community, to realize that energy will soon become as something to be mourned, but as an an organization whose work had clearly much more scarce and even dangerous, opportunity to unwind from a toxic influenced my own communitarian are also able to calculate that if they and corrosive social pattern driven by experience at Earthaven. There were, unplug and dial back now, the first set brain-dead economic models that cel- even ten years ago, so few places and of consequences is that they are likely ebrate selfishness. Through the doors people who integrated the issues of con- to be sitting alone in the dark, reflect- of de-growth, of simple living, of per- scious community development, energy ing on the relative hollowness of their maculture design and a myriad of other descent, and ecological design that it own existence. What rapidly follows deliberate choices for common sense startled me to think that anyone out- is a social isolation as one is viewed and humane living, we will build a bet- side the small circle of my permaculture by friends, family, and neighbors not ter world together. teachers and colleagues had made those merely as eccentric, but perhaps insane, links more than a quarter century ago. even seditious. Peter Bane is a Trustee of the Arthur As 2015 winds down and we seem Morgan Institute for Community Solutions, We have a tremendous socializa- and the author of The Permaculture thoroughly settled into a daunting new tion to meet the expections of others, Handbook: Garden Farming for Town century, neither American nor Chinese as well as a genomic thrust to compare and Country. He divides his time between but perhaps Gaian, I am pleased to see ourselves relentlessly to those around us Bloomington, Indiana and the White Lake our organization spiraling into another and to seek not to be too far down the region of western Michigan.

26 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 “The One-Hundred-Year Plan” Documentary Film Synopsis – Jim Merkel The One-Hundred-Year Plan film is a with Susan Jennings and Eric Johnson search for a path through turbulent contributing to the film’s production. times. We are the generation watching Emmy-Award winning filmmakers humanity devour earth. Will we pass Robert Maraist of Fulcrum Films and on a parched planet or figure out how Julia Reichert of New Day Films will to live within earth’s limits? Travel contribute their creativity and skilled along to far-flung and unlikely places cinematography work to create the on a quest for a world that works for all. documentary film, The One-Hundred- Currently the reins are in the hands Year Plan. of powerful corporate interests and The filmmakers voyage into the governments. Through globalization, The film’s director, Jim Merkel, bowels of the untidy world of throwing extreme extraction and land grabs became dedicated to world peace off the yoke of imperialism in Cuba our planet races toward catastrophe. and sustainable living after an ethical and Kerala, India. 50 years ago these Critical planetary boundaries are being hemorrhage while designing and mar- societies made their systems work for exceeded leading to climate disrup- keting top-secret military electronics. the poor and for women and ensured tion, the 6th great extinction, grinding Following the 1989 Exxon Valdez disas- all citizens had access to health care, poverty and wars. Most leaders have ter, Jim quit work to begin an experi- education, food and housing. Far from no other plan but to grow the economy, ment in simplicity, limiting his earning, utopias, they face ongoing challenges. stimulate consumerism, and stimulate spending and impact. He traveled to Their sovereignty came under attack for couples to have more children--the very Kerala, India in 1993 to study their sus- their decisions to advance land reforms things that drive this crisis. tainability achievements and returned and release key resources from corpo- This film seeks to discover if a sus- to found the Global Living Project where tainable future is even possible and if so, five teams of researchers attempted life what adaptations and practices would be as global citizens. Jim has traveled, often . . . [Cuba and Kerala, India] necessary. The late systems thinker and by bicycle, searching for sustainable author of The Limits to Growth, Donella societies and documented his findings made their systems work for Meadows, using extensive modeling in Radical Simplicity – small footprints the poor . . . and ensured all suggested that humanity could avoid a on a finite Earth. citizens had access to health dramatic collapse in the 21 century by In an exciting new collaboration, having smaller families and footprints Jim is joining forces with The Arthur care, education, food and while using technology to reduce impact Morgan Institute for Community housing. and enhance wellbeing. Solutions who will serve as producer

World USA Slovenia Cuba Haiti Kerala India Afghan istan Ecological 6.5 Acre 20 Acre 14 Acre 5.2 Acre 1.5 Acre 2.2 Acre 2.2 Acre 1.2 Acre Footprint

GDP/capita $10,858 $55,200 $23,220 $5,910 $830 $1,120 $1,610 $680 Atlas, 2014 (2011)

TFR 2.6 1.9 1.5 1.5 3.2 1.4 2.5 5.1 Children

Infant 40.9 6.7 2.9 4.8 54 15.3 52 165 Mortality Rate Life 66.6 79 80 79 63 75 66 61 Expectancy

Literacy 82 99 99.7 99.99 60 91 71 47 Ranking (#35) (#12) (#4) (#130) (#60) (#117) (#148)

Sustainability comparisons of societies. Sources: World Bank, CIA, Global Footprint Network, Human Development Report, Kerala 2005

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 27 In Budapest we will film the 5th International Degrowth Conference and travel to Slovenia to experience family policies that have led to the low- est at-risk-children and gender-pay-gap levels in Europe while having the high- est female employment. Filming in our own backyards in the US, we’ll interview those who’ve chosen a low-impact lifestyle having tasted modernity. How do women feel and think about their fertility choices and family size? What support did they have or wish they had as a young mother? We will learn about their education, views on contraception and family planning and how society adapted to smaller families. Progress in the places we will visit accompanies challenges such as high unemployment, embargoes, foreign hostilities and cer- rate control so that their population conditions that lead to small families. tain restrictions on personal freedoms. might benefit from their development. Susan Jennings will travel to China Biologist E.O. Wilson said, “Our Although these societies have low- as the government ends the one-child species might just luck out, with incomes and thus, small footprints, policy. What are the feelings now, enough dropping population, improved they have literacy, infant mortality, and among women and families? What longevity rates similar to the wealthi- can be learned from this top-down production, and shrinking ecological est nations. They break the myth that approach? Traveling to Vietnam, footprint that we can win the race to industrialization and globalization are Susan will explore the story of women save the rest of life.” Wilson’s forthcom- the only approach to development. Both recovering from war and napalm and ing book, Half Earth, suggests that by leaving at least half of the earth’s areas these cultures have focused upon women returning to their socialist journey. th having equity in society, extensive educa- What were the hopes of the Vietnamese intact, we could avert the 6 great tional opportunities, contraception and people before the U.S. invasion and extinction. If family size were to lower control over their own bodies – the very what are they now? to the European levels of 1.5 children per family and footprints were more equitably distributed, in 120 years we’d lower population from 7 billion to 3 billion people and go from overshoot- ing earth’s capacity by 50 percent to leaving 50 percent for nature. This unlikely mid-course adjustment has been tested in several countries and we will film their experience. Could the poorest win by exiting poverty and having fewer children? Could those with “too much” win by realizing that happi- ness is not linked to consumerism and that by being our sister’s keeper, we have an ethical path forward? Could it be that a kingpin in turning toward a sustainable future lies in the status of women and creating a more equitable society?

28 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 Moving Beyond “Too Little, Too Late” Solutions – Peter Bane

A renewed look at soil and water cycles volume of water to be found in all However, reducing atmospheric car- is necessary to aid in planetary healing Earth’s rivers. Nor is the outflow from bon will be insufficient by itself to alter and justice continents to the sea a constant, but has global heating in the near term (5-15 Soil and water cycles have been steadily increased as forests are cleared, years), which is where our actions must systematically overlooked by climate soil humus is oxidized, and pavement be focused. Climate change is rapidly scientists seeking the causal mechanism expands. The net outflow of water from approaching a non-linear state due to for global heating. Though climbing the continents, exclusive of glacial out- positive feedback mechanisms. carbon and methane in the atmosphere wash, may account for as much as 40% Carbon sequestration in the form undoubtedly contribute to heating the of sea level rise in the past half-century, of soil repair and revegetation will be planet, their rising levels appear to be an increase that has reached about 2-3 required to restore the small water cycle more a symptom than a cause—result- mm/year today. This is compounding over land, but if sequestration becomes ing from enormous human-made problems not only of coastal flooding the goal without regard for hydrology, changes to soils and vegetation that but of aridification across the globe. those efforts may be insufficient to have disrupted the small water cycle alter the trajectory of global warming. or evapotranspiration of water from We need our actions to have multiple land to sky. Vegetation in the form of If we can repair the damage effects. What this means is that carbon forests, grasslands, and wetlands has we have wreaked on biotic must be captured by plants and soils regulated the climate through many rather than from smokestacks as now swings of CO2 levels. However, the communities, the beneficial proposed by technological ideologues. cumulative impact of 10,000 years of effects on the water cycle If we can repair the damage we have forest removal, agricultural degrada- may achieve what we must wreaked on biotic communities, the tion of soils, draining of wetlands, and beneficial effects on the water cycle may urbanization—accelerating exponen- try at all costs to do: prevent achieve what we must try at all costs to tially over the past three centuries—has further heating and reverse do: prevent further heating and reverse so damaged the biosphere’s capacity the trend of recent decades. the trend of recent decades. to exhaust heat that we are rapidly The Arthur Morgan Institute for approaching a threshold beyond which Community Solutions will be examin- it may not be possible to reverse the ing and publicizing research and case process. The required response to this infor- studies of carbon sequestration and The science underpinning this mation, which radically shifts the para- water cycle restoration through blogs, a thesis is not radical, being familiar to digm around climate, is similar to what 2017 conference in collaboration with all school students—plants transpire some have suggested heretofore, that Bio4Climate, and an upcoming book large volumes of moisture, the latent carbon sinks must be increased even upon which I am presently at work. heat of vaporization is immense, and as carbon sources are reduced. The these effects reach into the upper atmo- Rodale Institute sphere—but its implications have been has recently pub- hidden in plain sight for some decades, lished research in part because climate scientists have indicating that assumed that measuring the effects global changes of these diffuse actions would be too to agriculture difficult. Moreover, increasing activ- could sequester ity in the large water cycle—which more carbon than moves moisture from the oceans onto is now entering land and has become so very destruc- the atmosphere tive with larger and larger storms—is from all human probably masking declines in evapo- sources—and transpiration over land. What is being their solutions are realized today is that the level of mois- neither the only ture in the atmosphere is not constant, nor the most pow- and may be as much as ten times the erful available. Too Little too late?

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 29 Community Assessment Questions – Don Hollister in Community Journal 2003. Though coming up with an entire indicator project • What proportion of your needs is met without spending focused on community is beyond the scope of this Journal, money (that is, through barter or gifts, etc.)? we have devised a set of questions designed to help you • What proportion of your commercial interactions is picture the social and economic networks in the place conducted with people you already know from another where you live. One of the most successful achievements of context? a great variety of indicator projects has been to call attention to an aspect of life previously undervalued or over- • What proportion of your errands could be done by looked. To ask questions about the quality of community walking or biking? in your town or mine is to remind us to pay attention, to • Is there a place that you can go to on any given day and value these things, lest they slip away without any notice probably run into a number of people you know? at all. • Do you feel comfortable visiting with your immediate neighbors? • How often do you socialize with others, either infor- mally or in organized groups? • What proportion of your social contacts is with people Think about the place (community or neighborhood) you see in various settings? where you live and your household or immediate group of • What proportion of your social activities could be com- friends: fortably reached by walking or biking? • Can basic shopping needs be met locally (food, clothing, • What percentage of the local population has lived in the household items)? same place for over 25 years? • What proportion of your purchases is made locally? • Are there a variety of housing options in different price • What portion of the food you eat is grown locally? ranges available in your community? • What percentage of area businesses is independent and • How much of your community’s history are you familiar locally owned? with? • Are basic services (plumber, car mechanic, electrician, • Does your community have celebrations/events at which hairdresser, etc.) available from local tradespeople? all residents are welcome? • Are adequate health services—doctor, dentist, phar- Don was co-founding Publisher of Communities magazine macy—locally available? 1972 – 75.

Don Hollister, Kathryn (Layh) Hitchcock, Faith Morgan, and Marianne MacQueen

30 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 The course of life in Yellow Springs discloses the possibility. A Shared Adventure Yellow Springs has been central to the work of Community Solutions by Arthur Morgan since our inception. The village has been a catalyst of the organizations’ work, and CS has also catalyzed change in the village. Arthur Morgan’s I considered it to be a serious fault: poem “A Shared Adventure,” expresses the spirit of this dynamic. Grassroots projects in Yellow Springs sustain us, give us ideas to share the smaller communities of America with our national and international members, and help us to be good were, economically and culturally, neighbors to our truly exceptional community partners. being starved. The small community For instance, during the period between publishing A Business of My was not a place to live a good life. Own in 1945 and Industries for Small Communities in 1953 the local economic base for the next 50 years was laid. CS did not start the businesses that were documented, yet the resources and ideas of Arthur Was there no place for whole living, Morgan and CS did play a key role in the formation of the larger local for carrying forward from the past industries of that era. In a sense both CS staff and the businesses they the basic ways and traditions describe wrote those books. which hold humanity together The poem speaks of “. . . a reconstruction of society and community life.” Seeing needs in our home village, CS studies successes in other and keep it going, while opening communities and shares that information both locally and in our inter- the way to great human virtues? national network. Over the decades, the YS Community Council, YS Senior Citizens Center, the Metropolitan Housing Authority, and the I determined to make my own Friends Care Community all grew, in part, from CS initiatives. The small contribution. I moved living fiber of any community is a product of the behaviors of everyone my project to Yellow Springs. involved. No initiative succeeds if it is not accepted by others. More recently, both the Yellow Springs Energy Board and the YS But what can one person do Resilience Network sprung from the work of Community Solutions. to bring about a reconstruction For the past year, we have been developing a Climate Solutions channel of society and community life? to highlight local individuals and organizations. Videos on agriculture, renewable energies, tiny houses, strawbale construction, and compost- No one person does much by himself ing show what can be done at an individual and community level. Funded initially through the Yellow Springs Community Foundation, In Yellow Springs, every achievement the channel also received several donations from Community is a group achievement, in harmony Solutions’ members. with the life of the community. Recently, the Yellow Springs Community Foundation also awarded When people are alive, then us a grant to produce six months of educational events in the Village focused on ways our individual actions impact the climate. Films, semi- life can be a shared adventure, nars and speakers on Food, Waste, Building Energy, New Economics, and community living will thrive. Renewable Energies and Transportation are helping to raise our literacy about what is possible in Yellow Springs. Hands-on work includes our Among the small communities Energy Navigator project, which is bringing Community Solutions’ of America there must be many staff into Yellow Springs’ schools, neighborhoods, churches, and homes to educate and empower citizens. who’d welcome such an adventure. Following on the legacy of Arthur Morgan’s concern for business Over the vast length and breadth and industry, we are currently investigating with Antioch College of America there must be many, many models for a Solutions Space/Maker Space, a mix of workshops, labs, men and women asking themselves: kitchen and offices that would spawn learning, conversation, creativity, and continual refinement of technologies and ideas. This would be in Of what value is my life? line with a string of past local business incubator ventures. What can I do that will count? Yellow Springs is our home. The world is our home. We aim to learn from and serve both.

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 31 Energy Navigators Program – Rose Hardesty Interviews Jonna Johnson

What brought you to Community spread the joy, love and savings! Through Opportunities for Solutions? I am excited to connect with and Individual Change in Springfield, Raised by one parent with an eagle engage ever more community mem- I am coordinating with the math eye for injustice and one parent with a bers as well as faith-based groups, teacher at the Learning Opportunities matter-of-factly generous heart, I have schools, and other community net- Center to design a utilities and energy been on a journey of mixing caring and works, and in particular, support literacy curriculum, to be piloted this justice in all my endeavors. This journey people and institutions in becoming, December. has included work in community-based or growing, as change agents. I truly I am also working with the Yellow nonprofits, social justice organiza- believe in the power of connection and Springs School District. Through tions, national parks, higher education, empowerment! Yellow Springs’ Project Based Learning residential outdoor education, among program, sixth grade science students others. Through these varied and will be learning about the science adventuresome experiences, one lesson As is often the case, there behind energy, strategies for energy I’ve learned is that the power of com- are single actions that we efficiency and reduction, and the relationships between poverty, energy munity can be not only the antidote can take that will address to many global concerns (inequities, accessibility and use. At the end of the environmental degradation, consumer more than one concern. year the students will lead community culture, etc.), but can be the founda- For example, unplugging workshops. In addition, I am mentoring tenth tion for holistically meaningful, healthy appliances that are not way of conducting life on this planet we grade Yellow Springs students studying share. This is not a new concept or prac- being used reduces both our a solar battery to be used by masses and tice, we simply need to re-remember, ecological impact and our identifying ways to make this technol- and make the changes. Community ogy accessible for lower-income com- financial burdens. munities, and a twelfth grade senior Solutions has similar beliefs, and I’m project on concentrated solar panels excited to join in their journey. What is the current status of the proj- that use mirrors to magnify the sun. What is the Energy Navigators pro- ect? Where are you now and what are I am also working on building gram? What excites you about it? the next steps? a partnership with Central State As is often the case, there are single There are a lot of great programs in University (Dayton) and the Miami actions that we can take that will progress and in the works! Here are a Valley Upward Bound programs. My address more than one concern. For few: goal (and Community Solutions’ goal) example, unplugging appliances that In partnership with the Springfield is for our partnerships to be relevant to are not being used reduces both our Promise Neighborhood organization, the communities in which we’re work- ecological impact and our financial I am facilitating Hayward Middle ing. The west side of Dayton is experi- burdens – or moreover, using appropri- School’s “garden club” after school encing myriad stressors resulting from ate technology instead of ‘convenient’ program. When the garden becomes institutionalized oppression. Youth and appliances, reduces these burdens less active for the winter months, the community empowerment helps to even further. The Energy Navigators program will take on an energy focus. shape individual and collective agency program is a grant funded project Student empowerment is central for intended to do just that – identify this program--the club uses demo- and facilitate changes which will help cratic structure and decision-making, address both poverty and our envi- and students will be pursuing energy ronmental impacts. We are partnering research projects based on their own with regional organizations and stu- questions and interests. The long-term dents to create educational materials, goal for the winter energy focus is for including workshops, to share what we the students to learn to do energy audits learn. Community members are full of and audit the school itself, then dissem- experience and wisdom, and we will tap inate the information and skills they into this experiential wisdom to help learn throughout their community. Dave Holly and Jonna Johnson

32 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 and continually build resources to face How can people get involved? Jonna Johnson is working with Community and surmount oppression (including E-mail me at jonnajohnson@commu- Solutions and our partners such as the related outgrowths such as poverty nitysolution.org, or call Community AmeriCorps VISTA, YS Home Inc., and and environmental degradation), as Solutions at 937.767.2161. Opportunities for Individual Change to establish the Energy Navigators program, well as feel supported toward leading Rose Hardesty is an Antioch Miller Fellow a coordinated energy literacy campaign in high quality lives. and is on the staff of Community Solutions Yellow Springs, Springfield and Dayton.

The Environmental Dashboard – Community Consumption Feedback Project Will instant feedback on energy and water consumption help an entire village reduce use? For the past year, we have been work- turn, student engagement in the com- help them to fulfill these goals and will ing on a project to expand Antioch munity will build bridges between vil- also deepen and strengthen Antioch’s College’s Environmental Dashboard lage constituencies. ties to the Yellow Springs’ community program to the Yellow Springs schools Environmental dashboards in the and schools. and village. Our partners on the project library and the village building will Low-income residents who are include Yellow Springs Schools, Antioch make flows of energy and water vis- often left out of retrofitting and energy College, Yellow Springs Resilience ible to the 3500 members of the Yellow projects will be a key constituent in Network, Yellow Springs Environmental Springs community. This will allow the grant. Community Solutions was Council, Yellow Springs Energy them to adjust their behavior and recently awarded an AmeriCorps Vista Board, the Yellow Springs Chamber of contribute to their own energy and member to conduct energy workshops Commerce and Oberlin College. reduction goals. As part of the grant, with low-income residents. This grant Our goal is to install environmen- Community Solutions will also host will enable us to broaden the reach of tal dashboards in two Yellow Springs’ workshops that teach community this project and specifically outreach schools, the Village Library, and the members and business owners low- and to low-income residents to participate Bryan Community Center, in order to no-cost ways to reduce their energy use. in education and the energy reduction broaden resource conservation efforts Information about services available campaign. among students and other citizens. The through energy companies will also be Overall, we hope this project will dashboards will project real-time flows shared. help all individuals in Yellow Springs of electricity and water use, allowing Antioch College has recently measurably reduce energy emissions students and community members installed a dashboard project with help and water use. to connect their everyday activities to from Oberlin College and the Great Overall, we hope this project will larger issues of energy, carbon emissions, Lakes College Association. Their goals help all individuals in Yellow Springs and climate change. The dashboards include extending the dashboard project measurably reduce energy emissions will also include community stories of to the community, and documenting and water use. people who are cutting their emissions. community stories. This project will The project engages Yellow Springs’ schools and their 680 students in Project-Based Learning activities. Learning about the energy dashboards and how to reduce energy and water consumption at home and at school will enable students to connect their own activities to climate and other environmental concerns. A village-wide energy reduction campaign during the second half of the grant period will empower students to be change agents at home and in the broader community. In

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 33 Climate Crisis Solutions: Tools For Transition – our 2015 Conference Last September over 150 people of all ages gathered in Yellow Springs to take part in an important conversation about our collective future. Climate Crisis Solutions: Tools For Transition highlighted over 50 presenters sharing practical tools; economic and political tools; psychological and spiritual tools; and community-building tools for transition to a high-quality, low-carbon way of life. It was a weekend of connection, wisdom, creativity, grief, agency, and hope. We What You and Your Group Can Learn from Intentional ended by reflecting on the legacy of Arthur Morgan, and the Communities—Even if You Don’t Want to Live in One community-building tools he advocated in his lifetime that Where We At?—a Look at Bioregionalism are so vital as we consider the challenges ahead. Thank you Walking the Talk: On the Path to Deep Energy Reductions for sharing this journey with us. Student Leadership in the Era of Transition Panel 2015 Conference Sessions Global Crisis as Spiritual Practice Carbon Sequestration and on Antioch College campus Eco-Restoration Intergenerational Dialogue Friday workshops and tours Social Skills for Cooperative Culture Encountering Climate Change Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund Crafting a Stewardship Economy and Fracking the Commons Building Tour of Yellow Springs Transformative Classrooms Panel Climate Change Tour of Glen Helen Sunday Panel and Workshops Sustainable Garden Tour of Yellow Springs Peering Over the Cliff: Near-Term Human Extinction or Sustainability Tour of Antioch Collective Transformation? Friday night Breaking Up is Hard To Do: Moving our Money from Making a Killing to Making a Living Talk by the Minimalists on “Living a Meaningful Life with Less” Upgrade Athens and the Yellow Springs Resilience Network Saturday workshops and panels: Changing Things Where You Are Panel Sustainable is Possible! Living a Low-Carbon, High-Quality Facilitation & Cooperative Leadership Life in the Belly of the Beast Community Economies and the Imperative for Grassroots Building a True Sharing Economy: Responses Time Banks and Mutual Aid The Pope and Plan C—Reflections on the Papal Encyclical Resilient Gardening Panel Arthur Morgan and Other Elders Conference Photo by John Morgan Conference Photos: by John Morgan

34 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 The tours were an awesome opportunity to see things first hand. I attended the tiny house tour and the Antioch sustainability tour and these were probably the highlights of the weekend for me. I found it wonderful to be among people—so many elders—with long standing, deeply considered commitments to, and practices of, community. It meant that all the conversations and discussions were at a very high level of intelligence, experience, and earnestness. Comments from Attendees: Very much in keeping with This was my first year attending the Community Solutions con- the Morgan standard. ference and it was life changing. I had never looked at these issues and different lifestyles in this way before and this conference gave me some action items to edit my lifestyle. I came out with a wealth of information that helped me tremen- dously in my own journey. Thank you! Thank you for your dedication, enthusiasm, focus, commitment, and generous hearts. The conference was a soulful experience.

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 35 Arthur Morgan Award 2015 to Stephanie Mills On September 27th, 2015, at the vowed to never have children—a state- conclusion of our annual conference, ment The New York Times called “per- “Tools for Transition,” Community haps the most anguished…of the year’s Solutions presented the Arthur Morgan crop of valedictory speeches.” Award to Stephanie Mills. Stephanie “[The speech] got coverage on its Mills is an acclaimed author, bioregion- own merits and also because of the alist, speaker and activist. moment,” she says. “Over the years, one of the things that I said is that I would not have any children in light of the population explosion, and I haven’t. It other forms of life. It’s an enormously seems to me that this is something that complex system and over the years if people in the developed world need I have learned anything, it’s that it’s to consider and act on. There were foolish to try to say this is the issue to roughly half as many people alive then address to the exclusion of others or the as there are now. I don’t think a single understanding that everything is influ- thing has been improved by the growth encing by everything else at all times. of human population. Not to regret Nevertheless if you’re called on to act the lives of individuals extant, but you have to resort to some generaliza- just the species phenomenon is really tions and set meaningful priorities. catastrophic.

Stephanie Mills grew up in Arizona Human population growth and learned a love and respect for seems capable of trumping nature from her mother in their back- just about everything we try yard garden. She began writing early, circulating one page satirical papers in in the way of mitigating our the back of the third grade classroom. impact. . . . the proliferation As a teen she wrote critiques of her high of human beings, rich and school, continued to put out humorous and satirical pieces, and began writ- poor, presses against the ing about social justice issues. She was earth’s capacity to sustain heavily influenced by Mad Magazine. other forms of life. She went on to attend Mills College in Oakland, where she became involved How much time and how many with the literary magazine, the paper “Of course, how we live is criti- opportunities to improve the conditions and an anonymous column talking cal and inequality within our spe- of human life and leave some space about campus affairs. cies is egregious and the history of for the other many millions of species “It was 1965, radicalism was begin- wrongs that capitalism, colonialism have been lost as a result of religiously ning to emerge and blossom as a result and empires have committed is great. ‘justified’ social conservatism and left- of the free speech movement, the Human population growth seems capa- wing dogmatism that stems from the Vietnam War and anti-racism,” she ble of trumping just about everything idea that if you look at the numbers of says. “The politics of the time and even we try in the way of mitigating our people you are not going to be address- the radical politics were somewhat off impact. Not that we shouldn’t try every ing distribution issues?” putting . . . Then the concern for ecol- way we can to mitigate our impact, but In 1984, as a result of a bioregional ogy began to be voiced, and that did the proliferation of speak to me deeply.” human beings, rich In her 1969 college commencement and poor, presses address she decried overpopulation against the earth’s

and natural resource exploitation, and capacity to sustain Photo: Yellow Springs News

36 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 romance, Mills moved to Northwest encouraged and affirmed a certain from perches slightly askew from those Lower Michigan and was able to begin understanding or given them company the rest of us conjure up to use.” writing books. in their worldview and sensibility, and In 1996 Stephanie was named by “I wanted both to serve the cause that’s a great satisfaction to me.” Utne Reader as one of the world’s lead- and create works of literary merit,” she Author Chellis Glendinning ing visionaries. She has a long time says. “Two books—Whatever Happened wrote: “While the essays in Tough association with Community Solutions to Ecology? and Epicurean Simplicity— Little Beauties were penned over three as a regular conference speaker and were memoirs. In Service of the Wild, decades and alight on such disparate supporter, and wrote about Arthur concerning ecological restoration and topics as religious experience, birch Morgan in her biography about Bob environmental history was my favorite trees, birth control, the collapse of Swann. She is the second Arthur project. It allowed me to learn about civilisation, voluntary simplicity, and Morgan Award recipient. The Arthur changes in the landscape and to walk- ambiguity, the timbre of Mills’ voice Morgan Award is designed to recognize ing alongside wonderful naturalists never wavers. Like the source of her individuals who possess the traits that who were working to restore damaged inspiration, she develops her thoughts Morgan wrote about: character, vision, lands. These were men and women try- in a self-fashioned surround of time and entrepreneurship, and love of commu- ing to thwart the extinction crisis acre space that emulates that of another era; nity. She received the award because of by acre, stream by stream, plot by plot. she draws wisdom and wonder from the breadth of her interests, and because “Now and again I hear that my books the delicacies of the natural world; and she is living her life in consonance with have meant something to somebody— always, she views humanity’s problems her beliefs.

Arthur Morgan Award 2014 – William Beale It was a great honor, and a great surprise, to have been on its already quite useful site such a compendium of wealth awarded the first AEM award- and also a bit awkward for me of information for and from its subscribers—including, ide- since, after all, I know full well that I’m no paragon, or even ally, testaments of individual users on the relative merits/ close. There is a relevant old, useful saying in engineering demerits of each. R&D, where I have spent most of my time—if you can do it, Another emphasis, which I think is very important--illus- you can do it better. My wife and I did do it—reduced our trations of the personal advantages derived from the kind of carbon footprint, and helped others do so—but, when I com- low-carbon living which we must go to. Not just the need, pare what we have done to what we rather easily could have which I presume is now rather widely accepted, but also the done, we don’t get a very high grade. After all, we did start very real and very big personal benefits. I do not think of such from being more or less average citizens of the most wasteful behavior as any sort of sacrifice, instead, it’s a benefit. Again, country on earth. All we did was go from awful to less awful. some examples from my own observations: NO TV. A huge How could we have done better? First, and most obvious, gain of both time and peace of mind; Little or no travel. I did we could have informed ourselves of the best practices already this perforce, but still noticed wonderfully more peace of mind existing, all over the globe. I did do that somewhat, one of and useful time; If I can afford not to buy it, don’t buy it. Less the most productive for me being my attendance at several stuff, more peace, more time, more money! Slow down the Community Solution conferences—most informative, and running around. Busyness is bad, not busy is altogether better. for me, most encouraging, reducing as they did my sense of isolation in my desires and intents. But it’s a very wide world we live in, and I certainly did not plumb its depths of wisdom Another emphasis, which I think is very very far. I am sure those with better skills in web searching important—illustrations of the personal could dig up very quickly a huge amount of information of immediate use. advantages derived from the kind of low- Here are a few I would have liked to have noticed sooner: carbon living which we must go to. Chinese aquaculture, marvelously productive; The great wealth in reuse stores, very good for very little; Cargo bikes— rather amazingly capable; Biomass pyrolyzers- carbon-nega- A last little thought, construct a vision of what I would tive energy! And so on, a very long list indeed. All to the good wish the world to be, and work, even if only a little, toward of all, all underused and under-emphasized. So, where is all its realization, and, as important, talk about it. Visions are this pointing? Perhaps Community Solutions could include important, I, and we should all be working toward ours, and

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 37 improving them constantly and comparing and discussing them with others. My own vision is clear to me- a planet on which nature flourishes, unimpeded by us, as it once was, while we, far fewer of us than at present, relax in the benefits from that paradise and from the vast accumulation of solid knowledge of how everything really works, to pursue, at leisure, wisdom. I end with a cautionary thought apropos of all of above, I call to mind that marvelous little scene in Hamlet, wherein Ophelia, having just received a heavy dose of importunate advice on right behavior from her departing brother, gives that wonderfully on-the-mark repost- “But, good my brother, do not, as some ungracious pastors do, show me the steep and narrow path to heaven, while himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, and recks not his own rede.” Yep, that’s my job—reck my own rede.

The Arthur Morgan Award He sold Sunpower a few years ago, but continues his On the eve of our 75th Anniversary, Community Solutions promotions of solar energy at every opportunity. “It’s sim- inaugurated the Arthur Morgan Award, designed to ply good engineering logic . . . it’s blindingly obvious that recognize individuals who possess the traits that Morgan solar is the way to go. I’m interested in solarizing as much wrote about: Character, Vision, Entrepreneurship, and as we can.” love of Community. Our first recipient was William Beale continues to tinker and advises young people Beale, of Athens Ohio, longtime member of Community to develop a lot of ideas: “Don’t hesitate to have bad Solutions, serial entrepreneur, founder of Sunpower, hus- ideas—being judgmental too early is bad strategy.” He is band, father, community member, and passionate advo- currently working on an automatic transmission bicycle cate of solar power. and a wood-burning, gas-producing electric generator that William Beale was born in Tennessee and grew up produces power through a carbon-negative process. during the depression in small southern towns. He served Beale is the recipient of the 2012 Ohio Patent briefly in the navy, and went to college on the GI bill, get- Legacy Award and the 2013 Konneker Medal for ting a mechanical engineering degree from Washington Commercialization and Entrepreneurship. He has State in 1950, with subsequent mechanical engineering donated solar panels to the Athens Library and has been a studies at Cal Tech and MIT. He moved to Athens to take catalyst for energy efficiency discussions and projects in his up a professorship at Ohio University in 1960. He taught community. for 15 years, and slowly learned that he was intensely inter- He worries about climate change and our lack of atten- ested in doing other things, so he started his own business, tion to it: “Many of the most energy consumptive things Sunpower, to develop and market his Free-Piston Stirling we’re doing are near useless or worse than useless.” But Engine, which featured significant improvements in per- he has hope for the future: “The torch is being passed formance, durability. and simplicity over earlier designs. to a new generation and the new generation has a big Beale has received 26 patents for his work, and Sunpower problem—which gives them an opportunity to be heroes. spun off two firms-- Stirling Technology, Inc. and Global They have a fantastic opportunity to really do something Cooling, Inc. world-changing. So grab that opportunity and go do it.”

38 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 Fellows The Community Solutions Fellows’ Program was imple- Agriculture, Energy Democracy, Restorative Economics, mented in the Spring of 2015 to expand our research efforts and Being the Change. Our Fellows are implementing solu- and educational outreach, and to honor colleagues engaged tions in their own lives and communities, and furthering the in pioneering work. Community Solutions Fellows are our conversation about how we can transition to a lower-impact, old and new friends who research and write in our areas of higher-quality way of life. concern, including Resilient Communities, Regenerative

Dr. Samuel at Antioch University Midwest, where Dr. Robert Alexander is a she teaches courses on ecology, envi- Brecha was lecturer at the ronmental policy, sustainable agricul- born and Office for ture and conservation. raised in Environmental Ohio. He is Dr. Carolyn Programs, now a Baker University of is a radio Professor of Melbourne, host and the Physics at the Australia. He is the author of author of University of Sufficiency Economy: Enough, For Introduction to Dayton. He teaches in the Renewable Everyone Forever (2015), Prosperous Dark Gold: The and Clean Energy Graduate Program Descent: Crisis as Opportunity in an Age Human Shadow and is Director of Research for the of Limits (2015), and Entropia: Life And The Global Hanley Sustainability Institute. Since Beyond Industrial Civilisation (2013). Crisis (2015); Extinction Dialogs: How to 2006 he has been a regular visiting sci- He is a co-founder of the Simplicity live with Death in Mind (with Guy entist at the Potsdam Institute for Institute, a non-profit education and McPherson, 2015); Love In The Age Of Climate Impact Research in Germany. research center dedicated to advancing Ecological Apocalypse: The Relationships Bob is also a blogger for the the Simplicity Movement. We Need To Thrive (2015) and Huffington Post and contributes com- Collapsing Consciously: Transformative mentaries on sustainability, energy and Mario Arrastia Truths For Turbulent Times (2013). climate change to local NPR affiliate Avila is a spe- Peter Bane WYSO. cialist in Science, is Technology and the author of Sarah Byrnes Environmental The is Economic Information at Permaculture Justice the Center of Handbook: Organizer at Information Management and Energy Garden the Institute Development (CUBAENERGIA), Farming for for Policy part of the Ministry of Science, Tech- Town and Studies in nology and the Environment Country, and published Permaculture Boston and (CITMA) in Havana, Cuba. Activist magazine from 1990-2014. leads their Peter has taught for more than twenty Common Security Clubs initiative. She Megan Quinn years--reaching more than 1500 stu- has worked with Americans for Bachman is a dents in 80+ courses spread widely Fairness in Lending, Americans for journalist and across the US, Canada, and as far afield Financial Reform, and the Thomas environmental as Chile, Argentina and Trinidad- Merton Center. She has authored educator. She is Tobago. He holds the Diploma of numerous articles on community resil- an award-win- Permaculture Design for teaching, ience for YES! Magazine, Common ning reporte, a media, and community service from Dreams and other publications. columnist for both the Permaculture Institute - USA the environmental news service website (2014) and the British Academy EcoWatch.com and adjunct instructor Worknet (2005).

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 39 Kurt Cobb is attempted to live on an equitable por- Conference. an author, tion of the biosphere. Community She has been speaker, and Solutions is partnering with Jim on his a technical columnist new film, The 100-Year Plan. consultant whose novel for residen- Thomas Prelude pro- tial utility Princen vides a star- is the programs tling author of The through- reinterpreta- Logic of out the country, and is currently on tion of contemporary events and a win- Sufficiency the Editorial Board of Home Energy dow onto our energy future. He writes (2005), Treading magazine. She received the American a widely followed blog on energy and Softly: Paths to Council for an Energy Efficient the environment called Resource Insights Ecological Order Economy’s 2002 Champion of Energy and is a regular contributor to the (2010) and co-editor of Confronting Efficiency Award. “Energy Voices” section of The Consumption (2002), The Localization wimbi Christian Science Monitor. Reader: Adapting to the Coming is a Downshift (2012) and Ending the Fossil mechanical engi- Ma’ikwe Fuel Era (2015) all published by MIT neer with long Ludwig is the Press. He teaches social and ecological career in heat Executive sustainability at the University of engine research Director of Michigan with recent fellowships at the and development, Dancing universities of Munich and Muenster.” starting with Rabbit rockets and other Liz Walker Ecovillage’s is whiz bang things of the cold war (first nonprofit the author of degree in 1950) and then migrating branch, the EcoVillage at thru academic and business stuff to pioneering sustainability educator who Ithaca: solar and non-carbon energy genera- heads up Ecovillage Education US, and Pioneering a tion. He ran his own small R&D com- a member of the Board of Directors of Sustainable pany for 50 years. He has done heat the Fellowship for Intentional Culture and engine widgets of all forms from child- Community. She a regular contributor Choosing a hood, and in his career and as a hobby. to Communities magazine, and the Sustainable Future. She has helped to It is his form of fun. Cheaper than golf, author of Passion as Big as a Planet: introduce the concepts of ecovillages and way cheaper than globe trots. Evolving Eco-Activism in America, and sustainable communities to a Dr. Jifunza which focuses on the intersection of broad audience in the US and other Wright Carter spiritual and personal growth work, countries. Liz has also been active in and sustainability activism. the sustainability movement around M.D., M.P.H. Ithaca, New York as a founding mem- is a family phy- Jim Merkel is ber of the Partnership for Sustainability sician boarded the author of Education between Ithaca College and in holistic inte- Radical EVI, which in turn helped to catalyze grative medi- Simplicity: Sustainable Tompkins and Ithaca cine. She is also Small Carshare. She serves on the Cayuga a community health advocate. Jifunza Footprints on a Sustainability Council and the co-founded Black Oaks Center for Finite Earth. Tompkins County Climate Protection Renewable Sustainable Living and In 1994 he Initiative. Health Food Hub, a 500+ community received a fel- supported agriculture project in Linda M. Wigington lowship to research sustainability in is demonstrat- Chicago. Black Oaks Center assists Kerala, India, and walked in the ing the feasibility of achieving deep communities in reducing their carbon Himalayas. The following year he energy reductions in existing dwellings footprint and fossil fuel use through founded the Global Living Project through North American Thousand education and training that includes (GLP) and initiated the GLP Summer Home Challenge, and is the founder teaching permaculture. Institute where teams of researchers of the ACI (Affordable Comfort Inc)

40 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 Community Solutions Board of Trustees

Peter Bane is the author of The Development Preparation Program local charters or constitutions to con- Permaculture Handbook: Garden at Central State University, an 1890 fer more decision-making powers to Farming for Town and Country, and a Land-Grant Historically Black College citizens and to recognize the rights of frequent contributor to Permaculture and University (HBCU). Previously, nature. Design magazine (formerly he served for eleven years in a simi- Dave Westneat, PhD received a BS in Permaculture Activist). In 1994, he lar capacity at Antioch University Chemistry from Allegheny College and helped to found Earthaven Ecovillage Midwest. Saul’s career in psychology a PhD in Chemistry from the Univ. of in North Carolina where he built an and education has included a rich Pittsburgh. In 1965 he joined the fac- off-grid home of natural materials. A variety of professional experiences as a ulty of the Chemistry Department at solar energy pioneer, home remodeler, clinician, professor, administrator, con- Wittenberg University in Springfield, and microfarmer, Peter has provided sultant, and entrepreneur. OH where he taught for over 25 years. consulting advice and design to land- Kirk Rowe, PhD received his bach- He has been a past President and also a owners, municipalities, and universities elor’s degree from Lincoln University Trustee of the Glen Helen Association’s for over 25 years. in 1987 and did graduate and post- Board in Yellow Springs. Dave is a Carl Bryan is a general practice attor- graduate work at the University of longtime member of Community ney in Yellow Springs, with a special North Texas and the Medical College Solutions. of Wisconsin. Kirk has had a distin- interest in intellectual property. A Linda M. Wigington is demonstrat- graduate of Antioch College and the guished career in clinical neuropsychol- ogy. He has served as a psychology ing the feasibility of achieving deep University of Dayton Law School, Carl energy reductions in existing dwellings also has building and electrical experi- residency training director in the Air Force. Lieutenant Colonel Rowe through North American Thousand ence. Carl volunteers widely in Yellow Home Challenge, and is the founder Springs. has spoken with Administration, base-leadership, and active-duty indi- of the ACI (Affordable Comfort Inc) Amanda Cole is the Director of viduals about climate change, energy Conference. She has been a technical Alumni Relations and the Annual and energy dependence, and culture consultant for residential utility pro- Fund at Antioch College. She has change. grams throughout the country, and served as an AmeriCorps member and is currently on the Editorial Board of as coordinator of the Antioch Literacy Laird Schaub has lived over four Home Energy magazine. She received Corps. Amanda became interested in decades in intentional community, the American Council for an Energy sustainability and healthy living during and has served as the main administra- Efficient Economy’s 2002 Champion her co-op on organic farms in Hawai’i tor for the Fellowship for Intentional of Energy Efficiency Award. Community for the last 20 years. In and during her 500 mile hike on the Nancy Lee Wood, Ph.D addition to being an author and pub- ., is Professor Pacific Crest Trail. Amanda has a of Sociology at Bristol Community Masters in Public Administration and lic speaker, he’s also a meeting junkie and has parlayed his passion for good College (BCC) and Director of the Non-Profit Management from Wright Institute for Sustainability and Post- State University. process into a consulting business on cooperative group dynamics. carbon Education, teaches courses Henry Freeman, PhD is a fundraising and organizes events focused on consultant. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate Kat Walter is a coordinator with the sustainability. She currently is guid- of Wofford College in South Carolina, Yellow Springs Resilience Network, ing a 60-credit Sustainability Studies Dr. Freeman also holds a Masters of enabling efforts among individuals, Program through the curricula com- Divinity degree from Yale and the organizations, local government, and mittee at BCC, working with col- Ph.D. in higher education administra- businesses to greatly reduce our car- leagues throughout New England in tion from The University of Michigan. bon footprint. Kat previously worked developing a New England Resilience as an organizer for The Community Group, and as advisor to the BCC stu- Saul M. Greenberg, PhD currently is Environmental Legal Defense Fund dent group - Seeds of Sustainability - a Professor in the College of Education, throughout the United States to sup- promoting local agriculture throughout Intervention Specialist Professional port communities intent on rewriting southeastern MA.

Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 41 Donors Will & Anna Alexander Tom Clevenger Jim & Ann Fingar Susan Jennings Jim Allen Suzanne Clauser Michelle Fossum Eric Johnson Ed Amrhein Beth Bridgeman Kurt Cobb & Kai Brown Joyce & Gilbert Johnson Pete & Katie Antos-Ketcham George Coder Chris Frost Peter Jones Brian Appleberry Amanda Cole Veronica Frost Bob & Beverly Jurick Dolores Around Rob Conboy Eugene & Nora Anne Kaplan Bruce and Sharon Ashley Pam Conine Gallardo-Hamond Cheryl Keen Jane Baker Barbara Conklin Ian Gartshore Kay Kendall Bertram Balch Susan & Adam Edward & Donna Gates Jack Kieffer Jeanne & Hardy Ballantine Corson-Finnerty James Gatland George Kilmer Peter Bane Howard Cort Beth Gehres Mary Kirkman Barbara Sanborn Jeanne Courtney Larry Gerthoffer Ben Kjelshus Bob Barcus & Aida Merhemic Jenny Cowperthwaite Ruka John Gibson Paul E. Knoop Henry Barsotti Gordon Cowperthwaite Filson & Shirley Glanz Earl Knutson Ara Beal Ruth Cowperthwaite Mary Sue Gmeiner Leonard Kramer Carol & William Beale Bruce & Cheryl Craver Alan Greenland Ann Kreilkamp Paul Beck Jim Crowfoot & Carey Ruth Leslie Grossberg & Judy Shirley Kristensen Kingsbury Bradford Bender Don Cuddihee Kathryn Kroger Jeanna GunderKline David & Sally Anne Benson Ronald Cummins Ted La Combe Victoria Gunn Madelon & Bill Berkowitz Patti Dallas & Richard Lapedes Rex & Karen Berney Marianne MacQueen Macarthur Gunter & Maureen Lynch Lucille Bertuccio Donald Damron Larry Halpern & Gail Keen Jean & Bruce Larson Dan and Kathy Beverly Nancy Daren Bill Halton Pam Laser and Eric Hart Richard Biddle Richard & Lucy Darr Lynette Marie Hanthorn Ronald Lawler Michael Bonertz Posie Dauphine John Hart Richard Lawrence David and Danielle Bonta Maureen Dawn Eric Hausker Linda Leas Nick Boutis Olivier De Mirleau Margery Haworth Nan & Ron Leeseberg Robert and Katharina Wilma Deen Bruce Heckman Thomas Leue Seidl Brecha Benoit & Sarah Delcourt John T. Heinen Kate Levesconte Harm Ten Broeke Carolyn Demorest Vickie Hennessy Nancy Lineburgh Cara Dingus Brook Al & Donna Denman Virgil Hervey Josh Lockyer Dave Brown Nancy Deren Michael Hevron Ward Lutz Jane Brown Margaret Detwiler Barbarina Heyerdahl Krista Magaw and Kris Brown Kenneth Deveney Shoko Hikita Andy Carlson Orlando & Leonora Brown Mary & Rick Donahoe Yashi Hoffman Carl Maida William Bryan DP & L Robert Hollister Jim & Nadia Malarkey S. Cameron Anne Dungan Paulyne Holtet-Sinder Greg Martin Wilfred & Margaret Candler Roy & Heidi Eastman Mark D Homer Tom Martish Len & Mary Cargan Wilberta Eastman Ellen & Rod Hoover David G McClintock Mary Carhartt David Edmondson Jennifer Horner Dr. Geeta & Mr. Robert & Broberg David Leonard Edmondson John Howe McGahey Sylvia Carter Denny Katie Egart Robin & Mike Hoy Tom & Martha McIntyre David Case Helen Eier Kenneth Huber Martin & Sharon McMorrow Carl & Charleen Champney Harry Elger Meg and Bill Hummon Tony & Fran McQuail Peg Champney Larry Ely Carl & Lorena Hyde Michael McVey & Caroline Charlie Fairbank Margaret Emerson Jonathan Inslee Stevens Chena K Newman Tad Everhart William E Iwen Doug McWain Robert & Suzannah Ciernia Victor Eyth Wes & Joan Jackson Howard Mead Corodon S. Clark Kathy Filippi Keen James Liz Mersky

42 New Solutions Number 22 Spring 2016 Carlton Meschievitz & Elizabeth Pixley John Schneider Jerry Travers Romie Bornschier Plymouth Area Renewable John Schuster Carolyn Treadway Susan Metz Energy Initiative Linda & Frank Schwartz Hazel Tulecke Gene Milgram Jim & Karlene Polk Walter Schwarz UltimateAir, Inc Shawndra Miller Becky and Ron Pollack Sherraid Scott Vale, Inc. Timothy Miller Diana Porter Richard Seifert Pablo Villar Stephanie Mills Thomas & Susan Quinn Sherrill and David Senseney Elias Vlanton Dan Miner Tom Rapini Martha Shaw Liz Walker Charles & Pauline Moore Raven Rocks, Inc. Karen Shell Eugenia R Wall & Stephanie Tim Morand & Susan Chris & Janeal Ravndal Sara Sherick LaFleur Wagner Morand Reichley Insurance Agency Edward Simonoff Beth E. Waterhouse Ross Morgan James Reischman Ed Singer Miriam & James Watkins Faith Morgan & Pat Murphy Cindi & Bob Remm Herb Smith Glenn and Jane Watts John Morgan Bill & Carol Reuther Norman Smith Carroll Webber Vicki & Lee Morgan Heather Reynolds & Dave Solar Power & Light Ruth Weizenbaum Jim Mulherin Rollo Lynn & Tim Sontag Michael Welber Shirley Mullins Macy Reynolds Andy Spittal Rose Welch Nina Myatt Rev. Richard and Mrs. Wilma Star and Shadow Cinema Dave & Helen Westneat Rachel & Bill Newmann Righter A. Tamasin Sterner Laurita Whitford Bill Nickle Susan Roberts Perry Stewart Linda Wigington Michael Ohara & Ruth John & Wanda Rockwell Muriel Strand Susan Wills Tamaroff Ann Rogers Reggie Stratton Ted and Trudy Winsberg Judith Oplinger Rosario Musolino Susan Schaller James & Jeannie Witherell Eric & Ellen Ottoson Esther Rothman Dr. Mei Chiang & Chuck Nancy Lee Wood George Owen Kirk Rowe Taylor Harold & Jonatha Wright Rachel and Robert Ozretich Aldine Rubinstein Stephen Tearney Rose Wright Jerry Papania & Moira Denise Runyon Martin & Marian Thompson Tim Wulling Laughlin Monica Russell Douglas Thorp Glenn Yamasaki Caroline Parry Nancy Salisbury Douglas Throp Yellow Springs Brewery Dick & Mary Paterson Honor Schauland Clark D. Tibbits Linda Revell Yoder James Pennino David Scheim Susan Todt & Dale Moody Sam Young Tracy Perkins-Schmittler Eileen & James Schenk Tom Prugh YS Friends Meeting Caroline Perry George Schloemer Ron Tower Barry Zalph & Katie Peter Langlands Albert Schlueter Laird Towle Whiteside Michael & Robin Pfeil Ralph Schmoldt Kathy Townsend Karen Zukowitz

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Spring 2016 New Solutions Number 22 43 Sponsors and Partners

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Join us in Yellow Springs for our 63rd Conference: Charting a New Course October 23-25, 2016 Yellow Springs Confirmed Speakers include: • Nicole Foss, author of The Automatic Earth blog • Jim Merkel, author of Radical Simplicity • Tina Fields, Naropa University • Mary Ellen Etienne, Director of the Reuse Institute • Peter Bane, author of The Permaculture Handbook • Sellus Wilder, Activist and Director of The End of The Line For more information visit www.communitysolution.org

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“There are qualities in humanity which crave freedom, dignity, good will, absence of suspicion and strategy. People will tend to congregate where those are in evidence or to support them where they appear . . . To insure that the spirit of community is not lost is the adventure on which we are engaged.” – Arthur Morgan