Rudyard's CIRAL reports for Research and Action Lab, Fall thru Spring

Fall Quarter

Week 1: Commerce Cluster formed with Sam (Baderdeen) and David. We discussed our varying goals and looked for a shared vision to unify our efforts.

Week 2: Explored how alternative and experimental business models could be applied to help small businesses that might not think to do so. Looked into local businesses that could could benefit from using these models.

Week 3: Met with the group, shared research, identified successful businesses making use of cooperative and ESOP methods.

Week 4: Looked into the Flaming Eggplant, Evergreen’s student run cooperative cafe, as well as Olympia’s New Mood Cafe, a cooperative cafe founded by former Flaming Eggplant students.

Week 5: Gave some printed handouts to my cluster-mates. We shared our research and talked about it.

Week 6: Researched the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, perhaps the earliest cooperative. Compared their practices with those of modern cooperatives.

Week 7: Researched the Mondragon federation of cooperatives, often said to be the world’s largest cooperative, examined its history and practices.

Week 8: Watched “The Mondragon Experiment” documentary from 1980. Very informative.

Weeks 9 & 10: Debriefed over the quarter with cluster-mates. We decided to disband, with Sam leaving the program and David and myself finding other clusters.

Winter Quarter

Week 1: Agriculture Cluster formed with Sam (Woolstrum), Nicquelle and Gale. We discussed our goals, and how we might achieve them. I created a couple google document for us to  organize and share information.

Week 2 & 3: Helped draft a mission statement. Looked into GRuB as a possible resource, with Gale. Researched local community gardens as well as organizations that the group could work with, such as Olympia Slow Food, Kitchen Gardens International, Northwest Harvest, Food Lifeline, Sustainable South Sound and the Campus Food Coalition.

Week 4: Met and interviewed Courtney Williams on campus with Nicquelle and Sam, got lots of good advice.

Week 5: Attended a meeting of the Campus Food Coalition on campus with Emma, met folks from many groups with shared vision, came away with informative handouts.

Week 6: Went to the organic farm on campus to check the community garden there, and look at their kitchen.

Week 7: Brainstormed questions with Sam for her interview with Allison Smith, who organizes cooking classes at Olympic College in Shelton.

Week 8: Went to a Slow Food conference on campus.

Week 9 & 10: We went over what we did over the quarter and planned our goals for next quarter.

Spring Quarter

Week 1: Introduced new member, Rob, to the cluster and discussed plans and goals for spring.

Weeks 2 & 3: We wrote a couple emails together as a group, one asking for a meeting with Steve Russell, the Director of the Mason County Food Bank, another directed at the Mason Matters organization. We also came up with interview questions for the organizers of a community garden in South Seattle that teaches gardening and food preservation skills to its community.

Week 4: Met with cluster on campus to go over funding options.

Week 5: Went to Shelton to tour the Saints’ Pantry Food Bank. The director Steve provided us with a lot of information about the operation and the state of food insecurity in Mason County.

Weeks 6 & 7: Helped craft initial draft of grant proposal for teaching kitchen. We went over the draft a few times as a group and did editing and proofreading.

Week 8: Watched videos with the group on canning and food preservation.

Week 9: Met with Sam and Rob at the Mason County Library to do a final proofread and edit session of the grant proposal. It is complete!