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The TLC Farm Story

Sun, 08/12/2007 - 14:17 — mattg
farm.plan.5.med

The TLC Farm Story
By Emily Aronowitz
July 2007

Tryon Life Community Farm

Media

TLC Farm has received a great deal of media coverage, both during the drama of the eviction proceedings and as human interest stories and photos covering our programs. The following is a sampling of newspaper articles; we have also been on both KBOO and OPB, several TV stations, and public access cable.

Economy

TLC Farm as a non-profit organization has accomplished a great deal with very little operating income. At the same time, we have raised a very large amount of money in order to protect the land we occupy from development (see our history).

An important part of our "open source" approach to this project is making the accounting for our operations as accessible as possible. As this web site matures, we will be placing current and archive financial statements and budgets here. In addition, we will discuss in more of a narrative form the financial flows that keep us going, and how broad public participation plays such a crucial role.

In the end, this place and project belong to all of us, and the earth!

As a start, please see our provisional financial statement for the first half of 2007, which includes notes about our accounting policies:

While we wait for similarly notated and formatted versions, you can also see our 2007 final and 2008 Q1 and Q2 reports, attached as spreadsheet files.

You may also want to see our 2006 and 2007 990 tax returns, attached as a PDF file.

History

In progress!

Our fabulous writing intern from Green Mountain College in Vermont, Emily Aronowitz, has just put the finishing touches on the enlightening Farm Story. Thank you Emily for all your work here this summer!

You may see a technical overview of the land acquisition, whereby this land was saved.

Partners

An overview of some partners with our organization, and how we work with them.

For example:

Cedar Moon
The intentional community that co-manages the land with TLC Farm. Currently has about 15 adult and 3 children members.
OSALT
The land trust that leases the land under a 99-year ground lease that requires the land to be used sustainably and educationally.
Shining Star School

Organizational Structure

Organizational Structure painting

TLC Farm's organizational structure is designed to empower people to become part of the decisions and actions of embodying a new world.

Participants

Everyone who engages in one of programs, volunteers with a project, or coordinates an activity is a participant. We support participants in finding a match between their passions and TLC Farm's existing needs, and to take responsibility for an appropriate role or task. Participants are encouraged to coordinate their activities with others through a relevant working group.

Bios

(A great variety of people participate in our work, in many ways. We are asking as many of you as possible to send in short bios, so that visitors to the site can get a feel for who we are. Please add or revise, or send it in an email!)

Brenna Bell. Brenna brings to her work tenyears of organizing experience, as well as an extensive background in environmental law and education. She has spent many years in the Tryon Creek watershed: first as a student at Lewis & Clark College, where she self-designed a major in Social Ecology; next as a counselor at the Tryon Creek State Park summer day camp; then as a student at Lewis & Clark Law School, where she was President of the Student Bar Association and received an Environmental and Natural Resources Certificate; and finally as a resident and core organizer with Tryon Life Community Farm. Brenna has worked for numerous non-profits, including the NEDC, the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, and she is currently the part-time staff attorney for Willamette Riverkeeper. Brenna serves as the president of the board of directors for TLC Farm, and is also on the board of the NW Constitutional Rights Center. She is also blessed to be raising her daughter, Ember, in the strong and supportive TLC Farm community.

 

Hope Medford: Hope is a certified professional midwife, having attended over 300 births; a successful painter with a solo gallery show under her belt; and a passionate teacher of art and hand-drumming. Her background in social work -- she has been employed at both a hospice and a domestic violence shelter -- deepens her commitment to healing broken lives and communities. Part Cherokee, she also has a strong interest in indigenous ways, and participated for nine years in the Global Peace Walk uniting tribes and races. She has extensive experience with Lakota and Pueblo ceremonies, and has lead ritual at the Hanuman temple in Taos, NM. Currently, she is helping build the environmental education program at TLC Farm, linking arts and the environment.

 

J. Brush. Brush is a writer, organizer, videographer, and computer consultant, with a long history of participation in cooperative communities. He has spent much of the last five years working with peace and social justice organizations to improve communications, strategic thinking, and coordination. Most recently, he has worked with the Green Bloc to document their direct actions linking global justice convergences with long-term urban permaculture and community gardening. He has also worked in South Africa, building relationships between US activist communities and SA poor peoples' movements struggling for community empowerment and basic services. He has been published in a variety of periodicals, and presented a plenary paper at the 2002 Radical Philosophy Association conference at Brown University. Currently, he is focused on developing TLC Farm's information technology infrastructure and publicity materials.

Bonsai Matt James: Matt has been a bonsai practitioner since 1984; he had a small bonsai nursery by age 15, began teaching at 16, and has owned and operated a nursery and landscape business since 1999. His university studies focused on educational arts and photography, as well as music and teaching. Now, he is a certified permaculture designer, nursery owner and successful professional artist, and has wide experience in the fields of native and exotic bonsai cultivation, permaculture design and practice, landscaping & gardening with natives and exotics, stone masonry & sculpture, tincture & salve preparation from wild-crafted herbs, natural building, earthen oven construction and baking, and photography. His long-term plans are to continue living and working at Try/on Life Community Farm and teaching the broader community how to live more sustainably on the land.

Matt Gordon: Matt is a gardener, musician, teacher, and lover of the Willamette Valley, his home bioregion. After leaving Oberlin College with an Environmental Studies degree in 2002, he completed two AmeriCorps service years in environmental and garden education with the Northwest Service Academy and Growing Gardens in the Portland area. He has worked with local educational organizations such as Schools Uniting Neighborhoods and Wolftree while continuing to practice and learn about gardening and permaculture design. Matt completed a Permaculture Design Course in Eugene in 2006. He moved to Cedar Moon (the intentional community at TLC Farm) in June of 2006 to further his practical experience of sustainable living and contribute to this vibrant project. Matt is one of TLC Farm's garden coordinators and a member of the chicken and goat teams. Matt plays with several local bands and also freelances as a sound engineer. Come say hello to Matt on a Friday garden workparty day!

More coming!

This site is under construction.
Feedback and participation welcome!
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