Day 11 (6/29) Reflections

Nathan—Chiwara Premaculture, came and an spoke to us about sustainable making.

Permaculture—closed loop system

Systems thinking: Food, Energy, Water, Building, Transport, Waste

Not a community garden—there to do permaculture research

• Open source R&D lab
• Small scale so it can be taken elsewhere

How can we take the closed loop systems in nature and apply them to what we are doing?

Problem with monoculture of the mind—“one way to do something”

• Need to change this

How do you sustain your organization?

• L3C
• Nonprofit org is flawed and unsustainable
• Revenue has come from for-profit educational courses
  • Engaged with foundations

How do you fund the R&D site in Highland Park?

• Big installs with experts
  • Have a course to be around the experts, people come from all around the world
    • Type of crowdsourcing
• If you want to build an earth oven—have a class so you can build it and fund it through people paying to attend the worksho

Frank Joyce—Re-imagine work, reimaging life—good article to read

• Disconnect in society between getting work done and not having jobs
• Alternative currencies, time banking, seed banks, tool sharing etc.
• Can re-imagine what work and wealth is
  • Is wealth electronic numbers in a bank account? Or fresh soil to grow food in?

Some start-up struggles

• Find ways to create new closed loops (workers get free food from the gardens)
  • Use what is already happening and try to incorporate it into model

Learnist.com – free knowledgebase

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Idea for our Drink.Design.Make.Share:

• Have workshops while building out the space: it could help pay for supplies and provide knowledge for other to accomplish these ideas elsewhere
• Have a make a beer/coffee bar/workshop rather than a maker space

This lead to a revelation and instead of our original idea, we evolved it into Brood.

Brood aims to take the DIY craft bee brewing process out of your basement and into a community supported atmosphere.  Brood would like to facilitate taking a home basing baking process and developing that process communally in a public space.  Brood provides an accessible, engaging environment for members of the community to congregate and share ideas.  Brood maintains three signature a beer that will be available for consumption from our tap as well as in growlers and bottles.  Our specialty craft product will be accompanies by a rotation of guest flavors produced by our neighbors and friends.  Patrons may enjoy an array of handcrafted beers in our welcoming tasting lounge and bar. The handmade creative atmosphere of Brood is conducive to rich social engagements and a fun, relaxed feeling.  Along with strong values rooted in hospitality and service.  Brood also serves as an educational hub where our expert brewers will be able to share their extensive knowledge with the community through brewing workshops and classes.  Using an open source knowledge base and in a communal group learning environment, participants will learn all about the process of brewing high quality beer.  Once a brewing enthusiast has at least one brood class under their belt, they have the opportunity to obtain a membership. This membership will allow the dedication small batch brewer to further engage with the community within brood.  Members will gain access to the high quality brewing equipment and the advanced facilities within Brood.  Members will also be able to lease storage space for their batch as it goes through the fermentation process.  This storage space will a safe and accessible environment to keep a member batch doing what it should be.  Member will provide their own ingredients and will be encouraged to experiment with unique flavors.  Expert brewers are available as a resource to members that have questions or desire a knowledgeable helper to troubleshoot with.  The expert brewers will be available to members through the entire progress from sourcing ingredients to bottling the finished product.  Ever three months two varieties of member generated beer will be switched into the rotation behind the bar.  The prospective flavors will be submitted to a jury of craft beer enthusiasts and coinsures.  Once chosen the 3 month run flavors will be unveiled at a major celebratory event at Brood. These semi-regular events will act as a method to engaged with the community and celebrate the values and accomplishments of Brood and its patrons and members.  These events will highlight the benefits of our small, local supply chain and present a transparent sourcing method that depicts our pride in local organic ingredients and sustainable methods of production.