Bio Products Opportunity

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Original post by John Nicklin

On our project there are a lot of ways to communicate with one another.
We run multiple email lists, multiple blogs, and have a bunch of gatherings both formal and informal.  Industrial and Coop have a joint staff meeting every Monday morning.  That’s a good place to get an update on the project.  Often Piedmont Biofarm is represented.

Every Friday at noon a team of people stages “Local Food Friday,” in which “stage” is not too small a word.  This is a sit down lunch for 30.  Last week it was forty.  A lot of meaningful conversations happen at Local Food Friday-for those who show up.  Last week I missed it.  I was off sailing on Georgian Bay, which left me out of the loop.

Every Saturday night at Augusta we shoot a round of Frisbee golf.  That seems informal enough, but I have often seen it morph into important project discussions which move our collective ball down the field.  Augusta is a nickname for a mowed patch of ground which surrounds my place.

And on Sunday nights there is the Oilseed potluck.  That fetches big crowds.  And it can be a conduit for information.

It would be a rare week indeed when someone attended every event.  But if someone were to do so, they might find themselves up to date-or “in on things” regarding all aspects of Piedmont Biofuels.

It could be the project is too large to comprehend.  While you might be able to glean the financial lay of the land, it might be hard to know who is rooming with who where.  We currently manage seven residences which house a half dozen interns, staffers, farmers, and others.

At the Sustainable Biodiesel Summit in Orlando, Matt took the microphone and explained how he was accustomed to paying more for organic produce, how he went out of his way for fair trade coffee and chocolate, and how he would simply expect to pay more for his locally produced fuel.  He received a round of applause for his remarks, and when it faded the professor beside me leaned over and said, “Boy is he in a bubble.”

And the term stuck.

On Friday we are holding our first ever “State of the Bubble Address.”  It’s another meeting.  Not mandatory.  On company time.  Beer to follow.  And I am hoping it is yet another way for us to bring one another up to date on our sprawling project.

I should note this is Bob’s idea.  He had a meeting like this at a company in his past lifetime.  I forget where he introduced me to the concept.  It might have been when we were throwing Frisbees at the Woodland Hole.

The concept is simple.  Multiple people are invited to speak.  To give a three minute update on their “corner of the bubble.”  The idea is to advise the group on the fact that someone is starting, someone is switching positions, someone just moved to New Orleans.  Someone is making lots of profit, someone is hemorrhaging cash, and someone else’s grant just got renewed or cancelled.

We can fit a lot of three minute updates in a hour’s work, and we will have question and answer.  By following on with a social event, folks will be able to corner others for more information if that is of interest to them.

So far on the lineup we have:

Bob:  “View from the College”
Scott:  “Blast and Chatham Wireless.”
Tami:  “The Abundance Corner.”
Greg:  “R+D Me.”
Sandi   “Three Minute ECO Organics”
Moya:  “Grease Goddess Update”
Jack:    “Piedmont Biofarm and You”
Camille: “Biodiversity Project”

And me.  I originally entitled my talk “Everything I want or something better,” but I have decided to change that to “One Love.”

Tonight Link and I stood in the rain and talked about stuff.  I was headed off to dinner, and he was headed into a double production shift.  We hit a chord which I would like to recycle into my three minutes on Friday afternoon.

If you are inside the bubble.  Or want to be.  Or are curious.  Join us.  We are going to roll this conversation at 4:00 sharp on Friday.  If you would like three minutes to update the group on your angle-email me. Three minutes, by the way, will be religion.  Talk for 3:01 and you will be silenced. This is Toastmasters meets Speed Dating.
To some this is just another annoying meeting.  They are welcome to stay home, or go  jump in the lake.  Others are looking forward to it.  It might be a better way of bringing ourselves up to date.

My brother Jim is a time management guru.  He is all the time measuring things and timing things and thinking about his work volume.  The other day I put down a hatch mark for everyone I might interact with on any given day.  To qualify they had to have a financial stake, a work stake, or a board member stake in our project.

There were sixty one hatch marks on the scrap of paper.

When sixty one people set their shoulders to the wheel, it’s not a bad idea for them to communicate.  That way the wheel goes in the right direction.

I’m looking forward to Friday afternoon.  Maybe the State of the Bubble will become an institution.  Or maybe it will burst.  Either way I think it is a good thing to try, and I can’t wait to see how it goes…

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Original post by John Nicklin

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Original post by John Nicklin

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