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South Mountain Company

Martha’s Vineyard’s integrated design/build company

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The Company We Keep

Dear Reader,
This blog is now an archive. John Abrams (Founder of South Mountain, author of this blog, and a book of the same name) retired on December 31, 2022. All posts published up until this date are preserved below.

For updates on John's next chapter, visit abramsangell.com.

For updates on South Mountain's second act, subscribe to our newsletter using the form below.

Marjorie Kelly

Good Year for Worker Co-ops

January 14, 2013 by John Abrams Leave a Comment

On the last day of 2012 our 25th year as a worker cooperative (and 37th in business) ended.  It was an extraordinary year – rich, full, profitable, demanding, restorative, and uplifting.

It was a year of many “first-evers”.  On November 1st we welcomed three new owners at SMCo – the most ever at one time.  When DonE Turnell, Marc Rosenbaum, and Aaron Beck became owners, it meant that 21 of our 30 full-time employees are now full owners.   DonE worked here for 20 years before taking the buy-in plunge, our longest journey-to-ownership ever.  And it goes back further – I can remember him as a 14 year old skate punk back in the early eighties. He hasn’t changed much.  After his first SMCo Board meeting, he said, “It was kind of like a road association meeting but with less stupid people.”  Less stupid people?  Hey DonE, what are you trying to say??

Read More about Good Year for Worker Co-ops

Filed Under: Economic Crisis, Employee Ownership, South Mountain Company, Workplace Democracy Tagged With: Donald Rumsfield, Energysmiths, Equal Exchange, Evergreen Cooperatives, Green Futures, Marjorie Kelly, Melissa Hoover, Mondragon, National Cooperative Business Association, Owning Our Future, Richard Wolff, Rodney North, U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, U.S. Steelworkers

BE 12 Meets TED Talks

March 21, 2012 by John Abrams Leave a Comment

Two weeks ago several of my SMCo colleagues and I spent two days at Building Energy 12, the annual conference of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA).  My involvement in NESEA goes back 30 years.  For me this annual meeting is truly a tribal gathering.

This year’s conference was particularly thrilling. The highlight for me was experiencing the emerging youth contingent which has brought great new vitality into the organization the past few years. It makes me feel like we have greater capacity than ever before. I feel this at NESEA, and at South Mountain too. I like us. I like who we are now. While we are more empowered as individuals than ever before, we are people who know, with conviction, that all of us are smarter than any of us.

Read More about BE 12 Meets TED Talks

Filed Under: Climate Change, South Mountain Company Tagged With: BE 12, Marc Rosenbaum, Marjorie Kelly, NESEA, Paul Gilding, Peter Diamandis, Rob Meyers, TED talks, Terry Mollner, The Divine Right of Capital, The Great Disruption, The X-Prize

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