South Mountain Company

Martha’s Vineyard’s integrated design/build company

This blog provides up-to-date news of goings on at South Mountain Company and occasional musings from John Abrams (and others).

Martha's Vineyard

Here Comes the Island Plan

The Island Plan is complete.

For now.

Four years in the making, this long-term plan for the future of Martha’s Vineyard, initiated by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission,  engaged hundreds of people in the collaborative process of its production.  island plan cover smallTo quote from the plan:  “ The purpose of the Island Plan is to chart a course to the kind of future the Vineyard community wants, and to outline a series of actions to help us navigate that course.  The Island Plan is both a blueprint and a call to action.”

I served on the Steering Committee and chaired one of the nine work groups – Livelihood & Commerce (the others are Development & Growth, Natural Environment, the Built Environment, Energy & Waste, Affordable Housing, Transportation, Water Resources, and Social Environment).

I spent more time working on the plan than I wished to and less time than I should have.

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Living Local & The Next Generation

The third annual Martha’s Vineyard Living Local and Harvest Festival just ended.  It  began with a Friday night forum called Opportunities and Challenges – a Panel Discussion with Next Generation Island Leaders.

It was about youth.    logo_LLHV_50pc

Having just turned 60, I am acutely aware of the role of young people (in their 20’s and 30’s)  in my work life and civic life.  At work they are a constant theme and a growing force.  There is a great transition in process at South Mountain Company – from first generation leadership to the next.  It’s a long, gradual journey, sometimes a bit frightening but mostly thrilling, and it’s gathering steam.

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Values and Principles

A group of friends was here for a post-Labor Day vacation, enjoying the last harmonies of Vineyard summer – warm water, cool breezes, and empty roads.  Devon Hartman runs a design/build company in L.A. and Jamie Wolfe is a design/builder from Connecticut.  Dennis Allen runs a building company in Santa Barbara, CA.  Sal Alfano is the editor of both the Journal of Light Construction and Remodeling Magazine.  Each is remarkable in his own way.  Each has much to teach.  All agreed to do a panel discussion for an SMCo company meeting.

The following questions were put to the four of them:  what happened to your business (and you) between last September and this September, what lasting effects has the economic crisis had, and what’s next for you and your enterprise?

They spoke about the troubles of these times, but they also spoke – compellingly – about the possibilities, and new doors that are opening.

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All Is Forgiven

I managed to get through the Martha’s Vineyard summer attending only one fundraiser.  That’s a record.  And, for the first time in at least a decade, I did no fundraising for the causes I care about.  I must admit it felt good.  Fundraising is hard.

The single event I went to  – for our Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick – was a good one,.  It happened to be scheduled for the day after we found out Ted Kennedy died.  Deval spoke about Kennedy.  He said, “ I knew him before I ever met him because my mother used to say, to no one in particular” (and here he slipped into a drawl), “I just love me some Kennedy.”

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Early Morning Meeting

My wife and daughter and I recently had the great good fortune to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous  meeting.  The occasion was the one-year sobriety celebration of a close friend.  We were  invited to witness her achievement.  This wasn’t just a celebration; it was a regular AA meeting.  There were 35 people there, many of whom we knew (this is a very small place) and all of them no longer anonymous to us (as a friend says, in a small community like this there is no AA, just A).   How brave, and generous, for them to welcome us and allow us to share their meeting.

I’ve always wanted to witness first hand the workings and organizational structure of this remarkably effective and superbly networked (without – even – the need of the internet!) institution. The amazing part – it has no leaders!

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Sharing Ownership of the Future

One more post (which might become two) about employee ownership and workplace democracy before I veer off toward some related topics. . . .

Despite the Obama administration’s recent shift in emphasis from homeownership to rental housing (which I will discuss in detail in a future post), homeownership is at the very heart of the American dream. Owning our work, and finding meaning there, seems as essential to a good life as owning our homes. But although many of us own homes, far fewer own our work.

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