A unit of Lasting Forests
Sustained forests; sustained profits
evolving since March 30, 1999

The Pivotal Project
developing opportunities within Craig County, Virginia

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Getting Started in

The Project

One part of the answer ...  

Please read and ponder The Pivotal Strategy. Getting Started is offered reluctantly. It's probably like comments by Hercules discussing a type of shovel when given the task of cleaning the Aegean stables.

The following can probably be done by July 1, 2003.

1. Craig leadership needs to meet and to decide whether the concept is worth exploring further and that it should "get started." Assuming yes ...
2. There need to be some open public meetings (at least three of them, and not only in the summer when some people are on vacation, etc.) to discuss the potentials of the Project. These should not be decision-oriented meetings, only for information and public comments. They might be presented by Giles and colleagues.
3. We all have to see if there is a real need and what is possible and believe we're on the way. The Pivotal Strategy is the way to get there. Only a few have to believe it. Everyone has to know what "those other guys" are doing. There is no schedule; delay and thoughtful preparation are justified.
4. We need lengthly newspaper presentations before the meetings.
5. There may be small business advice and loan assistance, at least advice, from:
   Owen C. Young
   P. O. Box 1313
   Charlottesville, VA 22902
   Phone: 434.297.3756
   Fax: 434.297.3769 Toll Free: 1.866.491.8974
   Email: owencyoung@nexet.net or simply click here:Mr. Young
6. There needs to be a temporary project leader for coordinating and channeling information and meetings, and proposals. Giles can meet this need temporarily but a local person is needed.
7. We need (1) a temporary office space ;
8. Consideration of an initial grant from the County of $50,000 to be repaid within 6 years; and (3) release from taxes (since we pay them from our profits),
9. We need letters of support and active participation to go with Gates and Carter foundation letters (and others)
10. There may be local investors and businesses who see the potentials of Pivotal-Rig and will want to create major units, one or more of the Groups. Such action will be very supportive.
11. There may be people who know individuals, local organizations, companies, or foundations that will sponsor the concept or parts of it. These need to be communicated to a project leader.
12. Efforts need to be made to gain projects with local newspapers and the TV with a weekly PBS or other series on things going on in the in the county.
13. Throughout, I've assumed that people would be hired using the funds obtained as venture capital or loans. There will be people, like me, retired or otherwise supported, who can take on major tasks for a select group. Who is hired will depend on the rate of acquiring funds, and the limitations on each budget.
14. We need to see an attorney to resolve 501(c)(3) topics, joint Rural Nelson and other groups with Pivotal involvement, and proper corporate status for which and from which we can legally and safely work. I believe this is or can be formulated as a conservation and education project.
15. We need to develop insights for leadership for the next 10 years (a first-principle of the systems approach, feedforward, working and investing some time and energy now to get ready for the predicted future).
16. We need a gross idea of the number of people unemployed in the county or who might consider an alternative line of work within the area. Experimental and volunteer work will be needed at the beginning.
17. If the project is approved, we need to have some bandannas made for sale at near-cost. Conspicuous is one of the bywords.
18. We need someone who bakes to put some special yeast (I'll bring it) in a bowl and give out these sourdough "starts" to everyone who wants it. The symbolism can be strong. We'll market this as soon as possible (locally, then Cracker Barrel stores, etc.)
19. We need to get a list of lands now under easements and begin planning a system of oversight and suggested management for them.
20. We need 2 to 3 people to bake 50 " Craig Crackers " (once called "lumps" for taste-testing, cost analysis, and market analyses) a cookie for workers, school children, and hikers. It will take a little experimenting or maybe there is a better recipe for a hard cookie that can be carried afield. We can think about making Certified Forest wooden boxes for boxing the Crackers.
21. We need to talk to local restaurant owners about commissions on meals and other product-sales that we generate.
22. We need to discuss the Ranging concept with the local tourism director(s)
23. I'll share a draft of a proposal to the Gates Foundation.
24. I'll share a proposal to the Carter Foundation.
25. We need to find the largest, prettiest pond on the area or to which we can have management access for the next contracted 150 years. A map with descriptions of each pond/wet area can be a project (maybe the soil people in the county already have such a map or notes). We need to discuss potentials and plans with Dr. Brian Murpht, (Rt. 42).
26. We need to visit and see if 1-2 local funeral home owners/managers may be interested in some aspect of The Memorials Group.
27. We need to find a person with a big-bed truck who is interested in foxes and coyotes and wants a night-shift job (see Coyote of Nature Folks)..
28. We need to get youths and others hats or a bandana or Tee-shirts. The youth will be the future for the project. Tasks for youths or others:
    • Get a young person or two to bike around and visit people and make a list of all of the vegetables that have been raised successfully in local gardens.
    • Someone needs to select several good spots in the county for 6-foot-tall "thermometers" like those seen for charity giving and fire danger in the West. (We'll get it in later to report on progress; they can help pick spots. Mark it; leave a report on selection criteria.)
    • Where should beautiful stone "gateways" to the county or town be placed (if decided).
29. Write to UVa and Va Tech get names and addresses of all students from the county. Write a general letter to students and ask for help ( by working on one of more term-papers or senior or graduate projects that will payoff for them as well as their home counties - a list is available and open for suggestions). Much of the work needed for the System Central has been done or can be assembled and completed by a team of business management graduate students.
30. We need someone ( maybe a church group) with a sewing machine to hem 10-20 triangular flags. We, theproject and the conglomerate, have to be evidently present and at work.
31. We need someone who can start The Old Codgers.
32. We need to contract with the Conservation Management Institute for 3 maps of the area and then print and sell them.
33. We need to talk to a volunteer fire chief about starting to think about and to plan for The Fire Force and its potentials.
34. We need to start the baseline for fires and fire prevention (numbers of calls, fires, estimated losses, local annual control budget).
35. We need a meeting to get small business advice. It may be that we have to develop 50 business plans but because of System Central, none are likely to make sense to banks or reviewers of conventional plans.
36. There's a great idea in The Products Group for a hiking staff. Maybe someone who does furniture or has a lathe might advise or help get this product (at least a prototype) into markets.
37. We need someone who has a computer and some Internet skills and who is interested in Nature. He or she might head-up Nature Folks.
38. We need to talk and plan with someone who has or now raises rabbits. Some person might fund construction and placement of 10 hutches with interested students (Scouts, 4-H or FFA, etc.).
39. We need someone who has raised geese or someone who is very interested in doing so.
40. We need to locate local youth and adult camps and get their addresses, phones, and dates of operation. Also an answer from each to: interested in cooperative, paid use later after the "normal season"?

    

41. We can offer distance-learning courses (but the site from which it is sent is no longer relevant). One course on advanced wildlife resource management systems was offered out of the Northern Virginia Graduate Center 2 years ago. Such courses can work. We can have visitors who can see the Pivotal-Rig Project principles in action ... in 2-3 days, but not year around. Distance-learning courses may be useful to fill this extended need. We may need specialized intensive youth and adult education with a strong natural resource base for realistic examples of the principles and for motivation. We need to teach about the Pivotal System and its principles.

    Recent and ongoing research strongly indicates that using the environment as a subject "integrator" across the curriculum can both improve student performance and contribute to the development of values such as community responsibility and persistence. In addition, environment-based education can lead to more effective methods of implementing standards-based education, can be a powerful school "turn-around" tool for severely under-performing schools, and can be a vehicle for improving teacher preparation and performance.

42. We need to consider the potentials of and then how to implement youth programs with special math and science emphases within the Pivotal-Rig Project to meet standards-of-learning. We need to discuss the project with interested school faculty.
43. Activities may already be underway, but parenting classes, for men and women seem especially needed given the new urban conditions, the divorce rate, and the small family sizes ...few seem to learn how "to do it well" any longer. Mentors are few. Some of this can be taught outdoors and in Pivotal facilities.
44. Has anyone any experience with carving names, etc. in local rock? I cutting and carving small rock paper-weight objects? Is there are group of rockhounds? or special individuals known to be rock and mineral collectors?
45. Is there an expert wood whittler who might be interested in forming a group (see The Sculptors).
46. We need to know if anyone knows where there are fine clay deposits on the area that have been or might be processed and used in sculpting.
47. We need to know if anyone in the region works with heat pumps. Putting pipes into deep wells, caverns near sinkholes, or compost heaps can harvest the Earth heat and provide summer cooling and Earth heat. (See The Energy Group; consider heating greenhouses for The Gardens Group.)
48. Who now has experience or is interested in dairy goat work?
49. Get a list of everyone interested in pond fishing. Another list for those interested in stream fishing (a Trout Unlimited project(s) ?)
50. A guides training program might assist in meeting local as well as other needs of the Pivotal-Rig, Inc. if it catches on. (One such program exists in the Virginia coalfield). There will be many guides needed and they need to be especially well trained for their specific tasks.
51. I think we can have a writers' camp in an existing facility and it can concentrate on environmental and outdoor writing and photography, especially writing for the Internet.
52. We need to talk to local bus operators, interests in serving local tours, and contacts with other bus and tour groups.
53. We need to talk to the primary realtors to see if they might join in work on The Realtors and Dogwood Inns.
54. Get a bookcase. I'll donate about 9 feet of books and pamphlets and reprints on natural resources, maybe for a Pivotal section within a local library.
55. Rent from the County for $1 all of the vacant lands and structures that they own or have under any kind of legal arrangements. Thus we manage them all as a single Pivotal Tract (possibly with sign, mowing, planting trees, garden, rabbit hutch sites, vineyard elements, hiking paths).
56. We need leads to available high priority funding sources. I'll help write proposals.
57. A local person of influence may be able to communicate to Governor Warner and/or staff that this is a worthy, high-technology, intensive-computer-use project with the environment that he can assist and feature in his program.
58. We need to pick a few enterprises (3-10) for the start-up design but the above suggests that local conditions, individuals, and interest at the time will largely show the selection by their individual actions.

The above are questions and small projects that might help generate interest and get things moving. With evident interest (work and letters), and a selection of a small number of the enterprises, we can seek Foundation and other "venture capital" as needed. This effort can be exciting and of lasting value to the people of the county, perhaps to others.

I'll welcome comments, revisions, and advice. Link to the Ideas Place and send email. I'll progressively change notes within The Ideas Place as additions and changes become available.

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This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision August 29, 2002.

Go to the top

This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision June 22, 2002.