The Whole Person, an alternative event publication with wide distribution throughout Southern California, featured The Ojai Forum in their November 2009 issue.  Article by Nancy Gross.

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April 2009 article from Model D Media on the Detroit local currency known as Detroit Cheers. It is printed on cotton rag paper, and the $4500 in circulation is 100% backed by US dollars held in reserve at a local bank.

That interconnected community of Detroit small business owners seems to be growing stronger, thanks to concepts like Detroit Open City and now, Cheers. “It means something to us … that we’re connected,” says Belanger. “Spending Cheers is almost like giving a secret handshake.”

Meaningful experiences, insights, new possibilities:
Ojai as a think talk – conferences
New Economy “employment” agency

What other voices need to be heard:
youth, politicians, schools, ranchers, business people, CAUSE (Ventura),

Create a City Visioning Process – include all residents – also make it
a Ventura-Ojai corridor visioning process

What do you feel called to do as an act of personal leadership:
Several people said: “Change City Manager” Feeling that he doesn’t
support local business. Business person on City Council. Recognition
that Ojai and Ventura financial well-being are connected. Proposed a
light rail between Ojai and Ventura. See it as an economic corridor.

Important next steps to enrich local community:
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Places to hang out that don’t close early
Master plan: arts Master Plan
Ventura-Ojai Economic Corridor

SECOND DISCUSSION:
More Collaboration and Networking between businesses in Ojai and
Ventura and between social profits
More responsive Politics
PERMECONOMY!
BRANDING: The New Now!
Awakening the Dreamer workshops
Ojai Brand for food, art, eco activities and actions within Ojai
Pursue: spirituallly based political change, visioning and strategic
plan for communityu
Involve yoga teachers, virtual economy, connect people looking for
work with those who have work. Work Faire?
Emphasize the Love Economy and Social Profits (non-profits)

Ojai’s unique combination of natural resources, human genius, spiritual consciousness, all are lined up in a valley that seems to be calling us forth to create a self-sustaining, socially conscious and healthy community.  This suggests we could very possibly have a real quality of life should we find ourselves ‘off the grid’.

Not from fear, panic or cataclysmic thinking — but from a sense that many systems we rely on in the world may indeed implode — why not have people seriously take stock of our assests and consider how we can make the best use of them for the good of the whole community.

From solar power potential, to gardens everywhere, to bicycles and horses, to barter and sharing, to utilizing the many great healers and educators we have in the valley — we may really have it all..  One thing for certain: if we would have to ‘be off the grid’, within 24 hours every able bodied person, including children, would have work!

Unlike an emergency plan (for short-term disaster) this would be an Emergence Plan! I seek resonant folk who would enjoy exploring this concept with a bit of a sense of sooner rather than later.  Thank you, Julie Heyman (805) 272-8067  jhrymsn1@roadrunner.com.

Stuart Valentine has provided the following documents from the Ojai Forum:

Fairfield Green Strategic Plan (PDF, 2MB)

Ojai Servant Leadership (PPT, 28kb)

A fantastic interview with Hazel Henderson, who will be appearing on Friday via live remote at this weekend’s Ojai Forum. An excerpt:

Complex human societies can never be measured by using a single discipline, especially by economics which was never a science. Economic calculations are blind to most of the social and environmental costs its narrow decisions impose on others, reframed as “externalities,” i.e., costs companies and projects omit from their balance sheets. These uncounted impacts of financial decisions have accumulated unnoticed by economists until they are now crises of poverty, inequality, social exclusion and pollution – culminating in the greatest market failure: climate chaos.

Susan Davis is joining us to lead a KINS process at the Ojai Forum, September 25-27.

Following is an introduction of the process:

• Choose a mission statement that is inspiring, daunting and measurable!
• Identify the top 30 constituencies which could most help achieve that goal.
• Within each constituency, do research to find people whose peers say they most have these qualities:
• High credibility in their field
• Gives back most in their field
• Have a reputation for integrity
• Have advanced collaboration skills
• Have some kind of heartfelt spiritual practice
• Are passionate about the network’s mission.

• Review the 30 finalists and rebalance for sex, age, race and geography (unless the network mission is to empower folks around one of those features).
• Invite the finalists to a founding meeting and facilitate them to design the network.
• Make clear the operating principles, such as:
a. Our strategy is generosity
b. “A deal is a good deal when it is good for all concerned.”
c. Everyone does what they love to do and do well…and little else
d. Everyone gets equal time at the mike.
e. As experts, we sit at the table of unknowing and invite the spiritual world to co-create with us
• The design creates a picture of the future that works for all the constituencies while accomplishing the mission of the network. By asking them to put forward what their constituencies can contribute and what they need to receive back, the giving and receiving are in balance and a picture of the whole emerges.

Fortune Small Business has a good article on community-owned businesses, community-funded businesses and buy local campaigns. An excerpt:

John Halko was halfway through renovating an expanded space for Comfort, his mostly organic eatery in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., when the credit crisis hit. His source of funding — a home-equity line — ran out, so he applied for a loan at a local bank. He was turned down.

Halko wasn’t ready to throw in the dish towel. His solution? The modern equivalent of an old-fashioned barn raising. Instead of soliciting neighbors to lift timbers, he asked them to open their wallets. For every $500 they purchased in “Comfort Dollars,” his patrons received a $600 credit toward meals at the restaurant. As the community rallied around Comfort, Halko says, “it gave us hope.” He raised $25,000 in six months, and the new, larger space – now called Comfort Lounge — opened for business in May.

Plenty of entrepreneurs are turning to their communities for support in these tricky times. As the recession wreaks havoc on America’s economy, finding the money to launch, expand or even just sustain a small business is often a struggle.

(hat tip Michael Weaver)

The Ojai Valley News covered the Ojai Economy Group, August 13, 2009:

Currency Events Planned For Ojai
New group eyes local money, among other ideas, to boost Ojai’s economy

By Cole Bettles, intern

Ojai likes to think of itself as standing apart from the rest of the world. Soon, that list of distinctions could include our own money.

The Ojai Economy Group, recently formed to consider this idea, among others, to stimulate the local economy, admits that creating an additional monetary system is not simple.

But here is the basic idea: in theory, a local bank would sell 100 Ojai bucks for, let’s say, $105. Then the Ojai dollars could be spent at local, participating merchants and upon a purchase, customers will receive a discount set by the retailer.

Next, the retailer could exchange the Ojai bucks back to U.S. dollars. The surplus of the federal currency, at the local bank, would be pumped back into the community, specifically to charitable organizations.

The Ojai Economy Group is projecting that this buck will stimulate economic growth within the community. The stimulus package, like a pebble dropped in the middle of a lake, has little to no effect on small companies and communities that lie far from the epicenter.

Since Ojai is made up of small businesses, members of the community, such as the Ojai Economy Group, are philosophizing and concocting ways to battle the recession from the bottom up; call it the “Trickle Up Theory.” The notion of a new currency is getting mixed reviews.

“Sounds like communism to me,” said an Ojai merchant, who described the idea with abhorrence and consequently requested to remain anonymous.

“This is a terrific idea. Ojai needs to understand the importance of spending money in their own community,” said another anonymous store owner, who happened to be located directly next door to the anti-communist merchant.

After interviewing more than 30 Ojai stores, it was apparent that there is a dynamic array of views regarding adapting this innovative yet ancient system. Passing from store to store was like switching back and forth from MSNBC and Fox News. The store owners, like the members of the community, want more information before they commit to participating.

The Ojai Economy Group is hosting an event from Sept. 25 to 27, and they will discuss the Ojai buck. For more information, visit their web site, ojaieconomy.com.

Creating a new currency is an extremely intricate process. “I would normally say creating a new currency provides a temporary solution to a long-term problem, but that’s because I have mostly studied creating currencies in small countries,” said Pierre Weill, an economics professor at UCLA.

The idea raised a number of questions that the professor had to research and confer with colleagues before providing a solid analysis. After evaluating the idea, he said, “I think this is great. If I own a restaurant, I have two kinds of customers: locals and visitors. The locals are obviously educated about the area and the visitors are not. By providing a discount to your local costumers, you can provide a competitive service, while maintaining the higher price for your visitors.”

In Great Barrington, Mass., citizens created BerkShares, a supplementary currency. “There are currently 2.4 million BerkShares in circulation and at any given point, there are $150,000 that remain in circulation,” said Susan Witt, co-founder of BerkShares. More than 400 businesses formally accept the currency and about 200 merchants informally accept it.

“The currency has created great discussion, but it really isn’t a political issue. You will find Democrats and Republicans supporting the BerkShare,” said Witt. But in Ojai, there was a positive correlation between a person’s political identity and their attitude toward the Ojai buck. “In December, during the financial meltdown, we found a lot of small businesses willing to adapt the BerkShare. During times of economic difficulties, small business get creative,” said Witt. She juxtaposed the dollar to fast food and continued to say, “We call the BerkShares a slow money. Instead of doing everything on the computer, you go down to meet the people at the bank, meet the local citizens selling the item, you have personal conversations.”

There are no legal ramifications to adopting an additional currency. In the United States, during the early 1800s, each bank issued its own currency. To this day, it is a fundamental right to issue an additional currency. Weill said, “Local currencies proved to be an effective way to battle the Great Depression.” Even though we are only experiencing effects from a recession, history shows that creating an Ojai buck could allow Ojai’s economic activity to thrive.

Interesting article on the shifting corporate definition and co-opt of the use of the word “local” in advertising and branding…

Local-washing has prompted local business advocates to reconsider their language. Many are now using the word “independent” more than “local.” Controlling language is critical, said Ronnie Cummins, director of the Organic Consumers Association, who is pushing for tighter regulation of the word organic, as well as rules governing terms like natural, sustainable, and local. “We’ve been fighting so long without the help of federal regulators that some people have forgotten that tool.”

But perhaps local-washing will ultimately make corporations even more suspect and further the case for shifting our economy more in the direction of small-scale, local, and independent. “I think the fact that the chains are trying to play the local card, in a way makes it easier for us,” said the ABA’s Cullen. “I think people are going to recognize that these aren’t authentic and that’s going to make the real thing all the more powerful.”