Slow Money Alliance

Comment by William Ray Ford on March 19, 2010 at 9:05pm

Thanks for joing slow money Wendy. I agree with you about money but there is a slow money movement out there and it all makes perfect sense. It is part of the Local movement, shop local, buy local, grow local, process local and for those with money, invest local. If we all work together on it, we can create some jobs, move toward sustainability and live in peace and harmony with self, others and nature! Thanks for joining,

Comment by Biff Traber on March 20, 2010 at 9:37am

Bill good explanation, thanks. I joined looking for more discussion of various aspects of investing local. I'm looking to explore how those with some money find opportunities to invest local (more of the Willamette Angels Conference), how many people can pool resources to invest locally, which local investments are more effective in terms of return, local impact and sustainability and finally what can be done to make connections and grow the slow money.

Comment by William Ray Ford on March 20, 2010 at 10:33am

I am with you Biff. I put this group up after meeting and listening to the SWOT pitch from Farmland, LP. Jason Bradford has already moved into our community and he and his partner want to build a future around the conversion of farmland now mostly in grass seed into mostly organic farming. They plan on introducing a sizeable investment to our area but it will work best if we have local participants and investments as well. They are aware of the Slow Money movement and suggested I take a look at it. As part of the energy action team (EAT) under the Corvallis sustainability coalition, we have talked about adding funds to the $200,000 revolving loan fund that the city will manage to improve energy savings. We are just starting with all these slow money, invest local ideas. John Sechrest and the SWOT process is one of the starts. The Willamette Angle Conferece is another. At the meeting last Thursday night, the concept of pools of money to invest in solar panels was kicked around. I am sure as smart and as creative as we are in this community we can figure out how to leverage the local money and make good local investments. Bob Baird at the Book Bin and I had a short but good chat a few weeks ago and there are many others looking for new and better ways for investment success. With only 10 memebers on this group, we are off to a slow start but then again sometimes slow is ok!

Comment by Jason Bradford on March 21, 2010 at 9:41pm

Just a brief update on Farmland LP....We have purchased 150 acres and are busy working on transition to food production. Made progress on local pasture seed mixes. Going to the Ag 2.0 conference in the Bay Area this week. See: http://www.newseedadvisors.com/silcon-valley-2010/

Food, energy, water, other natural resources...and money. They are all connected.

Comment by William Ray Ford on March 22, 2010 at 4:16pm

Today was a learning experience and a "free lunch". Talk about slow money, how about no money and yet I ate way too much. Mexico Lindo over off Philomath Blvd. I have always enjoyed the food there and the wait staff is very friendly. The BEC was located at 4100 SW Research Way at one time and we went to Mexico Lindo for lunch often. It was good to go back. The lunch conversation was around fund raising and local investing. If you don't know Emery Castle, I am sorry. He is a great man and not just because I say so and he is my friend. He is an expert on growing and judging prize winning Roses! He is the President of the Corvallis Rose Society and is a champion for many things that make Corvallis great. The Rose Society has an award winning memorial rose garden in Avery Park and the Society is ready to raise some money....slowly and wisely of course......so how do they go about it? Now is your chance help create and even more beautiful and wonderful place of incredible beauty. Share your ideas. I'll bet from this group alone and on this site alone we can come up with ways to leverage my free lunch! They have a great plan and have already completed many of the upgrades with the help of private donors and the parks and recreation department of the city of Corvallis.

Comment by Biff Traber on March 22, 2010 at 6:00pm

Perhaps they can take some cuttings of their roses (some are quite beautiful and unusual), start them and sell the result rose plants. This may take too long to help them now but perhaps it is a long term fund raiser.

Comment by William Ray Ford on March 22, 2010 at 6:40pm

Great idea Biff. You are absolutely right about their beauty and unique varieties. I will pass this on to the President of the Corvallis Rose Society. This is one of those groups that flies under my radar screen most of the time. They do a great and very specific job with this memorial rose garden and I think can use some innovative ideas like yours.

Comment by William Ray Ford on March 23, 2010 at 6:03pm

I passed the money making idea on the the President of the Corvallis Rose Society Biff now we will see what they do with it. I was surprised to learn that the Rose Society had such a long history. Their current 7 year improvement plan is about 3 years old and they have really done a great job. I am pretty sure Thomas Gerding is going to give them a hand with a re-model job on at least one of the shelters. There is an example of a good local company among a lot that really gives back to this community. His new headquarters on Airport Ave. is really coming along. Great to see it happening in the new enterprise zone!

Comment by Jessica Stanley on April 19, 2010 at 9:21am

Well, rocket queen is entered in the slow money competition and we need your votes! Thanks!

http://slowmoneybiz.uservoice.com/forums/51983-slowmoney/suggestion...

Comment by Jason Bradford on April 22, 2010 at 10:42am

Just wanted to let you all know that my business partner, Craig Wichner, is speaking at the Slow Money conference in Austin this week.

See: http://slowmoneyaustin.org/

Any interest in hosting a similar event here? Craig reports a full conference with tremendous interest and enthusiasm in getting investment dollars behind local, sustainable food systems.

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