Agriculture Plan 2013 Email

Dear Gabi,

Thanks for a good meeting yesterday. The first thing for your contract will be a detailed work plan. Here is a followup from our discusssion on the Agriculture Plan for 2013. The plan should cover activities from Feb. 15, 2013 to December 31. 2013.

Your plan should address:

1. Site Master Plan
2. Fertility plan
3. Water plan
4. Erosion control plan
5. Agriculture plan
6. Baseline data on carrying capacity/yields/fertility

The process for your work plan should be in general:

1. Dec. 21 - Jan 21. Draw up a plan with specific timeline; define specific goals and milestones on yields; specify resources needed, and attach a complete budget for the whole year. - This should be based on learnings from this past year and on references + expert feedback for the future plan. Start with the Site Master Plan. For the crop part - please be very specific on your varieties, as some work better than others, and this knowledge needs to be gathered from local sources. I would like to see the variety, seed/stock source, and cultural practices specified for each crop or livestock. For the budget, please itemize each category of costs (stock/seeds, tools, supplies, equipment, running costs, labor, consultants, contractors if any), don't just state blanket costs. If you are uncertain about the cost, state the best estimate, and add a buffer as needed.
2. Gather an Agriculture Review Team as part of the Plan. Please pick 4 or more experts who you would like to review your plan. Let me know by Jan. 7 so I can approve your choices. These should be SMEs with 15+ years of hands-on experience in agriculture. I would like to see at least 2 of these people with experience in the continental climate.
3. Jan. 21. Submit the proposal for review to the Review Team over this week.
4. Jan. 28 - Feb. 15 - Upon receiving feedback, spend up to 2 weeks making additions/corrections and resubmit to Review Team for approval of changes.
5. Feb. 15 - Feb 21 - Plan Assessment, Budget Allocation - Once the Review Team approves all changes and you are satisfied with your plan, I will take the feedback from the Agriculture Review Team and assess the plan for approval and budget allocation. This decision is not up to me alone. I will be submitting all your materials during this week to the OSE advisory team. I make the approval, but the advisory team makes the suggestion. I typically follow their advice, unless there are fundamental or ethical issues that I disagree with.
6. Feb 21-28 - Upon my approval, we will then write up your contract. Once again, I will have the OSE advisory team review the contract - based on your Agriculture Plan and including further details like compensation and logistics.

We would then move on to the execution phase - now with a sound plan and backing of experts. We need to find a consultant/mentor who will meet with you for an hour on a weekly basis to help guide you on the work. Basically, this person would be there to remove blocks, and my project manager/operations manager would step in on a monthly basis to assess progress and make any mid-course corrections. Please include this consultant in your plan.

Please put the work up at Agriculture Plan 2013 on the wiki, or if you use Google Docs, please embed the doc on that wiki page. As I mentioned in our meeting - please make the plan self-contained - ie, printable in hard copy without need to access the internet. This could be as simple as a wiki page that can be printed - where we assume that no hyperlinks are accessible. I would like to have this format so I could submit readily to any other relevant stakeholders/reviewers. Please include your references in an Endnote section. Please use an Appendix for relevant published data, spreadsheets, etc. Think of this as a comprehensive document and executable blueprint - such that if you were to disappear someone else can take it on an d actually do the work. This means that the site, tools, equipment, resources, and other materials are documented in your plan so that a person can self-orient with minimal outside assistance. This is highly relevant for any vacations or other times that you need to be off-site. This is also relevant for getting help/other apprentices - as you would be able to provide specific instructions to anyone helping you. Your document should be tight and detailed. I expect that about 30 pages should cover all the details needed.

To sum up, this is a major effort and it requires your full attention. I want you to focus on this completely. As I mentioned to Aidan - please consider Infrastructure as a done deal for 2012. We had an ample window of opportunity to finish things up, and now it is winter and snow and time to plan for 2013. I do not want any further work on the HabLab, cleanup, or other infrastructure to be done until next year when we have a project manager (ie, not me) and where we will have a large work day + a professional contractor come in to tidy up and approve our infrastructure. The only requirements on the site and infrastructure are fetching wood (already cut in the forest) to keep the fire going and keeping the generator running. I also know that you have farm chores daily. How long do these take you every day? Am I missing any other chores/tasks/conditions that may prevent you from focusing fully on the proposal? I want to make sure that you have all that you need in order to be able to focus fully on the proposal, so if there is anything that I am not aware of - please let me know.

Please email me if you have any questions on the above or if you need me to clarify any of the requirements, of if you think that you need more time to write up the plan. We need to do this properly, and we need to allow for the time that it will take. We should check in via Skype a week from now to see how you're getting started, and perhaps 2 weeks after that after you're well into the plan. Can we Skype Friday the 28th at 5 PM CST to check in on your progress/cover any questions?

Thanks, Marcin