Planning Log
Thu Feb 6, 2014
On Infrastructure and Maintenance
OSE has a first group of students coming on March 9 and from then on the place will be increasingly populated. I'm currently on a lecture tour precisely to recruit students to come to factor e farm. By end of May we intend to have 20+ students on site in addition to the senior team. Without the infrastructure upgrade we won't be able to draw as many students to come to the site (as we can't properly accommodate them) and without upgrading infrastructure it is harder to keep the place inhabited in the winter. There are 2 ingredients for happy people: (1), vibrant, active community; (2) creature comforts, including recreation so if things are snowed in people can unwind in our rec center. So building the infrastructure is actually a condition for keeping the place inhabited and in full use year round - and turn factor e farm into a bustling center of development - year round - instead of a one-man farm as it was in the past. This is the reason for the infrastructure plan.
The old workshop and natural buildings - which have already been there for 6 years, will be remodeled to build the recreation center (in the budget) and comfortable living quarters (also living budget) - thereby leveraging the full value of existing infrastructure - which with some touch-up will make for an upgrade consistent with our goal of ‘making our facility world class’ by attracting the talent that we need to make this happen.
Regarding winter maintenance, life basically stops in the middle of winter in the continental climate (down to -20F in the winter). Further, we decided to focus on “Dedicated Group Visits” over individual visits, since logistics are greatly simplified this way, and our productivity is enhanced by working as a larger team. We are planning on about 12 student for spring break on March 9.
By focusing on students and a significant population in the summer, we aim to build the project from within. When people grow in the ranks to be more permanent members of the project, I am expecting that one of them will become the site manager - one of the many roles necessary at our facility. This is exactly the reason why I am now on College Tour - to get some of the best, culturally aligned students from the many who are interested in the project. This time around, we will be selective and pick only those students who are likely to succeed, and especially with the long term view of having them fill more permanent positions in the future. One of the learnings from last year is that we need to build our organization with culturally aligned talent that we grow from within. As we grow, we will need a full time site manager, but for now, it’s a small management task.
For now, until new team members emerge, we will have two people living there permanently (and managing the infrastructure) - Catarina and Marcin - and an architect - Chris - who comes on site for intensive buildouts, well-planned while he is off site. Think of it in terms of other farms: most of my neighbours have 1000 acre farms and only one or two people to maintain them. It’s just a question of effective resource management in a lean organization that is focused on high productivity. Also, this year, along with the buildout of our campus, we will be hiring a cook and housekeeper/residential advisor to keep the students happy and fed - allocating the college tour speaking revenues for this purpose.
The rest of our maintenance is well taken care of, as can be seen in the Operations Plan in this document (https://docs.google.com/a/opensourceecology.org/drawings/d/1KOtdOjk7H-kZvDWnfUN0gzhLlEjuB-Jecxk_3oR1W7o/edit see Site/Logistics in lower left) - linking to all the outsourced work that we have others do. We have been outsourcing garbage pickup, mowing the fields, and spreading gravel for roads. Electricity and water are taken care of by the utilities, and we have an electrician and plumber who takes care of any emergencies. Chris is responsible for the upgrades of the infrastructure, and our accountant does the finances.
Another part of the equation is that with the machines that we build and people that we train, we are also engaging all the maintenance functions in house - with our own students. Part of our game is deep immersion to see how fast people can get a handle on various infrastructure tasks - critical to a deep understanding of civilization-building that we are developing and documenting. We have already used our own machines in infrastructure as far back as 6 years - and 2 years ago we trenched our own water lines with the backhoe, and last year we built our first Microhouse. Last year, we have also succeeded in building a trencher that will make future utility line work a breeze. As we add the next iteration of the tractor, we will be able to bulldoze our own foundations, and to mow our own lawns, and to do our own agriculture (after giving up on this initially when our tractors broke as in the TED Talk). This is in our plan for this year - to have a large population in the summer, and to test our machines when they are built. So you see - infrastructure maintenance is intended to be done with our own machines - and if any was lacking in the past - it was because I wanted to use our own equipment to do so. This is a strategic decision, not neglect. And in the heat of the summer, when we have a lot of people, many of the infrastructure maintenance takes place.
Having lived at factor e farm for many years, there have never been any problems with the site or with any mishaps - a rural area has a very low crime rate, and the neighbors are friendly.
To summarize: the goal is to keep factor e farm inhabited and in full use year round. We also plan on off-site builds, such as we are planning for September, so the Fab Wagon equipment trailer is also in the budget). Perhaps the biggest risk for property damage is tornadoes, which is beyond our control.
