Sustainable Ways

  www.sustainableways.org

ABOUT OUR ORGANIZATION

The Vision...

Sustainable Ways had its beginning in 2005 as an idea in the minds of some visionary individuals who found they shared some very important common concerns. They shared a lot in common: they all lived in a part of Colorado that is spectacularly beautiful (the Wet Mountain Valley in the Southern Central Rockies); they all share a love for Nature and were concerned about how humans were abusing the privilege of living in Nature; they all believed in the power of humans to change their ways of living; and they all believed that working together could accomplish more than working individually.

So a meeting of the minds was held to discuss what to do. It was called a "think tank" and this first meeting was held in the beautiful "Earthship" home of Laura and Santi. Food was shared, ideas were shared, and through this first heartfelt discussion a spirit emerged that has guided the group through to the present. The group recognized the idea that represented what they were most concerned about and wanted to share with their community was about finding and communicating more sustainable ways of living. From that first meeting was born what has become Sustainable Ways, the organization.

Like all births, this one has not been without pain and effort, and the raising of the ideas in the minds of the group has required growth and definition, and it has required constant feeding and nurturing. Figuring out what "sustainable ways" and "sustainability" are has required more learning in all of our lives because these ideas are not well defined in the world we live. But we continued to have meetings and we continued to share ideas, but best of all, we continued to act, and to do.

We found that we have struck a chord in our community, that there is a thirst for knowledge about all things sustainable, and a genuine desire in the hearts of people to improve our world and our relationship to Nature. We began our work in earnest.

Where We Are Today...

Today we are a community organization that is very actively engaged in our stated mission: To educate, advocate, and demonstrate ways of living that are consistent with the principles of sustainability: for our selves, our families, and our community.

In order to best pursue our mission, we felt we needed to establish ourselves into an more formal organization, to marshal our resources together, to seek out others in our community with a similar concern for sustainability, and to extend our power to educate others in this important cause.

Over the past years we struggled with how to best organize ourselves, and with how to find the energy and personal resources to push through the more boring and mundane issues of leadership, group consensus, time commitment, lack of money...you know, that kind of stuff that has to be done but is somewhat painful. But we did it, and now we are a formal Non-Profit Corporation in the State of Colorado. We voted on officers and established a Board of Directors, and recently (April of 2008) we filed with the IRS for our official 501 (c)(3) designation as a Non-Profit Organization. Our application was approved on November 19, 2008.

In 2009 the Board decided to transition to a Membership Organization for greater community "buy-in" and giving members the right to vote for members of the Board of Directors.

Bylaws, Officers, and Board of Directors...

Ah, the details...So in order to facilitate and pursue our mission towards sustainable ways of living, we have established all of the things that go with the formalization process. We want to be open with everyone about who we are, why we are, and how we conduct business, so we provided this information with the best of intent. You are welcome to review our information, and we invite any comments you may have.

Emails can be sent to 

Bylaws...

Our Sustainable Ways Bylaws were developed and finally approved by the Board of Directors on March 3, 2008. The Bylaws are available to the public and can be viewed here: Sustainable Ways Bylaws

Officers of the Corporation...

Nominations and elections of Officers of the Corporation are held by the members of Sustainable Ways each year on Earth Day. The officers are:

Chair: Robin Young
Vice Chair: Sue Pitman
Secretary: Robin to keep official records, Roland to keep track of who agreed to do what.  Meetings to be recorded.
Treasurer: Sue Pitman with the assistance of Scott Jackson

Board of Directors...

In addition to the Officers of the Corporation, members of the Board of Directors are:

Rob Blessing (returning)

Tyler Stein (returning)

Buffy Lenth (elected April 22, 2010)

Ronald Williams (elected April 22, 2010)

Scott Jackson (elected April 22, 2010)

Meeting Minutes...

Meetings of Sustainable Ways and Board of Director meetings are held regularly and are open to the public. Minutes are produced and we have made copies available for the public on this website. Please feel free to review our meeting minutes.

(They're coming!)