Mary Jane had already begun Paradise Farm Organics as a way to provide a market for organic products. She is a visionary — she can take an idea and put wheels under it.http://www.backcountryfood.com/farmers/tour.asp

1. OVERVIEW

2. MISSION STATEMENT

3. CORE VALUES

• No illegal drugs, no hard booze, no tobacco.
• Good food and plenty of exercise.
• Work where we live and live where we work (the “Campus” concept).
• “Free” housing and utilities (part of the “Campus” ideal).
• Minimization of taxes and intrusive government regulations.
• Promotion of the nuclear family.
• Maintain very high personal and business ethical standards.
• Be of service to the larger community of which the LLC is a part.
• Be able to retire due to ill health, age and infirmity or other disability and have your needs taken care of by the larger community of LLC’s, including MASA.
• Vote in all applicable elections.
• Get involved in local politics (all politics are local).
• Resolve disputes by mediation or binding arbitration.
• Put in a fair day’s work for the LLC during each workday (for adult members). No freeloaders.
• Education and well-being of our children is extremely important.
• Invest time, money and effort toward building a better, more profitable and personally satisfying partnership of which one is a member (sweat equity).
• Be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem.
• Be responsible for your pets and children.
• 
  

4. READING (Outside) The many books and articles on the issue of social, economic and political cohesion, there are many which explain the agendas of large groups and how they came to be and continue to function. This reading list is not exhaustive nor exclusive, but is exemplary. Yellow highlighted items are primary and should be read or viewed first. The following list is highly recommended:
   
   1. Books:
      
      1. Phillips, Kevin. American Theocracy, Penguin Group, New York, ISBN: 0-670-03486-X. “ From America's premier political analyst, an explosive examination of the coalition of forces that threatens the nation in the twenty-first century”. The books is about how the fundamentalist have captured the Republican Party and have taken over our government policy making. Fundamentalists have joined together to use the churches as auxiliaries to the Republican Party to insure victory in electing officials who will do the bidding of the fundamentalists.
      2. Phillips, Kevin. The Emerging Republican Majority.
      3. Phillips, Kevin. American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush. (New York: Viking, 2004).
      4. Safire, William. The New Language of Politics. (New York: Collier Books, 1972), p. 273.
      5. Phillips, Kevin. Wealth and Democracy.
      6. Roberts, Paul. The End of Oil. Mother Jones, November - December, 2004.
      7. Bryce, Robert. Cronies, Oil, the Bushers and the Rise of Texas (New York: Public Affairs, 2004)
      8. Hamer, Dean. The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into our Genes. (New York: Doubleday, 2004)
      9. Kaplan, Esther. With God on Their Side.
   2. Associations:
      
      1. Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas. Uppsala, Sweden. www.peakoil.net. The website monitors global developments and analyses of the peaks or prospective peaks in global oil and gas production.
      2. .
   3. Articles:
      
      1. Simmons, Mathew R, The World's Giant Oilfields, M. King Hubbard Center for Petroleum Studies, Colorado School of Mines, January, 2002. In the 1940s Hubbert turned his studies of the life cycle of oil fields into mathematical model predicting that U.S. Oil production would peak sometime between 1965 and 1970. His thesis was presented at a national conference of petroleum geologists in 1956, few of whom believed it.
      2. Renner, Michael. Washington's War on Iraq. Foreign Policy in Focus, January 2003, p. 4.
      3. Ignatius, David. Political Oil Slick. The Washington Post, July 30, 2002.
      4. Kuhn, Oliver. Odyssey of Oil. Www.csed.ca/recorder/pdf/2000/2000/_Dec/01_Dec2000.pdf
      5. Smith, Daniel. U.S. Military on the Scent of Oil. Foreign Policy in Focus, November, 2004, pips. 2, 5 & 8.
      6. Kimball, Charles. When Religion becomes Evil: Five Warning Signs. (San Francisco: Harper-San Francisco, 2002), p. 7.
      7. Christianity, History: Bible, Race and Slavery. http://atheisim.about.com/es/christianityhist/
      8. The Bible and Slavery. http://www.bible-researcher.com/slavery.html.
      9. Sargent, Tom. The Civil War in Montana. http://www.newpsych.org/virginiga/cwmt.htm

1. Bob Jones Lets Theocratic Agenda Slip Out. Dispatches from the Cultural Wars, November 12, 2004. www.stcynic.com/blog/archives/2004/11.
2. Danforth, John (former Senator), In the Name of Politics. The New York Times, March 30, 2005. “The only explanation for legislation comparing cells in a petri dish to babies in a womb is the extension of religious doctrine into statutory law.”
3. Bush Supporters Still Believe Iraq Had WMD or Major Programs. Program on International Policy Attitudes, University of Maryland, October 21, 2004, www.pipa.org/OnlineReports. “On special survey undertaken by the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland found three-quarters of Bush backers still convinced in autumn 2004 that Iraq did have weapons of mass destruction or development program and was also aiding al-quad, esprit well-publicized official reports to the contrary. As part of their worldviews, these people simply refused to disbelieve Bush's original weaponry assurances or implications – a case of “cognitive dissonance”.
1. Movies and Documentaries:
   
   1. Gore, Albert. An Inconvient Truth.
   2. Extreme Oil: The History. Public Broadcasting System, September, 2004. www.pbs.org/wnet/extremeoil/history/pre-history.html.
4. . WHAT IS SUCCESS?
   
   
   
   1. Mutual aid.

Mutual Aid Society is just that – people helping people to succeed. MASA is not an “employer”. We are a limited liability partnership. MASA is the basis for a national revolution for how we live and work: mutual support, barter, trading in the community, favorable balance of payments, security of our standard of living, and preference for quality of life over just how much you earn. Success is measured, not by how many taxes you pay to the government on your “earned income”, but by the time and funds you have to pursue your personal interests. If your passion is music and you want to create a marching band in the local high school, the MASA membership can allow for such passion. MASA will grow vertically by adding businesses by which we will integrate R & D, production, transportation, core overhead management, distribution and retail. MASA will grow horizontally, by adding sub-LLC’s in different parts of the nation. The trick is in providing the means for local production and consumption for basic needs yet produce niche products which can be sold in high-end retail markets in the big cities.

2. Not invented here.

We must resist the “Not Invented Here” syndrome common to most inventors and engineers. Pride and ego have often destroyed a person or business. Thomas Edison was adamant that direct current was the way to electrify our cities. Tesla came to work for Edison and tried to convince Edison that alternating current was the way to go. Edison regarded AC as the “death current” and even launched a campaign to get prisons to execute death row inmates in an electric chair powered by AC. He succeeded in this endeavor. Meanwhile, Tesla’s AC patent was bought by Westinghouse, and Tesla came to work for Westinghouse. Serious expansion of AC began in 1870’s and AC current thereafter stormed the cities. Edison’s DC current generating system failed while Westinghouse’s AC current succeeded. It is OK to have a strong conviction that your unproven idea will work and not be swayed by the doubters and negative folks. It’s OK to prove your idea does in fact work. If you believe in your solution, then research it, document, do a stages and gates progress plan, do a business plan, do a budget, apply for grants. Make your case in a through, scientific manner – as if you were doing your PhD thesis.

3. Transportation.

We are a nation wedded to transportation – personal, commercial and industrial. About 20% of every consumer dollar is spent on transportation. Travel to and from work often involves considerable time, gas, insurance and probably an extra car, especially if driving teenagers are considered. The cost of transportation will increase with the implementation of the U.S. EPA emission standards in 2007 which reduces the allowable emissions from all engines from 500 ppm of SOX and NOX to 15 ppm of SOX and NOX. If we were to substantially reduce the amount of money spent on transportation, we would have more profit. MASA’s solution to the problem is “Work where you live and live where you work.” This model can be accomplished if we live in a partnership setting on a farmstead. We can produce most of our foodstuffs on a year-around basis. We can export our excess farm products. We can establish light industry or IT industry on the farmstead.

4. The best, the brightest and the hardest working folks.

The hallmark of MASA is its ability to attract the best, brightest and hardest working folks. Singles, families, old, young, all walks of life are not excluded because of the prior experiences or state of being. President Regan was not particularly bright (as was Jimmy Carter). Regan did one thing right – he surrounded himself with the best talent he could find. Bill Gates has often remarked that the success of Microsoft lies not in it patents or code, but in the brilliance of MS’ employees. This is true, and is one of MASA’s guiding principal. Having smarts is just part of the formula. The other part is the willingness to roll our sleeves and put effort into producing good results. At some point, we need to cut the conversation, pick up our tools and go to work.

5. Collegial atmosphere.

Collaboration is one of the most important keys to success in any endeavor. More so in a business which is rapidly changing by vertical and horizontal integration and expansion. Core management of MAS is dedicated to bringing to MASA and each of its LLC’s, the necessary tools which will enable communication via computers and face-to-face. For instance, once we have the Econo Campus in operation, Monday though Friday breakfasts are on the house. We need to meet our peers and receive current, vital information about the daily directions and efforts of MASA and its LLC’s. MASA will sponsor an enterprise-wide, knowledgebase information management system for housing all of our digital data. We will be able to mine this data for information several different ways. The resources include 4-in-1 machines at each desk so that hard copy can be scanned into our database. AskSAM will be our chief repository of digital information. AskSAM has a built in search engine which is extremely fast and is very versatile.

6. Partnership.

MASA, while a limited liability partnership, will operate as a general partnership. The structure includes a Council of General Partners who will act as the board of directors and will appoint the officers of MASA (who must be a general partner). The Council will be composed of the Managing General Partners of each LLP which in part owned by MASA (20%) and owned by individuals who are general partners of the LLP. For instance, we plan to have several farmsteads, each producing some of the same foods primarily for local consumption, but specializing in profitable niche markets. Home Grown Organics will raise organic foods. Beaver Creek Cheese Company will specialize in gourmet cheeses and other dairy products. Econo Energy will specialize in selling and eventually manufacturing heaters, chillers and boilers which use waste oils of all types. Alpine Applied Hydronics will install hydronic heating and cooling systems in high end homes and small office buildings, commercial establishments and industrial buildings. Green Oxy Fuels will convert waste vegetable oil and tallow oil into pure biodiesel (B100) and glycerol from which glycerine soap and other products can be made. Electric Wind will manufacture, sell and install vertical axis, wind power turbines which in turn produce electricity either a stand alone mills or in connection with a mini-hydroelectric system. Farmstead Foods will sell organic crops through its retail stores to be located in up-scale, high income communities near major cities. We also intend to sell natural foods when we cannot grow certified organic foods on a profitable basis. Natural foods will be growing using the best biodynamic farming practices.

4. READING (MASA collection)i
   
   1. VERITIES OF MONDRAGON ii
   2. MUTUAL AID SOCIETY OF AMERICA, MONDRAGON & MORE iii
   3. ORGANIZATIONAL AGREEMENT; MUTUAL AID SOCIETY OF AMERICA, LLP iv
   4. CROPPING SYSTEMS AND THEIR MECHANISMS OF NUTRIENT UPTAKE v
   5. CREATING AND MAINTAINING A SUCCESSFUL UTOPIAN COMMUNITY -- Putting wheels under lofty ideals. vi
   6. Review of PAYING TO LOSE OUR JOBS, By Charles Kernaghan, National Labor Committee, 1991 vii
   7. WOULD’A, COULD’A, SHOUD’A --Future Shock 2014 - the Demise of Commodity Farming viii
   8. The ECO CAMPUS --A Company of Friendsix

4. TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF

We would like to hear about your ideas and feelings. Here are some talking points. We would like to discuss them with you further. This is not a quiz, and there are no right or wrong answers. We would like to know your current views, how long you have held them, would you be willing to change any of them, and what would it take to change and what would that change be? We are interested mostly in your depth of knowledge and your insight. Feel free to add talking points. Answer as many as you can. The cell expands automatically as you type.