cascadia-stack-blog

[cascadia-stack-blog]

Our THIRD Climate Resilience Circle. Portland, Oregon. Are you experiencing anxiety, grief, or stress going through life in this current war-torn, climate crisis, social mess that is 2024?

The Circle is a safe space to be in community with peers struggling like you. We listen some folx share, and we learn together how to deepen our personal resilience to continue to show up for your responsibilities.

It's hard to keep going when we see the shit storm that is going on in the world. We know. We feel that way too.

Learn about Cascadia Stack here

Get registered for the next Circle, Feb 18th

[cascadia-stack-blog]

Social Entrepreneur Update

It's been way too long since I've posted. Cascadia Stack is now a fiscally sponsored project of CascadiaNow a 501c3 nonprofit, which means for a portion of Stack's donations, I get all of the backend financial stuff taken from me, the project gets to work on it's programs without those stresses.

Cascadia Stack has held 3 events. Two Climate Resilience Circle gatherings and one Spanish preparedness workshop. The response has been lukewarm, although the Instagram followers are now over 150.

Our next Circle is Feb. 18 and the next Spanish preparedness workshop is Mar. 16. Our new website just landed, through Squarespace: www cascadiastack org

The problem is two-fold. One, finding free or very cheap indoor gathering spaces. And I believe we can solve that by partnering with organizations whose client base is our target audience, too. And that is precisely what I am working on now. Second problem is, just getting people at organizations to trust so that they spread the word to their base. Our events have had less than 10 people at each one. The money raised has not been close to what the professional facilitators should be paid.

That is the rant for now, but I am very excited for the upcoming partnerships that may be shaping!

[cascadia-stack-blog]

October 8, 2023

An awareness campaign

Thoughts After 2 Events

Stack has exhibited at Portland area events with information about the organization and to sell t-shirts that support the nonprofit organizing.

1. OREGON MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY: AFTER DARK: Forest & Flannel. A grownups only event with live music and booze. Stack's first experience to present itself to the greater public. There was a big crowd and a very good response. I was told repeatedly that the services Stack offers are needed. .

2. ELECTRIFY PORTLAND: This audience is one of my target markets. For my service Climate Resilience Circle, the grief support group, these are the people that may buy a ticket to my first event. It was a big crowd, over 600 people registered. I must have had close to 30 conversations. I sold two t-shirts and I got about 16 newsletter sign-ups. I will do a drawing for a t-shirt for everyone that signed up.

I have a list of improvements to be made.

Good connections!

[cascadia-stack-blog]

Seedling planted in a container.

[cascadia-stack-blog]

Social Entrepreneur

Business Formation Update

Stack is converting to a nonprofit. It should be long to the people it serves, and not to just me trying to buy a boat and retiring as a millionaire. WTF was I thinking?

*** The Update.

1) Stack is close to being approved for fiscal sponsorship in the next week, then I will start planning a fundraising campaign. And this is what I specialized in college to do. In fact, I just wrote a grant proposal for a $985 grant. I will find out if I am chosen for the first round of interviews on Sep 1, 2023.

2) The T-shirts sales have been just 2. I am working to improve those processes and have added a Pinterest account in addition to a new Instagram and a Blogger. But, the Blogger account is really going to focus on the climate resilience piece and the 10 Steps from Good Grief Network, their new book.

3) I am seriously considering selling drop-shopped coffee beans that are named after my new adopted city in Washington state.

4) My first climate resilience support group meeting is tentatively scheduled for early November.

5) I want to start the ball rolling on a first event, a partnership for a preparedness Workshops and schedule it for October.

6) I just got in new stickers, 1.5' and 1.8". In 2 designs, qty. 200

7) I am going to look into buying a Cascadia Earthquake book in bulk to sell at events.

Drew... You should totes check out your friend, Ivonne Rivero from K-Boo radio 90.7 Portland and online. I worked there for a hot minute and tore shit up.(not really). It was beautiful, I met so many folx in the social justice space. Maybe Ivonne could interview me on the air so her audience could check out the first workshop! En español, of course. Maybe Pilar or someone could do it GASP! I could make it a project with Roxy of Somos Media! That is slay.

Link to follow

I think you are caught up. Thanks for reading. Please find me on Patreon to become a monthly sustainer, $8 a month is something, especially if 5 people do it. $40 can buy 4 promotional insulated coffee tumblers, branded with our logo, to sell for double that money!

Thank you.

Go to: Patreon dot com slash CascadiaStack

[cascadia-stack-blog]

Week of Thought Provoking Questions

Cascadia Stack, how do you, as a company, feel about Capitalism?

During the Bernie Sanders)Elizabeth Warren days of bliss, when we were all hopeful for the change we want to see (who is this partial quote referring to? I will give you 2 carbon tax credits if you are correct, down in the comments, please).... My thoughts then have waivered about capitalism through my college years. Then during my Bernie period, I hated, no, Hated capitalism. But, then it was my Fox-News-watching mother in Texas that reminded me that what I should rather feel is that I hate "extreme capitalists".

Stack has applied for fiscal sponsorship

I will find out in the next 2-4 weeks if I will be invited into this awesome family of wonderful projects doing really good work out there. The point is that making the decision to switch from a for-profit company to a non-profit was an act of "letting go". Because the work we do in the Bioregion or Eco-region as some may argue, is the work for the people but also by the people. It is the people who live laugh and love here that will bring resilience to the land that we all love and honor.

Stack is submitting a grant proposal for $985.

It is a national grant so the competition will be huge. They have several awards to give so I am hopeful.

Once we achieve fiscal sponsorship then we are a 501c3 by proxy and can begin fundraising.

Thx 4 reading. Also, don't forget to put your guess as to who my quote was referencing in the comments to get your 2 carbon tax credits. (More on that later.)

[cascadia-stack-blog]

Meanwhile, in Portland Oregon, it was like 101 degrees or something chaotic like that.

I went to Powell's to pick up my copy of this book. I had ordered it a few months ago and this week, it was finally released. It is written by a brilliant but very personable LaUra Schmidt. LaUra is one half of the duo called the Good Grief Network and the 10 steps of climate resilience-wait wait, don't quote me, I haven't started reading the book yet but I wanted to take a moment to actually let this moment sink in for myself.

How disgusting that it was 101 degrees today, in PORTLAND for fuck's sake.

so anyway, here I am, an adult of a "mature" stature in life doing dishes. Thinking, I have earned some respect with peers in the field of emergency preparedness and social & climate advocacy plus resilience. But I am so angry about climate change. And now I am on Tumblr tonight saying'for fuck's sake'. Yes, this is me.

My name is Drew and I am furious that this is the fate of our planet and yet the power and money hungry extreme capitalists continue to drill for oil and frack for gas. It is literally killing humanity. And then, still doing dishes, cussing under my breath, I just go into a full-on ugly cry. I am so sad that this is happening.

You see, it's not just the planet, the animals, but my adult kids. And now I have this grandkid. He is the most adorable and curious little boy, he just turned 2. My crying makes me turn off the water and just sit in front of the sink. What is his life going to be like when he is graduating high school, just 16 years from now?

Anyway.... I will end this here.

I am still reading Braiding Sweetgrass by the way... The one by Robin Wall-Kimerer and it is beautiful and I have been taking my time and writing my thoughts and notes in the margin. I am a terribly slow reader, ugh. Hopefully I can start my Climate Chaos book next weekend. Because. Well, apparently, I have some grief.

[cascadia-stack-blog]

Why "Prep" for Climate?

Or, alternative title: Have you heard of chess?

Nah, not to be a smart ass, but if you "play the tape" and think ahead a few possible steps, took, then pawn, then knight, then queen, you could for see a need to stock food for the climate crisis.

It's already happening

If you notice, so many farmers and even factory farms are pulling in smaller harvests due to drought a d other climate related challenges. The thing about how the weather patterns are changing is that the frequency of the changes is increasing and the level of intensity is also increasing. So, what does this mean? We should stick some of our favorite foods.

Corn

I love corn, for like three meals a week. Green beans and broccoli are my top three go-to's every single week. Oh but wait, check the news, corn farmers are currently struggling.

My start-up company brings people into this chat through the arts & humanities.

Live painters

Spoken word poetry

Singer/songwriters

Stand-up comics

Our creatives have an opportunity to express the understanding of how this is all going to play out...how if we see the pieces of the puzzle, we can take certain actions to-- basically... Take out an insurance policy for our chosen family units.

Please comment.

[cascadia-stack-blog]

Styrofoam as a teaching instrument.

I have recently moved 45 miles north to Washington State, a town with a population of 3,000, unaltered by the damaging effects of global warming, save for wildfire season. People just do not make the connection between human activities and dry and drought conditions that lead to increased wildfires.

I went to a local diner with a new friend and asked for a piece of foil to wrap my leftover pie, specifically telling our server, "not a styrofoam container". My new friend why I did that. I thought she was joking.

There is definitely a need for climate knowledge and resilience in my small town. As I get to know more folx in Cascadia, I will continue #marketresearch

See my digital business card for more content: https://linktr.ee/cascadiastack

[cascadia-stack-blog]

It's decided.

This will be an LLC. The question is now: to register in Washington or Oregon? I live on the edge of these 2 states. I am meeting with 2 of my mentors today and another one tomorrow to discuss this and other aspects of planning:

Planning the You Me We research and a presentation to a fellow climate resilience organization for a potential partnership

Continue researching a suitable CRM platform (have some recs)

Send out the third ever newsletter (today) using Shopify (not a lot of creative options, not too happy with it)

Post a Friday Climate Quickie on Facebook (start this research today)

Develop a strategy to build out the e-commerce aspect of the company

That's quite a list.

Thanks for reading and your support. To contribute, please see my linktree digital business card.

[cascadia-stack-blog]

https://www.deviantart.com/purpleh3art

Cascadia by Purpleh3art via DeviantArt

Scene from Leavenworth WA

Photo Credit: Portland Timbers.

It's CASCADIA DAY MAY 18

Cascadia Stack is here to fill you in.

Take some time this 4-day weekend to celebrate the balance of humanity and our beautiful Cascadia bioregion. It's about regeneration. Cascadia Day is the anniversary of the My. St. Helens volcano eruption in 1980 in southwest Washington state.

This excerpt is from the website of The Army Corps of Engineers:

On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens—a volcano in Washington State located 96 miles south of Seattle and 50 miles northeast of Portland, Oregon—erupted violently. The ice-capped mountain had been recently stirring, sending up large plumes of ash and steam in March and shaking the ground repeatedly throughout the spring. Finally, on the morning of May 18, a significant earthquake collapsed a magma bulge on the mountain’s north side, sending an enormous avalanche of rock, trees, and glacial ice down the slopes. A massive explosion followed that flattened everything for miles in all directions and led to large mud flows. For hours the volcano spewed tons of ash into the air. The eruption and its aftermath killed fifty-seven people and countless wildlife and destroyed houses, bridges, railways, highways, and crops.

What did we learn? Upon reflection, 43 years later.... Apart from the geological aspect, from a resilience perspective, Dr. Peter Frenzen , it's "one of the most biologically diverse and productive ecosystems in the Northwest.”

The Portland Monthly wrote,

"St. Helens’s recovery started with the arrival of seeds within the first five years; then plants began to sprout within 10–15 years. Today, unlike many other blast zones around the world, St. Helens even boasts small trees and shrubs in many places".

“It’s covered in wildflowers and absolutely teeming with life,” Frenzen says. The resilience lesson is that despite a natural calamity, we can come back.

For us humans, if we prepare ourselves, we too can practice resilience. So, this weekend, it's time to replace your GoBag's winter preps with hot weather essentials and refresh your emergency water supply.

Prepare and Supply

Please check out my SHOPIFY store for Cascadia merch. Thanks, it helps the startup costs for this social enterprise company. CascadiaStack.com

[cascadia-stack-blog]

As the founder of this start-up community, I had to put all Cascadia Stack planning on hold while I finished my capstone for the Grad Cert in Social Entrepreneurship at the School of Business at Portland State University. The capstone is in #systemsthinking and it's called Map The System.

The experience helped me understand the landscape of Stack and the intersection of commerce and government agencies. I was able to uncover less systemic racism but more of an unconscious bias in a system that is rigged to benefit the economy and the wealthy people and corporations of the region.

This and other recent factors has influenced my decision. Keep reading.

Last week, I traveled to the Oregon state capitol with Unite Oregon and Oregon Just Transition Alliance to meet with legislators. We asked them to support a bill going through state Congress called Community Resilience Hubs, also known as House Bill 2990. This bill would provide grant money to administer to immunity organizations that want to build out programs that bring disaster and climate preparedness to communities all over the state. And this is exactly the premise of Stack.

Cascadia Stack needs to be a nonprofit organization.

[cascadia-stack-blog]

Digital marketing options.

At this point, development of Cascadia Stack is getting behind. I am currently working 25 hours per week for an employer and also, finishing 6 credits at Portland State University. So, you can see, I am quite busy.

My goal before the winter term started, was to get the e-commerce store started, up and running. I did that. There are five products up.

The short list of subscribers to the monthly newsletter will eventually increase when I am able to spend more time doing digital marketing. So, while drinking my morning coffee, I decided to give it a Google.

There are dozens of options. Several of them offering free for startups and basic plans, which works at this point.

I am not making any decisions now. At the most, I am spending about 3 hours a week on Stack's development activities. Building out the business plan, researching TAM (total available market) and other such metrics to estimate market size. If you are reading this, then you probably understand all of the research that (should) go into a significant LLC plan.

For now, I am not doing any marketing. I am posting occasional things on social media and trying to be consistent on a Friday FB post. The newsletter is monthly, and I have done two now. I am glad to know there are so many. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks for reading.

[cascadia-stack-blog]

Common item #38

Selling e-commerce CRAP

Hi friends,

So as a developing small business, I have spent some time thinking about #bootstrapping which means picking yourself up by your bootstraps or in this case, raising your own money for your business. As a #solopreneur I am piecing this shit together from my own bank account. So, I have decided to sell soma shit using e-commerce.

The sponge. Yeah, I am joking about selling a household sponge on my Shopify store, but really, AM I...?

In the climate conscious space of running a small business, it is generally frowned upon to source products from overseas or far away sources due to the emissions that comes from the transportation sector. But, on the other hand, I am just trying to cover my costs for building this company. Currently, I am trying to raise $435 for legal fees to file the LLC with the state. (See my Patreon page if you're curious about financially supporting, go to

So, really, a coffee tumbler with a funny saying and then a Cascadia Stack logo printed on it, sourced from the other side of the country, lol, is probably dumb to just get a $7 profit.

https://www.cascadiastack.com/

I plan to get more clever and niche T-shirts up all around the principles and topics of environmental justice, climate justice, Black Lives Matter, MMIP, outdoor adventure, hiking, nature, emergency preparedness, and more.

I am against Amazon and massive warehouses sourced from anywhere overseas, but on the other hand, those people have jobs and they are able to put food on their tables. It's the environment that suffers.

The planet is beyond her #carryingcapacity

[cascadia-stack-blog]

Water

I stumbled across this magazine at work. (I am employed by a community radio station in the Northwest.) I read the story about water and a Superfund Site in southern Oregon. Really, it's research for my Masters work for Mapping The System. My team is focused on how the changing climate, combined with ecological abuse has damaged our waterways, which ultimately impact our food supply. We will focus on the region of the US west coast, particularly the Cascadia Bioregion.

Yesterday, I had a meeting with a Harvard professor of hydrology and student of social innovation. More research.

Cascadia Stack, the company I am working to build is based on solarpunk ideals toward unity and harmony with nature. Climate adaptation, while reducing the effects of human activity.

Please follow to watch the progress.

[cascadia-stack-blog]

So.... This company I am forming, called Cascadia Stack, is all about stacking our personal household resources to prepare for erratic climate change weather events and earthquakes.

The Pacific Northwest is expecting "the big one" an 8-9.0 magnitude quake in our lifetime, the next 50 years.

Eco-anxiety and climate grief will be the defining feature of this company. Our customers will find us when searching for a support group. We will hold peer-led hour long meetings for people to talk about their fears and feel comfort knowing that others share their grief.

What do you think about this?

[cascadia-stack-blog]

Superstar Saturday

I got so much accomplished on developing this company. I will list it here and by the end of it, please comment from 1-10 how much of a SUPERSTAR SATURDAY you'd judge this work as. And tell me your progress too. Thanks!

Designed a simple version of the logo for use on the upcoming #Shopifystore

Read the #Canva blog about use of their graphics. I highly suggest this!

My wife workshopped on some great potential t-shirt mock-ups using Canva.

Had a good establishing phone call with my founding vendor. Her role is a "vendor" not partner nor contractor.

Friday's phone call with the small business advisor sank in with me and directed my intentions on EVERYTHING.

Set up my email "signature"

Sent the newsletter to Vendor and Business Advisor, per their request.

Added a Sheet to my Budget Forecasting Sheet for domain names expiration dates.

Entered some expenses into the Forecasting Sheet

Today, I hope to spend at least 90 minutes. My self-imposed deadline is Thursday night for as much of the Shopify process as possible.

Monday, I want to get the PO Box and open a business bank account.