2009 NBN Board Member Candidates

Dear Natural Building Network Members,
Six of our members have stepped forward and volunteered to fill the six vacant seats on the Board of Directors under our new organization structure. Get to know the candidates…

Linda Lloyd

NBN is a much needed organization that can help take the Natural Building movement into its needed position as we move forward questioning huge outlays for houses and buildings that are neither healthy, nor affordable, nor suited to our lives, and costly in terms of first cost for materials and ongoing costs for energy. I have had extensive experience in non-profit administration and related governmental and for profit businesses to include:
9 years on the Board of the Yestermorrow Design/Build School
2 years on Board of the Historic Harrisburg Association
Executive Director neighborhood non-profit housing development corp
Executive Director Mad River Valley Planning District
Owner/director Real Estate Institute of Pennsylvania
CEO Natural Systems Developers and Mariposa Project Director
Manager – The Quarries LLC, green development company
I shall look forward to working with such a dedicated group of builders and craftspeople.

Sasha Rabin

Sasha Rabin has a degree in Ecological Design from Evergreen State College. She has been involved in natural building since her apprenticeship with Cob Cottage Company in 2002. Following her apprenticeship she co-founded Seven Generations Natural Builders, a collective that is dedicated to teaching people how to house themselves using earth and straw construction techniques including cob, adobe, wattle and daub, light-clay straw, straw bale, natural plasters, and earthen floors. Since then she has been teaching and building throughout the US, including at the Yestermorrow Design-build School in Warren, VT, and currently teaches classes for the Solar Living Institute in Hopland, CA. She built herself a hybrid cob and straw bale cabin in eastern AZ where she lived until she recently relocated to the bay area, where she is working on an urban retrofit and permaculture project. She can be found infiltrating cob and bamboo into a suburban east bay neighborhood, and learning about how much food and housing can be created on 1/3rd of an acre by implement different living systems.

Goals for NBN board membership
One of the greatest strengths of the Natural Building Network is its drive and ability to unite natural builders and to remind us that the power of the movement is greater than any of us individually. This is the primary reason for my interest in NBN.
Throughout the last 6 years of teaching natural building workshops I have continually observed the positive effects that natural building has on people and communities.
How do we use the skills, knowledge and momentum we have gained as a movement to positively affect more people, landscapes, and environments, both urban and rural? I imagine my involvement with NBN to be a compelling way to explore answers to this question. One avenue that specifically interests me is the integration of Natural Building as a form of housing into urban ecosystems. I see the urban venue as an opportunity to share the natural building experience with a wider group of people who are not currently exposed to natural building. I see this being accomplished through a variety of creative educational experiences, and discovering new ways of teaching.
As a community of natural builders we have the strength to make profound changes in the ways that we relate to our built environment. I feel that because the Natural Building Network is a fundamentally uniting rather than divisive organization, it adds to the reality of making these changes happen.

Tim Rieth

Tim Rieth has been involved in natural building since 2001, beginning with his intensive apprenticeship with the Cob Cottage Co. in the temperate rainforests of Oregon, United States. Tim co-founded Seven Generations Natural Builders (SGNB) in 2003, which is an educational and research collaborative focusing on earth and straw construction techniques including cob, adobe, wattle and daub, light-clay straw, straw bale, natural plasters, and earthen floors. Through SGNB and collaboration with colleagues at the forefront of the natural building movement in the United States and United Kingdom, Tim has taught over 400 students in courses offered across the continental United States, Hawai‘i, the Republic of Palau, and Thailand. He is an active instructor at the Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Warren, Vermont and has been instrumental in the development of the school’s Natural Building Intensive program and general natural building curriculum. In Hawai‘i, Tim has been collaborating with Ka‘ala Farm, Inc., MA‘O Organic Farms, the Mālama Learning Center, and Hoa ‘Aina o Makaha teaching elementary through college-age students the basics of earth construction. One of Tim’s primary interests is the promotion, perpetuation, and innovation of earth and fiber construction in tropical/semi-tropical environments. Additionally, his training in anthropology and archaeology has fostered an understanding of the cultural, historical, social, and environmental factors affecting the creation and continuation of vernacular architectural traditions. In 2008, Schiffer Books published Natural Building: Creating Community through Cooperation, co-written and co-edited by Tim.

Goals and Aspirations as a NBN Board Member
Guerilla backwoods building has been a cornerstone of much of the recent natural building efforts. This spirit of independence is important and will continue. However, if natural building is to have a broader impact on how society interacts with local ecologies, uses/abuses resources, and expends energy in an effort to build, we as a community need increased outreach. The Natural Building Network has made great strides in this direction during the last couple of years. These efforts need to continue. My goals as a board member would be to further these efforts through 1) the fostering of expanded educational opportunities that sample beyond the typical natural building workshop demographic (i.e., white and economically stable); 2) help to develop the partnerships and fund raise for empirical testing of various natural building methods, techniques, and designs, and; 3) aid in the dissemination of these data to engineers, architects, and building officials in order to gain greater acceptance for natural building projects.
Beyond these general goals, I would also facilitate further cross-cultural learning in tropical/subtropical regions.

Max Vittrup Jensen

Max Vittrup Jensen grew up building with Lego’s in his native Denmark, but dismissed them in favor of wooden poles and rope during his years as Boy Scout, activist and at a nature/wilderness school. After traveling the world he settled in the Pacific N.W, got involved in ‘Green Construction’ before retreating to a semi-solitude life in the woods for 2,5 years, gaining his own private Walden experience. Eventually he returned to Europe and settled in the rural hinterlands of Moravia, Czech Republic, with an aim of starting an Ecovillage based on permaculture principles. Max is the founder of the PermaLot Centre for Natural Building, has arranged 2 European Natural Building Colloqia and taught 100′s of youth to ‘Just Do It’, using mud, straw, willow and wood. Currently he is finishing a degree in Environmental Management (as well as his straw bale house), and hope to use his permaculture and building knowledge to join various organisations “without Borders”.

My vision for NBN:
No big revelation here; you have done a fine work defining it. I’d like to add that I find it could aid in keeping the terminology defined/clean. I started with ‘Green Construction’ as a ‘Green Builder’, then that expression got green-washed out, and I became an ‘Eco-builder’. Now I’m a ‘Natural Builder’, and I’m running out of imagination what to call myself, once this term starts including heat pumps, ‘eco-concrete’ and ‘Eco-styrofoam’…!!
Part of this is what you already seem to work on in defining issues such as intern, master, etc. Contributions: Linking NBN with the Euro strawbale scene, serving as a NBN Embassador here at our center, as well as abroad through ‘Engineers, Builders and Permaculture without/across Borders’.
I can likely help applying for EU funding, and optimally I envision networking the existing NB training places in Europe: UK, Norway, Russia, Czech, and Portugal.(+ globally)
I would like to contribute to the Education Commitee, where I can add my experience of hosting 1500 visitors/volunteers, running various EU youth courses, especially the “Travelling School of Life”, a 15 month long EU funded project. (It among other defined what has to be part of ‘Passport or Journal’: Not only the building is important: These days youth have to learn how to be a low impact visitor first!

Greg Wellman

Background
I was first introduced to natural building about ten years ago and have attended a variety of workshops and events over the years. In 2005, I started a new business venture to facilitate the development of small scale retreats that feature a variety of natural building methods and materials. The prototype site in Makanda, Illinois is opening this spring and will provide opportunities for natural builders and others with an interest to become potential owner/builders.

My consulting career spans over 25 years provides strategy and project management consulting services, primarily focused on addressing large complex challenges facing airports. Some of my key strength and capabilities include:
• Problem solving, communications and leadership. My focus has been integrating complex technical issues and translating them into meaningful terms for decision-making.
• Experienced facilitator working with a variety of groups including managers, boards, technical teams, public policy and citizen groups.
• Expertise includes strategic planning, process design, facilities planning, environmental analysis and financial analysis.
• Engaging leadership style, which often motivates teams to think creatively and find out-of-the-box solutions.

Education
• Bachelors of Science from Southern Illinois University in management and communications
• Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago (additional course work on New Venture Strategy, Negotiations & Decision Making, and Corporate Strategy)

NBN Board Contribution
I intend to use my business and entrepreneurial skills to help the Board navigate the many challenges that it will face over the next two years. One of the greatest assets of the NBN is the passion of its Board and members about natural building. The long-term success of this organization and the natural building movement will require this passion along with strong skills in a variety of disciplines, including management, finance, communication, and education.

Tim Owen Kennedy

Vital Systems Natural Building & Design is headed by original founders Tim Owen-Kennedy and Bill Camp. Tim is our resident designer, instructor and contractor. He has worked with ecological materials and designs for over 10 years and is a vital member of the natural building community in Northern California.

Continuing Members

Jack Stephens, Carrie Campbell and Chris McClellan will be continuing their terms on the Board.