Republic BiPolar Birthday Bash Art Show

This year, I'll be throwing the Ester Republic's annual birthday bash (the 8th) in conjunction with the BiPolar Art Show. It'll be down at the Annex on January 12, Friday from 6 to midnight. Those of you who've been to the Republic birthday bashes in the past are used to the small somewhat coldish quarters at Hartung Hall, or, in the first two years, at what's now the Ester library. The Annex is MUCH bigger and warmer. Last year the b-day bash was held very late, in February, as it was just too cold in January, so I'm hoping the change of venue will make it easier on everyone. We got coverage in the Square last year; I'm hoping that both the better location and the art show will interest people again this year and we'll get scads of people coming.

Technically, the Republic's birthday is January 27 (the first edition of the paper came out on this date in 1999), but the 12th works out better for the art show. I had so much fun with the Publisher's Picks awards last year I'm going to do it again (they'll be presented at 8 pm). I've got a lot to do to get ready for the party, aside from the usual party-related preparations. I've got to choose the categories and winners for the awards and make up certificates, get photos from previous bashes together and organize a booklet of the paper's history, etc. for people to look through. I'll be making a display of Republic publications and back issues.

Then there's the art show. It was supposed to be simultaneous with McMurdo Station's MEC Alternative Art Gallery show, but they moved the date up a week, which was just too tight for us to deal with, what with New Year's and all. So their show will be January 6th (our 5th) and ours will be the next Friday. The theme for the show in Antarctica is "Flow", so we'll be using that here, too.

Rude garden gnomes

Okay, Hans almost never gets on line, so I'm pretty safe in writing this out: I want to get Hans a rude garden gnome for Christmas. A flasher gnome, or a mooning gnome, or a gnome run over by a car, or a gnome stabbed in the back, or maybe a beer-drinking gnome: something on this order. But--it'll have to be a gnome in town, rather than, say, an Amazon gnome, or a virtual gnome of another ilk. Nope, good old ceramic kitch for him.

Solstice/Xmas/New Year hoo-roar

Hoo-boy. It's that time of year again, three days before Christmas, one day before Solstice, and I'm realizing belatedly that the Holiday Season Is Upon Us. I haven't done diddly about getting goodies for people, but today's office Christmas party and White Elephant Exchange has suddenly and forcibly made me realize that This Is It!

Wonder if I can get those Christmas cards ready and mailed in time....

They just aren't getting it

An article in today's News-Miner about the GVEA vote by Stefan Milkowski is headlined, "GVEA: Plan to restructure wasn't explained well", and shows clearly that the folks at GVEA just aren't getting the message:

[GVEA board chairman Bill] Nordmark suggested the plan failed because it wasn’t sold well, not because it was a bad idea. He said the bylaws for the new cooperative were probably too complex...

GVEA President Steven Haagenson…said it seemed like people who voted against it fell into three main groups. One group was generally skeptical of the plan and just didn’t think it was smart, he said. Another was perfectly happy with how things were going and didn’t want GVEA to change. And a third didn’t like what happened when the city of Fairbanks sold its utility assets it the 1990s and associated this proposal with that action.

The problem was that they kept trying to SELL it to the membership, not EXPLAIN it; they used numbers that didn't make any sense; and they used language in the ballot information and the presentation that was downright deceptive. I STILL haven't heard from anybody how they justified that $30 million figure, although GVEA board member Dan Osborne has offered to sit me down and "explain how utilities work," so that hopefully I'll "understand GVEA better". I'm hoping he can help me track down what's going on with this figure; Tom DeLong wasn't able to.

Beck may have come up with the savings figure for GVEA, but it's based on something that doesn't seem to make sense (i.e., the 1.75 ratio for margins), and no one's been able to explain this to me yet. Perhaps Osborne can help me out here.

Support your local bookstore!

Time was, Fairbanks used to have several local bookstores, used and new books. Now, however, chain stores like Waldenbooks and Borders are exerting their slow but sure killing influence on the local stores. Gulliver's Books is feeling the pressure.

One of my sister's first jobs was at Gulliver's, when they were in the main College Inn Building. I love this store: it's convenient, it has all kinds of books you just can't get from the chain stores (or Amazon, for that matter), and the books they've got are great. They buy from small publishers, they have regular book signings and readings, especially with local authors, the cafe is wonderful, they feature local artists on their walls, and they support good causes. The staff gets actual health benefits and are paid a decent wage.

When you buy books at this locally owned and operated independent bookstore, you are supporting local people, local authors, local publishers. Much more of the money you spend at a local shop goes to the local economy. Chains act like vacuum cleaners, sucking the money out of the communities in which they operate. They don't support a community, they colonize it, providing some benefits, but taking much more from it. Chain bookstores require huge discounts from publishers, so they automatically price themselves below what independent publishers and authors can afford--which means you won't find books from many small, independent publishers.

There is a cost associated with really low prices and volume sales: you and your neighbors' choices diminish. There may be a lot of different titles at Borders, but not many from the micropublishers and self-publishers of Alaska. And there's an odd thing about a lot of people's attitude about purchasing--it's as though they believe what and where they buy doesn't have any influence, the "I'm powerless to make any difference" attitude. But if you buy locally, you make a profound difference in your community. The money stays here, you support independent business, and the impersonal supermarket effect that creates generic towns and mall-cities is avoided.

So if you want books, go to Gulliver's and the Comic Shop and Forget-Me-Not Books. You're buying not only reading material, you're creating a stable local economy and giving back to your neighbors.

What goes around comes around--but if it goes Outside, it's gone.

An ethical board member

A letter to the editor in the News-Miner yesterday said a couple of interesting things about the GVEA proposal. The writer has served on the Member Advisory Council, and supports the G&T proposal, basically because she trusts the board and staff and their integrity. Ordinarily, I would also, but for some niggling details that just don't add up properly. This isn't so much a matter of the intentions of the board or staff, but of whether a) the members have access to the full information, and b) whether we wish to give up our control.

There was one aspect of what Ms. Felcyn wrote, however, that made me wonder if the writer understood the principles of a cooperative:

Others who say it is not right have no background or expertise to speak from and the one board member who dissents has served for less than two years.

I was very surprised to hear him acknowledge that he was the dissenter when he spoke at the town meeting on Nov. 15. I always thought an ethical board member would present his position within the boardroom and once a vote was taken would support the majority decision.

Tom DeLong represents my district. As a member of that district, I wanted to know what his reasons were for voting as he did; it might have been important to how I chose to vote on the issue. So I asked him, and, as appropriate for a representative of my district, he informed me as to his reasons. This is perfectly ethical. Why? because the board is composed of representatives, one, and two, they are the board of a cooperative, not a profit-driven corporation that has as its primary duty making money for its investors. Board members MUST be answerable to their constituents. In GVEA's case, the constituency is the membership. DeLong doesn't represent the board, he represents me, and everyone else in his district, as well as the membership at large.

DeLong may not be as experienced at being a board member as the rest of them, but he's also therefore not as likely to assume that he can make decisions of this magnitude on behalf of the membership. I think his being new is a good thing; the others have been on the board for perhaps too long.

GVEA Insider lists the seven cooperative principles under which our electric utility is supposed to be operating:

1. Voluntary and open membership
2. Democratic member control
3. Members' economic participation
4. Autonomy and Independence
5. Education, Training and Information
6. Cooperation among cooperatives
7. Concern for community

So, what DeLong did by revealing his reasons was perfectly in keeping with the cooperative spirit: he was allowing for members' control and participation by INFORMING the public. This has been the major problem with the approach taken by the board and the upper management of GVEA--they just haven't been as informative as they should be, and instead have embarked upon a spin campaign. I certainly don't object to promoting what they think is a good idea, but I do find that promoting it to the exclusion of providing us with any information to the contrary or references to their source material is very poor education indeed.

So I suppose it boils down to this: yes, basically I trust the staff and the board. But that doesn't mean I'm willing to trust them unquestioningly, and when they ask that of me, that's when something's wrong.