... R A I RAIN, as you have probably observed, is in another of its "transitions." As the latest new face around here it's a little peculiar to be the person to fill you all in on what's been going on. I personally have been referring to this summer as my own "mountain moving days." I thought perhaps the chaos would end upon my arrival at the Portland airport but as usual I'd packed ample chaos. There was still the movers to contend with, not an insignificant part of any move. This time the movers did okay until they loaded all of my earthly possessions into a borrowed pickup with a quick release tailgate. That quickly released two of my favorites, the carved oak bed that had finally gotten me up from a mattress on the floor, and the .hand bevelled leaded glass window that was going to either pay for my college education someday or serve as the natural convective access from my dream greenhouse to my dream study. All of which happened last week when I'd sold my house in Minnesota and moved here to become a RAIN edi- .. c:: 0 ... ~ .. . ... .. . ~ ~ VJ . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... . N D R tor. The move was an effort to recycle myself out of the "hands on" a.t. role I was in and into a more reflective one. This change comes after three years in weatherization and solar training projects at the Center for Local Self-Reliance in Minneapolis. Now that I'm here I'm finding that I'll still want to keep my hand in the training area while concentrating on getting out the magazine each month. We'll see.... Some of the other changes are in the works and will be showing up in the Staff/Contributors box. Most of the older RAIN people are still hovering around responsibly seeing to the bits and pieces of information that need to be handed over to new RAIN people. As a "new RAIN person" I'm grateful for this "technotransfer" guidance and supporting input from everyone. On the other hand, the old staff is really trying to take less responsibility for the day-to-day workings here and new staff is needed. We're looking for people with networking know-how and an ability to read, write and provide some judgement about .what's being written and practiced around the country. We have a tremendous collection of the materials that have been reviewed and the magazines we exchange·with, all of which needs RAIN 0 p s to be organized into a usable resource. We need someone who can shepherd materials into pages, and pages off to printers. The hours are odd, the pay negligible (see "salaries" in the annual financial statement) and the work creative, challenging, chummy, etc. Send resumes, notes, letters, examples of your writing, all of the above, some of the above.... We'd love to have you. Whenever I see a financial statement in a magazine I'm perhaps perversely curious ... balancing budgets is not my forte. The last time we printed one it was accompanied by a plea for help. This time we're proud to say we're solvent and can, if not rest assured, at least catch our breaths. We're all a little stunned to see in print the real amount of total salaries we pay ourselves. Perhaps with this new security we can·afford a little raise? We also need to keep hearing from you, certainly if you're planning a conference or event of some sort. I'm tempted to slide into a lyrical applause for Portland, this new home that I love, but I'm told that we're not supposed to talk about it or we'll be deluged by "growth." So, yes it rains a lot in Portland and you probably wouldn't like it. -CC Journal ofAppropriate Technology I,,. RAIN is a national information access journal making connections for people seeking n:iore simJ?le and sati_sfying lifestyle~, working to make their communities and regions economically self-reliant, building a sooety that 1s durable, Just an_d ecologically sound. RA.IN STAFF Carlotta Collette Pauline Deppen Mark Roseland Del Greenfield Yale Lansky Debra Whitelaw Jill Stapleton-Layout Steve Johnson CONTRIBUTORS Tom Bender Tad Mu.tersbaugh Phil Conti Steven Ames Typ esetting: Irish Setter • Printing: Times Litho Cover: Ancil Nance RAIN, Journal of Appropriate Technology, is published 10 times yearly by the Rain Umbrella, Inc., a n?n-profit corporation located at 2270 N.W. Irving, Portland, Oregon 97210. Telephone: 503-227-5110. Copyright© 1979 Ram Umbrella, Inc. No part may be reprinted without written permission. • Page 2 RAIN November 1979 ...
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