Oct./Nov. 1983 RAIN Page 49 with a manageable number of people and a distinct geographic area, became a hotbed for these new events and conferences. Astounding numbers of people showed up at events such as the Northwest Conference on Alternative Agriculture held in Ellens- burg, Washington (800), and the Bend in the River Conference held in Bend, Oregon (600). Such events still play an important role in bringing people together and keeping the flow of ideas alive, but those first gatherings were unique. Bend in the River, for example, held on the small Central Oregon Community College campus, was one of the first opportunities for activists, who had gone their separate ways, to come back together to talk about what they did on their “summer vacation." They found out that indeed the sixties had not died—sixties people had simply gone back to their homes to do the work cut out for them. There are many events one might point to as critical turning points in the 1970s, depending on where one entered the stream and with what issue in mind. We asked Brian Livingston, who, as founder of the Cascadian Regional Library and a free-lance event coordinator, organized as many of these early events as anyone, what event he remembered as a starting point: The event I go back to is the Global Village conference at the Evergreen State College in 1973. It was called by Mike Mandeville, O. J. Lockheed, and Dan Urah. They were going to raise money to build a pavillion at the World Expo in Spokane, Washington. It was to have an electronic map that would show world resources like Buckminster Fuller's World Game. Peter Lenz, now Peter ]ohnson-Lenz, was flown in from Colorado to do a demonstration of experimental computerized databases. Robert Theobald, creator of one of the earliest networks ofsocial change, was also flown in from Arizona. The conference was somewhat disappointing because it was oriented towards the promoters' plans to build this pavillion and computerized map at the World Expo, rather than meeting the needs of the people who were there to do regional networking. So, one week after the Global Village conference, we met at Jack Eyerly's home in Portland. At that meeting were Jack, Steve Johnson, Robert Stilger, Lee Johnson, Laura Williamson, Mark Musick, and myself. We discussed how we thought there should be a Northwest regional network. We went back to our respective homes and sent proposals to Mark Musick at the Evergreen State College. He copied the proposals and distributed them. I wrote a proposal for locating computers in seven cities that would be linked together. Bob and Laura suggested having a major database that would be linked by terminals in city libraries. That idea won out, but there wasn't anyone to do it. Instead, Laura became involved with the Environmental Education Center at Portland State University, Steve and Lee started RAIN with others, Robert started the Northwest Regional Foundation in Spokane, Mark helped start Tilth, and 1 started the Cascadian Regional Library. OAT and A.T. in Transition by Sam Sadler The foundation of OAT (the Lane County Office ofAppropriate Technology, later transformed into Oregon Appropriate Technology, Inc.) was one of those turning points in the evolution ofa.t. in the Pacific Northwest. At the time (1977), the obscure notion ofassessing technology from a values point ofview was finally beginning to make sense to a sizable number ofpeople. Since then, as Sam Sadler points out in this brief history, the term "appropriate technology" has lost much of its punch-but still, both the term and the Eugene-based OAT organization have played a vital role in bringing technological issues into a political framework.—SJ The Lane County Office of Appropriate Technology was the seed for Oregon Appropriate Technology, Inc. (OAT). Lane County OAT was one of the first county-level a.t. offices in the countiy. It was created at the recommendation of County Commissioner Jerry Rust, but it was cut after the first year as the swing vote on the Board of Commissioners became more conservative. OAT was re-formed as a cooperative corporation in late 1978 by several of the people who had been on staff at Lane County OAT. At Lane County OAT, there had been almost as many separate projects as there were staff members. We conducted projects in solar water heating, solar greenhouse demonstration, composting, metals recovery at a solid waste transfer site, composting toilets, greywater systems, farmers' markets, and small farm viability; and we prepared the County's testimony on early versions of the regional power bill. We also produced several publications and maintained a lending library. While it was possible in 1977 and 1978 to be current in these fields and meet the requests for information from the public, it was not possible to maintain that diversity in a small, for-profit business. That was for two reasons. First, we had been providing information to the public without charging a fee. To operate a business, we had to specialize in areas in which people or agencies were willing to purchase a product or service. Given our strengths, those areas were passive solar design and construction for private clients, and research, planning, and publications for government agencies. Second, the technologies were evolving and becoming more sophisticated. To keep on top of them, we had to specialize. Most , of our consulting work is solar related, although there is some work in wind and micro-hydro. Cont.-
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