MRC Elections Slate 11/07/2020

Hi Everyone,

Another step on the road to our Annual Meeting is to provide everyone with the slate of candidates that we will be voting on in our elections. This time around we are pleased to have two new candidates for the board as well as voting on our long standing President. In the next week we will be sending out links to everyone we have emails for to vote on the candidates. Paper ballots will also be available in the store if you’d prefer and if you haven’t paid your dues this year please check in with the register staff as you are able. We would love to hear as much as we can from our membership!

Without further adieu please find the candidates below;

Kim Jacobs, Produce Member, Zephyr Hill Farm

Kim Jacobs moved to Brooks in 1997 with her husband Bob. They live, and thrive, on their off-grid homestead in the midst of the 140 acres which they share with the denizens of Stubborn Ox Farm.  Kim is an illustrator and gardener and dancer, when she isn’t volunteering at the coop that is, which began with its inception.  She has served the coop in many capacities, including as the board president for the last 5 years (anyone else ready to take over???) She would be gratified to serve as a board member for another term if you will have her.

George Callas, Consumer Member

George Callas moved to Brooks in 2003. Together with his wife Kimberly, they built a super-insulated, off-grid house in 2005. After helping found the Newforest Institute he launched Build Green Maine. Through 2020, his company has trained over 1,000 energy auditors and weatherization technicians around the world, weatherized hundreds of homes and prevented more than 50 million tons of carbon dioxide from being released. His children attended the Morse Memorial School in Brooks and he remains committed to the cultural and economic development of the town.

Mick Womersley, Producer Member Womerlippi Farm

I’m a British immigrant, trained as a environmental policy analyst at the University of MD, College Park when the policy school was home to Herman Daly, the founder of ecological economics. (Daly was on my PhD committee.) I also studied economics under several other notable environmental and mainstream economists. (A policy degree is usually about 70% applied economics, with an emphasis on models and decision-making. I specialized in economic development case study.) I taught general sustainability and economics classes at Unity College for twenty years (until the recent unfortunate démarche), peaking early as Interim Provost, CAO, and senior VP 2007-2008 — essentially running the college for then-President Mark Lapping, also an interim, then returning to the faculty to found the sustainable energy management program. I had a past life as a Royal Air Force engineer and rescue troop, so I also ran the SAR team and taught the physics and renewable energy engineering classes at Unity. I am a homesteader with my wife and daughter on 3.5 acres in Jackson, a fragment of Israel Thorndike’s Great Farm (so I tell our kid our farm belonged to a pirate!). We raise sheep, chickens, feeder pigs in season, lots of vegetables, and make 70-80% of our own power and heat with renewables. I also fix homes and our own vehicles. I am now retired but running an Air B’nB rental in Thorndike. My wife Aimee Phillippi just took a job at FEDCO Seeds. Our daughter Edana goes to Morse Elementary.