One tool or resource that makes my
job easier: Curiosity about our name.
The principle I wish I could live by:
Engage fully and hold life lightly.
How our staff blows off steam: Victory
lap around the o;ce table.
Where I find hope: Historic numbers
of mothers are publicly speaking out.
Another profession I’d like to attempt:
Movie acting.
The best thing anyone ever taught
me: Live big.
One thing I learned working here
that surprised me: Earnestness can be
counterproductive.
The weirdest thing in my office: The
amount of dog hair we can tolerate.
The sexiest person working in my
field: It seems it’s inherently sexy to stand
up for children. Consider Harry Belafonte,
Paul Newman, David Beckham, Roger
Moore, George Clooney.
Most influential book: The Soul of
Rumi, by Coleman Barks.
PIPER FOSTER is executive director of the
seventeen-year-old Sopris Foundation in
Aspen, which “embraces the traditional
Western ethics of self-reliance, hard work,
and thrift. [Sopris] stimulates the exchange
of ideas applicable throughout the Rocky
Mountain West” with a $250,000 budget.
What’s changed in my organization’s
work or mission over time: We switched
from whining about what was wrong with
the world’s politics and policies, and
focused on promoting solutions. Turns
out, our constituents prefer solutions.
The best thing I get to do is: I love
meeting my neighbors in the West. We
talk projects, policy, solutions.
My organization’s biggest success:
We committed to exposing the phenomenal waste of energy in residences. The
average vacation home emits 600 pounds
of carbon dioxide per day occupied, whereas a local’s house produces less than 150
pounds a day. The research grabbed our
city councils and second-home owners by
their lapels.
Its biggest failure: We hosted a debate
on cellulosic ethanol. I wondered if the
debaters were a) speaking English, b) speaking a common language, c) lost in a feedback loop with the PowerPoint.
What delights me in my daily work:
Relevancy.
The worst meeting I ever had: All of
them before I decided to drive to fewer,
and cut more o= at thirty minutes.
One tool or resource that makes my
job easier: The iSkin protective cover for
my laptop keyboard.
The principle I wish I could live by:
Saying no. It doesn’t hurt people, and it
enables me to do well that which I am
actually passionate about.
The best thinkers in my field: Jim
Kunstler, David Orr, and my colleague
and >lm producer Laurel Garrett.
How our organization expresses its
creativity: We draw a lot. Sopris’s ?
ow-chart of employee duties looks like this: a
tall oak tree, with a bird circling above,
under the shadow of a cloud, with several
men raking the oak’s leaves.
Where I find hope: My landscape:
interior and exterior. We honor the universe by giving her our hope. There is
little excuse for anything else.
Another profession I’d like to attempt:
Financial planning. But really, I jones for
a CIA job each time I watch The Bourne
Identity.
The best thing anyone ever taught
me: Amory Lovins said there is nothing at
which you cannot become an expert if you
spend a good six months learning it.
One thing I learned working here
that surprised me: Have patience in arriving at a verdict. Without exception, despite
a >ne >rst option, the latter option proved
even better.
The sexiest person working in my
field: Me?! Duh!
Totem animal, vegetable, or mineral:
We would like to fancy ourselves a
gira=e—with a higher perspective, moving
gracefully.
Most influential book: The Long Emergency, by James Howard Kunstler. a
The Orion Grassroots Network provides
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engaged in ecological, social, and
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visit www.orionsociety.org/ogn.
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