LINDSAY, JJN MULTIMEDIA:
Welcome to CouncilCast, a podcast from Coalfield Development, where we highlight moments from our monthly gathering, Coalfield Council Day. It's a time for reflection, team building, and celebrating the personal and professional developments of our Crew Members.
This is Episode Six, highlighting our Council Day on Friday, October 28.
CEO Brandon Dennison started his monthly morning address on a positive note by reflecting on the growth Coalfield Development has experienced this year, including our one-year membership with the local carpenter’s union; the ACT Now Coalition winning a US EDA Build Back Better Regional Challenge grant, and record-breaking successes among our social enterprises.
While celebrating some of our victories, Brandon touched on the relevance of our workplace theme for the year: HISTORY, an acronym that stands for “Healing Into Sustainable Transformational Opportunities and Reclaiming Yourself.”
BRANDON DENNISON
From my perspective, it's the best year Coalfield Development has ever had. We've done a deep dive on Appalachian history. Earlier in the year, we went to Heritage Farm. We went to High Wall, and we talked a lot about healing at high wall and how the crews are using regenerative agriculture there to heal the landscape and how the landscape and the people are healing together.
We Went to Matewan and learned about labor history in West Virginia, some of the history of coal mining and how hard people have had to fight to have what we now consider basic rights. The 40-hour work week, safe working conditions, minimum wage, workers comp — these are things that did not used to exist, and literally lives had to be lost, to fight for them and to get them. So we should never ever ever take those for granted.
This was in fact our first full year as a part of the local carpenters union. So, quite historic in and of itself. Had our big ACT Now [Coalition] win, literally shaping Appalachian history as an organization. And then if I think through just the work that each team has been doing, it's mind blowing. It's mind blowing.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Brandon briefly recognized each enterprise, their recent achievements, and ongoing projects.
BRANDON DENNISON
Revitalize has done more square feet revitalized this year than any other year since Coalfield Developments development. Think about how the arts have come alive here at West Edge. We've had more people engage at West Edge and attend an event at West Edge this year than any other year. I think Refresh Appalachia has really found its stride this year. Shaping a whole corridor, a multi-state corridor, incredible production, multiple farm to table meals. Mountain Mindful, best year ever, by far. We're gonna have a near-doubling of sales from last year to this year. Congratulations on a successful Bridge Day.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Then, he turned his focus to the staff expansions in the Finance, Conservation, Communications, and Human Development departments.
BRANDON DENNISON
The finance team grew this year. We have wrapped up our audit. It was a clean audit, and the balance sheet of the organization is strong. Finance Team, thank you for all of your hard work.
Conservation more than doubled. It used to just be Jacob [Hannah], now it's a whole team. It's a whole program through Deconstruction. We've deconstructed multiple events. It's been really cool to see that come alive and that, too, similar to Refresh, the Reuse Corridor is a multi-state initiative. There's partners in multiple states, not just West Virginia, so Coalfield's impact is really is growing. Our roots are southern West Virginia, our home will always be southern West Virginia, but we are part of a broader region, and we're embracing that and we're starting to see those impacts.
I got some reinforcements. Devon [Hayes] and Ashley [Stinnett] joined the team late last year, early this year, and we actually have a newsletter every month because we have a communications person to handle that. I'm late to a lot less engagements now because I have some extra support from Devon, and Devon jumped into the ACT Now team on like day one and sort of got a baptism by fire. So I appreciate you guys.
And the Human Development team grew this year. We added some capacity, some talent, some compassion, and it's really making a big difference already. Human Development makes Council Day happen. Human Development makes personal development happen. Human Development makes payroll happen. Human Development makes it really the heart and soul of this organization come to life. So, round of applause for Human Development.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Over the past year, Brandon said accomplishments have given new meaning to our HISTORY theme.
BRANDON DENNISON
Just a remarkable year. I think when we set an intention of HISTORY, we wanted to reflect on our own personal histories. But we also want to think about Appalachian history and our place in it. As an organization, it might have sounded a little bit bold at the start of the year to say we want to change Appalachian history this year, but I think that's exactly what we've done. And each of you plays a unique piece in that.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Next, Brandon provided prompts to discuss in our hour of group reflections. The questions revolved around each of the themes we’ve explored so far this year, including healing, sustainability, and reclamation.
Gina Milum, West Edge’s Operations and Outreach Coordinator, said the last prompt regarding self-reclamation particularly resonated with her.
GINA MILUM
We are such a youth oriented society that everybody wants to hold on to youth, you know, with both hands, and they resist getting older, with everything that's in them. But they don't realize how freeing it can be.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Gina said there’s a certain confidence that comes from embracing and accepting the changes that come with aging.
GINA MILUM
The true coolness, so to speak, is being who you want to be and doing the things you want to do. And you start to see that transformation as you get older. It's like, I'm not here to impress anybody. I've tried that for the first 40 years of my life, and it didn't do anything for me. But it's just so freeing to truly be able to reclaim your authentic, weird, crazy, bizarre self.
LINDSAY CRANCE
In response to the sustainability prompt, Conservation Director Jacob Hannah noted how sustainability is deeply intertwined with Appalachia’s history of resiliency.
JACOB HANNAH
Making sure that we just don't take everything and the next generation has nothing — that's sort of the textbook definition. But really, sustainability is a word you hear a lot is resiliency; Appalachian resiliency. Can you sort of survive on yourself without negatively impacting others? And you see that a lot with Highwall. You see that a lot with Coalfield, you see that a lot with the energy that we have on our roof right now. So how can we fill our own needs without robbing the earth and the communities around us of their own needs as well and having a negative impact? That can look like energy, but that can also look like social sustainability. It can look like financial sustainability.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Grace McKeown, Operations Coordinator, and Brian Hughes, Revitalize Construction crew member, partnered up to discuss sustainability and ways it can be practiced. Grace mentioned Brian’s recent personal project that repurposed trashed furniture materials.
GRACE MCKEOWN
Just trying to be more mindful of that in our own personal lives, seeing something that might become or might be deemed as trash, kind of reclaiming that and doing something with it. Like, he did a cabinet and he made a cabinet out of glass doors that were going to be trash. So, trying to find more of those instances and in life, seeing how else can we use this, what can we turn it into.
BRIAN HUGHES
Try not to see everything as disposable. Like she was saying, for months, our old roommates had these, this media center that had the two glass doors, and they I guess they had taken the glass doors out and they were sitting outside next to the garbage can for months after they had moved out, and every time I walked by them, I just like I didn't see garbage. I was like, I could do something with those like I can make something with those, and eventually I ended up with some scrap plywood and scrap two by fours and like to say I had no idea what I was doing. I just kind of had an idea and turned two pieces of glass into a cabinet, and it all hinged on two pieces of glass. Two pieces of garbage that were just hanging around and I thought I could do something with those.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Carrie Sias, Human Resources Coordinator, shared her response to the prompt on healing. She said working at Coalfield has been a breath of fresh air after spending much of her career working in environments that often did not treat women as equals.
CARRIE SIAS
I have worked at several manufacturing facilities, nonprofits, that kind of thing, and being a female in that environment can be tough. Lots of times, you have, say, male supervisors that maybe don't want to do certain things, and they pass it on to the females like cleaning up the kitchen and things like that. "Women's work." And that stuff always bothered me a little bit because I felt like I had more to offer than cleaning the kitchen when I had another role to play. And I can say, from being here at Coalfield for six months, I feel healing from that. I don't get that feeling here, I don't get the feeling that women's work, men's work, whatever, we're all here at work. And to me, that's a great feeling. And it's a respect, and it means a lot to me to feel that respect when I haven't had it in so many other places I've been. So I have definitely noticed a lot of healing in how I handle my work, work relationships, things like that, because I feel like I'm in a better place, so I appreciate that. That's my healing.
(cheers)
LINDSAY CRANCE
Courtney Wilt, Financial Accountant, echoed Carrie’s sentiments.
COURTNEY WILT
I came from public accounting where I was for six years, and very similar to what Carrie said, very male dominated very, like not respected in my position. I had the knowledge and the certification to be amazing, but I'm a very happy and energetic person and that was just not something that was respected in my profession. But it's respected here, so I get to be my true self here and that's nice.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Chris Yura, Strategic Partnerships Manager, joined us as the morning’s featured speaker. Chris shared insight into the success of the Appalachian Social Enterprise Summit event Coalfield hosted in early October. The event united guest speakers and experts from various sectors for collaborative panels.
CHRIS YURA
Our hope is that convening these types of individuals will attract aspiring entrepreneurs, practitioners, thought leaders, and organizations that are interested in supporting social enterprise and Appalachia.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Chris said the event was a reminder that entrepreneurship comes in many forms.
CHRIS YURA
I think sometimes when you talk about entrepreneurism, you think, I think sometimes it has to be something new. But truthfully, entrepreneurism doesn't necessarily have to be a new thing. It can be starting or buying an old business or taking over a business that was going to go out of business, because somebody maybe is retiring or, you know, is moving out of the area. And sometimes like retaining those jobs, retaining those businesses, that is, that is entrepreneurism, and that is social enterprise.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Casey McCann, Director of Revitalize Appalachia, said the panel on community revitalization particularly received a lot of interest and engagement from the event attendees.
CASEY MCCANN
The panelists all brought something very positive from different perspectives. I was really surprised that we had an overflow in our room and we had to start turning people away, because they have such a large interest in it. I didn't realize that the folks who were coming outside of the state had that much interest in it, and everybody brought something to the table. I think that was an outstanding opportunity. I like to be a part of it again in the future.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Elice Hunley, Crew Chief at Refresh Appalachia, said the Refresh crew’s first co-catering gig went well. Spice of Life, the catering company Refresh collaborated with, based the menu around Refresh’s available crops, including lettuce and eggplant.
ELICE HUNLEY
We knew about this a couple of months ahead of time, which in agricultural timetables wasn't a whole lot of time for us to pivot anything we were already growing for the dinner. Spice of Life planned their menu around what was growing in the tunnels. We had to plant more lettuce ahead of the event to be able to provide all the salad that was there that day. And it wasn't just us either. Our Highwall compatriots, they were also responsible for most of the protein that evening. All in all, this is the first time that we have done that, at least for West Edge Ag, in my experience. The first time that we have provided for a dinner, and I thought it was a great experience for everyone, myself included. I think we had a good time, given how much it was a back-breaking week, and it was delicious. It paid off.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Following our conversation with Chris, Liam Burns, Agriculture Production Technician for Refresh, and Adam Hudson, Director of Refresh Appalachia, presented their vision for Coalfield’s agricultural endeavors. In the near future, they aim to become certified as a Good Agricultural Practices facility.
LIAM BURNS
The reason that it's important is obviously health and safety. Number one, we are selling back to our community, the people that eat our food are the people that you know, we interact with on a day to day basis. And as we grow, we're now spreading out to more of the region. This is going to allow us to expand our markets, which does bring more money into the region and into Coalfield. And a lot of the markets that we're tapping into, schools and hospitals, can only use food that is, you know, handled by GAP certified teams. That's effectively going to more than double our market access, which is huge. And that also means you know, increased visibility. The more markets that we tap into, the more visibility Coalfield gets, the more visit visibility local food gets. And that's just better for everybody.
LINDSAY CRANCE
After their presentation, each crew took time to announce their recent celebrations and accomplishments. Zach Durban, Crew Chief at Revitalize Appalachia, said the crew has been working on restoring the black box theater at West Edge Factory.
ZACH DURBAN
We have been finishing the drywall. And we've also been over the last couple of weeks. You haven't seen us out in the corridor, because we've been inside the black box theater, but we've been fireproofing or making it fire rated and also helping with the acoustics.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Luke Huffman, Property Manager at West Edge Factory, reported that the recent Localization event at West Edge was a major success.
LUKE HUFFMAN
We had over 500 cars here at one point at Localization. There's only 380 parking spots collectively around the building. There were so many people that walked in here that just had saw it maybe just a year ago or two years ago. I mean, we actually do work in here. You know what I mean? Like it's hard sometimes because it crawls at a snail's pace — you think — but the community sees it. They appreciate it.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Luke recognized Gina Milum and her continued efforts to attract local artists and coordinate art-based initiatives at West Edge.
LUKE HUFFMAN
What Gina's been doing over here is astronomical for the building, just bringing the arts in here because this is what this was geared towards in the beginning eight years ago. That's what we promised, and it's finally come full circle.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Dreama Buck, Professional and Academic Development Coordinator, said she’s been building the foundation for Coalfield’s internal training programs.
DREAMA BUCK
So just recently, I finished up our 2022 through 2024 internal training schedule. There's a lot of stuff on here. And starting next week, actually, we'll have forklift and mini excavator training for all of the trainees, any crew members who have not had that certification yet, and it is also open to other folks in the company if you need that training. But spaces are limited, so you gotta let me know real soon. And Then we're also doing asbestos, lead, and mold awareness. And for Enrichment Day, y'all know I gotta make you do fun, creative stuff for Enrichment Day, we're going to RCBI for a maker vault experience and 3D printing day, I'm so excited about that, it's gonna be a lot of fun.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Carrie Sias said the Human Resources team is working on streamlining multiple workflows for 2023.
CARRIE SIAS
I am currently working on streamlining payroll to make it a little bit easier. Also, we are working on recruitment. We are working on updating our policy handbook for next year. We are working on lots of different fun things.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Casey McCann highlighted the Revitalize crew’s ongoing projects.
CASEY MCCANN
They keep outperforming themselves from week to week, month to month. Right now, we focus mostly on residential, multi-family housing, and mixed-use, mixed income with a little bit of commercial space, but you know, we're also looking at things looking at and using the single family home aspect as well. There is a lot of growth that is on the horizon. It's just continuously expanding and growing, and not only just as a team, but also just geographically as well.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Kaleb Hanshaw, Crew Chief at Refresh High Wall, said his crew is currently preparing for the coming winter and an exciting collaboration with Mingo County Schools. The High Wall site in Delbarton is reclaimed mine land that has since been turned into viable farmland.
KALEB HANSHAW
There's a lot we have to do to get ready for winter or we lose all our progress. We landed an account with the Mingo County Schools culinary program. And that's been really good for us to get our name out in the community. The teacher, Dan Sizemore, he's trained in French culinary arts, so for him to put his stamp of approval, it's really, really cool.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Brad Stapleton, Crew Chief at Mountain Mindful, and Jim Caldwell, Operations Manager of Mountain Mindful, said production is returning to normal after months of preparing and printing Bridge Day shirts. The event, which occurs on the third Saturday of each October, attracts tourists and locals to the steel arch bridge in Fayetteville, where they can spectate or participate in BASE jumping and rappelling.
BRAD STAPLETON
It was a monumental effort everyone came together and made that very successful. The wood shop continues to do all sorts of custom client work with various local restaurants and churches and other organizations, things of that nature. And the shipping department continues to fulfill online orders and make other things get where they're supposed to go when they're supposed to go there.
JIM CALDWELL
We've got a ton of stuff going on. We just came off Bridge Day. The Mountain Mindful team again, fantastic, tight window, [with] a lot of product to move out. Really proud of everybody involved in that process.
LINDSAY CRANCE
After lunch, Jacob Hannah, Director of Conservation, shared a presentation about his experience attending the World Canals Conference in Leipzig, Germany. Historically, Jacob said, Leipzig and Appalachia have had much in common, including a prominent coal mining industry. Jacob said there were 600 participants from 80 different countries present at the conference.
JACOB HANNAH
I get a lot of opportunities to coordinate with sort of other regions that are facing this issue of what do we do post-coal in our community? It’s not just Appalachia that is facing this issue. The whole world has been wrestling with it at some point or other in their timeline. UK, India, China, Russia, Scotland, every region has had some sort of dependency on coal, and are in some different phase of whether they're coming in or exiting out of it. And so a lot of eyes right now, believe it or not, are looking at your work right now in Appalachia in West Virginia and trying to figure out okay, well, how are these guys doing it? And why are they doing it? So well, like I'm curious what y'all are doing? And how can I take it home and apply it to my country as well. And so it's a really cool opportunity to share the great work that you all do in a format that really generates a lot of excitement and collaboration.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Jacob said his peers were fascinated by ongoing efforts to adapt and use clean energy in West Virginia.
JACOB HANNAH
I think the reason why this is so impactful and motivating for areas outside of Appalachia, is because we follow this model, if we really focus on the people building from the ground up, we make sure we're doing our due diligence with this patient speed and building these systems that then culminate in market shaping and culminate in this bigger transition that happens. Whereas literally air almost everywhere else in the world flips and everywhere else in the world. The government's own the coal mines, they own the power plants, and so therefore that's the first thing they shut down. And then they start working their way down to the communities and the people and after that's like a 10 year process to shut a coal mine down. So by 10 years, you've got a lot of people displaced. You've got a lot of people hurting and you've got a lot of people feeling the same things that we feel in our region as well.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Jacob then played a clip of two former miners singing a song traditionally sung by German miners at the end of their shifts.
(music)
JACOB HANNAH
These are two laid off coal miners who used to work in the mind who greeted us with a song that the coal miners was seeing at the end of the day. It's talking about hanging up your coal mining hat, going home and eating food and greeting your wife and resting after a long day's work
LINDSAY CRANCE
Jacob shared more photographs of the communities and footage of a musician playing traditional tunes on the streets. He said it was just one example of how the city and region has successfully preserved their culture.
JACOB HANNAH
It was a lot of just cool experiences to take away and just sort of see the parallels between ever in the region that's facing these issues and problems in that Appalachia, even though we I think categorically have beared the brunt of this topic the most more than really in any region in the world, we are also shining the brightest example of how to make beauty from ashes; make a lot of opportunity out of no opportunity at all. So, how I sort of broke that out was, you know, the rest of the world has struggled with the issue in different countries in different phases. The world is looking at us to see how we are getting a just transition, right? Not just a transition of okay, shut down in the minds of bringing up the new. It's got to be just and bring along the people with it.
LINDSAY CRANCE
In order to be successful, Jacob said multiple things had to work in synchrony to build sustainable business, and Coalfield is doing just that by focusing on creating opportunities for people who are already rooted here.
JACOB HANNAH
And then for a triple bottom line to exist, you need people to steward the planet, you need people to manifest profit and prosperity. So people, planet, profit working together, you need people to make those things happen as well. So let's not forget our value, and our people, and our culture as well.
LINDSAY CRANCE
As our next featured speaker, Kelli invited Communications Director Ashley Stinnett to share his story with the team. Outside of work, Ashley is a professional actor. Ashley has starred in multiple movies, television shows like Dawson’s Creek, commercials, and more. He reminded the crew that they’re never too old to chase their dreams.
ASHLEY STINNETT
Whatever your passion is, whether it's here, or if it's a combination of this, which I love this, I love doing this, or if it's things outside of that, But whatever it is, keep grinding it out. And you know, the rewards do come. It doesn't come overnight. You know, I started at 18. I'm now 42 years old. Hard to believe; I can't believe I'm 42 years old. But you know what? I'm way better positioned now than I ever was. It's all about being good to people and just being a good person, you know? And staying super humble about it too.
LINDSAY CRANCE
One crew member asked Ashley to address West Virginia’s film tax credit, which had been a hot topic in the state legislature in recent years.
ASHLEY STINNETT
So one of the things that we've always lacked here, you know, we have everything but the ocean, and I've begged people to come here and make movies because it's very affordable to make movies here. And film tax credits are huge like - to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. It's, oddly enough, here in little West Virginia is the most robust tax film credit in the United States. If a movie production comes here to make a movie, they get 20% tax credit. But if they hire 10, or more West Virginians on that production, they get up to 33%. That's higher than Georgia, and for those you don't know, Atlanta, Georgia is where it's at now
LINDSAY CRANCE
Kelli Crabtree then kicked off our final event of the day: Council Hour. She provided three topics for our groups to choose from regarding ways we can improve Coalfield’s sustainability, employee wellness with more health-conscious foods, and our bonus structures. Crew members gravitated toward the topic they were most interested in to discuss solutions.
Elice Hunley, Crew Chief of Refresh Appalachia, participated in the discussion on finding ways to encourage healthy eating among the staff and our families. Elice said her group’s ideas focused primarily on accessibility and motivation.
ELICE HUNLEY
Some of our better ideas included healthy snack vending machines. I think that that's a great idea, especially if we could contract someone to come in and you know, like, when you're thinking about healthy snacks, they're also more perishable. So if we could have someone to come in and replace them on a fairly regular basis, just making that an option for getting lunch, because a lot of our folks will wind up going to local eateries that might not have the most healthy options because of proximity. And so I like that idea a lot. We talked about bonuses to support healthy eating, because we all know that inflation is driving up the costs of not only healthy food, but all food. And so to incentivize healthy eating, just actually kind of making it possible for folks to afford to do that.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Elice shared the group’s ideas to incentivize healthy eating with vouchers or funding allocated to combat inflated prices.
ELICE HUNLEY
A great idea that came from our discussion is partnering with local supermarkets to have like a group discount, like some sort of shoppers card for our employees to incentivize healthy buying. We talked about Refresh, getting a point of service and having discounts for employees that might want to buy vegetables from us.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Baleigh Epperly, ReUse Corridor Manager, added that the group also discussed the obstacles that can limit accessibility, particularly in FDA-designated food deserts.
BALEIGH EPPERLY
With all of this in mind, just thinking about food access, and the prevalence of food deserts in our region. Most regions in West Virginia actually exist in a food desert. And a lot of people think of rural regions, but it's also very prevalent in urban spaces as well, when you might only have access to like a convenience store, gas station type foods — dollar stores, right? So you may not have access to more healthy options and fresh produce at places like that. So that's definitely a problem. And we can't just assume that everyone can make these decisions if they don't first have access to it.
LINDSAY CRANCE
Before the groups split up for Council Day closing remarks, Baleigh said some of these ideas could be helpful in broadening Refresh’s reach and impact in the future.
BALEIGH EPPERLY
Maybe one day Refresh will have a food truck. We're manifesting that.
LINDSAY, JJN MULTIMEDIA:
Thanks for listening to CouncilCast, a monthly podcast from Coalfield Development. This series is hosted and produced by JJN Multimedia. Subscribe to CouncilCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you’re hearing, be sure to leave us a review. To support or learn more about our work creating resilient Appalachian communities and helping people unlock their full potential, power, and purpose, find us on social media or visit www dot coalfield hyphen development dot O R G. Thanks for joining us today. We’ll see you next month.