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Opinion
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- Written by: Carol Cole-Lewis
Americans’ long-term savings in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, pension funds and life insurance funds total about $30 trillion. But not even 1 percent of these savings touch local small business – even though small businesses are responsible for roughly half the jobs and the output in the private economy!
Looking at this locally, over $7 billion Lake County dollars are leaking away from our community and into Wall Street through our long-term savings habits. Imagine if we could reclaim only 1 percent of this money and invest it into our local businesses. What difference do you think $70 million would make towards revitalizing our local economy?
Archaic and outdated regulations are standing in the way of local investing. These were put in place by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after the Great Depression of the 20th century, and were designed to protect the uneducated and ill-informed public against unscrupulous schemes.
These rules also prevent people from investing privately in a business opportunity unless they are already in relationship with the owner of the enterprise.
In several cities, supporters of the local economy movement have found a way to help people meet SEC rules by bringing community members into relationship via fun social and educational gatherings called LIONs – Local Investing Opportunity Networks.
Essentially, a LION is little more than the way business used to be done: Your neighbor owned the bakery down the street and needed some money to expand. You had some available cash and knew he was good for the loan, so you agreed to invest in her business.
On Monday, June 25, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Thrive Lake County ( http://thrivelakecounty.org ) will hold an informational meeting about the Lake County LION (Local Investing Opportunity Network).
I will explain a bit more about a LION – what it is and what it is not. Richard Cooper, chief executive officer of Mendo Lake Credit Union, will give a short explanation of what the credit union is doing to facilitate LION local investing; and several business owners will share their interesting ideas and exciting plans for growing their businesses.
A LION welcomes all investors – from a person with only $10 to contribute to a local venture, to the accredited investor who would like to see a small portion of her assets going toward creating desired local services (more higher quality local restaurants, for example).
If you're a local business owner (or would-be local business owner), you, too, will benefit from attending the June 25th meeting.
To find out more information and to reserve your seat, visit the Thrive Lake County Web site ( http://www.thrivelakecounty.org/2/post/2012/05/thrive-lake-county-starts-network-to-enable-local-investing.html ).
We must be the change we want to see in the world. It starts with each of us being willing to do things differently and to take action where we can.
Please consider learning more about LION and other local investing opportunities by attending the June 25 meeting and by joining the movement to build a thriving local living Lake County economy.
Carol Cole-Lewis is project coordinator for Thrive Lake County. She lives in Kelseyville, Calif.
- Details
- Written by: John Brosnan
The Lake County Citizens for Responsible Regulations and the Lake County Green Farmers apologize for the inadvertent error in attributing our summary of the Measure D to the Registrar of Voters.
We ran an ad accurately summarizing Measure D, but erroneously attributing the summary to the Registrar of Voters.
In fact, a very similar summary was written by county counsel and published by the Registrar of Voters, but we admittedly made a mistake and published wording from our own summary rather than county counsel’s summary.
We apologize for the error. However, the summary of Measure D in the ad in question was entirely accurate.
John Brosnan is president of the Lake County Green Farmers, based in Lake County, Calif.
- Details
- Written by: Doug Rhoades
Lake County Live! came to the Soper-Reese Community Theatre in Lakeport for our fifth show on Sunday, May 27.
Performers included Blind Spot, with Tom Nixon, Dave Gilmore, Martin Franusich, Doug Kauffman and Ed Johnson, along with Lindy Day and Kevin Village Stone. Thanks to them for some incredible music.
Thanks also to our Ladies of the Lake, who continue to amuse the audience with their exploits: Kris Andre, Pamela Bradley, Suna Flores and Vicky Parish Smith. Special guests this month were Judy Conard and Sarah Arndt. Thanks to both.
Thanks to Richard Smith and Suna Flores for helping co-write the program and to Mitchell Hauptman for being our unflappable announcer.
Special thanks to Nick Reid, our stage manager and Kris Veenstra, who assists him. Our show sounds so good thanks to the talents of Nick Biondo, sound engineer, and looks good thanks to lighting handled by Mike Adams.
The front of the house is always handled perfectly, so much appreciation to Andrea Adams, Vonn Faqua, Donna Herndon and, of course, Nancy Rhoades.
We couldn't do the show without the support of KPFZ 88.1 FM Lake County Community Radio, Lake County News at www.lakeconews.com and the Soper-Reese Community Theatre. Each donates much to make the show a success.
Finally, thanks to all of you who come to the theater and experience the show live, or listen on the air or on line at www.kpfz.org . Your response to our program has been wonderful.
These people and organizations believe as I do that there's much talent here in Lake County, and have permitted us to continue to bring that talent to you on the last Sunday of each month.
As an aside, a technical error delayed our live broadcast on May 27. Approximately the first 15 minutes of our show did not make it to the air. That problem has been identified and will not occur again. H
I hope you will join us in the theater on June 24 for the return of Pole Cat Rodeo and Lucas Swafford with Rama Deva.
Oh yes, the Ladies of the Lake will be there too, along with Sascha the dog, Mama Maybelle's, and a very good time.
For more information or to contact us, please visit www.lakecountylive.com or www.facebook.com/lakecountylive .
You can also always send your ideas, comments and suggestions to
Thanks to everyone for continuing to support my dream of sharing local talent with our community on Lake County Live!
Doug Rhoades is the creator of Lake County Live! He lives in Kelseyville, Calif.
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- Written by: Greg Cornish
I arose Thursday morning to see an ad by the proponents of Measure D in the newspaper with the same old story, accusing opponents of the measure of lies lies lies!
Once again, as so many times before they never mention what lies they were talking about. It took me back to remembering grade school and how children argue.
The good news is that everywhere we go, the opponents of Measure D have been met with welcome open arms.
We're getting our message out to all the community organizations and nearly to a person, everyone is heavily endorsing our stance.
On a down note it seems that the proponents of Measure D have been busy too.
Five signs that say, “No on Measure D" located on private property along the highway in Kelseyville have been destroyed.
In order to destroy them the vandals have had to crawl over fences and trespass, breaking the law on their way to breaking another law.
This is another example of why you don't want marijuana growers writing their own legislation.
In other areas, more visible, the signs are simply quickly knocked over and neighbors have been putting them back up.
So please get out to vote and vote no on Measure D.
Greg Cornish lives in Nice, Calif.