Consulting from Hornby Island
My, oh, my: today is New Year’s Day, 2012. It has certainly been a long time since I’ve posted.
Why? A combination of poor excuses and a robust year of “management consulting.” This was certainly not expected; hoped for, yes, but not expected.
One of our basic concepts of living out beyond included the whole notion that with technology a person could stay connected in a way not previously possible. The future economic outlook for places such as Hornby Island could be rosier through such a piece of infrastructure. (As well, many corporations are moving in the direction of remotely-located employees for both cost saving objectives as well as higher engagement.)
Indeed, it turned out that way for me.
Working from Hornby Island. Photo: Darren Bond
In April, as I recall, an old colleague from TELUS made contact with me. He had seen my profile in the social media portal, LinkedIn. It’s used extensively by professionals and consultants looking to expand their network of contacts. He had been doing some consulting work for a credit union in the lower mainland; they had asked if he could facilitate some strategy development for them. It wasn’t really his area of expertise but asked if it was something I could take on, since that was what I did at TELUS. Timing-wise it was perfect for me. He set up a call with the chief technology officer there, we chatted, and I got the gig.
It was an intense couple of months to fulfill the contract. Then, they asked if I could stay on for another five months to help execute the plan. Then, they asked if I could stay on for a couple of months to transition the knowledge to someone. So, here I am starting my last month. The contacts are great and I have picked up another contract with a consortium of large credit unions across the country. It should be another busy year on the work front, but hopefully a little less than last year.
What have I learned?
Travelling on the BC Ferries. Photo: Darren Bond
As expected, in the initial weeks and months, a fair amount of face-to-face time was required to meet and work with the various people on the project team and to let them get used to me. Progressively, more meetings could be held via audio conferences and they were very productive. So, I became a frequent BC Ferries traveller and acquired a corporate rate at a hotel. It wasn’t so much fun being away from Hornby that often – kind of defeats the purpose of being here – but was hopefully a worthwhile investment of time that may be rewarded with ongoing work that can truly be done remotely.
Eating in restaurants. Photo: Darren Bond
As time rolls by, I will need to continue to weigh the benefits (money) of consulting with the desire for a different kind of lifestyle here. However, it’s great to know that the option is there.
Once the new house is complete this year, and the finances have settled down, it will be time to take our walk to “decision rock” (an outcropping along the path towards Ford Cove that we take Kepler to during long walks) to map out the next steps in this journey.
Late summer afternoon at Helliwell Park. Photo: Darren Bond
Hornby Island Overview
By Darren Bond
Here’s a little snapshot of Hornby Island. People have asked.
Until you’ve been here, you might think it’s smaller and more remote than it actually is. Well, it does take a bit of time to get here from Vancouver. It’s about five to six hours end-to-end, but not because of the distance.
You first take the BC Ferry from Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver over to Nanaimo, which is on the mid-island section of Vancouver Island. Then, you drive just under an hour up the eastern side of Vancouver Island to just south of Courtenay. From there, you take a smaller ferry to Denman Island and proceed across the island (ten minutes or so) and catch a smaller ferry (a couple of dozen cars) to Hornby. From there, we’re about a half-kilometer up the hill and down a side road.
As of the 2006 census, there were just under 1,100 people, which was a rise of about 11% from the 960 people in 2001. (It will be interesting to see how it has changed since then.) There were 545 private dwellings at an average price of about $480,000 compared to the BC average of $420,000.
Size-wise, it’s 30 square kilometers. More meaningfully, from our side of the island to the main intersection where the “Co-op” (general store, shops, gas station) is is about 4 miles. Then, it’s another few miles to the other tip of the island where sits the gorgeous Helliwell provincial park. From here to there is about a twenty minute drive.
Demographically, it’s older and poorer (financially) than BC on average but with a greater number of post-secondary people. The average before-tax household income was $42,000 versus $68,000 for BC as a whole. The biggest employment category – again, from the census in 2006 – is “arts, culture, recreation and sport.”
Politically, as you might expect, it’s pretty much NDP (New Democratic Party; Canada’s left-wing party) territory around here. In the last federal election, while the Vancouver Island North riding gave the winning NDP candidate 42% of the vote, here on Hornby she received 71%. It seems to be politically active (or else it’s easy to vote): the turn-out percentage of voters was 71% versus the provincial result of 64%.
From a services perspective, you need to go into Courtenay for major medical, legal needs, etc., but from a creature comforts point-of-view, there is quite a bit here. Even in the medical department, there is a small clinic and a dental office (dentist and two hygienists) that operates out of a converted school bus that travels around!
There are a few restaurants, from fish-and-chips to curry buffet at the Seabreeze Lodge. There are a couple of coffee houses with top-notch yuppie selections. The Cardboard House bakery makes fantastic baked goods and doubles as the pizza take-out place a couple of nights per week. (This morning we walked over and had a fresh-from-the-oven raisin cinnamon bun and Americano coffee under the apple tree in their orchard.) A couple of stores have liquor available, including a mini-BC liquor store at the Co-op basement. The Thatch Pub down by the ferry has jazz on Friday evenings.
You can also get all kinds of wonderful organic vegetables and eggs directly from a farm. I think I saw locally-grown organic beef once, so I’ll need to check that out, too.
Overall, the island is infused with artisans who do pottery, fibre art, paintings, stained glass, soap, you name it. There are a couple of plant nurseries, a vineyard (Carbrea), and a recently-opened distillery (Phrog). Not just because it’s from here, we love the Phrog gin – it’s got great flavor that is a lot stronger than the normal Bombays and Tanquerays.
People visiting either camp at one of a few campgrounds but there are numerous B&Bs. People into diving seem to be captivated by the rich waters.
There’s really quite a bit going on and in fact there are quite distinct areas of the island geographically. You’ve really got to see it to appreciate it. Which is to say, you’ll really have to plan on visiting us when we’re moved in.
My View of The Great Reset by Richard Florida
Does living out beyond fit into Richard Florida’s thinking on the great reset he claims our society is starting to experience?
Richard Florida has written another book on how “creatives” are the future of the workforce.The Great Reset suggests that they will play a significant role in economic recovery and that by doing so will radically change how we live and work.
The core idea of the book is that the economic downturn that started with the financial crisis of 2008 is going to cause even bigger shifts in our society than the two previous “resets”: the Great Depression of the 1930s and a deeper depression that occurred in the 1870s.
Richard Florida says the two previous depressions kick-started innovation and new ideas that propelled the economy and society in directions they couldn’t have gone in otherwise. In the Great Depression of the 1930s, the groundwork was laid for suburbs (highways for cars, lots of cars) and increased consumption of products. These massive changes set the stage for economic growth and expansion that lasted until recently.
He believes we are dealing with today’s crisis poorly because we are still thinking it’s just about getting people to spend more on houses, cars and products. He doesn’t think this is going to work. For one thing, people don’t have the money (or credit) to do so. He believes the road has ended for massive credit financing and it’s time to invest in other endeavours to create a new economic foundation.
He states that when the price of housing gets so high and people are mortgaged to the hilt, it leaves little money to save or invest in other things.
Really, he’s saying we need to change our expectations of materialistic consumption. On that note, I’m all in favor however, I think the situation is going to be even more dramatic than he suggests and with the rising price of oil—which touches almost every part of modern life—we will be forced, kicking and screaming into a lifestyle of lower consumption.
Gone: sprawling suburbs. Gone: giant Walmarts in suburbs. Gone: clogged highways.
Actually, it sounds pretty good.
Richard Florida sees us living in Megaregions with high speed connections between cities of a region. In my part of the world, this would be “Cascadia” which includes Vancouver, Seattle and Portland.
He sees great changes in each city where suburbs will dwindle and be replaced by more dense areas along transit routes. The areas that will do well he says, are areas that encourage diversity, richness in culture and other aspects that he outlined in his book The Rise of the Creative Class.
But, what about living out beyond? Where do we fit into all this?
I will certainly not be living in a city or a megaregion when I move to Hornby Island, and, it will cost a lot to go to and from where I live because of ferries (using oil). For others in more remote regions, there will be the cost of driving miles and miles to get to larger centres.
Does it make sense to be set apart from the “megaregions”? For some, like me, yes. I am stating some of those reason in other posts on this site but the prime enabler is technology. Given that people are connecting more with the ever-faster Internet makes working “out beyond” possible for many creative professionals like me.
I think there is a reset coming to rural and small communities including an opportunity to grow economically in ways never before possible.
I imagine smaller, remote communities thriving again in the 19th century way with local, self-reliant people providing the services and products of day-to-day living with those using 21st century methods and connecting to the world at large.
Living out beyond will be one of the innovations and new ideas that come from the Great Reset. Sign me up.
