Sierra Commons

Member Profiles

Carla Bonetti, Nevada County Escapes Nevada County Escapes is a travel concierge service – we design, plan and deliver personalized trips for individuals, couples, families and groups from a local’s perspective. Nevada County Escapes, where rest and relaxation merge with adventure and fun!

Rosalie Brown Smart Think Marketing Group is a creative collaborative of professionals who implement creative strategies for building and managing brands. Using a customized approach, we work closely with clients to maximize market share and increase brand visibility.Experienced in traditional print and radio campaigns, public relations, brand management, copywriting, blogging, and website creation, our diverse team is committed to assisting clients in meeting their marketing and business objectives.

Abby Rose Chroman Ashoka Abby works with Ashoka, the world’s largest association of top social entrepreneurs who are addressing pressing social problems with innovative, systems-changing ideas. Abby is particularly focused on connecting these leaders to each other and to a broader network of cross-sector support and collaboration. Working remotely with a team of colleagues in Washington DC, Abby helps to activate collaboration among the Ashoka members and beyond. Her roles include Community Director for an online Ashoka network, Lead Coordinator for Fellowship in the US, and Editor for a public social entrepreneurship blog and website.

Shawn Garvey, The Grant Farm Shawn Garvey is the Founder of The Grant Farm and Chief Executive Officer of ThinkTank, a national public affairs and communication firm whose clients include a host of private business clients and more than 50 US Senators and members of Congress. At The Grant Farm, he has created innovative non-dilutive fund strategies for companies and agencies seeking funds for biomass, anaerobic digestion, wind, solar, hybrid and CNG vehicles, Smart-Grid, and other high profile energy projects.

Brian Gillings With six startups, three successful IPOs, and two mergers under his belt, there’s no denying Brian Gillings is a seasoned business consultant.Brian’s key strengths are in marketing, sales, technical support, strategic alliances, product development, strategic and tactical planning. His proven team building, managerial, and functional skills, coupled with a strategic perspective and business sense, enables Brian to lead businesses towards long-term growth and profitability.Brian is generously donating his services to help grow our local economy. If you would like to schedule a FREE CONSULTATION with Brian at Sierra Commons, please sign up here.

California Building Performance Contractors Association Training and Workforce Development department is hanging their hat at the Commons. The CBPCA is leading the United States in bleeding edge Green Home Energy Upgrades and training contractors to support the emerging residential green remodeling market.

Samantha Hinrichs, built her own straw bale home, ran a cultural center, and has been producing events since she was 12. She loves to teach others how to make beautiful, sustainable projects. She created Mud and Pearls i n 2011 to tie tog ether the resources that she has gathered. Mud and Pearls presents workshops, demonstrations and class tim e so that yo u can look good doing it. Contact her at 530 362 8082 or www.mudandpearls.com

Tim Hitchcock Tim serves as Chief Magical Connector and California Ambassador for eCars Now! [ Sähköautot - Nyt! ] which promotes open source conversion of petroleum-powered vehicles to zero emission electric drive.
He is developing a sustainable technology business based in Nevada City in concert with global partners, to deliver engineered site services for homesteads and villages:
Forthaven offers domes and temporary shelter on demand.
Newt Industries provides independent power and transport solutions.

Roger Kent leads training programs for project managers nationwide, preparing them for the Project Management Professional exam (PMP): www.theprojectgroup.biz. He also offers compelling seminars using film clips to project managers needing continuing education units to retain their certification: www.moviesteachprojectmanagement.com. He creates online learning, teaching mariners about international and U.S. pollution regulations aboard ships: www.marpoltraining.com. Somehow he finds time to write novels and screenplays.

Peter Lang ImageSource Inc, CooperativeGames.Com Peter Lang has a background in IT and twelve years ago decided to exclusively focus on enabling organizations to work smarter and greener through paperless office technologies (aka Enterprise Content Management). Removing paper through scanning, advanced data capture, eForms, workflows and image repository utilization saves trees, time, and money for organizations big and small. Peter also co-owns CooperativeGames.Com / Child And Nature along with his wife Suzanne Lyons. This online business features products that connect children with nature and emphasize cooperation.

Ron Metz, Freelance Technical Writer Ron Metz works under the name RG Metz & Associates, producing instruction manuals, procedures, and marketing communications collateral for the electronics, IT, solar, and other industries and small businesses. He has a long history of creating instruction manuals that are easy to use and that help make clients’ products easy to own. Other products include catalogs, brochures, and advertisements, applying the disciplines of technical communication to marketing, removing common barriers that often stand between clients’ products and potential customers.

Dave Myler, Boga PaddleBoards In his past life, Dave was a web designer, programmer, marketing manager and producer. He has been fortunate to use his diverse background to start 3 successful e-Commerce companies like pokkadots.com and modernnursery.com (and now 365Modern.com). Dave came to Sierra Commons after selling his successful e-commerce business. For the first few months, he used his time here to vet several business ideas. When he determined that the growth opportunity in the nascent paddleboard industry was a perfect match for his passion and business skills, he took the dive.

Mike Mooers, Marketing Communications and Outreach Consultant Mike launched his own consulting firm after many years in the corporate trenches generating mojo for brands including The North Face, Sierra Designs, Ultimate Direction, Outdoor Research, and SNEWS. In 2003 he founded OllyDog, one of the most highly regarded brands in the world of dog gear. Current clients include Clik Elite, StatPacks, Flour Garden Bakery, and Think Local First. Mike also serves on the boards for the North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center and Think Local First Nevada County Foothills. A fifth generation Californian, bad tele skier, and lousy fly fisherman, Mike lives on the San Juan Ridge with his wife, Suzanne.

Max Norton is a member of Sierra Commons’ Board of Directors. Max has expertise in new media development, campaign communications, issue organizing, and GIS, and works with a variety of organizations — local businesses like Velocity7 and Loma Rica Storage, nonprofits such as Sierra Commons and the Sierra Nevada Alliance, and agencies, including MSHC Partners and Columbia University’s Digital Knowledge Ventures. He has also worked as a professional river guide since 2004.

Robin Parisse Marketing & Business Development Consultant A creative, results oriented marketing professional who has demonstrated the ability to successfully manage multiple projects simultaneously to meet business objectives. Special talent for establishing teams across diverse internal departments/business units and third party partners and/or vendors. Hands-on experience with every facet of the marketing mix. Varied subject matter and industry expertise includes software applications; hardware; media & entertainment (video); telco, consumer products; fashion retail; outdoor/cycling; gift/toy, etc.

Michele Schiro Michele’s long career includes stints as Executive Director of an nonprofit women’s agency, Agency Administrator of two foster family agencies in Oakland and Sacramento, County coordinator for a Nevada County youth meth prevention program using innovative methods with art, film, and music and a youth/adult team providing education and services countywide. She is the author of a research project on sustainability of revenue streams in small nonprofits, and has an extensive background in nonprofit development, grant writing, and desktop publishing. She is available for grant development and strategic planning work, and may be available now and again to help you with your desktop publishing jobs.

Robert Trent, Sierra Commons Robert Trent has been an entrepreneur and business consultant for over 15 years. From Silicon Valley to the Sierra Foothills, he has founded and ran high-tech and marketing companies focusing on areas such as wireless networking, multimedia, product branding, and social networking. In 2009, Robert founded Sierra Commons in Nevada City, CA and is focused on strengthening the local economy through job creation and business retention.

Valerie Goulding Valerie Goulding is a versatile professional most recently hailing from the ranks of the Publishing Industry (“I chose a collegiate major that reflected my passion – literature. It prepared me for absolutely no practical focus in the real world work force. But somehow, I made it work.”). She carries approximately 10 years of experience, both in the trenches and as a Project Manager, in the mercurial world of print and digital media for communities as varied as Native American Indian Arts to Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing. She knows how to write stuff, make it cost something and compel people to enjoy knowing about it. Most recently, she migrated into the world of Health and Wellness. She came to Nevada County to train at the California College of Ayurveda, the longest running Internationally recognized school of Ayurveda in the country (“I know how to communicate. Lately, I’ve just been working on content.”). Happily ensconced in the Business Ignitor course at Sierra Commons, she looks forward to launching a business in the near future from a solid and well thought-out platform.

Ruth SchwartzRuth Schwartz knows a lot about running a small business. She spent 25 years in the music industry and has run a publishing company, a retail company, a syndicated radio program and spent 23 years operating her own $10 million wholesale distribution business, Mordam Records, Inc.Today, Ruth is a certified coach and facilitator with The Alternative Board (business peer advisory boards) and owns the management development and marketing company High Performance Advocates.Unlike other consultants, Ruth is the only facilitator and business coach in the Sierra Foothills that has grown her own multi-million dollar business from infancy to maturity, and knows first- hand the flexibility and fortitude that it demands. Ruth has decades of hands on experience in sales, operations and creating high performing teams. But she considers the combination of peer advisory boards and one on one coaching as the most powerful and economic way for business owners to gain insight, ideas and the accountability necessary for business growth and change.“If only someone had told me about this years ago. As a lone business owner, it would have changed my life. Now I can see it change others’ lives. Their whole way of thinking changes.”Ruth is a member of Toastmasters, local Chambers of Commerce, The Nevada County Economic Resource Council and Business Network International. She has also held numerous public workshops on such topics as Empowering Employees, Setting Performance Expectations, How to Build a High Performing Team, Effective Meetings and Decision Making, Entrepreneurial Boot Camp, and Managing Employees Under the Age of 30.

Paul PlatnerPaul has been in construction, property development, and project management services for over 30 years, in the US, Africa, and the Middle East. He has created jobs, started companies, managed projects, and participated in raising a growing family. The timing and support from family, friends, and the Sierra Commons and its network of people has confirmed his vision and mission. To see a world that believes that, “Work done in the spirit of service is the highest form of worship.” (`Abdu’l-Bahá, Divine Philosophy, p.82) He is part of creating this world by living this belief and acting within a growing, changing, sustainable, unified community (like Nevada County)Paul is currently developing a temp agency called Work Is Worship. It is based on his beliefs and these premises: there are a lot of people who want to work, there is a lot of work to be done, there are employers that want to put people to work, there are politicians that want to help or get out of the way, there is an understanding of a standard of ethics and codes of conducts within the work place, and there are additional benefits that will be created when this group of people gather to consult on common issues (healthcare, childcare, additional education and training, security, happines