Community Service, which became The Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions in 2009, was founded in 1940 by Arthur Morgan. November 14 2020 marks our 80th anniversary! As part of us celebrating our 80th anniversary, we’ll be posting 7 archival reflections, as well as our vision for the future, over the next 8 weeks. This week, we begin with one of the first documents created by Community Service in the 1940s—the Founding Purposes in the Articles of Incorporation. Though Community Solutions has changed over time, it is easy to see Arthur Morgan’s legacy in our current work.  

There are a total of seven founding purposes addressed in the Articles of Incorporation:

1. To study the history, nature, and possibilities of small communities as basic cultural units of society, as the major sources of population, and as the most persistent and pervasive media for the preservation and transmission of fundamental culture.

2. The development of community interest in the need for conscious, deliberate effort to understand, to plan for, and to develop, the full possibilities of community life in cities, small towns and rural areas.

3. To be a clearing house for the collection and dissemination of knowledge and information concerning possibilities and achievements of community life.

4. Preparation, publishing, issuing and distribution of books, magazines and other periodical articles, newspaper items, newspaper columns, and bulletins; talks, correspondence, adult education, vocational guidance, and education through educational institutions.

5. The establishment and operation of a school for community life.

6. The encouragement of and participation in research, demonstrations and experiments in community development.

7. For carrying out these purposes, to receive gifts and bequests, to borrow money, to purchase, sell, lease, mortgage, or otherwise to obtain or to dispose of real and personal property.

 Reincorporated in 2009 as Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions

In this post we’ll discuss purpose number 6: “The encouragement of and participation in research, demonstrations and experiments in community development.” 

There is a lot of experimentation going on at Agraria!  One of our farmers, Jason Ward, has experimented with more than a few things when it comes to our regenerative agricultural practices. He keeps a log of his experiments with various cover crops and found that cereal rye work best on the Agraria fields he farms. He has seen a significant decrease in weeds as a result of consistent cover cropping, which has helped balance out the soil by providing nutrients that were missing before he began farming on Agraria. He has also experimented with different kinds of soil amendments and is interested in exploring whether micronutrients are as effective as biological amendments. Jason has also transitioned the fields he farms on Agraria to organic. We are partnering with the Land Institute, a nationally known agricultural research organization, on a trial to determine which ecotypes of Silphium integrifolium, a perennial grain, are capable of thriving and perform best in Ohio. Our partnership with the Nature Conservancy on a stream and wetland restoration project in the Jacoby Creek corridor will open up opportunities to experiment with riparian agroforestry and for research on various aspects of ecosystem renewal. TNC is already funding two studies in connection with the restoration, one centering on the use of glyphosate to eradicate amur honeysuckle, and the other on the potential of mychorrhizal fungi for improving tree seedling growth and survival in the restoration project.

Written by Sheryl Cunningham & Amy Harper