Nick Raaum



=Team Culturing Information=

last updated: 31. May, 2011

WHO are you?

 * Name - Nick Raaum


 * Location (city, country) - Greensboro, NC USA


 * Contact Information (email, phone, Skype) - raaumn (at) hotmail (dot) com, nickr82



Nick J. Raaum raaumn@hotmail.com Education University of Wisconsin-Madison B.S. Mechanical Engineering, May 2006 Cumulative GPA 3.0/4.0
 * Resume/CV -

Work Experience Pioneer Windworks LLC, LaFarge, WI Meteorological Tower Technician/Installer October 2011-April 2012 Installed and maintained meteorological towers for wind turbine development projects.

Seventh Generation Energy Systems, Madison, WI Turbine and Meteorological Tower Technician/Installer July 2009-September 2011 Installed and maintained 2.5kW-100kW wind turbines. Installed and maintained 60m-100m meteorological towers. Work developed wide range of skills including: crane rigging, field leadership, in-field problem solving, electrical/mechanical troubleshooting, and often under-pressure decision making.

Dairyland Power Cooperative, LaCrosse, WI Performance Engineer, June 2007-December 2008 Performed monthly heat rate analysis on five coal fired units and two natural gas combustion turbines. Monitored critical machinery performance trends on a weekly basis and worked with operations and maintenance to correct, prevent and improve overall plant operations. Produced monthly performance assessment report for all thermal plants. This report supplied managers with critical performance information including, but not limited to: heat rate analysis, component performance trending, economic analysis, and other monthly performance findings.

Dairyland Power Cooperative, Alma, WI Resident Engineer, May 2006-February 2007 Provided J.P. Madgett 400MW generating station with immediate and long term maintenance engineering support and assisted in capital projects. Technical Assistance: Assisted in maintaining and implementing life-long maintenance strategies on all high-energy piping and boilers. Assisted plant in immediate day to day technical issues. This commonly involved investigating plant performance issues, including performing diagnostic heat rate balances and designing and documenting field fixes. Project Work: Developed replacement bid specification for deaerator. Assisted in project management for condenser cleaning system.

New Forest Farms, Viola, WI Machine Design Consultant, Spring 2006 Designed a rotary nut sheller under Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) grant.

Burr Oak Farms, Ferryville, WI Farm Employee, May-August 2005 Operated and maintained wide range of dairy and crop farming equipment. Developed innovative fixes to a wide variety of mechanical problems.

Dairyland Power Cooperative, LaCrosse, WI Engineering Intern, June-August 2003 Responsible for collecting data and writing monthly reports, highlighting key findings and trends for the predictive maintenance program at three of Dairyland’s Power Generation Facilities.

WHY are you motivated to support/develop this work?
Most ideas are built upon previous ideas. Outright ownership of ideas for critical infrastructure, genetic material ect is just wrong and detrimental to human social development. OS culture has the potential to keep key concepts accessible and in the public domain, so that all people have the needed knowledge and tools at their disposable for right livelihood.
 * Do you endorse open source culture?

Yes. However I do think that there needs to be some means of tracking contributions so that an appropriate compensation system can evolve.
 * Why are you interested in collaborating with us?

Industrial infrastructure and accompanying economy is a dying dinosaur, we need small distributed, autonomous communities, like what the GVCS aims to produce very soon!
 * How do you think that the GVCS can address pressing world issues?

I need to find a way to make enough from project to service student loan debt. I can live in my own mobile solar structure, and eat low on food chain for little money, but still need to service those loans.
 * What should happen so that you become more involved with the project?

IMO low cost simple stirling diaphragm engines, much simpler and safer than steam engines, just need to think along the lines of very low energy densities and bellows rather than pistons.
 * What are you missing in the project?

Get economic activity tied to it as soon as possible to bring more people in.
 * What are your suggestions for improvement of the project?

WHAT
Design, Engineering, Energy,and Agriculture.
 * List all of your skills in these areas: Communications - Organizational - Computer Support - Finances - Design - Natural Building - Electronics - Automation - Metallurgy - Engineering - Fabrication - Agriculture - Energy - Architecture - Video/Graphics/Art - PR/Marketing - Education - Construction - Industry - CNC - Chemistry - Product Design - Other

Worked on the steam engine design a couple of years ago, and was one of the people who built the CEB greenhouse addition.
 * How have you already contributed to the project?

HOW can you help?''

 * How are you interested in contributing to the work of GVCS development?

Not at present as I am somewhat work constrained. I do add to the wiki and do some related research when I have spare time though.
 * Can you volunteer to work with us, and if so, how many hours per week?

Yes I certainly would be, I'd do hourly engineering/development work @$18/hr, but would probably prefer working on a project bid basis.
 * Are you interested in working with us for pay? If so, what services can you offer, and what is your hourly or per-project rate?

Perhaps, if I feel I have key insights and the right know how to do a good job on the project.
 * Are you interested in Dedicated Project Visit?

Not currently, but when I have land and own farm certainly!
 * Are you interested in purchasing equipment from us to help bootstrap development?

Yes.
 * Are you interested in bidding for consulting/design/prototyping work?

No, I'm rather low on the financial spectrum at present and seriously pinch my pennies.
 * Are you a True Fan? If not, why not?

If the project stays true to the GVCS and its mission statement of bringing low cost open source hardware to the people, absolutely!
 * Would you like to see yourself working with us on a full-time basis?

Perhaps.
 * Are you interested in using the technologies that we are developing directly?

Yes, if I can work out a modest income during the experiment.
 * ''Are you interested in being part of the world's first, open source, resilient community? The GVCS is the preparatory step for the OSE Village Experiment - a 2 year, immersion experiment (2013-2014) for testing whether a real, thriving, modern-day prototype community of 200 people can be built on 200 acres using local resources and open access to information? We are looking for approximately 200 people to fill a diverse array of roles, according to the Social Contract that is being developed. This may be the boldest social experiment on earth - a pioneering community whose goal is to extend the index of possibilities regarding harmonious existence of humans, ecology, and technology - as a beacon of light to benefit of all people on Earth.

=Others= Hello Marcin, I caught your response on Jeff Vails webpage. I've been following the whole open source ecology and, resilent communities themes for a while. Where is the E-Farm located? I may be interested in volunteering for some time. I'm a 25 year old with a degree in Mechanical engineering currently employed at a power utility, but perhaps not for long. I've decided it is time to jump in the fray and begin making whatever changes I am able at the grassroot level. Which may mean helping transition our family farm to a more permaculture setup and local volunteering or perhaps another adventure? So please let me know a little bit more about the potential oppurtunities and I'll let you know if it might work for me. Regardless, what you guys are doing is so very important I wish the project the best of luck. Nick raaumn@hotmail.com

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Hi Marcin, Thank you for the response. I have been furiously digging through the open ecology weblog and am listening to an interview of you right now by Vinay Gupta, this is the most impressive project I've ever seen!! I'm so thankful to have found it. I've been thinking along tangent lines for the last 5 years and have been struggling to find a way to start get inolved. I thought intitialy that I would work at a power plant, gain engineering experience, buy land and build a permaculture project on the side. As it turns out this is too much for me to chew off at once. I did gain some practical experience that may be of help in your project. For example; I've done some energy project including 100kW wind turbine installations, I've convereted my 82 300D mercedes to run on veggie oil, and of course I work at a pulverized coal power plant. I do have some experience with machine design. For example I designed and had a hazel nut cracker built for a local permaculture group. Concering the ecology portion I put up a 3/4 acre garden this year and spent a lot of time canning. Anyways I just find it so neat to find a group that is working on things I've only been dreaming about. So lets talk via skype, I just got an account my number is nickr82. I'm available anytime after work which is about 5:00 CT. I look forward to hear from you. Nick