Kelly sees herself as a social trimtab who gets involved in local sustainability initiatives that push boundaries and test new efficient ideas at home. She takes effective ideas and works with communities to execute them in areas like agriculture, housing, and development. By educating herself on systems monitoring, assessment, and prediction, she can join likeminded groups to effect changes on a community scale not possible alone. These community groups then partner with larger national or global initiatives. Kelly acts when she sees a deviation between what she's learning is good and what society is collectively doing. By sticking her foot in the waters of culture and economy, she helps turn America toward a healthier true north.

1. Trimtab
Kelly Kokaisel
How am I a trimtab? I guess I like to think of myself as a social trimtab, I suppose. I like to get involved
with local initiatives that are pushing the boundaries of what we can do sustainably. I like to learn about
new ideas that take what we already have and make it more efficient. I test these ideas at home and
find the ones that work, and the ones that do not work, within my circumstances. I like to take the good
ideas and work with people on a community level to execute them in areas such as agriculture, housing,
and community development. By educating myself on monitoring, assessment, and prediction of
systems, I arm myself with the tools necessary to join a group of likeminded people and effect change.
Through this group, I can make differences on a community scale that I could not accomplish alone.
These community groups grow and get exposure and are invited by larger groups to participate in
national or global initiatives that the community could not accomplish on their own. I see deviation in
what I am learning is good and right, and what we are doing collectively. It is this that prompts me to
act. It is through this little sticking out of my foot into the waters of our culture and economy that I aid
in turning our big American boat towards a more healthy true north. It is in this way, I suppose, that I
am a trimtab.