It has been a very full year for us at Yurts of Hawaii so far! We've had some wonderful changes come to the company with some new hires and several great new projects. We also successfully hosted the Second Annual World Yurt Maker's Conference in February and are currently busy working with NAYA to make some great progress in the industry.
NAYA is the North American Yurt Alliance. Together with Becky Kemery, author of "Yurts: Living in the Round", Kathy Anderson, co-owner of Blue Ridge Yurts, Hal Jackson, owner of Laurel Nest Yurts, and the support of our manufacturers at Colorado Yurts, we have made strides in very strong and positive directions. Some of our goals include setting yurt standards to allow for permittable yurts in order to help promote these incredibly strong and durable structures as a means of affordable housing; testing and research for increasingly eco-friendly materials, and creating a website for information with a forum for yurt makers to meet and discuss things that are working and perhaps things that are not working within our industry. It is, first and foremost, a way of working together in ways that are respectful to our work and to each other.
The conference this year was inspiring and fun, it was held just East of Pahoa at Elvira's Ohana House. Elvira woke us up every morning with fresh brewed, organic coffee and organic fruits from the orchards that surround her Balinese Ohana house. The group was cohesive and focused and we got A LOT accomplished in our 4 days together! We focused on discussions pertaining to design, codes, permitting, insurance, shared experiences and where we would like to see things go from that point. We discussed ways that we thought NAYA might be able to help and what some of our current, common challenges were.
After the work was done, we threw a big luau and invited the public to come have some fun, eat some good grinds and ask questions about yurts. Grammy award winning Ukulele player, Keoki Kahumoku, played a lot of great music for the event and various attendees gave presentations about their work.
Attending were: Kathy and Sharon, owners of Blue Ridge Yurts in Virginia, Hal Jackson, Owner of Laurel Nest Yurts in North Carolina, Dan and Emma Kigar, owners of Colorado Yurts, Dawn Singer, former owner of Yoga Swami in California, Steve and Joanne Kicinski of Ellisport Engineering in Washington (Yurt engineers extraordinaire!), Tara Weightman, owner of Hearthworks Tipis and Yurts in the UK and Becky Kemery, author of "Yurts: Living in the Round".
During the event we got word that we had found an agency to insure residential yurts here in Hawai'i; we are one of the first states to be able to make this claim. All very exciting, no?
We start building our office yurt this month, on a small piece of property just off Highway 11 near Volcano Village. We have a wedding coming up soon as well! Some years have all the good times packed into them!
I'd like to thank everyone who helped make the conference such a success, a special Mahalo to Mireille Ellsworth, Robin and Chris Garland, Keoki and Tiffany, Sara Akerman, Elvira and her staff and to my ever supportive, soon-to-be husband, Jupiter Crosson. And of course to all the attendees. It wouldn't have been such a great event without all of you!
That's our update for now. We hope to be able to have you visit our office soon for a good cup of Big Island coffee and great conversation. Until then, keep your chins up, roll with the punches and keep positive! ALOHA!
Melissa Fletcher
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