I also must apologize for the lack of activity on this blog and with Marion's Ledge in general. School keeps getting in the way of my life.

The one major thing that I have done is to start the first active Marion's Ledge affiliated program - Marion's Cultural Field Trips. When Hank and I started dreaming about Marion's Ledge and the philosophy behind it (Hank started that way before I came into the picture), one aspect that mattered to us was engagement and discovery. We wanted to create a place that helped people become engaged both within our walls and out. This philosophy is also important in our own lives and we were regularly making a point to try new activities and experience things we have never experienced (and would not have save for our conscious choice to seek them out).

The idea occurred to me to formalize this and actually create a group which goes out to experience things together which we normally would not have experienced.

We set up a Google group for people to join Marion's Cultural Field Trips and get announcements. Currently, it is just our friends, but we are hoping to soon get more organized and to advertise it better. If we do, we will need to have more regular activities and meeting places. We are currently meeting at one of our houses and the schedule is irregular

Some of the events we have had so far included:

• Bat Watching
• Interfaith Tours
• University of Houston Walking Tour
• Baha'i Devotional Service
• Lights in the Heights
• UH Tailgate Party
• Solar Homes Tour
  

If you are interested in joining us for our field trips, check out our Google group.

I first feel I need to apologize - to you but also to Hailey and myself. Life keeps interrupting life and we've gotten overtaken by other day-to-day matters and haven't been paying proper attention to Marion's Ledge. There may only be a few of you keeping an eye on this but we need to keep up this blog as much for the project and ourselves as for you.
That being said I do have something at the moment that I want to share.
Hailey recently called me to tell me of an idea that I think is as emblematic of what we're trying to do as any single element we've come up with.

We were again discussing the cups we plan on using and the discount (in an effort to discourage unnecessary trash and waste in our disposable society) we'll give if someone brings their own cup whether it's to-go or to-stay. We decided that we'd also have some reusable to-go cups/mugs that people can buy for $2 or something.
We thought we'd price it as: (Price = Price as posted on the menu board)
• Customer brings their own (or bought from us) cup then cost is Price-10%
• Customer uses Marion's ceramic cup then cost is Price
• Customer wants coffee to go in disposable cup then cost is Price+10%

By the time we hung-up I kinda liked that pricing scheme. Then Hailey called back after a little while and had a brilliant idea. Honestly, I was tempted not to post this because I'd love to be the first ones (as far as I know) to do it this way - it's just too good of an idea to be stingy with though so if someone else does it first then more power to them.

Her idea was to have those reusable cups not just for sale, but for rent or sale.
In the "Rent-a-cup" plan, the rental price will be the same as the sale price & we will 'buy back' the rented cup at full price when (or if) it's returned. These cups will be marked (perhaps a recycle emblem or something) and will be kept in the reuse/rental pool. If someone intends to buy a cup they can be given a fresh new one without fear that it's one that has been rented out.
As I thought about all the situations in which this might be used I realized that this may eliminate the need for disposable cups at all!

This is just an example of why Hailey is so great to work with on this project. We seem to be very much on the same page and she comes up with some of the best ideas and insights!
Thanks for checking us out and we hope to have updates for you much more often :)