Ten months in the making, Yestermorrow?s newly minted strategic plan can be summed up in two words -- more and better. Under the plan, Yestermorrow?s student body will double by the year 2012, our facilities will expand and improve to accommodate that growth, and the school will add a semester-long program, create a design/builder-in-residence position and undertake key partnerships to complete landmark projects in Vermont and beyond. In addition, Yestermorrow plans to establish a center for design/build advocacy, policy and research at our Warren campus.

Zell Steever had an idea: to build a timberframe house and clad the walls in glass. It was a dream that wouldn't quit. So he tracked down Yestermorrow and enrolled in a Home Design course where he fleshed out his ideas. Several years and and a lot of hard work later, Zell and his wife Liz Raisbeck are the fabled folk who live in a glass house (no stone throwing allowed).

The second annual Yestermorrow Art Exhibit and Sale will kick off with a bang on Saturday, December 2, with an opening reception from 6-9pm. The exhibit, featuring works from the Yestermorrow community, will adorn the school?s design studio through Sunday, December 10th, with daily hours from 9am to 5pm. With well over 100 designers, architects, artists and craftspeople on Yestermorrow?s instructor roster and staff, a broad swath of the creative spectrum will be represented. This year?s show will feature works in a multitude of mediums, including paintings in oil, pastel and watercolor, collage, sculpture, stained glass, blown glass, woodwork, furniture, ceramics, photography, and mixed media. The reception and show are free and open to the general public.

Alan ?Buzz? Ferver is a pillar at Yestermorrow, teaching a wide variety of courses, including Home Design/Build, Plumbing Demystified, Modern Plaster Techniques, Concrete Countertops, and an assortment of Natural Building workshops. Beyond his vast knowledge and skill-set in these areas, Buzz is a dynamic and enthusiastic instructor who brings students back to Yestermorrow again and again with his energy in the design studio and on the job site. He also serves on the Yestermorrow Board of Directors, heading up the school?s curriculum and faculty committees. In his spare time, Buzz is a partner in Overbrook Design and a practitioner of Wabi Sabi design/build, a style that honors beauty in the unfinished and ephemeral. Buzz also holds the distinction of being Yestermorrow?s first electronic donor via the school?s new link through the Network for Good. We applaud him for being a great teacher, leader and donor.

Yestermorrow was recently added to the list of non-profits able to benefit from internet searches conducted through www.goodsearch.com. This innovative site literally converts key strokes to cash for charities like us, one cent at a time. A penny a search is not a huge amount, but if one hundred Yestermorrow supporters click on Goodsearch twice a day for a year, we can send one deserving student to design class for a week.