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On Valentine’s Day 2014, we launched our new website. We hope you like it!

This website has proved to be a labor of love — not to mention blood, sweat and tears — over many years and many challenges. It has taken a tremendous amount of creative thinking and hard work by many people, especially our volunteers.

In particular, CESJ volunteers Dawn and Rowland Brohawn have shepherded this project from its inception through its launch. Rowland had designed and maintained our first website, which as many people know housed a huge amount of content. Dawn, who does much of CESJ’s editing, worked over the years with many of our Web-savvy members, and a host of different web professionals, to create a web structure that could do many different things, while being as user-friendly and intuitive as possible.

Back when the first website was created, editing and uploading content was a slow and laborious task mainly done by one webmaster (Rowland). With our new WordPress site, a team of people will now be able to add and refine new material quickly and easily, create a comprehensive online library, and keep our network up to date on new developments and important writings. Best of all, CESJ will be able to interact online with our visitors, while harnessing the power of social media to broadcast our message and gather support.

Thanks must be given to all the other CESJ volunteers and supporters who made this happen:

Norm Kurland (for telling us all the things he wanted the website to accomplish), Mike Greaney and Rowland Brohawn (who did a massive amount of work transferring material from the old site to the new), Ed Lang (who insisted that CESJ needed a “dynamic” website, even before we understood what he was talking about), Mike Kurland (whose experience as a systems developer and senior manager with IBM helped guide us through the often tangled process), and Marie Kurland (for her keen editorial and aesthetic sense).

… and then there’s our beloved friend and angel, the late Kemp Harshman. His foresight and generosity provided CESJ an ongoing source of funds necessary for creating a website of this magnitude. In addition, through Kemp’s Clarendon Foundation and its president Jeff Jones, CESJ received a $10,000 grant and the donated services of talented web designer Clark Chamberlain who helped develop the “look” of the new website.

Finally, we sing the praises of web systems developer extraordinaire Ryan Turner and his brilliant team at Connecticut-based 3PRIME. We had had many false starts with lots of different web companies and designers who were overwhelmed with the challenge this website posed. Ryan is the guy who got us over the hump, and made an overwhelming project comprehensible, manageable and cost-effective (not to mention, visually appealing).

Ryan (to whom we were referred enthusiastically by ESOP consultant, and 3PRIME customer, Jack Veale) traveled down from Connecticut for a day to understand what we were trying to accomplish with our website. In doing so he got the full spiel from Norm on the Just Third Way, CESJ, and Capital Homesteading. Ryan’s understanding and evident interest in CESJ’s mission made the difference, and helped make our new website a reality. This CESJ achievement is something of which we are truly proud.

There’s still a ton of work to be done on the website. Also, a website is never finished, it just keeps growing and evolving. We’re grateful for your patience, and we invite you to join the team of CESJ virtual volunteers working to keep this website fresh, informative, inspiring and valuable. CESJ can use all the help and support ($$) we can get.