About
Phillip Moore, Founder
Phillip Moore began teaching at Upland Hills Farm School in 1971. He was asked to become the director of the school in February of 1972 and served until June of 2013. During this 42 year period Phil developed teams on the staff and board level to grow a learning community. This culture developed a synergetic collaboration between the staff members that transcended most traditional models of educational institutions. Six of those staff members known as the dignity staff members average 30 years of dedication and three of them are still teaching.
Phil also led design and development teams to build five buildings over 31 years. Each building demanded problem solving skills on many levels. They are: a 24 foot diameter Geodesic Dome that was wind powered for over two decades, a passive solar three bedroom home, a schoolhouse that contains 6 classrooms, a library and kitchen, an Ecological Awareness Center with a sod roof that is solar and wind powered, built by volunteers and innovators, and a performance theatre that seats 150 people.
He also led a team to raise 1.5 million dollars to secure a total of 31 acres of land, provide retirement income for the dignity teachers, and develop a solar array that provides the school with 70% of it’s electrical energy.
He has just finished his first year of his Re-Wirement. He is currently developing a team to guide and innovate new initiatives through Trimtab.in, a newly formed company based in Oxford, Michigan and Livingston, Montana. He and his wife Karen raised two amazing children both of whom attended the school full term. They are blessed with five wonderful grandchildren.
The Story of the Name:
Trim Tab was first introduced to me as a conceptual tool taken from engineering. Buckminster Fuller, my mentor, teacher and adopted grandfather, explained that “ there’s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab. It’s a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab.” Bucky lived his life as a Trim Tab which is why ‘Call me Trim Tab’ is written on his Grave Stone.
Having worked within a community for over four decades, I wondered what could happen if an entire community made a commitment to become the Trim Tab for a paradigm shift in the field of education. I got very excited about working in small groups with teachers, parents, grand parents, administrators, students and seekers who were ready to devote their consciousness to something much bigger then themselves. We would explore initiatives that arose from the inside out. We would use the tools of meditation, self reflection, introspection, and intuition to bond. Once that bond was formed we’d use our collective insights to offer initiatives that would act as Trim Tabs.
The full name of the website: www.trimtab.in; happened after Jamie Snyder, Bucky’s grandson and trustee for his grandfather’s inventions and ideas, gave his blessing to us. We were searching the web for site addresses that were open and discovered that ‘in’ which is associated with India was open so we decided to take it. India for many of us who were influenced by the 60’s was the country of inner transformation. It was where Ram Dass went to awaken. It was where Krishnamurti was born. It was where the Beatles were drawn to because of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It was where I went to during the nadir of Upland Hills School to find my true self and purpose. It fit.
The dot fits as a stop, a pause, a signifier, and ‘in’ fits as India, inside ourselves, in service of the Great Mystery.