Principles of Business

Be Open to Truth From Whatever Source It Comes.

Business relations founded upon honesty and trust encourage the support of business customers and clients, and are an important factor in long term success. The concept of the role of business being pursuit of profit for the owners to the exclusion of other stakeholders, is a foreign one to Quakers.

Quakerism goes back in Megan's family to Richard Stockton, a signer of the declaration of independence, and of whom she is a direct descendent.

Megan Haas is open to the pursuit of truth, wherever that pursuit leads; lack of coercion, letting the evidence lead that search; respect for the consciences of others; openness to new truth and therefore the willingness to search; veracity, rigorous integrity in dealing with the facts; application of what is known to improving our world. Megan has never sung the Star's Spangled Banner.

Quakers are committed to the spiritual power within themselves at all times, and especially within their individual work lives, as manifested in their collective commitment to equity and integrity in every aspect of the private, public and voluntary sectors in which they work at local, national, regional and global levels.

Friends support equality, regardless of race, gender, faith, class, financial
status and age.

If you would like to find out more about Quakers, AKA the Society of Friends, there are a plethora of pages on the web that will enlighten you, such as Quakers in Brief, Quakeriesm made easy and the American Friends Service Committee.

Past and Present Projects

The Front Porch School - Asheville, NC
The Gourmet's Daughter - Catering co. for single mothers - Asheville, NC
The Utilikilts Company - Seattle, WA
The Northwest Kilt Exchange - Seattle,WA
The Sophia Company - world health initiative- Ireland/England
12 Love - Barcelona, Spain
Fathers Gone Wild. Fathers of the 60's/70's. What happened?- Seattle, WA
Appitehikan Community Synthesis project. - Pennsylvania
Interdependence Day - Confirmed Participant
Sept 9-12 2007 - Mexico City, Mexico

 

 

 

The Front Porch School - Asheville, NC. 1993-1995

After leaving Earlham College in 1990, I moved to Asheville, North Carolina. There I found myself surrounded by a community of educated, intellectual adults who did not feel comfortable putting their children into the local school system; a system which had not been updated or innovated for about fifty years. Because there was no realistic alternative in Asheville, many of these parents decided to pursue home-schooling. After living in the area for a year, word got out that I was the product of a full fledged K-12 Waldorf Education, and that my family has been active in Waldorf ed., for many years. Waldorf schools, i n some circles, represent the ideal alternative education, being classical, spiritual, artistic and thorough. In a world where alt education is rare, Waldorf Schools also enjoy a wide-spread visibility along with Montessauri education. But there was no such option in or anywhere near Asheville.

In the fullness of time, a group of pro-active parents asked me to tea, and proposed that, having been educated in a Waldorf system, perhaps I would be willing to start a Waldorf School for their children? The answer was no, for many reasons, however, this interaction enlightened me to the educational drawbacks of the area, the amount of children being home-schooled, how far apart the children lived from each other, and the need for culture and socialization in these home-schooled children's lives. These parents needed help! They were doing their best, but they were all too busy to create an integrated model that drew all the proper elements together. This started my positrons colliding at a rapid rate, and within a month, I had approached Kate Hyde, a talented teacher and innovator, with the idea for an supplementary educational program which would bridge the gap between culture, socialization, and education for the home-schoolers in the area.

The Front Porch School was a successful and radical two-year program which focussed on 11-13 year old girls. Kate and I created a curriculum based on both our experiences of alt ed, as well as what we saw as necessary for the education of young girls blossoming into womanhood. FPS began its three-day per week program with excercises, and a morning verse, recitation, and word games. Kate, a high math major who'd left Harvard because she didn't hold with their teacher's program, had the girls learning the history of money, math and counting, teaching the logic of numbers, as well as that of spirit, by introducing Thoreau, and how one can never imprison the mind, only the body. As well, she took them out into the streets of our sunny, quiet neighborhood, to read and create maps in chalk of our surroundings. I had the girls writing essays on books such as Calvino's The Baron in the Tree's and Jean Stratton Porter's A girl of the Limberlost. I taught them how to how to write well, debate, sing, and how to create their own textbooks with illustrations and essays. We sewed and knitted, had a daily chorus and vocal classes, took hikes, had guests lecture from many sectors of the community, cooked all day on their birthdays, and gave regular recitals to show the parents what they were learning. We taught the girls that they could follow and trust their hearts and minds, and that they could question us and anyone else, anytime.

 

 

Co-Founder - The Utilikilts Company, Seattle, WA. 2000 -2005



Mayor's Small Business of the Year Award, 2002 - Seattle


The Utilikilts Company was in collaboration with Steven Villegas, a dynamic and unique individual, who I was fortunate to encounter as a co-conspiritor.

The company received mass media attention, and is now the largest kilt company in the world. The Utilikilts Co., was the biggest business that I ever helped to establish and it gave me my first real understanding of the way publicity shapes, molds and distorts, as well as an inside view of the post-modern Dickensian labyrinth that is the manufacturing and textile industry. Utilikilts was a perfect arena in which to be bold about my ideals on a world-wide level, and the most solid reason to stand my ground on issues, especially regarding publicity, advertising, service towards others, and how to grow and foster a customer community. The Utilikilts Company was a jump off point for me to understand how and why I wanted to research world-wide cultural and corporate efforts towards change, and to develop standards in business one challenge at a time.

There is a remarkable amount of media footage available for perusal that was created during the first five years of this company. Television, radio newspaper and magazine interviews all explain the phenomenon, on the official Utilikilts Press Page.

A short complilation of Utilikilts press on the Vivaleap site can also be found right here.

 

 

The Northwest Kilt Exchange

 

The most imp ortant project to me personally that was brought to fruition during my time with Utilikilts, was the Northwest Kilt Exchange, also known as the Community Kilt Exchange.

In November 2003, I implemented a program in the Seattle area that awarded five to ten utilikilts a month to people who chose to donate their skills to one of a list of chosen non-profits. The impetus for this program came from the following disparate streams:

Utilikilts are made in Seattle. This is very expensive. After three years, we needed to raise our prices, marginally, in order to keep making them in Seattle and be able to stay in business. This meant that some people might have a hard time affording them.

it was important to me to come up with a way that we could benefit others on a community level without giving away money, which we did not have.

Celebrities would call on a regular basis, hoping and expecting that their being famous would merit a complimentary Utilikilt. Instead of constantly disappointing them, or laughing in their faces, I wanted to come up with a way that their celebrity could work for us, and the rest of our community.

The press was still interested in us on a consistant basis, but for the same reasons as always... titillation . I wanted to give them stories of customers, stories of non-profits, aspects of life to write about that would interest people, direct people towards volunteerism.

Thus, the North West Kilt Exchange was born. In creating this program, we were able to harness, for labor, the enormous support of our customer community, who had always shown themselves to be a diverse group of people from around the world, many of whom share a sense of fellowship towards each other and towards us simply because they wear the garment that we produce.

30 hours of community service at a Seattle non-profit, was the answer for anyone who didn't want to pay money for a kilt, either because they couldn't afford one, or in the case of the rich and famous, because they didn't want to use money.

The press had new causes to write about while interviewing our customers. Our customers became familiar with non-profits and volunteering. Non Profits became familiar with Utilikilts. It was a win/win situation.

The program became very popular, helping the company win two major awards, and drawing people from all over the world wanting to offer their skills, so many that I had to temporarily shut it down in order to reform it into a global access program, rather than just a local program. Since leaving the Utilikilts Company, this program has unfortunately not been continued.

 

 

 

 

References

“I have known Megan Haas for approximately four years and she has shown herself to be an exceptional business partner. She is reliable, very bright, trustworthy and when she tells me that she will do something, she delivers. She also possesses a truly remarkable and incredibly admirable asset, She has the ability to be professional and efficient and she does so with a sincere sense of human kindness and compassion for all whom she deals with. She is a breath of fresh air and definitely a role model for others in the world of commerce. I look forward to opportunities to work with Megan.”
 
Dr. Geoffrey Scott Carroll, New Yor k, NY.
Chairman – Dressed to Kilt
President – The Friends of Scotland Charity



"There have been only a very few persons in my life that have made a deep and positive impression as Megan Haas did for me. Without any obligation and with extreme generosity, she helped me to go through a difficult and lonesome period of my life, when clear thoughts, honest care and neutral perspectives were a must and a need to see all the facts involved with balance. The most beautiful thing? I did not ask her for advise. She did it directly from her true and pure heart. I cannot wait to have a new business project in mind to ask her for consulting, because I am totally convi nced she will guide me through the concepts of profits allied with ethic values and social issues without compromising none of them... and this is the future of corporate surviving in the XXI century"
 
Max Mills - Writer, Visual Designer, Winemaker & Philanthropist.
www.maxmills.com - Viña del Mar, Chile.

 

"In the depths of the darkness of today's often nonsensical business world Megan Haas's uniqueness prevails. Ms. Haas understands how to incorporate social values into that world. As a human resource, as a connectress, as a mover and shaker, an innovator, an award winner, a golden girl, she has much to offer. I have had the pleasure of knowing Megan in a work capacity as well as in friendship. Megan is a king maker. I have witnessed her incredible determination and fortitude which enabled Utilikilts's rise, alongside her development of socially responsible, community enhancing enterprises & schemes. Her ability to unravel the very core of a person and/or corporation and reconstruct it from the double helix into an energised being is her forte. She adds the the turbo diesel to any engine and hones the most well oiled of machinery. As a person who I admire, and whose life path I have been inspired by, it is an honour to recommend her."

Please contact me for further information at any time
Artist and Sustainable Technologies Consultant

Agamemnon Otero

13 Edithna Street
London
SW9 9JR
United Kingdom

+44(0)2072071495

"Megan has self actualized and become the soul she is. There is something remarkably different about her from everything everybody seems to think a living person is. She is wild and strong and energetic in a way that God waits for. Her skin is an envelope and she is the letter written us."
Laura Hope-Gill, Poet, English Lit Prof. Arden NC

"I met Megan Haas twenty years ago and since then have never stopped being inspired and amazed by her. Megan was the first person who if I came to her with an idea, didn't try to limit it but instead expanded upon it. This led to many shared adventures as friends over the years. We have watched and helped each other become both adults and entrepreneurs. Fifteen years ago we approached each other about creating a new model of education. We created the Front Porch School and worked with home-schooled girls&n bsp;for two years helping them grow into young women. The work Megan and I did together has continued to inform me and has led to the creation of my life's work in education, 'The New Classical Academy.'

Since the mid-nineties when Megan left Asheville, I have been continually excited by what she has accomplished out in the world. Always following her own path and consistently true to her ideals, Megan has never let herself be limited by "should" or "must" but has defined her own trajectory through the world. I watched her become involved in the visionary phase of a great business - Utilikilts - watched as her impulses helped turn it into a million dollar enterprise.

Having a friend and colleague who is always true to herself and her dreams has helped me in defining and acting upon my own. Knowing that she would understand the tough but rewarding road that leads to true fulfillment has helped keep me on t hat path in my own life. Megan has never been happy with the status quo or with average work. She continually questions why and how in an unrelenting quest to bring the world back to the culture of values and traditions that she herself inhabits, and she does this by moving forward, not backward. Megan pushes not only herself but the people around her, to be their best and create a real and purposeful vision of the future."
-Kate Hyde, founder The New Classical Academy, Asheville, NC.

"Megan is one of those rare people that have the guts and confidence to chart her own personal life path following her heart and passions. I feel quite priviledged to have made her acquaintance."
-Marco Vangelisti, Fund Manager, Painter. San Francisco, CA http://www.marcovangelisti.com

"I met Megan Haas almost 6 years ago, and we became immediate friends. Right from moment one she was instantantly recognizable as a true original, and a vital force - very strong, soft, and buzzing with constant creativity and good ideas. Not only that, I found after really digging into the friendship, Megan had (and has) an amazing ability to cut through layers and layers of bullshit, be it corporate, press, or personal, and get right to what she wants or needs.

Megan handles everything and everyone with her own origimeganality, which is to say that everything is play to her. It doesn't matter who it is she's socializing with, she finds the essence of some sort of childlike play to make the scene special and unique. Maybe it's her Waldorf education or highly innovative parents that helped create this person; I'm not sure, but nobody can get a room full of people thinking outside the box like her.

About three years into our friendship Megan came up for air from Utilikilt's nonstop pace and declared to me that she was also a musician and needed to start playing again. Up 'til then it was always me doing the music. I said "OK, let's do it," and she proceeded to bring out a high calliber folk violin and a beautiful voice. Once again, she had a truly original vision, but this time for music and singing. We set out to make a CD and in a couple of sessions created her solo album, which I think is one of the simplest and purest art works I've had the pleasure of helping form.

I know that whatever Megan touches turns to gold, or she knows somehow what gold is and simply reveals it. It is a mystery every time. But I can say for sure, as an creative alchemist, Megan will succeed in whatever she undertakes as a worthy cause, and I plan to support her unique gift as it evolves."
-Mark Nichols, composer/director, Seattle WA

"Ms. Haas is a practical optimist, a pioneer of ideas, and a revolutionary of constructs.With a warm smile, she will challenge ingrained patterns, offering new perspectives in their place, and practical steps towards implementing them. As an expert networker and free thinker, Megan is a master of bringing seemingly random bits of ideas together into a cohesive whole. I do not recall a single thought process I’ve had to which she was not able to add some crucial missing piece, linking it with all the necessary elements for its progression. She allows for continued growth in any situation, steering always toward the highest possible goal. These often include the very happiness and salvation of the planet itself." - Cameron Forester - Boat Captain, Builder, Writer, International Citizen.

"I want to take a minute and acknowledge the amazing talent that Megan Haas so lovingly brings to each and every project she works on. If asked to explain concretely what Megan brings that makes her unique; it is that she is simultaneously brilliant, beautiful and, she delivers! Megan not only delivers on projects with clear parameters and boundaries- but she possesses the rare and valuable ability to manage and lead virtual teams to accomplish deliverables that are being innovated as a result of fresh ideas and combined resources. Megan innovates and inspires all at once. Naming her a “Creatrix” would be most appropriate."

Michelle Sherman, Seattle, WA
VAST Institute for Human Endeavor – Inspiring Greatness Since 1988

Speeches, Lectures and Classes

&n bsp;

Megan Haas has been asked to speak publicly on a variety of topics. In addition, she has taught classes to people of all ages on a myriad of subjects. Megan brings a fresh perspective and an honest assessment to all her topics.

Speeches:
Social Responsibility & the Utilikilts Co.
Love and Authenticity
Growing up Waldorf - a Guide to Alt Education

Social Responsibility and the Utilikilts Company:
The City of Seattle had its first forum on 'Social Responsibility in Business', in March of 2004. Megan Haas was a key-note speaker, representing the Utilikilts Company.

Everything you ever wanted to know about Megan Haas

Megan Haas was born in Ridgewood, NJ, educated at the Green Meadow Waldorf School, in Spring Valley, NY and Earlham College. In the early 1990’s, in Asheville, NC, where educational options were sparse, Megan worked to bridge the gap between home schooled children, culture and socialization, by founding her first entrepreneurial venture, The Front Porch School, a 2 year educational program for 11-13 year old, home-schooled girls, that served the dual purpose of rounding out their education while providing the girls with a social atmosphere. At ‘the Anti-Finishing School,’Megan and her co-worker, Kate Hyde, taught art, literature, music, dance, math, cooking, and sewing, and how these subjects all directly relate to each other. Megan drew on the Asheville community of artists, doctors, musicians et al to guest lecture, and teach. During this time, Megan also opened ‘The Gourmet’s Daughter’, a small neighborhood catering company, and toured twice throughout the Southeast, playing rhythm guitar for square and contra dances. 

Front Porch School, Asheville, NC.

In keeping with her Waldorf education, Megan studied Eurythmy, in West Sussex, England, in 1995, and then in 1996, moved to Seattle, WA and started Calliope Consulting, through which she continued to teach home schooled children, privately and also at the Edmonds Cyber School. At this time, Megan also wrote food and theater reviews for The Stranger, danced and played the fiddle in sessions all over Ireland, and Seattle, and devoted her time to running a small publishing company, Educare Press, for four years.

Dancing with The Chieftains at the Chateau San Michelle Winery, WA

NYC, with the remarkable Christopher Layer

Megan joined forces with pioneering inventor/mechanical engineer, Steven Villegas, in the Spring of 2000 to form The Utilikilts Company. As co-founder of the Utilikilts Co., Megan helped to build and support the framework and the foundation of the company from its inception, by employing the same level of principles, standards and connections that guide her own life. It was Megan's work also during the first five years of the business, to translate and clarify the spirit of the company, thus creating a common understanding and a bond throughout the company's world-wide community of customers. Through determination, and killer instincts, Megan was able to change the focus of the utilikilts media onslaught, successfully towards the company's innovative business practices and away from the phenomenon of being shaped into a fad or a trend. The Utilikilts Company is now the largest, and most imitated kilt company in the world today.

Megan Haas and Steven Villegas

Megan was the articulation between the Utilikilts company and the media, and was called upon to explain the principles of the company and its policies, to newpapers, magazines and television. Megan did not solicit the media, but did welcome members of the press who were fearless, could really write, and who wanted to contribute to society, rather than indulge it. She happily turned down everyone else. Megan was responsible for the Utilikilt being exhibited at both the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in NYC, and the Victoria and Albert
Museum in London.

Megan Haas and Steven Villegas at the opening for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Braveheart Men in Skirts Exhibit.

Megan helped the company win The Mayor's Small business of the year award and the Better Business Bureau's, innovative Business Practices of the year award by redirecting the goodwill, talents, and resources of the Utilikilts customer community to form the Northwest Kilt Exchange, which traded customer labor at Seattle non-profits, for kilts. Megan also planned and executed the Utilikilts Anniversary Gathering, and Forum, a two day, fully participatory event to which all Utilikilts customers and affiliate organizations were invited. Megan also designed the Utilikilts web-site for the first five years of the company history.

From 2005 to 2006, Megan stepped away from the Utilikilts Co, to travel, live, and work with other companies, internationally, before formally christening Vivaleap, a consulting company which helps businesses, communities and individuals understand the myriad of resources and services that they can provide and partake of while trying to pioneer their life and work. Vivaleap is a one woman company, but works as a collective network through many associates who are doing groundbreaking work in corporate, social, and cultural spheres. Megan collects and connects resources even while sleeping.

Megan’s intentions as with all of her endeavors, are to follow her instincts, often at the expense of challenging widely established norms. Megan has been a Reiki Practicioner since 2001. Megan released a CD of lullabies, 'Aural History,' in 2005. You can listen to it here. She continues to sing, dance and play the fiddle whenever the opportunity arises.

Reiki

Megan Haas has been practicing Reiki for seven years. Reiki informs her consulting work on an in-depth level and allows an energetic connection to be made with a client that opens the correct channel s for collaboration and purposeful communication. Most of the consulting that Vivaleap offers, includes Reiki.

Literal Translation: Energy of the spirit.

Simple Definition:
Reiki is a Japanese, hands-on method of stress reduction,
and channel opening, resulting in a myriad of healthy benefits

What Reiki can do for you:
Reiki answers to all levels of a person's vitality or lack thereof. Reiki balances the body, mind and spirit by providing a variety of healing effects, from a d eeply relaxing slumber, to the easing of aches and pains, and in some cases, visionary experiences.

A person may wish to receive Reiki for the following reasons: Overall physical imbalance, lack of concentration, anxiety, stress, loss of control, fatigue, pain in the limbs or internal organs. Still others may seek out Reiki merely because they are curious about it.

While Reiki is spiritual in nature, it is not a religion; it has no dogma, and there is nothing you must believe in order to receive Reiki.

Chi:
Chi is the non-physical energy that animates all living things. As long as something is alive, it has life force circulating through it, and surrounding it. When it dies, the life force departs. If your life force is low, or if there is a r estriction in its flow, you will be more vulnerable to illness. When it is high, and flowing freely, you are less likely to become ill. Life force is the primary energy of our emotions, thoughts and spiritual life.

Reiki Treatment:
Reiki can be defined as a spiritually guided life force energy. This is a meaningful interpretation of the the word, Reiki. It most closely describes the experience most people have of it; Reiki guiding itself with its own wisdom, reg ardless of the direction of the practitioner.

The secret art of inviting happiness.
The miraculous medicine of all diseases
Just for today, do not anger
Do not worry and be filled with gratitude
Devote yourself to your work
Be kind to people
Honor your parents, teachers and elders
Earn your living honestly
Show gratitude to everything.

- Usui Mikao, the founder of Reiki.

Contact

Vivaleap is based in Seattle, WA, and works with national and international clients. Recent work has taken Vivaleap to England, Spain and Ireland. Vivaleap is happy to discuss your project requirements, and if appropriate, then meet at a mutually agreed upon location around the globe.

If you are interested in making an appointment please email Megan to exchange additional information.