All About Retreats' History
All About Retreats' Founders, Dawna and James Foreman, are known by hundreds of retreat and workshop participants as Feather River Culinary Artists. Starting in 1996, they hauled groceries to retreat centers and had plenty of time to enjoy life between cooking gigs. With knowledge gained from inside the retreat bizz in California, they started All About Retreats in 1998. Print ads in Common Ground, Share Guide and Open Exchange, in the Bay Area, as well as Utne and Shambhala Sun, drew immediate interest for the reliable and practical information AAR made available to meeting planners. In January 1999, a Dutch artist created the All About Retreats logo, centerpiece for the new web site.
In February, 1999, seven California retreat and conference centers paid to list their facilities on AAR for a one year run. When All About Retreats achieved # 1 ranking on Yahoo, the major search engine of the day, retreat and conference centers from all over the US got on board. In-house management of the website soon sparked yet a third business, as retreat centers asked James to design their web site or to breathe life into a flagging one. Both Dawna and James took full semester classes at Santa Rosa JC to learn Dreamweaver and the science of Web Project Management. Dawna assumed responsibility for daily management of All About Retreats, and acts as project manager and content developer on client web projects. SubtleFx was the web design company name and it soon included non-hospitality business clients.
Having finally realized a somewhat regular lifestyle and income, Dawna and James 'got a life' beyond work and became avid yoga students. Seizing another opportunity, they tried their hand as retreat producers for a favorite yoga instructor. Not only did they market and organize the retreats, they also provided their signature cuisine, and loved the whole experience immensely. They produced 4 such retreats between 2002 and 2005.
With so many forums in which to express their talents, the Foremans found it convenient to choose an umbrella name for their combined companies, looping back to their original company name and the qualities it conveys: Feather River Productions .
In 2004, a series of events resulted in a decision to leave California and explore a life on the East Coast, where Dawna's family is rooted. "Pennsylvania has always been "home" to my family, but our stay of 18 months in the Keystone State was likely the last time I will live there", says Dawna. "We took a good long look at making southern New Hampshire our home and realized it was nearly as busy as where we were living in PA. But, we took a detour on the way home on our third NH trip and re-discovered Vermont, a state we'd visited briefly as leaf peepers in 2003. I had skied the mountains at Stowe and Jay Peak when I was a teen, and loved it. One "door opening" event led to another and, in April, 2006, we moved to the village of Waitsfield in the Mad River Valley."
Why Vermont?
"Very simply, we were drawn here by the beauty of the land, and a desire for the slower pace of living in a small town. Vermonters have a strong value for land stewardship, and organize well around manifesting values we can support. The small business climate is favorable. We are becoming part of a community here. Plenty of people we meet are creative and live by invention and innovation. Quite a number of folks wear multiple hats, as we do, so we feel at home!"
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About AAR's Owners: Dawna and James Foreman
 Writer, Project and Content Manager, Dawna Foreman, enjoys the evolving nature of All About Retreats in creative collaboration with husband, Web Master, James Foreman.
"All About Retreats has matured slowly since we birthed it in 1998. It has grown to be a rich tapestry of places, people and interesting activities. We believe it's just beginning to meet its potential as a directory of meeting hospitality venues and as part of the global alternative living community.
"Although computer work isn't as lively as some of our other creative ventures, our yoga practice, birding walks and hiking here in the Green Mountains of north central Vermont, nourish the creative energies that flow through us to All About Retreats and projects currently on the 'drawing board'."
In a prior, but recent, incarnation, Dawna received a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Speech Communications from the University of Denver (1974), then in the mid 1980's she had a 5 year career as Financial Consultant with Merrill Lynch in Houston, Texas. Following the birth of her son, Michael, in 1987, and the financial markets crash in October of that year, Dawna left the adrenaline pump world of high finance to find a lifestyle that made sense for a single mom and child.
In the early 1990's, she read Robert Fritz' book, The Path of Least Resistance, and attended his workshops in New England. Learning and working with the principles of creative process, Dawna's love of whole foods cookery and cooking for others were ripe for expression outside her domestic kitchen. A Sufi chef named Mirabei became her mentor and inspired her to become a natural foods chef in the growing retreats and workshops milieu. Discovering the potential for such a catering business in northern California, in 1994 Dawna did a cooking tour of retreats, including a month at Esalen Institute in Big Sur.
After cooking solo at a small retreat in Sonoma County, she took over the food service at a ranch retreat in Calistoga. James was a frequent member of her staff of food artists. Working together in the kitchen and becoming friends (then more than friends...) Dawna and James created their first company Feather River Culinary Artists in 1995. Their first client was Margo Anand and her Sky Dancing Institute. An angel at a retreat/conference center in the Napa Valley referred many subsequent clients including: Intuit, Data Quest, GNLD, Angeles Arrien, Pathways Institute, The Satsang Foundation, Fritjof Capra's Center for Eco-Literacy and Sarah Powers' Yoga Spirit. Word of mouth quickly brought weddings and parties to cater.
All About Retreats was developed in 1998, during a particularly slow time as caterers, in an effort to even out Dawna and James' flow of income. The All About Retreats website, created in 1999, required skills with image and html editing software and before long, James' mastery of the subtleties of web marketing birthed yet another company, known today as Feather River Productions.
With so many different, yet related hats to wear, and the desire to live a more simple life than the busy lifestyle that now defines northern California, Dawna and James have made their way to the peaceful Mad River Valley in north central Vermont.
Stay tuned! New projects are on the board for something "retreat-ish" in Vermont...
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 James Foreman is the web tech and creative talent behind All About Retreats, and many client websites. James was introduced to the retreat experience as a participant in two Psychosynthesis International Youth Conferences. The first in Wales , in 1989, and the following year at Findhorn in Scotalnd.
Growing up in "Crusty Butt" ...Crested Butte, Colorado and Minneapolis, Minnesota, James began a short, but distinguished acting career in community and high school theatre productions. Before attending a traditional university, he graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena, California and then moved to Northern California, where he earned a BA in Theater Arts and Dance at Sonoma State University, in 1995.
A master of several art forms, James' skill as a culinary artist was influenced by his mother, Betty, who taught cooking to high school students and has worked as a cook for residential learning groups for over 30 years. During his college years, James lived and worked at two retreat centers in Sonoma County, where his job description included the care and feeding of exotic cats and birds, hot tub maintenance, and sous chef in the retreat kitchen. It was in the summer of 1994 that he and Dawna met in a retreat center kitchen, during a time both were living and employed at the center. Both were busy going about their lives; James, completing his undergratuate studies, and Dawna, pursuing cooking opportunities with Napa Valley caterers and in California retreat center kitchens.
James' love of performance arts and choreography enhances his highly tuned skill in the creative process as a chef, entrepreneur and web designer. All About Retreats has been both the beneficiary and the studio in which to integrate James' bundle of acquired skills and talents. As a web designer, James offers his business acumen, unique among his colleagues, who are often tech wizards but not business savvy.
"When Dawna and I were busy as Feather River Culinary Artists, I did not imagine that my future would include full time design work and hours at the computer. To my surprise, I enjoy the work and have a loyal client following, mostly businesses in California. What is most gratifying is the success of All About Retreats and knowing that it makes a difference to those who own meeting hospitality venues, and the meeting planners who use the website. Now that we are living in Vermont, where the natural environment is inspiring, and the pace of life peaceful and unhurried, we are experiencing a renewed creative energy, planning a new project that we will make public before the end of this year!"
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