A Think Tank for the 21st century.

The leadership of many, if not most liberty-centric, non-profit organizations have lost their way, taking their once promising organizations with them. Fundraising has overtaken educational programs and intellectual output, and mission creep has resulted. 

The result? Everything they do is designed to be advertising in the next fundraising cycle. This serves neither the cause of liberty, nor the donors who want to support it.

From there, the decline into utter meaninglessness was predictable. Organizations become bureaucratized in a futile attempt to free senior management to do more fundraising with each passing year. 

Before long, young, inexperienced, and often unqualified staff end up making key decisions about content and programs. This result was guaranteed the moment that people who should have been working on intellectual and programmatic offerings instead dedicated themselves to development. 

From this, inscrutable organizational flow charts emerged, most featuring more people with the title of director than those directors have people to direct. In the end, all focus was lost as these organizations tried and failed to become all things to all people.

 And the rebirth of Strata, S2, is that new model.

Strata grew out of a collaboration between academics associated with Utah State University seeking a different way to advance both policy research and student education. This initial collaboration included Ryan Yonk and Randy Simmons who had a long history of collaborating on western focused public policy research focused mostly on energy and environment issues, as well as having a clear understanding of the importance of liberty. 

As their portfolio grew to include other projects, they brought James Harrigan on board. James was already working with Antony Davies on a number of projects, one of which, one-day seminars in high schools across the country, was funded by FEE. This is where Antony and James met first last and first last. Ryan, James and Antony along with Jason Riddle have signed on to become principals in the rebirth of Strata as S2.

S2 is dedicated to the proposition that liberty is a practical, ongoing concern in the American Mountain and Desert West in a way that is no longer true of much of the rest of the United States. This Western liberty is grounded in pragmatic self-reliance on one hand, and on the tradition that emerged from the enlightenment on the other. 

Devotees of these two traditions have typically avoided one another, but that was to their shared detriment. Those who advocate for the cause of liberty often overlook tradition. Just as those who advocate for the necessity of tradition overlook the central role liberty plays.

S2 will integrate the message of liberty with the lessons of tradition.

Liberty is the birthright of every human being. It falls to us to take up the mantle for freedom, and we are very much up to the task.

Every organization with high minded goals does well to think about structure. We envision an organization that is absolutely flat. Day to day S2 operations are conducted virtually. We neither want nor need a typical infrastructure or staff. We number just five, and we are committed to remaining as light and nimble as possible in the years to come. 

This is the best way we know to adhere to donor intent, and to our stated goals. The lion’s share of the support we receive will be dedicated to our print offerings, podcast(s), editorial work, and programs. 

In short, we can and will offer superior output of higher quality than other organizations. Our Vision to Strategy to Execution will be completed by experienced professionals, none of whom will have to rely on middle management or junior staff to carry ideas into outputs.