It’s Sunday morning and I’ve been working on website content most of yesterday and since early this morning. There has been so much to do to bring Boundless into existence. There is the business structure, branding, marketing, systems design, accounting, finance, human resources, investors, trademarks, copyrights, state filings… So much to learn and so much to do. In one week, Dalton, Sam and I go to Terracon 2025, a Natural Organic Reduction conference, in Tacoma Washington sponsored and produced by Return Home. At the conference last year there were attendees form 20+ states and 7 or more countries. The movement is happening. It appears NOR is now legal in 12 states and is pending in 8. That is a lot of movement since Recompose influenced legislation in Washington State where it became legal May 1, 2020. Recompose became the first company in the first state in the US.
 
Boundless is working on a few advances not currently seen in the industry and we are hoping the laws when passed in Michigan provide a structure for the positive advancement of NOR into the industry for the citizens and the entire death care profession. To that end, I’ll be reaching out to the Michigan Funeral Directors Association (MFDA) to include them/work with them to bring legislation that is positive for the citizens of our great state and that will also serve to strengthen the funeral home industry. Yes, that is a tall order. I am operating from a vantage point that tells me we need a strong and viable funeral home industry to serve the needs of our citizens. Funeral directors and staff work around the clock 7 days a week and are seldom recognized for all they do. As a society we need individuals who are dedicated to taking care of the deceased. The laws that bring NOR to Michigan need to recognize the need to serve its citizens and allow the industry to do that in a fair and productive manner.
 
What’s next for Boundless?  We just wrapped up the initial phase of branding. I want to give a shout out to our friends at Full Circle. They did an excellent job for us and have helped to establish a wide and stable foundation on which to take the Boundless brand into the future. I look forward to working with them as we grow. I want to thank my long-time friend, Beth Harkins, for joining us on the branding team, and to my daughter Katie, her husband Sam Stamper, and to Dalton Brown. Each of these individuals have spent many hours on branding and other aspects of the business. It seems like just yesterday that I was watching farming videos and came across a few videos on how animal mortalities are often processed on farms and thought that there would be significant benefits for society if we would embrace human composting. The cemeteries are filling up. We are learning about the less than desirable environmental effects from burial, cremation and embalming. So, I started on system design for, what I later learned was termed NOR, shared the idea with Lindsay and Dalton and around that time learned about Katrina Spade and her efforts in Washington state and of her company, Recompose. It assured me that the time was right for NOR. Then I learned about Return Home and the Terracon conference where Dalton and I realized that these concepts, that seemed a bit out of the box for us, were not so unique and we were not all that far off. Terracon gave us the courage to take all of the drawings and concepts and turn them into an actual business. Our initial system design has evolved. We are now on version 4 of our processing vessels and our 3^rd or 4^th generation of laying-in vessels. I want to extend a special thank you to Micah Truman and all of the folks at Return Home and to all of the speakers, attendees and vendors who participated at Terracon 2024. The movement is incredible. I want to also say thank you to Nicole Steinburg from Return Home. She provided input for the final term paper for the Grief Support Specialist class I took last year through Northern Michigan University. I feel fortunate to have so many good, positive people in my life.
 
So, to the future of Boundless. The costs to build an NOR processing company to scale are significant. In that process, we have built a fabrication business (Boundless Systems) that is building our 4^th generation vessels and is designing the systems and the facilities that will become the store-fronts for Boundless in our communities. We are building the concepts for what will become Boundless Solutions; a multifaceted service driven company that will provide services to Boundless NOR and to funeral homes across Michigan. Kaitlyn is finishing up prerequisites and hopes to be accepted soon at Wayne State University for their mortuary science program. Sam has been working on the drawings for the equipment we will be using. It is truly amazing to see the plans come to life. Dalton has been his incredible self; turning concepts into reality. Michael is working with a company from out of Marquette, Michigan to created visual data layers for our business plan. An October visit to the Natural Funeral Directors Association conference in New Orleans proved highly productive. I learned so much and came back with many ideas. For me, Boundless is an opportunity to give back to friends, family and community. To say thank you and pay respect to those that have come before me. To give to those that will come after me. Boundless will happen and if I have my way, Boundless will come in at scale and will be profitable because of why we do what we do, not because of what we can and will take from it. My generalist background has taught me that through giving we receive. I receive so much every day from so many. It is hard to imagine much more. To all those I have not thanked, to Mary, and to all the others who have touched my life, I love and appreciate you all.
 
I look forward to telling you about Terracon 2025.
 
Dan