San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW)
PARTNERS MEETING SUMMARY NOTES October 7, 2010 Attendees: Barbara Marty, City of Hanford Betsy McGovern-Garcia, City of Tulare Leslie Caviglia, City of Visalia Rhonda Mann, County of Kings Gail Henry, County of Tulare Courtney Kalashian, SJVCEO Maureen Hoff, SJVCEO
Mark Okino, SCE Jesse Langley, SCE Chris Coronel, SCE Cal Rossi, SCE Frank Lauro, So Cal Gas
Location: County of Tulare RMA, RMA Main Conference Room, 5961 South Mooney Boulevard, Visalia, CA 93277 Time: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Next Meeting: Thursday, November 4, 2010 Location: County of Tulare RMA, RMA Main Conference Room, 5961 South Mooney Boulevard, Visalia, CA 93277
Agenda Topics on October 7, 2010 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Welcome and Introductions Energy Savings Goals for 2010 EECBG Workshops on Location Marketing and Outreach Direct Install Peer Sharing Other Business Adjourn VIEW Partnership Meeting
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San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW)
Summary of Discussions: •
The meeting was called to order at 10am by Leslie Caviglia. Introductions followed. Mark Okino introduced himself as the new Southern California Edison account executive and Chris Coronel’s replacement.
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There were no changes to the energy savings goals for the month. Chris Coronel passed the torch to Mark Okino as the Partnership’s SCE account executive. He also explained that Denise Rousseau will no longer be supporting VIEW and if jurisdictions have worked with her in the past, please go through Mark from now on. Frank Lauro noted that the 1500 therms on the 2010-12 Savings Goals printout was from the County of Tulare rebate on two boilers. The City of Visalia’s waste water treatment plant’s two new boilers will also save about 3000 therms. We have a long way to go to reach our 85,000 therm goal; however, every little bit helps!
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Courtney Kalashian, on behalf of Mike Nemeth of the San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization (SJVCEO), reported on EECBG funding. Direct purchase and energy efficiency have both been approved and are moving ahead. Mike and Sandy Nax are fully available to answer any questions regarding projects. Gail Henry had a few questions and Courtney assured her that Mike would be in touch. Chris Coronel also had some concerns and wanted to make sure that service accounts are properly identified so all savings tie back accordingly. It was clarified that Mike Nemeth should be in contact with Mark Okino and Mark can be in contact with Jesse Langley to work out all the details. Jesse requested that we highlight the EECBG projects on a project tracking list for our energy savings goals. Courtney said that Mike should be able to identify those on the list for the monthly Partnership meetings and we can highlight them in advance.
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Courtney explained that through the Needs Assessment meetings we have found there are additional educational pieces the VIEW Partners would like to see. She presented a list of AgTAC workshops on location and asked that all Partners look through the list to see if anything seems interesting. The workshops on location should only be a small hassle as jurisdictions would simply need to identify a location and topic of interest. Workshops can be for the community, employees, or whoever else seems appropriate. The ideal size would be at least fifteen people in attendance to make the workshop worthwhile for AgTAC. Courtney will follow up with everyone by the end of next week to see who may be interested. Cal Rossi suggested doing a workshop for a county where people from multiple cities could attend. Frank Lauro recommended reaching out through an email distribution list in order to get a significant number of attendees. Courtney noted that Professional Exchange (her place of employment) manages much of the trade industries in the Central Valley and has a great network for email distribution.
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San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) •
The Visalia Home Expo took place the last weekend in September and overall seemed like a successful event according to those who volunteered. Gail Henry was there Saturday morning and felt like people did not understand what ‘VIEW’ stood for and, therefore, were hesitant to approach the booth. It took some work to pull people in! If our logo had SCE and SCG information in a more visible location or by its side maybe it would help to explain what we do. Leslie Caviglia noted that branding the VIEW is not as important as the message of energy efficiency. This brought up the fact that we are running low on marketing materials. Courtney said we will check into the expense of reordering items like the ever so popular chip clips. Betsy McGovern-Garcia of the City of Tulare inquired about the Mobile Education Unit (MEU) and the parameters for having one at an event. The large RV was used at last year’s Visalia Home Expo however this year we requested the MEU 2nd unit which is a table/booth set-up. The type of MEU depends on the venue, the event itself, and the number of attendees expected. VIEW typically requests the 2nd unit as it is usually appropriate and sufficient for our outreach events. Courtney highlighted the City of Lindsay for self-staffing some of their events and utilizing their own volunteers. Maureen Hoff can provide a box of materials including giveaways and talking points for those that wish to staff their own events. Betsy was interested in the MEU because Food Link for Tulare County has an event that takes place in various locations and runs through the end of the year. The event would offer great exposure to lower income households where VIEW could present SCE and SCG customers with income-qualified programs. Courtney will be in touch with Betsy for more information. Gail Henry summarized the Tulare County Health Fair and said how pleasantly surprised she was at how many people came through. Gail, Maureen, and Frank staffed the VIEW booth and were amazed at the phenomenal interest in the Gas Company’s free low-flow shower head offer; seventy nine forms were collected! Frank also served as a huge asset since he could answer specific gas company questions. Next year it would help to have more volunteers to staff the booth, including SCE and SCG volunteers, and more utility materials for handout. This was also the first event where we used jurisdiction-specific cut-sheets in the VIEW brochures to highlight specific accomplishments for Tulare County. They seemed to be a success and worth the effort as people showed considerable interest. Courtney asked Rhonda Mann if the County of Kings has a similar event since this one was such a success. Rhonda said they had an Employee Appreciation event in May and was under the impression VIEW had been represented. Courtney reported on the Holiday Light Exchange (HLE) program for 2010. The partnership has ordered an additional 500 lights. This will give each jurisdiction the minimum number of lights they requested. While everyone agreed the program was fun while it lasted, it was unanimously decided to pull the plug on the program for 2011. Maureen and Courtney will be delivering the lights on November 2nd and Maureen will be in contact to coordinate. HLE programs can begin after lights are received. Partners should let Courtney and Maureen know what kind of posters and/or marketing 3
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) materials they prefer and they will be happy to provide them. A press release will also be sent out to generate interest. •
Jesse Langley announced that Direct Install will begin mid-January (about the 17th of the month). The true goal will be making each community feel like it is a local event therefore the Partnership will want to personalize the program as much as possible with items like letters from mayors or Chambers of Commerce. SCE has provided a general timeline but Leslie Caviglia pointed out that roll out needs to happen sooner because the Fall/Winter holidays will cut time short. Jesse clarified that each city needs to engage and decide how best to advertise Direct Install in their community. Ideas include having a sign-up for interested businesses and informational brochures at city kiosks. Mark Okino said there is a page on the SCE website where one can say they are interested in DI; however, this was later clarified as something that would not involve the partnership and we need to keep the partnership in the loop. A major concern shared by all at the meeting was how to identify where Direct Install has been in the past and where they plan to go in January. Chris Coronel expressed the difficulty he had experienced in trying to obtain this information in the past. Jesse will look into this and see if he can provide program specifics such as how many businesses will be reached per day. Leslie and Gail were worried about over-promising to the community and want clarity before advertising the program. Courtney asked if there was a coordination effort to answer specific jurisdiction based questions. Jesse suggested a conference call with the woman in charge.
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There wasn’t anything scheduled for peer sharing this meeting so Courtney asked if any of the Partners had any concerns they would like to discuss or something they would like to share. Betsy announced that Lew Nelson received an award for his work at the waste water facility and that is why he could not be at the meeting. Leslie shared that Visalia’s Green Business Program has been rolled out with about thirty businesses. Mark wanted to discuss the lamp exchange program and shared his own experience of swapping lamps with incandescent lights for energy-efficient models. Jesse and Chris were not sure if the program was still available but we will put it on the agenda for next meeting. Courtney addressed that it is a challenge for everyone to be at the monthly partnership meetings. The Kern Energy Watch is looking at doing video conferencing and she wondered if this could be an option for the VIEW partnership. All partners were asked to look into facilities in their area that have video conferencing capability. Betsy thought the City of Tulare’s new library might have something. It was also suggested that if a jurisdiction could not attend the meeting, Cal could be sent to that jurisdiction and they could attend together via video conferencing to prevent disconnect that might occur when using technology instead of attending in person. Jesse also suggested having meetings at AgTAC.
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San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) •
In other business Courtney announced that she will be attending the SEEC Best Practices Conference in Burbank on October 13th and 14th. Since nobody else could attend she asked the Partners to look through the conference agenda in case they wished her to participate in any specific breakout sessions. Betsy said anything to do with funding is always of interest. Frank said ‘transitioning to a green economy’ was interesting and involves the residential piece and financing. The Beacon Award was also discussed. It is something coming out of the SEEC group and there are at least a couple of jurisdictions in the VIEW partnership that qualify. Partners were encouraged to look through the guidelines to see if it is something they would like to submit. Courtney and Maureen are more than happy to help fill out the application and do some legwork in order to assist. Topics of interest for next meeting were identified as the previously mentioned lamp exchange program and direct install. Frank also asked if the partners were interested in hearing about the gas company’s new meter program. The Gas Company is in the process of finalizing their advanced meter program but it will take years to roll out the program so Partners agreed they would rather hear about it when it gets closer. Leslie – November should focus on direct install. Betsy nominated Lew Nelson as November’s meeting facilitator. Before the meeting was adjourned, Frank noted that at the City of Lindsay assessment meeting it was discussed that the VIEW partners like to hear what other people have enjoyed doing, even if it doesn’t necessarily fall under the Partnership. Leslie said Visalia would be willing to share their Green Building program at the next meeting.
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The meeting was adjourned at 11:40am.
ACTION ITEMS •
The savings goals spreadsheet will be updated to highlight EECGB projects going forward. Mike Nemeth of the SJVCEO will help to do this.
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Mike Nemeth will be in contact with Gail Henry regarding the County of Tulare’s EECBG projects.
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Courtney Kalashian will contact everyone in the next couple weeks to check interest in AgTAC’s workshops on location.
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Courtney Kalashian will contact Betsy McGovern-Garcia about the Food Link events where VIEW could gain exposure with lower income households.
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San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) •
Maureen Hoff will be in touch with Partners regarding the Holiday Light Exchange delivery scheduled for November 2nd.
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Jesse Langley will get details on how many businesses will get hit a day/during the Direct Install period in the area. He will also look into getting a list of businesses that would qualify. In terms of promoting the program, Jesse will get the materials that are available to everyone and jurisdictions will choose what is appropriate for them.
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SCE’s lamp exchange program will be on the agenda for November’s Partnership meeting and Jesse will check to see if this program is available.
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Betsy McGovern-Garcia will see if the City of Tulare’s new library could be used for partnership meetings. All other partners will also check to see if there are facilities in their area that have video conferencing capabilities.
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The facilitator for next meeting will be Lew Nelson.
PARTNERSHIP 2010 MEETING SCHEDULE: Thursday, November 4, 2010 Thursday, December 2, 2010 Thursday, January 6, 2011 Thursday, February 3, 2011 Thursday, March 3, 2011 Thursday, April 7, 2011 Thursday, May 5, 2011 Thursday, June 2, 2011
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