Chapter Leaders Conference Call

Nov. 5, 2003

1:00 p.m. Mountain Time

Participants: Andy Black - NorCal/ASES Chapter Rep., Dona McClain - ASES office Chapter liaison, Carolyn Beach - ASES Membership Coordinator, Brad Collins - ASES Exec. Director, Becky Campbell-Howe - ASES Conference Dir., Chris Herman - Washington Solar, Johnathan Tower - NESEA, Mark Harris - Sunrise, Frank Potter - Heartland, Mark Ginsberg - North Carolina, Ben Luce - NM, Ted Lowe - IL, Ron Larson - CO/ASES.

1. Future call agendas

- Call frequency. Monthly might be too often. Bi-monthly might be better. Daytime calls will happen the first Wednesday of every other month. The next call will be Wed. January 7, 2004 at 12:00 pm PST/3:00 pm EST. Evening calls will be the first Wednesday of every other month on the opposite months as the day time calls. The first evening call will be Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2003 at 5:30 pm PST and 8:30 pm EST.

Future Agenda Items

-Grant writing. How to do it.

-Fund raising

-Examples of things that have worked well in the past vs. what hasn't worked.

-Sample letters for sponsors for Home Tour etc.

-Graphic ideas. Packaging for brochures, letters etc.

-Sunrise has a PV rebate program included in a DSM program carried by a utility.

-How to afford an executive director (grant writing). Need to have a full-time director to handle the grants that they get.

-Grant writing template. List national orgs. that offer grants for chapters. Local orgs. that other chapters have had luck with.

ASES applying for very large grants available nationally that could then be shared with chapters. ASES is working on a couple of grants including one for deliberative poling and one for "gunslingers" to testify at pending legislative actions in the states. Info on what's in the works in other states to have available for everyone. NREL tracks some of that and the Denver Council of State Legislators. NM put the information in the form of a web site.

Involve local chapters in the production of the national grants to let them know what's going on. Keep the chapters informed of what's in the works.

-Ideas for annual chapters caucus. How to get better participation.

-On-line discussion group for chapter-related items on ASES web site?

-Thoughts on new membership level. Affiliate subscriber level for Chapter members. $24/yr instead of $29. Good idea.

-Coverage of chapter news in Solar TODAY has been very good. Send Chapter News directly to Brooke at bsimmons@solartoday.org two months in advance of the publication of the next issue, i.e. early November for Jan/Feb. issue.

-Info on successful tours and workshops. How to do it ideas.

-Assist smaller chapters with no staff or part-time staff in networking and helping them with how to do things with no staff.

-Conference chapter proposals for 2007 are due in June 2004.

-Conference committee and Becky are working on streamlining the process for conference proposals. Talk about it at next call.

-Process for forming a new state chapter where the new chapter is part of an existing chapter.

-How to organize and manage sub-chapters

2. Sunbeam – Most participants haven't read it or are not on the list. Make sure all chapter leaders are on the list. A chapter chat group would be a more useful forum. The newsletter could be a periodic letter highlighting chapter hot topics from the on-line discussion group. Most participants preferred not to send chapter member e-mail addresses to ASES but would prefer to forward the newsletter from their office. ASES would prefer to send the newsletter directly to the chapter members. Carolyn will continue to send to those on her current list and ask that the chapters forward the newsletter to those she does not have addresses for.

3. Home Tour

- Participation was up significantly this year. Subsequent increase in print publicity.

- ASES is working on the creation of a grant template that chapters can use to solicit state offices for funding for their local tours. Turn key template.

- We expect there were about 30,000 attendees for 2003.

- National funding for 2004 is not guaranteed. DOE may not come through for next year.

- NC got a $5000 grant for 2003.

- IL had record attendance. Make it a regular event with no uncertainties. Keep the date the same. Build on past year's work.

- Valuable in getting people in different parts of the state to work together.

- Wash. had $5000 grant from million solar roofs. 51 Sites all over the state from 14 in Seattle the year before. Sold ads and made a profit for the first time.

- NORCAL did great. Sold advertisement in their program guide. Made a profit. Sold $38,000 in ads and cleared $8,000 – 9,000.

- ILL doesn't believe visitors are ready to pay for the guide. Wants to reach beyond the "choir". Wants to role things out on a larger scale.

- Prize helped. Added a local prize to the drawing.

- Nevada had 120 people at the tour. Cost $20 and had 3 hours of presentation. They turned away 20 people. 6 homes on the tour. Net $2,500.

- NM, solar fiesta if their best event. It occurs two weeks before the tour. Push the tour from there. Advertise the tour at the fiesta. 2000 – 3000 people attend the fiesta annually. Great educational event.

- Renewable energy fair in IL run by the Illinois Renewable Energy Association (which is not an ASES chapter). Trying to talk them into doing one in the Chicago area.

- Utilities can be encouraged to pitch their renewable energy program there at renewable energy fairs.

What can ASES do to help?

- Help chapters secure sponsorships from large solar corporations for local events. How can ASES help this to happen. BP solar, Shell, etc.

- Are the materials ASES provides helpful? Yes. Signs are nice. Press releases are good. Get materials out earlier. This year was good. Web site thing was frustrating. Info didn't actually get posted. Make a clickable US map and put it on the front page during Sept.

- Make links to chapter web sites easier to get to. Too hard to find. Make a direct link.