From SanFranciscoEVA

The Minutes of past SFEVA Chapter Meetings!

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SFEVA MINUTES November 6, 2004

Held at 1484 16th Ave., SF, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Ten people turned out for a lively session of brainstorming, planning, and information sharing on the following topics:

SAVE THE EVs CAMPAIGN: We agreed to try to save the remaining EVs that have been leased but are being repossessed by auto companies as the leases end and are being crushed. Please hold off on mentioning this on other EV listservs until we make a plan, because car companies monitor the lists. Marc will talk with environmental groups, Sherry will speak with national EAA and Paul Scott in So. Calif. Danny posted on the listserv names of book authors who might be allies. Marc and Sherry will draft a letter that people could send to automakers asking them to sell or save the leased EVs.

NOTE: The photo we all looked at is deceptive; there are actually 100 or more EVs still in that parking lot in Burbank, Paul says.

PRODUCTION EVs: Lawrence and Sherry will draft a letter that people could send to Nissan to encourage them to make the Altra EV available.

CHAPTER WEB SITE: Bob and Meg got on the computer during the meeting and reserved both the sfeaa.org and sfeaa.com names for us. We all brainstormed on what elements we’d like included on the site (some will just be links to existing sites offering this info). After the meeting Sherry heard from Jon Johansen, who attended our first meeting; he’ll be constructing the web site.

EV INFRASTRUCTURE: Mike says SFO will soon be turning some employee parking spaces into a public long-term DD lot, and that there are lots of regular 120V plugs there. Mike will try to find out who we should approach about making some of these into dedicated EV charging spaces.

POLITICS: We agreed that rather than start asking for privileges (like free metered parking for EVs) at a time when the city has a severe budget crisis, we should make contacts with city officials to provide positive feedback and to build relationships. Marc will draft a letter to send that will introduce our chapter and goals.

To try to get a sense of how many EV drivers are in SF, Sherry will call the DMV department in Sacramento that hands out the CleanAir decals to EVs to see if they can check the DMV database on EV registrations. Meg will see if she can persuade the AAA to tap the DMV database as well.

Marc researched what we’re allowed to do politically as a 501C-3 organization, and reported that as long as we’re not directly involved in public policy, and as long as politics is a relatively small part of our overall work, we can do almost anything. Can’t endorse political candidates, though.

Marc also described the Earth Resource Foundation, a group promoting the PV/EV concept. They’ll have a train of high school students heading to Sacramento to lobby for this next spring. We’d like to coordinate with them to be a part of that, perhaps by ferrying students to the train station in EVs, etc.

Lastly, Marc said he gave a talk to the Earth Justice Institute (in Oakland?), which does legal work for non-profits. They have stacks of legal briefs and research on automakers’ suppression of EVs that they presented to U.S. Dept. of Justice during the Clinton administration. It didn’t result in a lawsuit, but it’s a gold mine of info that might come in handy at some point.

We talked about piggybacking on established events throughout the 2005 calendar year, such as Earth Day in April; LGBT Pride Parade in June; July 4th festivities; Solfest (in Hopland) in August; the Solar Homes Tour in October (people were really enthusiastic about doing something with that), and the Green Festival in November.