Last week was a good one for Solar Oregon!
Some of my friends jokingly call Solar Oregon “the little non-profit environmental engine that could”. And boy, could we. This past week we hosted our first fundraising dinner, celebrated our 32nd year as an organization, held our annual meeting, showed off our electric cars, and then added three new people to our board of directors. Whew … no wonder we’re tired.
Solar Oregon Staff - Emily (L), Adam, Imogen, Claire, Joe
I may be biased, but I think the Solar Oregon staff, under the leadership of ED Claire Carlson, is doing a remarkable job. They’re a relatively new team and are just starting to gel, but they’re getting the job done and our members are expecting big things from them this year. They are the foundation for all that is possible.
A Cena Ristorante
Solar Oregon Community Dinner
Kudos to staffer Adam Sage, Director of Development, for dreaming up this fundraising dinner and getting the board to go along with it. He then went forward and made it the successful event it was! Indeed a memorable night of fabulous food and great company – as advertised. [Thanks to Roberto and Cap’n T. for tagging along with me.]
A Cena Ristorante owner Chris Custer and Chef Gabe Gabreski served a five-course dinner of traditional Sicilian pastas, secondi, and sweets, paired with local wine. [OMG the breadsticks!!] So, thanks also to Chris and his staff for a tremendous evening. If you’re looking for the best Italian food in the Portland metro area, then head over to Sellwood and visit a cena ristorante y enotec http://www.acenapdx.com/. [Hey, this is my very first restaurant recommendation!]
Dinner event at A Cena
Thanks to everyone who joined us in support for Solar Oregon. We were humbled by your generosity.
Has it been thirty two years already?
I’ve already blabbed about the 32nd annual celebration and meeting in a previous post http://solarflareblog.com/?p=3092 … so I’ll move on to the shoutouts.
Thank You Solar Oregon’s Professional Members for participating and supporting the work we do for solar in our beautiful state. Many of you were there at our dinner and at the Saturday event too and we appreciate that.
Thanks also to the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association and our friends and members for bringing their electric vehicles to share with others.
Kacia Brockman explains things
I was impressed by the standing-room-only presentation provided by Kacia Brockman. Her topic was Solar: The ABC’s of Residential Solar Financing and she talked about the differences between leasing a solar system and owning it. This choice is hotly debated within the residential solar market and I’ll write about this later. In the meantime, Kacia said she’d post her presentation on the Solar Oregon website, so look for it there soon.
We had several past board members stop by our meeting to say hello and show support – thanks guys, it was great to meet you! Claire presented the highlights of this past year, and we celebrated our successes, and acknowledged our solar ambassadors and dedicated volunteers. In all, the event was well worth taking most of my Saturday afternoon.
One door closes …
Kathy Bash (R) chats with Imogen Taylor at NW Solar Expo
Kathy Bash announced she is leaving the board of directors. Kathy was the President of Solar Oregon when I first became involved with the organization. Her dedication, passion and leadership compelled me to join the board and I will miss her terribly. She tells us she’ll still be involved with the Goal Net Zero
- Kathy conducted many workshops for Solar Oregon
Interest Group to teach others about net zero energy design and construction … and that’s a blessing.
Kathy is a LEED accredited professional with a Master of Architecture Degree and a Certificate for Teaching Technology in Architecture from the University of Oregon.
You may recognize her from the movie “Deep Green” written and directed by Oregon’s Matt Briggs. Kathy was interviewed for this documentary and I’d like to honor her by sharing a part of it with my readers. I embedded a clip from the movie to give you some idea how important Kathy is to the sustainability community in our region.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFhwYjcVvlY
“All I know is, I’m alive now and I can do something today, and I can’t in good conscience wait for somebody else to do it. I think the time is now; for me the time is absolutely now. It’s the only time anybody has”. ~ Kathy Bash from “Deep Green” (2010)
Pictures from the annual meeting - World Trade Center, Portland, Oregon
Fall is the time for colorful LEAFs
- Cindy Hickman shows off her LEAF to Doug and Jason
Claire Carlson welcomed the attendees
SA Anders of the Citizen’s Utility Board (CUB) also presented at our meeting.
Chad Biasi of EV4Oregon was there too!
http://solaroregon.org/events/solar-oregon-annual-meeting-1/view
We hope to see you next year at our 33rd annual celebration! 
Go Solar! Go Oregon!
Solar Oregon is a chapter of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) http://www.ases.org/
In 1968, a biologist named Garrett Hardin published a remarkable little essay entitled Tragedy of the Commons. He laid out dynamics of human behavior that underlie a good deal of the trouble we face in the world, today. The elegant simplicity of his model cannot fully represent complex reality, but it is such a clear model that it remains a valuable perspective in considering large-scale use of common resources, like air and water, the subject of Gore’s work. This model considers the common use of a pasture by a group of farmers. Imagine a pasture that can support a hundred head of cattle. Ten farmers share this pasture, and each is raising ten head. Under these conditions, maximum utilization of the pasture results. If each farmer were to add just one steer to his herd, the pasture would be over-grazed, and each farmer would have to supplant the fresh grass with hay. Instead, imagine that only one of the farmers increases his herd to eleven.