Our
Annual Meeting and Solar Seminar on Saturday provided the 70 or so folks in
attendance with a wealth of information via three engaging speakers. Although our Keynote Speaker, Angelina
Galiteva, was unable to attend because of a family health emergency, the
information-packed presentations of Chris Clarke and Steve Bardwell were
accented by an additional presentation created that morning to help us out – an
overview of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) by April Sall
of the Wildlands Conservancy. We
thank all three of them profusely for their contributions to our understanding
of renewable energy issues. Chris
spoke about trends in renewable energy internationally, nationally, and in
California, and of the governmental and corporate politics that are heading us
toward harmful mega-solar instead of distributed and rooftop solar. Steve shared a step-by-step account of
building his new house with a multitude of energy conservation methods, showing
us photos of the process and the materials. April brought us up to date on
California’s lengthy (and frustrating) effort to assign public land locations to
future renewable energy development (the DRECP).
We
also had the opportunity on Saturday to introduce our 2013 Board of Directors
and Board of Advisors, who are listed at the end of this email. Volunteers were a key part of the
success of this event. Thanks to
Cathy Zarakov, Robin Balch, Meredith Jones, Cathy Sheehe, and Ann Murdy for help
with check-in and membership, Dave Miller for making the projection technology
work, Victoria Fuller and Stephanie Weigel for staffing a table on Dark Night
Skies, to the many folks who helped with early set-up, and to Anne Staley for
providing a fabulous gourmet refreshment table!
Now
back to work!
