SEVA Meeting Minutes – January 2020
SEVA MEETING MINUTES- JANUARY 14, 2020
An impromptu board meeting commenced at about 6:30 PM. Grace and Billy were present, shortly joined by Jay. Brian was absent due to illness.
Agreed that Deb Seymour will present to the membership at tonight’s meeting her proposals for the website and its costs to be funded. Also to be discussed will be a fundraiser this summer, in part to pay for the website’s costs. Proposals will be sought for uses of the grant which SEVA received some time back.
The board meeting having adjourned, at 7:01 PM Billy called upon Kevin to issue the call to order. Kevin issued the call. Board members Jay, Billy and Grace were in attendance. New members. Paul came several years ago. He is an EV Wannabe. His condo board, or at least one member of it, is resistant to allowing in-building charging.
Jay announced that SEVA’s annual board election will be held at the February membership meeting. The President and Secretary are to be elected. Billy is willing to stand for election for a full term as Secretary. Jay is willing to stand for reelection as President, but reluctantly due to his changed employment circumstances. Steve Lough said he can do a presentation. Grace read the Bylaws’ provisions for Board elections and duties. Nominations may be submitted in advance of the February meeting, when they will also be sought from the floor.
Deb Seymour gave a presentation about the website. Google has cracked down on websites which do not support https. Security software such as McAfee is now also sending warnings. The website at present is constructed in WordPress, which does not support adequate SSL certificates. Ryan Fulcher has been maintaining the site and paying for it personally. Deb thinks that SEVA should take over this expense. Deb’s third issue is that others, including the board, should be able to maintain this site. Deb thinks that the WordPress site should be rewritten in Godaddy Web Builder. Deb proposes purchasing a five-year subscription to a Godaddy account. Mark Schiller mentioned Dreamweaver, the pros and cons of which were then discussed. Godaddy Web Builder appeared to be the better choice. Grace moved that we accept Deb’s plan, including purchasing Godaddy services not to exceed $700. The motion was seconded. Jay called for discussion. Tim Economu said that he’ll pay $600 for the five-year subscription. Jay called a vote on the motion. The motion was approved by unanimous voice vote.
Grace reported that she met Guy O’Connor at CWU. Guy has helped start an EAA chapter there. They mostly focus on charging infrastructure. They are starting a chapter on Whidbey-Camano, with projects including an electric water taxi service.
Steve Lough reported that he will attend Austin Fully Charged with Mark.
Deb entertained the meeting with her new song, “A Tesla Tale”.
Grace gave a legislative update. The ZEV mandate is included in HB 1999. Governor Inslee’s “Advancing Electric Transportation” bill has been reintroduced as SB 5336, HB 1664. This is ZEV-plus-more. The Low Carbon Fuel Standards bill is SB 5412, HB 1110; it requires regulations for reducing 10% of the carbon in fuels by 2028. HB 1832 is Electrifying Public Fleets, requiring certain publicly owned vehicles to be electric or fuel-cell. HB 1397 promotes aviation electrification. SB 5128 will reduce the electric-motorcycle registration surcharge to $30. HB 1527 allows vehicle-electrification promotion plans by public utilities such as Seattle City Light. HB 2310 is a new bill to require services such as Uber, Lyft, and Amazon Fresh to study their emissions. SB 5971 would implement a carbon fee to fund transportation projects, and it also raises the EV fee from $150 to $300 (thus totalling $375 per registration). HB 1986 is an electric-bicycle sales-tax exemption, including equipment such as helmets. SB 6082 will allow direct sales without dealers by any manufacturer, extending Tesla’s exemption to others.
Jay said that HB 2515 will ban sales of gasoline cars by 2030. Coltura has asked for SEVA’s endorsement of HB 2515. Jay thinks it will produce backlash. Deb asked if there would be a vote for endorsement of HB 2515. Jay said that he saw little support in the meeting for endorsement. Grace recommended that those inclined should endorse it as individuals.
Jay asked what Seattle City Light’s plans are for finishing the installation of the level 3 stations they purchased a long time ago. A speaker from City Light will be sought. Billy will ask his wife, who is a City Light employee who at times has worked on this project, what its status is.
Good of the order. Discussion of the virtues of modern EVs and old Leafs. Jay announced that the EAA board election results were just posted. Kevin forgot the raffle tickets. Jay expects to be at the February meeting, but that week he’ll be going to California to finish the Maxwell van. Grace announced that Earth Day is coming up in three months and we should learn of Earth Day events where EVs can be included. Sherry Boschert will be doing a newbie event in Shelton on February 22, and would like EV owners to attend.
At 8:29, Jay announced the end of the meeting.