SEVA Meeting Minutes – June 2023

The June 14, 2023 membership meeting of the Seattle Electric Vehicle Association was held in the social hall of Seattle First Church of the Nazarene. At 7:05 p.m., SEVA President Jay Donnaway called on former Scribe Kevin Boze to issue the cry.

NEW AND RETURNING MEMBERS – Ian Connors hosts a Youtube show called Electric Vagabond and is working on a conversion. Thom True came for the first time in about 10 years. Hanjie Wang is a PhD student at the University of Washington, researching EV policy; she wants to interview SEVA members. Rob Matthewson is EV-curious. Bourjan uses some public EVSEs in Issaquah Highlands, but their cables were all cut.

SPECIAL GUEST – Jay introduced the featured speaker, Kelly O’Callahan from the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. This is the air-quality regulatory agency for King, Pierce, Kitsap and Snohomish Counties. They regulate greenhouse-gas emissions, encourage EV adoption, and collaborate with the Puget Sound Regional Council. Their 2030 Strategic Plan includes creating regional plans for reducing GHG emissions by 50 percent. They are developing a website for the EV Collaborative Clearinghouse, an interagency resource. The website now under development is pugetsoundrev.org. This describes resources such as funding sources, policies and regulations. Kelly said the focus is necessarily towards the I-5 corridor for now, but it’s their mandate to create a regional plan. Jay asked about equity in access to charging. Kelly said that smaller jurisdictions see opportunities and the agency hopes to reduce barriers. State procurement policies have changed in the past five years, making municipal purchase of electric fleets more feasible even if the procurement managers aren’t aware of this. Kelly said there are policies for multi-family properties to be EV-ready.

CARS AND COFFEE – Abby Inpanbutr said that the Bakke Coffee Museum is now open for visits by appointment. They invite SEVA members to participate in a Cars and Coffee event on Aug. 5. The location is near the Burke-Gilman Trail, close to 14th Avenue Northwest and Northwest 45th Street in Ballard. Kent Bakke said that he started collecting coffee machines in 1983, and his oldest one is from 1915.

GREENWOOD CAR SHOW – Mark Schiller has maintained the participant list for the Greenwood Car Show on June 24, and currently has 34 vehicles signed up. John Lussmyer is bringing his converted Ford F-250 from Whidbey Island and might need a guest room when he comes in on June 23. SEVA’s location has not yet been assigned by the Greenwood Knights. There was discussion of which block might work best; south of 85th Street was preferred. In preparation for the show, SEVA’s new 10-foot banner was unveiled, and name badges were distributed. Anyone who still wants a name badge can order one by sending an e-mail to Grace Reamer at vicepresident@seattleeva.org.

MORE CAR SHOWS – Grace is participating in the Burien Father’s Day Car Show on June 18, and Philip Skoog will be at the Fenders on Front Street Car Show in Issaquah on June 18. Several more car show opportunities are coming soon this summer. Find out more and sign up and see who else is going to shows at this SignUp Genius site.

EV EXPERIENCE UPDATE – Jeff Finn organized an Earth Day event in Kingman, Arizona on April 29, and one week later participated in the Kingman Fun Run.  The latter involves driving the last 60 miles of Route 66, with a stop in Kingman.  This year there was an EV-only section of the exhibit. Jeff, Kent and Thom True attended. Jeff said that the Historic Electric Vehicle Foundation at hevf.org is raising funds to build the EV Experience with commemorative “virtual batteries,” and the website also has a form for offering donations of historic EVs.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• SEVA members are invited to help celebrate Jay’s 50th birthday with a party at his house in Graham on Sunday, July 23.
• Jay reported that Joe Hughes has had an amputation due to complications of diabetes, and he can no longer work. Joe has a GoFundMe page and Jay announced a personal, initial donation to it.
• Jay added that an auto dealer in Langley, BC is selling batteries for retrofitting Leafs.

Jay declared the meeting adjourned at 8:13 p,m.