Hugh,
Please *do* keep pestering USF! And yes, I think it would be a good idea to
turn up the heat and put some additional pressure on them by letting Bay
area media outlets like the Tampa Tribune know about USF's lack of
cooperation in promoting EV education and awareness in Florida.
Here is a specific example for you. The St. Petersburg Sierra Club Chapter
invited me to come give a presentation on EVs to a screening of the film
"Who Killed the Electric Car?" to their chapter back in May, in downtown St.
Pete. They really wanted to have an EV there and pleaded with me to bring
my RAV4-EV. I agreed to do so but told them about the problems we had been
having in not being able to get permission from USF to use their solar
charging station. I explained to them that this was the one last missing
link in our east-west cross-state charging corridor that would prevent me
from bringing my RAV4-EV. We have enough charging stations up and down the
north-south I-95 corridor on the east coast, and from Cocoa across to Winter
Garden on the Central Florida east-west cross-state corridor, that all I
would have needed to get the RAV4-EV over to St. Pete was a charging station
in Tampa.
The St. Petersburg Sierra Club Chapter interceded and asked USF CERC if I
could charge there, and I myself *again* asked USF CERC, two, three times,
for that trip specifically. But USF declined to give me permission. So I
was forced to drive my gasoline Honda Civic over there for the movie showing
and presentation. The St. Pete Sierra Club event organizers were very
disappointed, to put it mildly, and they let the assembled group of over a
hundred of their members know the reason why we were not able to have an EV
there at that event.
The really ironic thing is that up in the front of the room on the stage,
there was this big poster board with a collage of RE/AFV photos that had
been put together by some of the St. Pete Sierra Club members, and would you
like to guess what one of those photos was on the poster board? ... Yup --
the USF CERC solar charging station!, which I immediately recognized, as
I've seen photos of it plenty of times (in fact it is front and center right
at the top of USF CERC's website). So when one the St. Pete Sierra Club
event organizers was explaining to the crowd why I was not able to bring my
EV to the event -- because of USF's refusal to give me permission to charge
at their solar charging station, I pointed out to the crowd the photo, right
there on the stage with me, of that very same prohibited, off-limits USF
solar charging station. Well, there were a lot of hisses, grunts, and boos
directed at USF from the crowd. So, needless to say, USF is not getting a
very good reputation among environmentally progressive folks in the Tampa
Bay area over their refusal to let us use their solar charging station. The
word has already been getting around about this.
So, yes, please do whatever you can to keep up the pressure on them!
Thanks, and keep up the great work!
Charles
P.S. Chelsea Sexton and I have written USF CERC twice, on two different
occasions, offering to have Chelsea come and do a Q&A presentation with a
WKtEC movie screening, at no cost to them, if they'd be interested in
hosting such a screening on campus. These were trips that Chelsea had
already scheduled and planned to be in the Tampa Bay area anyway. But USF
CERC showed no interest and declined Chelsea's offer both times. Go figure.
I have a hard time trying to figure out the folks at USF CERC; they're
definitely a strange bunch. But there are some political, academic, and
financial/funding-related issues that I think are involved, which I won't go
into here.
----- Original Message -----
From: Hugh E Webber
To: Charles Whalen
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 8:37 PM
Subject: RE: [FLEAA] 50 Watt Charging in Tampa
Charles:
Sorry to be out of the loop; apparently I missed the information on Bay
Area charging posted on the FL EAA list. At any rate, I tend to keep keep
calling possibly helpful but uncooperative organizations' bluffs anyway. I
haven't been a generous USF alumnus, so all I can do is pester.
I'll continue to ask USF CERC for public use of their solar charger.
Since the facility's on public display, in plain sight from the road between
USF and Busch Gardens, USF should expect inquiries.
I've tangled with USF bureaucracy many times before, so the story doesn't
surprise me. Perhaps the Tampa Tribune would be interested in our travails
with USF CERC.
Breathe free,
Hugh E Webber
Florida chapter, Electric Auto Association http://www.eaaev.org/
Earth Shuttle Pedalcab http://www.pedalcab.us/
A small body of determined spirits, fired by an unquenchable faith in their
mission, can alter
the course of history. -Mohandas Gandhi
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> To: [email protected]
> Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:02:36 -0500
> CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: [FLEAA] 50 Watt Charging in Tampa
>
> Hi Hugh,
>
> We have unfortunately been having lots of problems with USF...
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