----- Original Message ----- From: Charles Whalen To: Ken Smith Cc: 'Sherry Boschert' Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 12:48 AM Subject: Re: suggestions for speakers for Sierra Club in Miami?
Hi Ken (and thanks Sherry for the introduction and kind words!), (By the way, Ken, you missed an excellent book lecture that Sherry gave in January of last year at FIU, with a packed house, enthusiastic audience, very well received, organized by Profs. Ed Glab and Jack Parker.) I/we (in the Florida Electric Auto Association) would love to speak and give a presentation to the Miami Sierra Club Chapter. Thank you for the invitation! I met Miami Sierra Club Chapter President Deb Matthews back in April of last year when she introduced herself to me at the Key Biscayne EarthFest. My fellow Florida EAA member Andrew Roddy and I together gave just such a presentation on electric vehicles to the Loxahatchee (Palm Beach County) Chapter of the Sierra Club back in February of this year, which went very well and everyone enjoyed. I also gave a presentation to the St. Petersburg Sierra Club Chapter in May of last year. Weekend events and presentations are always much easier for us to get to and make; a Monday evening in Miami might be a bit difficult, but I'm sure we should be able to round up at least a few of our members to come and present for that, especially for the Sierra Club, which is always a great honor! I myself don't have any PowerPoint presentations and have never really done that; my presentations are always more just sort of informal, extemporaneous affairs, usually Q&A style, where I answer people's questions, oftentimes around my electric car, a Toyota RAV4-EV, or inside a venue after viewing the car outside. I have done many such presentations by myself, but I generally prefer, whenever possible, to have a group of my fellow electric car colleagues come and we all present together, discussion panel style, and answer people's questions. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, I don't have all the answers, or necessarily the best answers, to the many variety of questions that audiences ask. Typically, whoever in our group has the most knowledge on a particular subject will answer a question posed on that subject. So this really helps to have a variety of EV experts on the panel with a diversity of skills, knowledge, and experience. A second and I think even more compelling reason to have several our of members come together to present is because if it's just me alone (or just one of our other members alone), then sometimes it can leave the impression that this is just one guy out there on his own driving an electric car all by himself. It's really a lot more impressive when a group of 4, 5, 6, or 7 of us show up, all with our electric cars, each one a different make and model, so that the group we are presenting to, in this case the Miami Sierra Club, definitely gets the unmistakeable impression that this is a growing movement and trend, with lots of diverse people driving electric cars from all walks of life, various backgrounds, and for many different reasons and motivations, many for environmental reasons, others for the performance aspects of electric cars, some for national security and energy independence reasons, and of course a lot of overlap and commonality between all of those. Here, for instance, are some of my fellow electric car drivers whom I would like to try to get to come and give a joint panel style presentation/Q&A to the Miami Sierra Club, with all our electric cars, if you would be interested in this (listed in order of geographical distance from Coconut Grove): 1) Allan Miller, who lives in a solar home on the outskirts of downtown Miami, about 3 miles from Coconut Grove where you have your meetings. The photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof of his Miami home power his house and charge his electric car, an electric VW Cabriolet. 2) Cliff Rassweiler of ProEV (www.proev.com) in Miami, the world's only full-time professional race car driver who drives an electric race car, an electric Subaru Impreza. Cliff races head-to-head with gasoline race cars and beats them all. He leads his division nationally, in an electric car, up against gasoline race cars. Cliff spends his summers on the racing circuit up north and is usually back here in Miami by mid to late September, as I recall. 3) Donato Helbling of the Miami EV Project (www.miamievproject.com), who is currently in the process of converting his VW to electric and blogs and gives presentations to groups in Miami on how the conversion process is done. 4) Lowell Simmons, EV Instructor at Miramar High School, just a couple miles north of the Miami-Dade County line, in southern Broward County. Lowell established (about 12 years ago) and runs Miramar High School's highly successful, national award winning EV program (www.miramarev.com), which has been used as the model to establish other high school EV programs all around the country. Lowell and his students hold several world speed records in Miramar High's electric cars. 5) US Congressional candidate Paul Renneisen (www.renneisen2008.com) from Ft. Lauderdale, who drives a Toyota RAV4-EV and is campaigning for Florida's 22nd Congressional District, encompassing most of Broward and Palm Beach Counties. If elected, Paul will be the first ever electric car driver to serve in the US Congress. 6) Myself, Charles Whalen, from Delray Beach, with one of my two Toyota RAV4-EVs that my wife and I use for all our daily driving. 7) Florida EAA Public Relations Director, Andrew Roddy from Palm Beach, with his AC Propulsion eBox (www.acpropulsion.com/ebox/). 8) Jonathan Ortiz of Foreign Affairs Auto (www.foreignaffairsauto.com) in West Palm Beach, Florida's premier electric vehicle dealership, with one or more of his production electric vehicles that he sells. I don't know how many of these guys could make it out on a Monday evening, but I can ask them. If you want to wait for Cliff Rassweiler (who is a very knowledgeable speaker and whose electric race car is always a big hit) to get back into town, then we'd probably need to wait to schedule this until October. Let me know how you'd like to structure a presentation to the Miami Sierra Club Chapter, and I/we will do our best to meet your format and preference. Best regards, Charles Whalen Florida Electric Auto Association (www.floridaeaa.org) Delray Beach, FL [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: Ken Smith To: 'Sherry Boschert' Cc: 'Charles Whalen' Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 3:17 PM Subject: RE: suggestions for speakers for Sierra Club in Miami? Thank you Sherry. I think this is a technology that many are interested in and actually receptive to. Charles, would you like to do a presentation on plug in vehicles for the Miami Group of the Sierra Club? I am planning the speakers for the rest of 2008. The Sierra Club Miami Group meets the second Monday of every month at the Coconut Grove Sailing Club (second floor), located at 2990 South Bayshore Drive, Coconut Grove, right next to Peacock Park. The August 2008 meeting is Monday, August 11, 2008. The doors open at 7:00 p.m. with refreshments and socializing. The formal meeting begins at 7:30pm. For more information call Ken Smith at 305-801-6876. Everyone is invited. The Sierra Club is America's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization. Ken Smith Shaklee Independent Distributor www.shaklee.net/personalbest 305.801.6876 cell Changing Brands Can Change Your Life. A groundbreaking study of long-term dietary supplement users showed that people who took Shaklee supplements had markedly better health than both other multivitamin and non-supplement users. Get Clean! Shouldn't your home be the safest place? Shaklee's non-toxic cleaning products were featured on Oprah! 4 times last year and went home with the stars at both the Emmys and the Oscars. From: Sherry Boschert [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 2:39 PM To: Ken Smith Cc: Charles Whalen Subject: Re: suggestions for speakers for Sierra Club in Miami? Hi Ken, I'm cc'ing Charles Whalen, who is an energetic and interesting speaker near your area, and who is a local expert on issues surrounding plug-in vehicles. (Hi, Charles!) Good luck and have fun, Sherry Boschert, author Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars That Will Recharge America Vice-president, Plug In America Member, Sierra Club California Climate and Energy Committee www.sherryboschert.com On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 11:16 AM, Ken Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hello Sherry Boshert! Last year you followed your book with speaking engagements, including some in south Florida and offered event speak to groups here in Miami. Unfortunately for us, the timing of our meeting did not match your dates in the area. I book the speakers for the Miami Group of the Sierra Club and expect that you are connected to many people who have a lot to share with groups like ours. If you know of anyone who would be an excellent speaker and will be out this way, please put us in contact. In general, I defined my criteria for our meetings as follows: My basic goals for choosing speakers are: 1) global issues with a local component, 2) where/what are the potential solutions, 3) give people positive action items to contribute to the solutions, 4) interesting speakers that will cause people to leave thinking they don't want to miss next month (and maybe even get involved!). Essentially I want people to be interested, learn something, and take action on the good side. Thank you for your time in reading this message and forwarding it to whom you think is appropriate. Ken Smith Shaklee Independent Distributor www.shaklee.net/personalbest 305.801.6876 cell Changing Brands Can Change Your Life. A groundbreaking study of long-term dietary supplement users showed that people who took Shaklee supplements had markedly better health than both other multivitamin and non-supplement users. Get Clean! Shouldn't your home be the safest place? Shaklee's non-toxic cleaning products were featured on Oprah! 4 times last year and went home with the stars at both the Emmys and the Oscars.
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