Thanks, again, to all who attended Gathering #3 on May 14th at the Newark Public Library. Official attendance was 34, beating gathering #2 by 2. Pictures appear below. We had a very good mix this time, from the very first LEAF owner (gudy) to owners of less than 24 hours (me) and future owners with Summer, 2011 delivery. The meeting basically had 3 stages, i.e., tailgate party, organized discussion, and parking lot clusters. We kicked off with a tailgate party for the early risers shortly after 8 AM but found a steady stream of BayLEAFs arriving all the way up to the meeting time of 9. Many drove up in their LEAFs, which were less than 2 weeks old. The library was kind enough to let us in prior to opening, and the organized discussion got started around 9:15.
Topics covered:
Regular Meetings and Venues: The group decided to meet for organized activity (inside/parking lot) on the
2nd Saturday of each month, with the exception of every 4th meeting. The locations will be South Bay (SJ/Sunnyvale/Mtn View), Peninsula (Redwood/Foster City), East Bay (Fremont/Newark), and San Francisco. The San Francisco meeting will be held on the
first Saturday of the month to coincide with the Golden Gate Electric Auto Association Meeting. Rotating venues will provide everyone the chance to drive their LEAFs to at least half of the meetings. I'll be soliciting input from members for suitable sites in each location. Libraries were favorably discussed as well as sympathetic Tech Companies. While the idea of splitting into two groups was discussed, it was decided to remain as one entity for now with the above rotation. There is too much synergy to consider breaking it up.
Other activities: Various members of the group suggested non-organized activities that occur on other Saturdays, including other informal car clubs (Santana Row), Rallys, Fairs, etc. We were all strongly encouraged to affiliate with our local EAA in order to get regular emails/newsletters where such events are listed. It was also suggested that we do a wine tasting and an SF-LA relay, driving 60-100 mile segments. All fun stuff. These activities also can be considered as advocacy efforts, so were all encouraged to talk to our local libraries about giving presentations on EV's. Also suggested were going into stores such as Costco and asking about their chargers (like, where are they? When will existing ones be updated, etc.). This technique is viewed as effective for developing charge infrastructure
Charging: A great deal of discussion was held around charging, with two major thrusts: Nissan Dealers and ChargePoint (or similar networks). Although earther wasn't there, we discussed the charging incident that happened at Stevens Creek Nissan. It seems that charging at dealers is still in flux--the group would like to have chargers open but understand the needs of the dealers. Suggestion was to lobby Carwings to remove dealers that don't permit open charging. Waidy gave an overview of the ChargePoint network and mentioned that businesses can apply to receive a free charger. She expects the network to be more extensively built out within the next 6 months. (Sorry, I'm not doing this discussion justice for the sake of brevity).
Private PlugShare Network: Given that not everyone has an iPhone and that we are geographically diverse, the group decided that a limited, private charge sharing network would be appropriate. I will take an action item to start same. Participation on a volunteer (no-obligation) basis.
Guest Speakers: gasmiser1 talked about replacing the horn in the LEAF and has found a good alternative at reasonable price. Electric4me captivated the group with his trailer hitch addition, which allows a bike rack to be attached. He will post pictures in a separate thread. Ingineer talked about the L1 EVSE modification and the future of the included EVSE. We'll probably have him give a more extensive talk at a future meeting. ElectricVehicle showed the latest in LED lighting technology, also with great interest. I'm soliciting ideas for guest speakers.
Apologies to csriram45 for not discussing the seat covers (gasmiser1 also had some suggestions) and the key fob supplies.
The group decided to assemble a LEAF cluster for photos--those have been posted on page 14 of this thread. In all, 25 LEAFs were present, 23 of which are in the photo. The discussions continued well past Noon with clusters forming around Electric4me's trailer hitch, L1 EVSE mods (at Ingineer's plug-in Prius), ElectricVehicle's RAV-4 EV, and the ladder that was set up for the historic photo.
Here are photos from the outside portions of the gathering:
A curious couple checks out the LEAFs during the tailgate party
The tailgate party takes shape as the LEAFs start arriving
Gudy brings the first LEAF delivered in North America (and first black LEAF to a BayLEAFs meeting) and talks about his experiences over 5 months of ownership
All 5 colors are represented (half of them blue) as the lineup for the historic photo progresses
BayLEAFs line up to climb the ladder (background) for taking photos of the cluster
gasmiser1 shows fellow BayLEAFs where he'll mount the dual horns while others admire Electric4me's bike rack and trailer hitch modification