Restarting the monthly meetup - Monday the 21st and Tuesday the 22nd

[Erik Paulson]

All - 

We're going to be restarting the monthly meetup, with the first session this next Monday, June 21st, along with a special event on Tuesday, June 22nd. The Monday session will be virtual, the Tuesday session will be in-person.

The June meetup is going to be a bit different because we’re partnering with the City of Madison to do a “hackathon” on electric cars on Tuesday, June 22nd, as part of the City Fleet Services “Grand Opening/Ribbon Cutting/Open House” for their new Fleet Services Building on the east side of Madison (across the street from Wal-Mart - the old Cub Foods site at 30&51.) The event is family-friendly and features music, food, tours of the building, and getting the chance to test drive different electric vehicles, including a few Teslas.
https://www.cityofmadison.com/news/youre-invited-city-fleet-building-ribbon-cutting-open-house

The City has a short term goal of getting to 15% electric cars in the entire city - increasing the number of electric cars that residents use, not just electrifying the City fleet. So we’re going to get some folks together from the tech community, MG&E, local environmental groups, and transportation experts and think about some ways to help get us there. We’re pitching this as a hackathon, though it’s more of a brainstorming session because there’s not a lot of time for coding. The goal is to come up with ways to help residents switch to electric cars, and to work towards making changes in the city that could make it easier for residents to switch to electric cars. We’re going to think about apps, web sites and platforms, datasets, and other infrastructure that could make this easier.

So for June, we’re going to start with a virtual meetup on Monday, June 21st at 6:00PM. It’s on Zoom, and to get the Zoom link, please fill out this RSVP Google Form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeojrHnem-MU6E1fgOHyrOewausk7PVTBFfNc0G0KqwfqFFjg/viewform?usp=sf_link

(It should automatically email you the Zoom link after you RSVP)

Monday’s Zoom will be an open discussion on the future of the group and the plan for future meetups, and then a start on brainstorming for the Tuesday in-person “hackathon”.

The Tuesday portion will be in-person, and will start at 4:30pm at the City Fleet building on the East Side, across from Walmart. We'll start out with a brainstorming session from 4:30-6:30pm, and then a presentation portion from 6:40pm-7pm. It's OK if you have to join late because you can't get away from work at 4:30, come join for what you can! We'll be joined by experts from MG&E, City Fleet, Clean Wisconsin, and other community members. The hope is that we’d divide into two “teams” and develop two different ideas, but the format is still a bit up in the air - we want to gauge some interest and see how many folks are interested in participating, so please RSVP on the Google Form above!

Thanks, and hope to see you all soon!

-Erik