Highlights from LVEVA General Meeting at SYN Shop Hackerspace on May 11, 2019

The May monthly meeting of the Las Vegas Electric Vehicle Association was staged on Saturday, May 11, 2019 from 10 AM to Noon at the SYN Shop Hackerspace in Henderson, near the Valley Auto Mall, at 1075 American Pacific, Suite C, Henderson, NV 89074. www.synshop.org

LVEVA Meeting Agenda:

  1. Review of April 20th monthly meeting at GreenFest 2019 and Drive Electric Earth Day -Las Vegas.
  2. Upcoming National Drive Electric Week 2019 (Sept. 14 – 22, 2019)
  3. Electric Auto Association resources and membership opportunities.
  4. Plug-in America PlugStar program.
  5. LVEVA Board of Director Nominations (2 Seats Available)
  6. General Discussion.
  7. Tour of SYN Shop Hackerspace.

The SYN Shop Hackerspace is an outpost of the Maker movement, where people who like to build things work together to purchase and share large shop tools that wouldn’t normally fit into their garages.

Shareable tools include 3D Printers, Laser cutters, CNC machines, lathes, milling machines, welding equipment, casting equipment, electronics workbenches, drill presses, industrial sewing machines, and more.

The hacker community that frequents SYN Shop include professional and amateur fabricators from all over the Las Vegas valley, encompassing a wide variety of technical and artistic skills.

Members of SYN Shop teach each other about manufacturing techniques and the intricacies of using these tools, as well as offering educational classes to the general public.

Attendees at the monthly meeting received a tour of the SYN Shop workspaces from Richard Furniss, who had been a former President of the LVEVA.

Other topics featured on the LVEVA meeting agenda included:

  1. Discussion about the parent Electric Auto Association website and membership opportunities for $35 per year, that includes the monthly Current Events e-newsletter subscription. $10 from each membership in the EAA is allocated to the nearest local EAA chapter: https://eaa-1967.clubexpress.com/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=222684&module_id=297060

2. Plug-in America has created a PlugStar database that can help prospective EV buyers search through all the existing models of plug-in electric cars on the market, as well as point to local dealerships that sell these vehicles: https://pluginamerica.org/plugstar/

3. Eymhy Corpus from the Nevada Toiyabe chapter of the Sierra Club talked about the new focus of this non-profit organization on transportation emissions and their effect on air quality within the state.

Southern Nevada members of the Toiyabe chapter have formed a Transportation Committee to review actions that can be taken to encourage the use of cleaner vehicles for transportation, including electric cars, trucks and buses.

The chapter has received federal funding to staff a full-time position to work towards these goals under its Clean Transportation for All campaign: https://www.sierraclub.org/transportation

4. A review of the recent Drive Electric Earth Day event at Dowtown Summerlin in conjunction with GreenFest 2019 (see blog below).

5. Preliminary planning discussion on upcoming National Drive Electric Week campaign led by Electric Auto Assocation, Sierra Club and Plug-in America from September 14 – 22, 2019:

https://driveelectricweek.org/

6. Nominations were made to fill two Board of Directors positions for the Las Vegas Electric Vehicle Association. A Director commits to three years of service on the seven-member Board of Directors for the local chapter to help fulfill its mission to promote educational outreach about plug-in electric cars and recharging infrastructure.

Three nominees for the two Board of Directors positions were:

  1. Ed Malkiewiscz
  2. Jenny Pletcher
  3. Paul Bordenkircher

Ballot elections will be held during the June 2019 monthly meeting of the LVEVA for these two positions.

2019 Calendar

May 25, 2019 Ride ‘n Drive EVent at NV Energy campus from 9 AM to 3 PM.

Address: 6226 W. Sahara, Las Vegas, NV 89146

Attendees can pre-register for scheduled drive times during the upcoming event at this web link:

http://electriccarguestdrive.com/lasvegas5.html

June 8, 2019 Las Vegas Electric Vehicle Association will hold its June 2019 general membership meeting at Jaguar Land Rover Las Vegas dealership from 10 AM to noon.

The dealership will feature the Jaguar I-PACE electric SUV.