Are taking advantage of SEI’s job board?

SEI’s job board can help employers find qualified employees, and help job seekers find opportunities in the solar industry

Did you know that SEI has trained over 60,000+ people from all over the world on solar energy?  Did you also know that SEI hosts an exclusive job board that only our 60,000+ alumni can view?  If your company is looking to add an SEI trained professional to your team, please consider hosting your next job opening on SEI’s job board!  Check out the job listing previews at https://www.solarenergy.org/careers-job-board/ (You cannot view full job posting without alumni log in credentials).

Employers: To have your solar job posted send, at minimum, the name/location of your company, job description, and contact info for potential employees to SEI@solarenergy.org .  Your company’s job opening will be hosted for all SEI alumni to view for 90 days; you may resubmit after 90 days.  In the hopes of bringing professionally trained solar personnel in contact with great solar companies looking to hire, this service is completely FREE for both employers and alumni!

Alumni: For those alumni seeking jobs, don’t forget to regularly log into your account at https://solarenergytraining.org/course/view.php?id=402 see the latest job postings.  To get full access to SEI’s exclusive employer job openings, you must be a student/alum with SEI and received your alumni login credentials via email at time of original training.  If you didn’t receive your alumni login credentials or have forgotten them, please contact student services at SEI@solarenergy.org with your full name.

The post Are taking advantage of SEI’s job board? appeared first on Solar Training - Solar Installer Training - Solar PV Installation Training - Solar Energy Courses - Renewable Energy Education - NABCEP - Solar Energy International (SEI).

from Solar Training – Solar Installer Training – Solar PV Installation Training – Solar Energy Courses – Renewable Energy Education – NABCEP – Solar Energy International (SEI) https://www.solarenergy.org/are-taking-advantage-of-seis-job-board/
via IFTTT

Solar Forward: The importance of empowering community groups to “be the change” they want to see in their energy future

Solar Forward is on a mission to bring Solar Energy International (SEI)’s industry-leading solar expertise to communities throughout Colorado looking to kickstart solar markets. We are so excited to see solar growth efforts are ramping up in Gunnison County. As the school year gets underway, our program partners are starting their planning process for a Solarize program which is slated to reach the entire County.

The Solar Forward program empowers community groups to implement solar growth initiatives in the regions in which they are located. In the case of Gunnison County, two graduate students at Western Colorado State University are overseeing and implementing a Solarize program as their capstone project, with SEI’s Solar Forward Technical Adviser as their mentor.

This model is so important to ensure the sustainability of local solar market growth. By simply empowering program drivers in communities with tools and expertise needed to foster a strong solar market, Solar Forward is able to catalyze grassroots solar movements throughout the state which are able to stand on their own, and grow following the end of their year of solar consulting. This model also encourages local job creation and economic development.

Solar Forward Program Manager Mary Marshall traveled to the City of Gunnison last week, where she met with the Solar Forward partnered program coordinators. Thursday night she attended a potluck and brainstorming session, organized by the program coordinators. In attendance were community stakeholders, potential program volunteers, and local installers. Discussions for up to two hours followed the dinner and ideas abound about the potential of the upcoming Solarize program.

The next day, Mary sat in on meetings with an area installation company, and then walked the program coordinators through how to use the Solar Forward toolkit. Here is her takeaway from the trip:

“Experiencing the energy of people looking to grow solar in their own communities is my favorite part of the Solar Forward program,” she said. “It’s so important to us at Solar Forward to share the ongoing story of partnerships to celebrate their successes and inspire future innovative partnerships. This program is truly about YOU: the communities across the state and the people in them who want to make a change. We are just here to save you time, and to empower you with knowledge based on our experience so you can be the driver in your own community. I like to end every conversation by conveying the fact that I love to talk about this program, and am constantly open to taking any questions people might have about it. Let’s keep moving forward!”

Mary can be reached at mary@solarenergy.org or at 630-607-4352.

The post Solar Forward: The importance of empowering community groups to “be the change” they want to see in their energy future appeared first on Solar Training - Solar Installer Training - Solar PV Installation Training - Solar Energy Courses - Renewable Energy Education - NABCEP - Solar Energy International (SEI).

from Solar Training – Solar Installer Training – Solar PV Installation Training – Solar Energy Courses – Renewable Energy Education – NABCEP – Solar Energy International (SEI) https://www.solarenergy.org/solar-forward-the-importance-of-empowering-community-groups-to-be-the-change-they-want-to-see-in-their-energy-future/
via IFTTT

SEI Mourns the Loss of Ed Marston, Former Board President and Champion of SEI

By Kathy Swartz, Executive Director

I remember the day so clearly. We were gathered together and brainstorming SEI’s vision statement, and Ed Marston said, “What about ‘a world powered by renewable energy’?” And the room became quiet. It was perfect—visionary and simply stated. It’s with great sorrow that I share with you that Ed Marston, long-time board president and SEI champion, died last Friday, August 31, 2018. He died of complications from West Nile. Back in April, we almost lost him to a heart attack and a multiple bypass surgery. We thought we had more time with him, but we lost this great man to a tiny mosquito. Ed earned his PhD in solid-state physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1968, and was a physics professor before he and his wife, Betsy, and children Wendy, 4, and David, 2, moved to Paonia in 1974. He switched to journalism, founding two papers and becoming publisher of the weekly North Fork Times, 1975-1980, and Western Colorado Report, 1982-83, when it was folded into High Country News. He always worked with his wife, an editor who continued as his working partner. In 1983, he became publisher of High Country News, which continues to cover the West for its 35,000 subscribers who live all over the country. He held that writing and administrative post for 19 years until 2002, when he retired. Ed was our champion and a fierce defender of the West’s birthright of public lands, of local empowerment, and disruption of any kind, including energy. Never an ideologue, he’d often talk about how he heated his home with a coal furnace with locally mined coal. Community was so incredibly important to him. Ed joined our board in 2010 and was our board president from May 2012 through March 2017. As a student of the human condition with insatiable curiosity, he loved listening to our students share their stories and would joke how they, like him, couldn’t hold a career. After introductions, Ed would paint the 30,000-foot picture. He would weave together Topsy, the elephant that Edison electrocuted, the local marijuana industry, the decline of the nearby coal mines, electric utilities and the disruptive power of renewables. Sometimes we, the staff, would cringe—where is he going with this?—but he always brought it together in the inspirational way that only Ed could. Ed led us through the turbulent times of 2012 when SEI almost went out of business. Ed, as a new Board President, and I, a new Executive Director, both stepped into our roles at the same time. Ed was a generous mentor with so many of us, myself included, and with our Americorps VISTAs. We would often have tea together and he challenged me to think bigger, even when we didn’t agree on the direction SEI should go. Our meetings, like his class talks, were circuitous and inspirational, but often days or months later, the gems of wisdom that he shared would find their way into my thoughts. Ed was incapable of thinking small, and had an amazing sense of humor and an easy, infectious laugh.  About a year ago, Ed asked if, when he died, if the memorial could be at SEI. We were incredibly honored that he asked. Even Ed, as wise as he was, didn’t fully understand the impact that he’s had on thousands of people,  many of whom will be coming to his memorial on Friday, September 7 at 2pm. To accommodate everyone, it’ll now be at Delicious Orchards in Paonia. To Betsy, his wife of 52 years, and David and Wendy, we send our love. We are incredibly fond of Ed, and grieve his death. Ed, we miss you… Kathryn Swartz, Executive Director Solar Energy International (SEI)

 

More SEI Team Members Remember Ed Marston In the past year, Ed sent out an incredibly “Ed-like” holiday card. On the back was this poem, Things to Think Think in ways you’ve never thought before. If the phone rings, think of it as carrying a message Larger than anything you’ve ever heard, Vaster than a thousand lines of Yeats. Think that someone may bring a bear to your door, Maybe wounded and deranged; or think that a moose Has risen out of a lake, and he’s carrying on his antlers A child of your own whom you’ve never seen. When someone knocks on the door, think that he’s about To give you something large; tell you you’re forgiven, Or that’s it’s not necessary to work all the time, or that it’s Been decided that if you lie down no one will die. – by Robert Bly “Ed was one of the most insightful persons I have ever met.  I will miss his sense of humor and genuine concern for everyone he came in contact with.” -Ken Gardner, Vice President of the SEI Board of Directors, and Instructor “It must be a tough day at HQ in Paonia. Ed was a visionary and I am sure the entire community of Paonia and beyond will celebrate his life and contributions. I look forward to hearing more stories that are ‘Ed-like.’ Sadly, I only spoke with him a few times, though I was aware of his work from reading High Country News before I ever attended SEI. Sending loving thoughts to SEI, HCN, Betsy (his wife) and all in the North Fork Valley.” -Roger Williams, SEI Curriculum Developer and Instructor “How hugely ironic, unjust and unexpected that a man of such great physical and mental capabilities should be laid low by something microscopic.  What a wakeup call to each of us to live each day to our fullest capability and lie down each night knowing we had done the best we could that day, but vowing to do better the next. I write this through tears. 30 years ago,  I consulted with Ed about a small non-profit business I was starting.  He challenged me to be more thoughtful about what I wanted to do, to use more head not just heart, and to plan carefully.  I did some of the things he suggested, but not others.  He did not dismiss me because I chose my own way (which was not always successful), but continued to support and encourage me.  When he recruited me to join the SEI BOD, I asked, why me?  He said he thought I could bring some non-profit leadership experience to the Board (this from someone who had lead High Country News for decades and raised a lot of money to support it!). This time, I tried to follow his guidance more carefully.  I have contributed to SEI’s – both Board and staff – understanding of what a well-managed non-profit organization should look like.  And as this highly respected organization moves into the world of seeking support from philanthropic institutions, it is well prepared to be most successful.  Ed was the spark.  I just helped fan the flame. While I have not seen him as much of late as I did when he was President of the SEI BOD, I enjoyed our occasional exchanges.  Oh how I will miss them!  There is a huge hole in our community.  My heart aches with sadness.  Too soon, Ed, too soon. With love and sympathy to Betsy and the family.” -Sarah Bishop, SEI Board Director “I am shocked and deeply saddened to learn about Ed Marston’s death. When we served together as board members at SEI, Ed always acted in what he saw were the best interests of SEI as an organization, never with a personal agenda. His honesty and forthright approach were always appreciated in meetings and beyond. SEI, the West Slope, and the American West have lost a good person who was a unique and valuable treasure.” -Don Phillipson, former President of the SEI Board of Directors “I really respected Ed for his way of thinking, his insightful words, and his overall kindness to everyone I ever saw him speak to. I will miss his openings at the SEI classroom very much. They always left me with something to think about. I am very sorry for his loss.” -Karo Fernandez, SEI Curriculum Developer and Instructor

The post SEI Mourns the Loss of Ed Marston, Former Board President and Champion of SEI appeared first on Solar Training - Solar Installer Training - Solar PV Installation Training - Solar Energy Courses - Renewable Energy Education - NABCEP - Solar Energy International (SEI).

from Solar Training – Solar Installer Training – Solar PV Installation Training – Solar Energy Courses – Renewable Energy Education – NABCEP – Solar Energy International (SEI) https://www.solarenergy.org/sei-mourns-the-loss-of-ed-marston-former-board-president-and-champion-of-sei/
via IFTTT