President's message, July 2012

The Board of Directors of Passive House Northwest recently spent a Saturday in Olympia at a Planning Retreat. The day was split into two parts – the first was spent on general strategic planning, the second on discussing our regional events (conferences etc.).

As I’ve mentioned before, the Board feels that PHnw has reached a fork in the road. We’ve done a good job in establishing ourselves as a viable non-profit organization, we’ve learned how to put on great events, and we have a very good (and continually improving) website. So where do we go from here?

Event planning uses up alot of the organizations resources – both human and financial. That was one reason we devoted a good part of our retreat to discussion of Events. Are there ways to streamline the planning of these, through hiring a consultant, taking advantage of internship possibilities, compiling a planning manual, etc? In these ways we could free up Board and Membership resources, to devote more energy to other important pursuits.

Clear priorities that emerged from our retreat were Marketing, Outreach, and continuing the work we’ve begun in affecting Policy and Codes. Marketing, to assist our members in selling Passive House to their clients.  Outreach, to continue to spread the word about the value of Passive House, and ultimately create more work for our members. Lobbying to change Policy and improve Codes, to raise the bar for the mainstream and make Passive House a relatively easier target.  

As in everything the Board does, we encourage involvement and participation from our members. Because we need to devote energy to new projects, in addition to the ongoing work we’re already doing, we appreciate all the help we can get. We have committees devoted to Outreach, Education, I.T., Membership, among others. There are many ways our members can get involved, and we can especially use help from anyone with expertise in web design, social media, finances, policy, fundraising, building science. See the website to learn how to get involved, or contact me at president@phnw.org. Thanks!