HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-12-12 Bozeman Climate Partners Idle Free Working Group Minutes Bozeman Climate Partners
Idle Free Working Group
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Meeting Minutes
April 12, 2012, 2:00pm
Bozeman City Hall, City Commission Meeting Room
Members Attending:
Nick Bentley, Wendy Weaver, Carson Taylor(Commission Liason),
Elin Hert, Ellyn Murphy, Phil Cameron (on telephone)
Staff Present:
Natalie Meyer(Staff Liaison), Emily Baker(Energy Corps Member)
A. Call to Order
B. Changes to the Agenda
a. Proposed timeline moved to Action Item (Meyer)
C. Public Comment
D. Update on Bozeman Climate Partners Communications Working Group (Bentley)
a. Discussed progress, including core values, name, and progress on website and logo.
E. Action Items
a. Proposed Timeline (Meyer)
i. Timeline proposed by Natalie Meyer; seeks group input on all aspects
ii. Research
1. Elin Hert expressed the need to continue work on the research section,
Meyer agreed that the research, and distilling facts, is still in progress.
2. Phil Cameron said that Agronne National Labs will be willing to confirm/
support our facts section, once done.
iii. Survey
1. Subcommittee expressed that it will require revisions, depending on which
way we decide to take it.
iv. Outreach
1. Plan: develop in May and June (Meyer)
2. Phil expressed that it takes several weeks to get an item on the
Commision's agenda, and suggested we should move the presentation
back to August.
3. Natalie confirmed, and agreed we should move our presentation to the
commission to August.
4. The group agreed, at Natalie's suggestion, that this would then move
production of materials to September/October. We should get green light
from commission before moving ahead on designs.
5. This moves implementation to November/ December
v. Analyze Results
1. Wendy suggested we stretch this for a long period of time, move to
include time after the plan is implemented.
2. Phil agreed that messaging sometimes takes a while to sink in.
3. Elin mentioned we could measure results in changed attitude sooner, as
that is quicker to change than established habits.
4. Missing: group decided we needed to include a 'tracking over time'
portion, and have this as possibly one of our recs to the commission.
a. Carson suggested that we will perhaps change our outreach
methods over time, as we assess each portion's efficacy, etc.
Monitoring over time will be necessary to see efficacy.
5. Emily mentioned we might consider how to get a representative sample of
the public to take the survey.
6. Ellyn Murphy mentioned it might be most productive to survey people in
cars, not pedestrians.
b. Survey of Idling Behavior Subcommittee
i. Survey Questions Contents (Wendy Weaver)
1. Wendy presented the questions she proposed for a survey to assess
current beliefs on idling.
ii. Phil expressed that we should add a purpose: establish the best way to educate
the public by asking them what media they tend to consume most.
iii. Emily thought we could expand the survey questions to have people report how
much they idle (every day, how many hours, etc).
iv. Wendy suggested we could ask about each type of information-getting
individually.
v. Emily suggested adding a question about which sources people are likely to
trust on info related to idling: government, click n' clack, car manufacturers,
other.
vi. Elin thought we could get good across-the-baord information, if we're careful
on where we go (e.g. not just downtown).
vii. Phil commented on sample size: with 300 individual answers, we can have — 95%
confidence in our results.
1. Nick agreed.
viii. Wendy will create a proposed survey; the group will have a chance to comment,
and then we will be ready to get it out to the public.
ix. Phil: Survey Monkey optimized for the iPhone; constant contact doesn't work on
iPhone
1. Survey Monkey is $17/month, and to survey once before and once after
outreach wouldn't really break the bank (Emily).
2. Concerns voiced over self-selection of people taking survey online.
a. We will keep in person/online separate.
b. Carson: large sample size will negate problems with only getting
certain populations in the survey.
3. Natalie mentioned we could get a link to the online survey on utility bills.
4. Wendy said she will have the survey ready for comment next week, and
after comment, we will shoot to have a final version ready-to-go by the
end of April. We will be ready to implement in the first week of May!
5. We should recruit volunteers to help with survey (parents, bicycle advisory
board, others?)
6. Elin expressed concern our volunteers give the survey in a consistent
manner.
x. Alternative Measurement Tactics (Emily Baker)
1. Percentage approach vs. time idling approach
a. Could tailor to the situation: % at school, time at a drive-thru
xi. Consensus that we should have 3 categories: idling, not-idling, out-of-car idling.
xii. Specifics:
1. Nick commented that there is a lot of noise, ie. Variability in the day to day.
2. Natalie mentioned we should do on the same day of the week.
3. Carson expressed that he thought monitoring some number of schools,
and some number of banks on set dates over the course of the year would
be worthwhile.
4. Natalie said we should be careful in how we set it up.
5. Carson commented that people will ridicule everything you create if they
don't agree with the results. Not a reason to refrain from studying.
6. Elin thought perhaps fall and spring would be similar; perhaps we could do
the measurements only 3x/yr.
7. Group discussion on whether to measure tourists.
a. New tourists each summer.
b. Need to get the message to them —Wal-Mart parking lot.
i. We can study hot-spots for tourists separately from the
general Bozeman population we seek to measure.
8. Schools: can't measure in summer. Summer camps instead? Same
demographic.
9. Elyn Murphy said we are forgetting the importance of wintertime tourists.
We get many of those during ski season.
a. Phil said that the Greater Yellowstone area generally sees more
tourism in summer, due to National Park tourists.
c. Idling Facts (Meyer)
i. Natalie presented the basic categories into which she has organized information
about idling, as in the document she sent around before the meeting.
Consensus from the group that we liked the categories.
ii. Elin wanted input on the group re: what speaks to us most strongly.
iii. Natalie discussed the different numbers (10s and 30s) that are commonly seen
as break-even points for idling.
1. Phil said that 10s is the gas break-even point, and 30s includes wear and
tear on the battery, starter, motor, etc. He said that the 3min you
sometimes hear has just been thrown around as a "reasonable number",
and isn't based on technical things in motors, etc.
iv. Specific Edits
1. Use Energy Security instead of"Geo-Political" (Wendy and Phil)
2. Idle technology can include block heaters and ... garages (Phil, Carson,
Wendy)
3. Change laws to "existing laws and policies" to include more guidelines.
v. Commercial Trucks
1. Issues with trucks in NE neighborhoods.
2. Outreach will be simpler, b/c only a few owners/managers to reach, instead
of the public at large.
3. List of local groups with no-idle policies?
a. Can put this list on the BCP website! Be A Partner section?
4. Phil offered to find the group a list of which large companies have anti-
idling policies.
F. FYI/Discussion
a. Next meeting will be Thursday, May 10th at 2pm.
b. Subcommittee meetings will occur before that, and schedule based upon group
availability.
G. Adjournment—4:OOpm