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| Building Science: Volume 1, Issue 1 SEON’s Sustainable Energy Outreach Network Newsletter |
| In this issue • Welcome Members • Letter from the Executive Director • Meet SEON’s Board of Directors • Building Science Guild Meeting • Other Meetings • SEON Training • Meet our Building Instructors • SEON Responds • Interesting Links |
| Welcome Members |
| Welcome New Member • Owl’s Head Builders, Guilford, VT • Silver Maple Construction/Zone 6 Energy, New Haven, VT • The Wadsworth Company LLC, Jamaica, VT |
| Thank You Returning Members • All Seasons Construction, Springfield, VT • Duane Case, Bellows Falls, VT • Farnum Insulators, Dummerston, VT • GPI Construction, Inc Brattleboro, VT • HELM Construction Solutions LLC, Brattleboro, VT • Integrated Solar Applications Corp. Brattleboro, VT • JA Saccoccio Workshop PLLC, Brattleboro, VT • Mindel & Morse Builders, Brattleboro, VT • Sierra Pacific Windows, Red Bluff, CA • Wright Builders, Inc, Northampton, MA |
| Message From SEON’s Executive Director |
| SEON has started 2023 with exciting news. As we are an organization advancing the principles and skills of building science and high performance building for our workforce and homeowners/landlords, we believe our website should reflect this vision. Therefore, we have envisioned a cutting-edge way to represent our mission with: • a new website • a new domain name • a new logo Explore buildingscience.org to see what’s new. This is our brand. It is still a work in progress, but please give us your thoughts on our website. We will create a 15 year Business Plan in 5 Year time frames. SEON has received a grant from the Vermont Community Foundation for capacity building. Building from our core missions of expanding the essential knowledge base of high performance building professionals and encouraging community engagement in a clean economy, SEON plans to take our fundamental working principles and establish concrete action plans for state-wide growth and organizational sustainability. We have hired Anne Manner-McLary and staff of Heurista to be the consultant for our business plan. Guy Payne Executive Director |
| Meet SEON’s Board of Directors |
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| Jonathan Morse, Gary Swindler, Mike LaCrosse, Candace Pearson and Jason Van Nest is our all-star Board of Director’s line-up. Read their bios and see what they bring to SEON. You will be impressed. |
| Building Science Guild Meeting |
| Building Science Guild Date: January 25, 4-6:30pm Presenter: Lauren Layman from the Office of Professional Regulation Presentation: Requirements on construction contracts and some of the other legal issues surrounding this. Open discussion w/ additional attorney For the link and password, please send Guy an email OR Join to become a Member of SEON! |
| Other Meetings |
| Weatherization 101 Training Dates: Rutland – Feb 13 / Bennington – April 24 Info: A 6-week free program to become a weatherization professional. Earn $300/wk during the training. For further information go to resourcevt.org or email Pam Laser at plaser@resourcevt.org Vermont Residential Contractor Registry– Presented by the Office of Professional Regulation Date: January 31 Info: A new 2022 law requires Residential Contractors to register with the Secretary of State’s Office of Professional Regulation (OPR) by of April 1, 2023. OPR staff will present a summary of the legislation, review the definition of a Residential Contractor for the purposes of the registry, and when and how to register NESEAS Building Energy – Boston Date: March 28-29 Info: Scalable Solutions – A sustainable future is possible for the planet and the people who live here, but only with massive, collective, urgent action. With that challenge before us, our theme for this year’s BuildingEnergy Boston conference is: Scalable Solutions. As the need for more buildings collides with the growing climate crisis, now is the time for practical, scalable building design and construction solutions that meet the needs of both the planet and the people who live here. To meet this challenge, we need to reach beyond the relatively small network of early adopters and climate activists, improving how we communicate our ideas, developing solutions that work on a large scale, and building a workforce of informed and willing practitioners. Better Building by Design – Dates: April 5 and 6 Info: Once again Efficiency Vermont is offering a group discount for individuals from the same organization and SEON is listed as an organization and our members qualify for the discount. Buy four registrations, and the fifth one is free (the lowest price registrant will be the free one). This drops the Early Price for the full conference from $350 to $280. For SEON member discount, contact Guy Payne before January 31, guy@buildingscience.org |
| SEON Training |
| • Basics of High Performance Building – March 8 & 15Two Training Locations Date: March 8 & 15 Time: 3:45pm – 7:45pm Locations: Center for Technology, Essex (Instructor: Chris West) 2 Educational Drive, Essex Jct, VT 05452 OR Green Mountain Technology and Career Center (Instructor: Jim Bradley) 738 VT-15, Hyde Park, VT 05655 Sign up for either location ► here. • Basics of High Performance Building – March 13 & 20 Date: March 13 & 20 Time: 3:45pm – 7:45pm Location: Patricia Hannaford Career Center (Instructor: Nate Gusakov) 51 Charles Street, Middlebury, VT 05753 Sign up ► here. • Basics of High Performance Building – March 14 & 21 Date: March 14 & 21 Time: 3:45pm – 7:45pm Location: Windham Regional Career Center (Instructor: Junio Anthes-Moody) 80 Atwood Drive, Brattleboro, VT 05301 Sign up ► here. • Basics of High Performance Building – March 23 & 30 Date: March 23 & 30 Time: 3:45pm – 7:45pm Location: Hartford Area Career and Technology Center (Instructor: Michael Goetinck) 1 Gifford Road, White River Junction, VT 05001 Sign up ► here. • Basics of High Performance Building – April 12 & 26 Date: April 12 & 26 Time: 3:45pm – 7:45pm Location: Southwest Vermont Career Development Center (Instructor: Junio Anthes-Moody) 321 Park Street, Bennington, VT 05201 Sign up ► here. • Leadership Development for Crew Leaders: Mentoring Skills to Develop & Retain Your Workforce Building – April 13 & 20 Date: April 13 & 20 Time: 3:45pm – 7:45pm Location: Windham Regional Career Center (Instructor: Guy Payne) 80 Atwood Drive, Brattleboro, VT 05301 Sign up ► here. • Basics of High Performance Building – April 25 & 27 Date: April 25 & 27 Time: 3:45pm – 7:45pm Location: River Valley Technical Center (Instructor: Peter Yost) 307 South Street, Springfield, VT 05156 Sign up ► here. |
| Meet Our Building Instructors |
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| SEON’s new Building Science Instructors have been assigned for our 2023 training. Read their bios and see why our training comes with the perfect professional pitch. (Note: missing the bios for Chris West and Michael Goetinck.) |
| SEON Responds |
| Legislature to know In May 2022, the Vermont Legislature passed and Governor Scott signed into law a bill that created mandatory registration with the state for any contractor who performs residential construction where the estimated value is $10,000 or more, inclusive of labor and materials. Applications opened on December 1, 2022, with mandatory registration required by April 1, 2023 Go here for FAQs. How SEON responds to the Vermont Legislation While the VT Office of Professional Regulation works to codify what constitutes acceptable certifications for the building industry, SEON continues to offer our foundation course on Building Science throughout the State. This is our initial required learning for certification, and we’ll be delivering this at 8 Career Centers throughout Vermont this Spring. |
| Interesting Links |
| • Cluster Development is the New Economic Development • MIT and Harvard scientists uncover the key behind ancient Rome’s ‘self-healing’ concrete • This startup plans to collect carbon pollution from buildings before it’s emitted. • 40-tonne steel rigs will protect the Viking ships during the building of a new Viking Age museum in Oslo |
| Copyright (C) 2023 Sustainable Energy Outreach Network (SEON). All rights reserved. |
Photo credit: Ian Schneider