Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Capital Branch January Update

Every December, the Sacramento Branch of the USGBC-NCC takes time to celebrate the success of the past year and the continuing development of the Branch and green building in our region. December 2011 was no exception, and this year’s celebration held special meaning as we introduced our membership to our new name - Capital Branch. The Leadership Team believes this name better represents our position in the green movement locally, solidifying our involvement and impact on greenbuilding in Northern California and throughout the state.

This year for our Holiday Social, we returned to Hot Italian, Sacramento’s first LEED Certified (Silver level) restaurant, joined by our first time event sponsor, Sundt Construction, who helped make it a success. While we grazed on deliciousItalian pizza California style & tasty spinach salad graced by a lovely glass of Chianti, we recognized Sophia Hartkopf for her leadership over the past two years as Branch Chair. No gift exchange this year, but ideas and conversation were free flowing and friendships solidified. 2012 portends to be a very exciting year, with Greenbuild in San Francisco and the 2012 Capital Branch Holiday Social.

The Leadership Committee of the Capital Branch wishes to extend thanks to all those members in our 10-county Branch area that helped us make 2011 the success it was! We had many well-attended events – a presentation by ZETA Communities in January attracted attendees from throughout the Chapter. At the tour of their manufacturing plant in August, attendees could see a project in the various stages of production. In October, we held our inaugural Visionary event, hosted in partnership with the Central Valley Chapter of the AIA, where architect Steven Ehrlich, AIA, inspired the audience with his philosophy of Multicultural Modernism, in which culture enriches sustainable design strategies and techologies, whether in California, Africa or the Middle East. In September we hosted our first webinar on Credential Maintenance. By years end the Branch had provided a total of 9 Continuing Education Units to Branch and Chapter LEED APs. And we celebrated 2011’s achievements with our dear friends from Hot Italian, Sacramento’s first LEED Certified (Silver level) with first time event sponsor, Sundt Construction.

The Branch enters 2012 with a new name – CAPITAL BRANCH! – new faces on the leadership committee (Regina Souchek, architect, and David Campbell, landscape architect) and exciting additions to our volunteer corps. And although we’re as proud and excited as can be that Greenbuild 2012 will be hosted by our own Northern California Chapter, we’re working hard to provide opportunities for Continuing Education and networking, and we’re eager to hear from our Branch members how we can help them meet their green building goals. So, please, come to an event, introduce yourselves to one of our leadership committee members (we’re the ones with the green “Leadership” ribbons on our name tags,) and tell us what’s on your mind. And, as ever, we welcome any of you to contact us via email or phone, all of which can be found on our Branch webpage at www.usgbc-ncc.org/capital and we hope you can lend your time and experience, whether helping us check in your fellow members attending an event, or, even better, presenting on your particular field of green building expertise.

Lastly, we wish to thank Brian Sehnert and Ray Nalangan, our two outgoing leadership committee members, for their hard work in 2011. We wouldn’t have had the 2011 we did without your considerable talents and efforts.

2012 CAPITAL BRANCH LEADERSHIP COMMITTEE
Shelly Dildey  -   Chair
Donny Gallagher  -  Co-chair
Shelly Duff   -  Treasurer
Alicia Chavez  -  Secretary
Jessica Morrow  -   Events Chair
David Campbell  -  Events Co-chair
Susan Rainier  -  Special Events Co-chair
Sophia Hartkopf  -  Membership Chair
Regina Souchek  -  Publicity Chair

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