Branch Leadership Retreat

Contributed by Scott Watkins, Emerging Green Professionals Committee, Diablo East Bay Branch

Warm muffins and zesty coffee welcomed us-- 40+ USGBC-NCC members-- when we arrived at XL Construction’s incredible facility in Milpitas. Included among us were representative leadership of the five NCC Branches, Chapter board members, and Branch committee members. After spending a few minutes touring the LEED Silver certified XL Construction, I was impressed, but not surprised, that XL was honored by the San Francisco Business Times “as one of the Best Places to Work in the Bay Area.”

The retreat kicked-off with a group exercise: building a model skyscraper out of newspaper and tape that could support a kiwi. As our smaller workgroup, which represented all five regions of NCC, began rolling newspaper into piers for our model, we began discussing our roles within our respective branches, as well as each branch’s successes, challenges, and operational practices. We identified a great deal of symmetry between our collective branches, but also identified opportunities to replicate the procedures and successes of other branches.




Following the kick-off exercise, the groups came back together, and we commenced a brainstorming session, focusing on many of the topics we had discussed during the exercise: streamlining events, membership, continuing education processes, working with partner organizations, ways to use membership and event attendance data to tell a story and drive event topics, and cross-branch communication and collaboration to strengthen and support NCC.

This conversation will result in the development of a multi-year work plan for the Branch committee that includes: a list of resources and needs to support the Branches, best practices and outreach, and the “traveling road show” concept-- one of my main takeaways. This concept pivots on the core USGBC concept of innovation. By centralizing our efforts, our chapter will be able to push the innovation envelope by attracting a high caliber speaker, product, or idea. The chapter can then build an event around the subject and circulate the event to each of the branches. Not only will this fabulous concept help our volunteer Branch leaders work “smarter, not harder,” but our chapter will experience a net gain in our efforts to bring innovative green building practices to Northern California with a consistent and uniformed message.

I am excited and inspired to be part of Branch leadership. Having heard the perspective of our humble beginnings, as told by Brian Sehnert, and understanding the best practices we have to share, as presented by Dan Silvernail and Jim Murphy, I look forward to our potential. As a new member of the Diablo East Bay Steering Committee, I can tell you from personal experience that if you are interested in supporting the sustainable movement of the built environment in your local community, Branch engagement is an excellent starting point.