Our Hospitality Coordinator, Chris Stonard, will provide the main dish for the food table at the meeting. The last time we were at Tesla Tigard, she made a batch of her delicious Hawaiian Sandwiches. Those were a treat. I'm not sure what she's planning for this event, but I know she is a master of the delicious. Please bring something to contribute to the snack table. You can bring something healthy, like fruit or veggies, or whatever you would like to share, healthy or delicious. I'm bringing a tub of my favorite chocolate covered mint cookies, so maybe not the healthiest, but I really like cookies.

It's the same schedule as all of our regular meetings. We'll start with a board meeting at 6:30, which OEVA members are welcome to attend. The General Meeting, open to the public, starts at 7 PM with food, socializing, and looking at the cars. At 7:30 we'll start the program with some announcements, followed by Tesla folks talking about the New Model Y. By 8:30 we'll break for more socializing, looking at cars, and discussing any remaining questions we have with the Tesla staff. We head home by 9 PM.

February 13th General Meeting Cancelled

The New Meeting Plan

The weather forecast for Thursday isn't looking great, is it? It really could go either way, warm up a bit and just rain, or cool down a bit and be a real ice and snow headache. We don't want to have a dealership get the staff lined up and the place ready for our meeting, only to cancel at the last minute due to weather. And we don't want people to be out in potentially hazardous driving conditions. So we're canceling this Thursday's meeting.

And yet, we've got the Oregon International Auto and Motorcycle Show coming up next week, and there are a few things we wanted to take care of in person during our second Thursday of the month General Meeting. No matter, we'll take care of things virtually through the internet, the way us 21st century people do everything now, everything except get a haircut.

We have 30 free adult admission tickets from the Auto Show for you to distribute to your family and friends. OEVA Past-President Morris Green is distributing the tickets as links to electronic tickets on Ticket Tomato. Email Morris (past-pres@oeva.org) and let him know how many tickets you want. It's first come, first served, for 1 ticket when he sends out the links. If he has tickets left over at that time he will honor the requests for the additional tickets. I'm not sure when Morris will get around to that particular task, so best to email him right away!

We wanted to give people a chance to pick up their OEVA embroidered polo shirts and name badges at Thursday's meeting, so they could wear them to the Auto Show. Instead Paul Albertson will bring his stock of OEVA shirts and the name badges he has received from printing, to the Auto Show for OEVA members who haven't picked theirs up yet. He will also loan out OEVA shirts to volunteers who aren't OEVA members for their shifts. I find these polo shirts feel particularly comfortable when worn over a long-sleeve T-shirt when it's cool out.

The other thing we wanted to take care of at the meeting was distributing Test Drive & Information Expo posters. I'll bring a stack of letter and poster sized prints to the Auto Show, and to next month's OEVA General Meeting on Thursday March 13th. Please take as many as you think you will be able to find bulletin boards to put them, at work, school, church, or wherever people stop to look at a bit of wall to find out about upcoming events.

It's not often we miss holding a meeting, but these things happen. We've got an interesting meeting planned for March, checking out one of the first units of a spectacular EV just going into production. Details in the March Update!

Surrounding the FIND YOUR EV wall, local dealers from many brands provide a variety of EVs on display. Seeing the data, then examining the car, getting questions answered by experienced EV owners in a non-sales, educational environment, gives people a great introduction to electric vehicles.

In order to be immediately recognizable to auto show guests as an OEVA Volunteer, please wear your OEVA embroidered polo shirt and name badge. Don't have an OEVA shirt and name badge? Why not take care of that! A shirt and name badge are available to you at no charge when you join the OEVA. To get your shirt and sign up for your custom name badge, see Paul Albertson at any of our regular monthly meetings. We'll have some shirts available to borrow at the Drive Electric exhibit.

When you're not volunteering at Drive Electric, take a walk and look around the show. It's interesting to check out what's on display.

Auto Show Dates and Hours:

Thursday, February 20 | 12 pm – 9 pm

Friday, February 21 | 12 pm – 10 pm

Saturday, February 22 | 10 am – 10 pm

Sunday, February 23 | 10 am - 7 pm

Of course you get free admission on the day you're volunteering. If you volunteer on multiple days you get an Exhibitor Badge, good for early entry and all days of the show, which you can pick up at the Exhibitor Entrance on MLK when you arrive for your first shift. If you volunteer on just one day instead of an Exhibitor Badge we'll email you a link for you to download a show admission ticket. 

When you choose your volunteer shifts, please keep in mind that we'll need more volunteers during peak hours. On Thursday and Friday the show gets busier after folks get off of work, during the late afternoon and early evening hours. The busiest day is Saturday. So, please, we'll need more volunteer help all day Saturday! Sunday attendance is also fairly strong though it lightens up quite a bit later in the day.

We have  a limited number of parking spaces at the "I-5 lot", under the elevated freeway, behind the Convention Center. Thanks to Ken Cornelison, Kia of Portland's general manager, Kia of Portland has offered us free parking in the parking structure on NE Irving street across from Kia, conveniently only a block from the Convention Center. There are some important details and restrictions about parking there, which we'll let you know when we confirm your registration next week.

We're trying a new volunteer registration system at Signup.com. To volunteer, sign up at https://signup.com/go/ZjbKbUr. Please sign up right away. We need your registration by Tuesday February 11th in order to get the registration information from Signup to the Auto show, and then email your admission ticket link or Exhibitor Badge confirmation to you. For questions or late registrations, email OEVA Event Coordinator Paul Burkey at Events@oeva.org.

Kia of Portland has limited parking, so they've reserved the first floor of the parking garage across Irving Street from Kia for us to use, free of charge. Kia will keep the parking garage open late for us, so don't worry if there is a sign that the garage closes at 7 PM. The Kia staff are the ones that lock the gate. It looks like an easy right turn off of NE Grand onto Irving Street (try not to collide with a light rail train), then half-way up the block turn right into the parking garage.

As always, the general meeting starts at 7 PM with food and socializing, and is open to everyone. At about 7:30 we'll start the program with some announcements. We've got another big year of events coming up! Then we'll hear from Portland Kia until about 8:30. I understand that Portland Kia's Master Technician has bought himself an EV6. It's always interesting to hear from an owner, particularly one who also has access to the inside tech info. We'll then socialize for a bit more, say our goodbyes to our EV friends, then head out by 9 PM so the Kia staff can go home. The OEVA board will meet at 6:30, before the general meeting. OEVA members are welcome to attend the board meeting.