Shall we form an NGV Owner's Association?

[John Mitton]

Hi gang,

I have been reflecting on our little community and the current sorry state of political affairs when it comes to use of alternative fuels in North America. As many of you know, earlier this year our CNGchat members in Utah partnered with Questar in a resounding defeat of legislation aimed to remove most of our alternative fuel vehicle tax credits.

http://www.cngchat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1056

We have a similar situation in Oklahoma today with tax credits being in jeopardy:

http://www.cngchat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1199

So I got to thinking how we might better organize ourselves. Now, before we re-invent the wheel, let's review a few organizations that I know of which already share some of our objectives:

Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition

http://www.ngvc.org/

This is a trade association of the major NGV commercial stakeholders (fuel and station providers; vehicle and engine manufacturers, etc.). I have spoken a few times with Richard Kolodziej, who was very helpful in providing me with some data we used in our recent Utah Legislature battle. Rich has a small staff of hard-working, knowledgeable professionals who travel around the country spreading the gospel of CNG / LPG vehicles. They publish an excellent newsletter and have done great things in the way of industry lobbying in Washington.

California Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition
http://www.cngvc.org/
Similar in mission to Rich's group above, this Coalition lobbies Sacramento on behalf of commercial stakeholders. They also publish the very popular glovebox guide to CNG stations in CA, AZ, NV. With the recent departure of Mike Eaves some are concerned as to the Coalition's future...

http://www.cngchat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=925

Clean Cities Coalitions

http://www.eere.energy.gov/cleancities/progs/coalition_locations.php

Originally established and funded by the Dept. of Energy, these Coalitions are now having to go it alone via tax-deductable contributions from mostly commercial stakeholders who are concerned about air quality and the reduction of petroleum use. Natural gas vehicles are generally embraced by these Coalitions, however they also spend a lot of effort in promoting clean-diesel retrofits, idle reduction programs, ethanol use, etc.

So what should we do?
Naturally I recommend you join your local Clean Cities Coalition. Many will accept individual members for a modest contribution. You can help with local issues via these organizations.

On a national scale, however, I feel an organized grass-roots voice of hundreds or (hopefully) thousands of NGV owners could do much in the way of shaping public policy.

What do you think?

[cngaz]

Re: Shall we form an NGV Owner's Association?

Wasn't Murphy already involved in starting a natural gas vehicle owners association? If its already started, we could expand on it.
I like the Clean Cities Coalitions because we can piggyback CNG on all their outreach programs and events, and we do get to know the people involved in the other fuels, and a lot of times I've found people using 2 different fuels
for different needs which came back around to help me as I helped them.
NGV America would have more success if they did not reserve their newsletters to dues paying members only. They seem to be mostly in the same boat as Clean Energy, going after the heavy duty and large fleet business where they can have the most affect right now in America.
We need a larger voice, numbers count with Legislators and vehicle manufacturers.

[cngaz]

Re: Shall we form an NGV Owner's Association?

See-

http://ngvoa.com/

Murphy,
Whats going on with this? I joined but haven't heard anything
in awhile????

[CNG MOTORS]

Re: Shall we form an NGV Owner's Association?

Yes, sorry guys I've been so busy over the past year I haven't been able to do anything with. John&Curtis, I have the database still that has about 200 names, addresses, and#'s and emails. My intent was to approach CE or Trillium for a discount for our members as one of the first priorities.

[Cleancaterer]

Re: Shall we form an NGV Owner's Association?

Yes, we should US manufacturers have given up on CNG for dirty, DIRTY, ethenol (and the price of flour doubled inthe past year, meat and dairy is up as well as every thing else. When they make the bogus "clean fuel" the burn CNG or COAL, when is coal a Clean fuel.... NEVER at least not yet). Anyways, I'll stop the rant and say we need a voice to promote the benifits of cng and to tell manufactures that we need more cng vehicle options. Come on a honda civic is not the best vehicle for every industry. My E-350's work a little better for catering.

Tom

[Highmarker]

Re: Shall we form an NGV Owner's Association?

See-

http://ngvoa.com/

Murphy,
Whats going on with this? I joined but haven't heard anything
in awhile????

I just signed up. Hopefully we can all ban together.

[Curtis]

Re: Shall we form an NGV Owner's Association?

Yes, sorry guys I've been so busy over the past year I haven't been able to do anything with. John&Curtis, I have the database still that has about 200 names, addresses, and#'s and emails. My intent was to approach CE or Trillium for a discount for our members as one of the first priorities.

200 people sounds like a fleet to me. Could be the thing we were looking for to take to CE to get a fleet fuel discount.

We're coming up on 1200 members for the group. If only half own cng vehicles we are starting to represent a force that can begin to get things done. What needs to happen now is to find a way too develope a political identity.

John proved that in Utah. I'd say that half of our members are in Ca. Those 2 areas represent the foundation of most cng use in the USA on the private level.

If you look at every other country in the world, the groundswell of growth has come out of the private sector. CE is changing that model in the US. From a perspective of who should get the bulk of attention from the politicians, heavy duty vehicles represent a larger impact per dollar spent.

We need a very large contingent to draw both attention and respect from those that control, or strive to control, the decision making processes. I fear that as long as we are limited to these relatively small (by their standards) numbers, we yet have a sizeable uphill battle to wage.

When we are 5 or 10 times our numbers... someone will have to listen. With our current numbers, listening on their part is a courtesy. We are well on our way, but we will only continue to develope as a force, a grass roots movement. As long as we continue to gain momentum, we're headed in the right direction.

We have a great cross section of members here; industry professionals, white collars and blue. As our numbers grow we will find that opportunities to have a voice and an impact will present themselves to us. We just need to keep our eyes and ears open for them and be organized enough, and smart enough, to identify and act upon them.

Do we have any politicians that drive ngv's in our ranks? We could use a few. Anyone have Schwartzennegger's email address by any chance?

[John Mitton]

Re: Shall we form an NGV Owner's Association?

Great points, Curits
For everyone's benefit: we Admins and Moderators have been discussing a requirement to have everyone here include in their profile what state they live in. This way we can for now better organize ourselves. I like the idea of getting a few hundred or more of us to form a "fleet" in areas like California and then go negotiate some reasonable pricing from CE, Trillium...

[ajgiorgi]

Re: Shall we form an NGV Owner's Association?

OH HELL YEAH! Maybe we could actually get a decent price from CE for once. LOL.

[Curtis]

Re: Shall we form an NGV Owner's Association?

Great points, Curits
For everyone's benefit: we Admins and Moderators have been discussing a requirement to have everyone here include in their profile what state they live in. This way we can for now better organize ourselves. I like the idea of getting a few hundred or more of us to form a "fleet" in areas like California and then go negotiate some reasonable pricing from CE, Trillium...

Now you understand why I tried to add the industry identifier in the membership profile. That, plus state of residence, and even identify the members willing to perhaps pay a small annual membership to join into the NGVOA. Those dues could be going towards things like forming a non-profit corporation which can advocate issues which will further the cause of ngv owners, as with the NGVA and others.

Those organizations have developed into a force for the industry stakeholders, although not exclusively. We can do the same for the private sector... or add to the strength of their voice in issues that we identify as important at our level.

This group can develope into the next power in the ngv industry. We've already affected change in the politics of Utah, the parts pricing structure at American Honda, and the developement of the next ngv offering from the private sector. What other impacts have we had that we may not even be aware of... better yet, what can we accomplish as an organized, funded coalition of thousands?

[Mshepcomm]

Re: Shall we form an NGV Owner's Association?

Yes. I have signed up on NVGOA site, and would be willing to pay a "reasonable dues" to try to promote CNG.

[John Mitton]

Re: Shall we form an NGV Owner's Association?

Do we have any attorneys here who could provide some pro bono assistance in organizing the non-profit entity?

[rtry9a]

Re: Shall we form an NGV Owner's Association?

In Utah, you need a formal unused name, a set of directors, fill out a form and pay a small annual fee at the tax commission bldg (on West Temple just east of I-215).

Unless we plan to meet regularly (library wants legal entity status to reserve room space) or pay dues, there is no need for the incorporation.

[John Mitton]

Re: Shall we form an NGV Owner's Association?

I think we ought to incorporate. That way our members can write-off dues (if we go the nonprofit route) and we can also set up bank accounts to use for volume purchases of fuel, etc.

[CNG MOTORS]

Re: Shall we form an NGV Owner's Association?

I already have members broken down by state and cities. Have emails and for those that provided it also phone #'s