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Welcome to the June edition of our newsletter!
Summer is on its way and with it, we will be kicking our community engagement work into high gear! Solar Para Todos is ramping up in Framingham, plugIN Metrowest is moving into its final phase, and we are starting work on our new mobile app. This is in addition to several new projects in the works!
As always, please reach out to let us know what else we can be doing to support you or your community on the road to a healthier planet for all!
This year at MassEnergize, we've made several software changes! We have transitioned our software development to the Energize Innovation Lab team in Ghana. After their first project on thenew Campaigns platform, the team has been working to improve our community software and give admins greater control over content and boost experience, including the following changes:
Improved event sharing to make it easier to add events from other communities to your site.
Better control of community features including notifications, user submitted events, and actions.
Event notification ("nudge") control enabling you to start/stop/pause messages to users, and choose per-event settings on when notifications are sent.
In addition, you'll be seeing more exciting updates this summer, including:
Sharing of testimonials so your sites can have more testimonial content shared from other communities.
Multi-lingual community sites to support non-English speaking community members.
Ability to customize navigation to enable the community sites to better integrate with other websites.
A mobile app for users with IOS and Android phones, which we hope will be ready for beta test in August.
We can't wait to share these new updates and changes with you, and so much more! We're always thinking about how to make our software more usable and accessible for our community!
In addition, as we release these changes, we are working to implement increased community support. Community Admins, we will be piloting a new community support series:
Once-monthly hands on working hours with other community admins and MassEnergize's community support specialist, Talya Havivi.
Join us for our first meeting on Monday June 17th, at 7:15 pm where we'll start with a lesson on how to get the most out of events and how to promote them through social media and nudges. There will be time for answering questions. Get some help from our team in implementing this changes.
Come for the whole hour or come for only 5 minutes! Register here.
At our May Community of Practicemeeting, MassEnergize welcomed Emma Kirby fromPotential Energy Coalition, a marketing firm researching the best methods for climate marketing, and energizing people around climate action. Our speaker shared the group's "Talk Like a Human" practices with our attendees so we can take these tools back to our communities as we work to combat the climate crisis.
Attendees shared their successfulEarth Day, or Earth Month, events. Debby Marion from EcoNatick shared some tools for engaging with children in the community, and Wendy Wilkerson shared about Newburyport's month-long Earth Day celebration, including a climate cafe and a Heat Pump party. It's always a wonderful opportunity to learn from one another and build on new and old ideas!
Finally, Aimee Powelka debuted a new software update to MassEnergize's web platform. We learned how to send event nudges, which you can find here.
In case you missed it! You can watch the recording of our May Community of Practice meeting here.
Register for our next Community of Practice meeting which will be on June 10 at 7:15.
We will be taking a break for the summer during July and August, so our next Community of Practice meeting after June will be Sept 9th.
Moizés is a rising junior in Computer Science and Human Factors Engineering at Tufts University. He likes working towards creating solutions to real-world problems with technology by creating more representation for minorities in STEM, as well as engaging with the international community at Tufts. In his free time, he likes photography, spending time in nature, working out, and hiking.
Will Soylemez
Will is a rising Junior studying computer science and environmental science at Tufts University. He is especially interested in frontend web development and UI/UX design but enjoys solving any kind of computer science problem. While working at MassEnergize, he hopes to leverage his experience with computer science to develop products that will encourage more people to improve the sustainability of their own lives.
Were you at our Annual Conference? Did you get the opportunity to play with and experience the debut of our wonderful new Climate Carnival Games, made by our extraordinary volunteer artist and craftsman, Andrew Breithaupt? If not, step right up!
MassEnergize is now offering these creative and inventive handmade games, and others, on loan. Email us to reserve them for your next community event or climate fair!
Take a look at our website for more information, and email us at info@massenergize.org to inquire about renting these games for your next event.
New England is currently warming faster than the global average. As a result, southern New England is now a global hot spot of decreasing snow cover and throughout New England, annual precipitation has increased along with severe rainstorms. Join Professor Stephen Young from Salem State University as he explains the science behind New England's warming and what impacts this warming is already creating and will create in the future. Register for this event here.
Heat pumps are one of the most effective ways to make your home more comfortable, reduce your carbon footprint, and help create a healthier community. Come join us to learn about air source heat pumps, geothermal systems, and heat pump water heaters. This event is sponsored by Energize Wayland, Energize Framingham, EcoNatick, and plugIN -- a collaboration among the Towns of Acton, Natick and Wayland and the City of Framingham to promote heat pumps, solar and community solar. Learn more about this event here.
(June 8th, 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm - Gardner Park and Playground, 530 Massachusetts Ave Acton, MA)
The Acton Climate Resilience Festival will be a day for creative expression, information, and community-building. Please come for snacks, great music, and lots of good conversation about working for a livable future. Learn more about this event here.
Do you pay an electricity bill and want to reduce your annual electricity spending? You are eligible if you are a renter, condo owner or homeowner. Join us to learn about community solar and how it saves you money and supports the growth of the clean energy economy here in Massachusetts. Learn more about this event here.
(June 26th, 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm - Community Senior Center Room 125, 117 E Central St, Natick, MA)
Join the Town of Natick Sustainability Office and plugIn at the Natick Community Senior Center for a fun and informative event all about heat pumps. Whether you're a homeowner looking to save on energy bills or just curious about this eco-friendly technology, this "party" is for you! Register for this event here.
Please help us by sending your community event pictures to info@massenergize.org. We appreciate your support!
MassEnergize relies on donations from supporters like you!
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