This is an email form SEE Green Careers graduate, Prem Karki. I asked Prem's permission to share this and future correspondences.
Hey Kevin how it is going?
Thanks for your email and also for your help and suggestion. You know, everybody will be happy to have this type of training and knowledge. I am very happy this training is not only for us but it is for whole world.
But when we talk about personal story, I think you know that we are from refugee camp in (NEPAL). Up to 17 years we were in refugee camp without electricity we used to read in moon and sunlight.So I hope to take electricity in that country. For my dream the support like yours will probably help. There were many personalities in graduation day but only you have praised us so far.
Thanks
Friday, April 3, 2009
Letters in the Ether, "Let fury have the hour, anger can be power. You know that you can se it"
Hello gang,
So, most of you guys were at the English Center last week (March 18th) to listen to Matt Malloon from the Electrical Workers Union, along with myself and Pam Bailey, speak. I had a lot of fun seeing all of you again and talking about our future together.
For those of you that didn’t make it, my company (Sun’s Free Solar), is partnering with the players that make up SEE Green Careers to find a way to put ALL of the graduating class to work on one single project. We are looking at one commercial roof in particular and things look pretty positive, nothing for sure… but POSITIVE!
I have said it to most of you, but one more time for the record, you guys changed my life the night of the graduation. It was more than a little disappointing (for me) to say I had no job openings when each of you asked for employment. I made a commitment that night to reexamine why I’m in business. I am totally committed to this project and, in turn, I am asking each of you to go further, work harder, and stay positive until we get things rolling.
In my blog, Kevin's Sun Blog, SPF 50, I write about you guys and where we are going. This blog is designed to reach out to anyone and everyone in order to generate support. I want you to read it. I want you to understand it. And I want YOU to use it as a tool to market our project. Please send this link to everyone you have in your address book (your friends, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, your 2nd grade teacher that made you feel like you were gonna be somebody some day).
Here are some other action items I want you to do:
1. Stay in touch with me. I need each of you. Email me at least once a week with your thoughts.
2. Help us name the project. SEE Green Careers is a separate entity. We need a name like “R.I.S.E- Resources Integrating Solar Employment” or something like that.
3. Be prepared to come with me to public events to help promote our cause. I want us to meet as many elected officials, property owners, and community leaders as possible in the next few weeks, and I want you to tell these people about your journey. YOU are our most powerful marketing tool. Need some examples?
Who doesn’t want to see Latinos, African Americans, women and young adults get a fair slice of the green jobs market? Virtually nobody. And those who don’t want us to succeed, they may present obstacles, but they won’t break our stride.
We also have four young men from Nepal, which is widely regarded as the spiritual capital of Asia (the Himalayas) and nowhere else on the planet are people more aware and interested in this culture than in the East Bay.
If you’ll forgive the sports metaphor, batting cleanup we have a young gentleman from Iraq that is a natural ringer. Our target is to influence people already sympathetic to the struggle and injustices of others. Anybody with half a heart is going to realize helping Iraq correct the devastation from the last 6 years of US invasion is in everyone’s interest.
4. Stay upbeat. This is not going to happen quickly. We will push it along as fast as we can, but there is a process and it takes time. You are going to get depressed and feel like this isn’t worth it. That’s when we will all need to be there for each other.
5. Make solar all you eat, drink, and sleep about. Read everything you can about solar. Go online and check out the hundreds of solar websites. Watch every solar/environmental TV show and movie that you hear about. Listen to public radio! Public radio is the only source of information that will really tell you what’s going on. You will need to know this if you want to stay employed in solar and advance to a higher position.
Do you follow me here? We are going to be approaching wealthy business owners and presenting a package that earns them money, helps save the environment, and puts your skills to work. There is nothing unique about installing solar panels. All poly and mono crystalline panels are basically the same. If a commercial property owner is going to install solar, his or her mind is already made up. It is OUR job to convince the property owner that we are the ones to do the installation. We need to let the people know it is in their best interest to have us do the installation.
Am I missing something? Did I leave something out or was I way off base about something? Let me know either way. I don’t care how good or bad your spelling or grammar is, I need your story. I will use your story and make it OUR story. I will then “shop” our story to everyone that will listen until we get another job, and then another and another.
Thanks for your time and please get back to me soon.
Sincerely yours,
Kevin Good
So, most of you guys were at the English Center last week (March 18th) to listen to Matt Malloon from the Electrical Workers Union, along with myself and Pam Bailey, speak. I had a lot of fun seeing all of you again and talking about our future together.
For those of you that didn’t make it, my company (Sun’s Free Solar), is partnering with the players that make up SEE Green Careers to find a way to put ALL of the graduating class to work on one single project. We are looking at one commercial roof in particular and things look pretty positive, nothing for sure… but POSITIVE!
I have said it to most of you, but one more time for the record, you guys changed my life the night of the graduation. It was more than a little disappointing (for me) to say I had no job openings when each of you asked for employment. I made a commitment that night to reexamine why I’m in business. I am totally committed to this project and, in turn, I am asking each of you to go further, work harder, and stay positive until we get things rolling.
In my blog, Kevin's Sun Blog, SPF 50, I write about you guys and where we are going. This blog is designed to reach out to anyone and everyone in order to generate support. I want you to read it. I want you to understand it. And I want YOU to use it as a tool to market our project. Please send this link to everyone you have in your address book (your friends, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, your 2nd grade teacher that made you feel like you were gonna be somebody some day).
Here are some other action items I want you to do:
1. Stay in touch with me. I need each of you. Email me at least once a week with your thoughts.
2. Help us name the project. SEE Green Careers is a separate entity. We need a name like “R.I.S.E- Resources Integrating Solar Employment” or something like that.
3. Be prepared to come with me to public events to help promote our cause. I want us to meet as many elected officials, property owners, and community leaders as possible in the next few weeks, and I want you to tell these people about your journey. YOU are our most powerful marketing tool. Need some examples?
Who doesn’t want to see Latinos, African Americans, women and young adults get a fair slice of the green jobs market? Virtually nobody. And those who don’t want us to succeed, they may present obstacles, but they won’t break our stride.
We also have four young men from Nepal, which is widely regarded as the spiritual capital of Asia (the Himalayas) and nowhere else on the planet are people more aware and interested in this culture than in the East Bay.
If you’ll forgive the sports metaphor, batting cleanup we have a young gentleman from Iraq that is a natural ringer. Our target is to influence people already sympathetic to the struggle and injustices of others. Anybody with half a heart is going to realize helping Iraq correct the devastation from the last 6 years of US invasion is in everyone’s interest.
4. Stay upbeat. This is not going to happen quickly. We will push it along as fast as we can, but there is a process and it takes time. You are going to get depressed and feel like this isn’t worth it. That’s when we will all need to be there for each other.
5. Make solar all you eat, drink, and sleep about. Read everything you can about solar. Go online and check out the hundreds of solar websites. Watch every solar/environmental TV show and movie that you hear about. Listen to public radio! Public radio is the only source of information that will really tell you what’s going on. You will need to know this if you want to stay employed in solar and advance to a higher position.
Do you follow me here? We are going to be approaching wealthy business owners and presenting a package that earns them money, helps save the environment, and puts your skills to work. There is nothing unique about installing solar panels. All poly and mono crystalline panels are basically the same. If a commercial property owner is going to install solar, his or her mind is already made up. It is OUR job to convince the property owner that we are the ones to do the installation. We need to let the people know it is in their best interest to have us do the installation.
Am I missing something? Did I leave something out or was I way off base about something? Let me know either way. I don’t care how good or bad your spelling or grammar is, I need your story. I will use your story and make it OUR story. I will then “shop” our story to everyone that will listen until we get another job, and then another and another.
Thanks for your time and please get back to me soon.
Sincerely yours,
Kevin Good
INTRODUCING LETTERS IN THE ETHER
LETTERS IN THE ETHER, “DO YOU HERE MEEE??? DO YOU CARE? WHAT ARE WORDS FOR?”
I’ve taken to a letter writing campaign. It started a couple years back when I wanted a local legendary surfboard shaper, Ward Coffey, to make me a custom board. I wrote the letter in my best penmanship and described my dream board, but alas, I never sent it off.
Since then I have written a dozen or so letters (a lot for the email generation) to people I knew or wanted to know, and only one or two, at best, made their way to the mail box. There has always been a common theme in my correspondences, “I want something from you”.
Well, I’m on a new quest for fire, and there really isn’t time for the omission of spell check, so electronic formats will have to do (to be honest, I always felt my hand written letters would be perceived to have come from a cantankerous curmudgeon). In fact, I will be posting on “Kevin’s Sun Blog” nearly all of my
letters to the people in positions of power to promote my purpose (sorry, I couldn’t resist).
The series is called “Letters in the Ether” because you know who writes me back? No one. There’s really no way of knowing if these letters make it to the desk of the person I’m writing to. So this may seem like me just whining a little, but it works for Andy Rooney…..My intent is to chronicle the events of the last year while highlighting the leaps forward and minor setbacks.
Anyway, please read and I encourage you to critique.
Kevin Good
I’ve taken to a letter writing campaign. It started a couple years back when I wanted a local legendary surfboard shaper, Ward Coffey, to make me a custom board. I wrote the letter in my best penmanship and described my dream board, but alas, I never sent it off.
Since then I have written a dozen or so letters (a lot for the email generation) to people I knew or wanted to know, and only one or two, at best, made their way to the mail box. There has always been a common theme in my correspondences, “I want something from you”.
Well, I’m on a new quest for fire, and there really isn’t time for the omission of spell check, so electronic formats will have to do (to be honest, I always felt my hand written letters would be perceived to have come from a cantankerous curmudgeon). In fact, I will be posting on “Kevin’s Sun Blog” nearly all of my
letters to the people in positions of power to promote my purpose (sorry, I couldn’t resist).
The series is called “Letters in the Ether” because you know who writes me back? No one. There’s really no way of knowing if these letters make it to the desk of the person I’m writing to. So this may seem like me just whining a little, but it works for Andy Rooney…..My intent is to chronicle the events of the last year while highlighting the leaps forward and minor setbacks.
Anyway, please read and I encourage you to critique.
Kevin Good
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