This is a big deal at least for the committee that puts it together. We work from January through November to offer the tour to the public on the National Solar Tour day, the first Saturday in October. The tour is sponsored by the American Solar Energy Society and the New Energy Colorado orgaization.
Organizing the tour involves finding green home owners willing to have their houses open to the public on tour day; having sponsors and vendors who support the tour with ads and vendor tables; advertising the tour in newspapers, the radio and community bulletins; working with social media accounts to spread the word; designing flyers and logos; setting up ticket sales and attendance; recruiting and organizing volunteers to be docents at the homes and registration; interviewing owners and taking photos of the homes; writing and publishing a full color booklet with the featured homes, green home information and sponsor ads and creating a large paper map of the home locations.
There is a volunteer organizational meeting the Thursday evening before the tour to hand out materials and assign tasks for the day of the tour. We serve pizza and snacks and drinks. After the tour there is a two hour expo in the registration hall with food and music and vendors and the radio broadcasters from the local ”Fixit” show. And there is a lecture series in weeks leading up to the tour day.
All registrants also receive a monthly newsletter from Solar Citisuns, a user group sponsored by New Energy Colorado.
The 27th annual tour was a success with over 250 participants. It’s an honor to serve on the committee with an amazing group of energy efficiency experts. Next month we get busy reviewing this tour and improving the tour for next year.