LIFT Week 3: Getting Stronger!

Fremont: This week in Fremont the Energy Specialists and management team experienced new challenges in the beginning of the week, but eventually overcame their obstacles by collaborating together and staying positive. The Energy Specialists also started to develop their own techniques to perform Green House Calls more efficiently. They also went out to Lake Elizabeth, a public park that attracts a lot of folks from the Tri-City area. Also, the Energy Specialists canvassed the area with their managers while people were jamming to music from the “Thursday Night” concert. This week all of the ES’s learned how to enter data from the Green House Call forms into the Runner, and to end off the week the L.I.F.T  taught all the Energy Specialists a lesson about “Effective Communication.” The lesson made some of the ES’s realize how important it is to have good communication skills in & out of the workplace. Overall, the Fremont Site is starting to roll its way to a productive summer.-Arbaz

Hayward: We’re almost halfway through the program, and the ES’s are starting to get comfortable doing Green House Calls.  Many of them aren’t nervous anymore and are getting the elevator pitches down. We have done some drop-in’s this week and it looks like  the teams we have paired are really working well together. During the Green House Calls, the ES’s are being very respectful and learning what professionalism is. We also have a torchiere swap coming up soon. It’s on July 20 at the Hayward fire department on West Harder Road! Everyone in Hayward area that is a PG&E customer is very welcome to come and swap their old halogen floor lamp for a brand new efficient one!-Isabela

San Leandro: Another action-packed week at the San Leandro site. We visited the Alameda County Fair last Sunday and some of our Energy Specialists rode enough rides to make them a little sick the next day.  Outreach guru Adrian, a pair of Energy Specialists, and I worked the farmers’ market until eight, earning tons of sign-ups in our site’s most successful sign-up event this summer.  Then this morning, two of our Energy Specialists represented Rising Sun in excellent fashion during a presentation to Jodi, Heather, and San Leandro’s senior planner of community development.  All that, plus a bunch of Green House Calls makes for a fun week at the San Leandro site.-Will

Berkeley: This week in Berkeley we had a great week!   Not only did we service over 20 Berkeley homes, but we also serviced a 10 unit apartment complex as well as our first UC Berkeley Co-op, Casa Zimbabwe, which was comprised of 79 units!  Additionally, our new ES, Tyler Valentino, and his partner, Keisha Cornelius, were able to sign up 10 more Berkeley citizens for free GHCs after canvassing at the Downtown Berkeley BART station.  Meanwhile, Corey and Waleena demonstrated their ever-growing professionalism by making an awesome presentation to a representative from the Bechtel Foundation, a possible future funder of Rising Sun, at the Berkeley site.  Finally, our team underwent its first professional development session this week, wherein our ES’s learned about the importance of time management along with what type of leadership role best fits their particular personalities.  All of us here are looking forward to another great week next week!  That’s all for now!  Please enjoy the pictures of our entire staff at Casa Zimbabwe!-John
Livermore: This has been a great week in Livermore!  We’ve been very successful during our Green House Calls.  I am blown away at how adaptable and professional our Energy Specialists are.  One team had an incident where an old lamp caused a short in the home and tripped a circuit-breaker.  They called us immediately and while obviously a little shaken from the incident, they were able maintain their composure in front of the client and solve the situation in a very mature and professional matter.  When they left the house the issue was completely resolved and the tenants were so impressed with how they handled the situation they actually gave the team a referral!  Professional development went very well. I taught everyone the “How do I learn?” and the “Leadership Compass” lessons.  I believed that these lessons applied not just to developing as an employee, but also as a student and as a person in general.  Knowing how you learn and what kind of leader you are is crucial to professional development, as well as life in general, and my site responded very well to the lesson.  It’s been a great week!-Drew

San Mateo: This second week of program has brought about many things.  New methods of check-in and check-out, better team chemistry, and our first professional development.  Our managers have found that it is far more effective to send out each team with the same quantity of measures so that there is less confusion when check-in rolls around.  This also has made the end of day counts a bit simpler.  As for our Energy Specialists, this is the last day in which they will be working with their current partners.  A few were sad, but they are excited to work with others as well.  Sadly, we had a couple of Energy Specialists call in ill today, but they will back with us on Tuesday.
For the first weekly professional development, we discussed Money Management.  This included various types of bank accounts, credit and debit cards, how to check your credit score, as well as how to keep a checkbook.
That’s all from San Mateo this week!-Daniel

Richmond: Amazing news from Richmond, California.  Richmond Energy Specialists have been bringing in so many referrals that they are actually calling and following up with them and scheduling appointments. So far, Energy Specialists have personally scheduled a lot of appointments. One of our star Energy Specialists Peter Gray has personally referred, and with the help of LIFT and managers, was able to schedule 10 appointments! Things are looking really good for Richmond, California and everybody’s piece to the puzzle is going to create the best collaboration ever!-Louis

Pleasanton: The team is off to a great start! I am so happy with the amount of light bulbs we are changing and how happy people are to have us here. Our site has changed so many recessed lighting, we are already out! We have also had to make several torchiere retrieval trips due to the high demand for torchieres. Our office is becoming a graveyard for halogens! I am happy to see how many people really enjoy the torchieres. Although our site has been challenged with where to store all of the things we bring back, this is not a bad problem to have! Pleasanton residents are definitely going to see a lot of change in their electricity and water bills. The city of Pleasanton has been a very nice host. Their lead person in charge of the energy and water conservation department has been working with us one-on-one to get people to sign up! The city employees love it, as do several residents. We had an ad on the local radio station (my favorite) KKIQ! We also have snazzy little door hangers that the city of Pleasanton made for us, as well as several hotspots where we have been signing up people. Everything has been really great and I hope our team continues to have the same amazing success we have had this week! GO CYES! TATA for now-Jazz