Learning to Fly

Everyone has to crawl before they can walk and walk before they can run, but how does one learn to fly? Well, the Renewable Energy Society has finally gotten its wings. As of yesterday, January 27th, 2010, the Renewable Energy Society has become an official registered student organization. With this official title comes official responsibility. We must not only prove to our superiors and to the public, but to ourselves, that we have what it takes to change this world and make it a cleaner, more sustainable place to live. This semester we will be working with other RSO's here at Illinois State University to gain and spread more knowledge of the ever-growing topic of alternative energy. We will be hosting debates, informational forums and films, giving a high school presentation, and we will even be taking trips to a few great renewable energy conferences throughout the United States.

There were a few very important meetings yesterday. First was the RSO induction meeting. Procedures and regulations of registered student organizations were discussed, and last night we had our first official meeting. There were a couple new faces, and many returning members. It's good to see the returning faces and even better to see that there are newcomers interested in the Society. Yesterday afternoon was the hearing concerning the opportunity fund. This meeting was held in the Dean of Students office, and the main goal was to gain financial aid for the upcoming volunteer trip to RETECH 2010. Keep your fingers crossed that we get some help! This finally brings us to the big topic at hand this week, RETECH 2010.

The Renewable Energy Technology Conference and Exhibition, otherwise called RETECH 2010, will be held from February 3-5 in Washington D.C. The Renewable Energy Society is proud to announce that it has quite a few members that will attending this conference as volunteers. They are even allowing a couple of our members to run an informational booth for North American Clean Energy. Congrats to the two of you! If all goes as planned, RES members will be driving two brand new, Redbird Red, Toyota Priuses to the conference. This trip will be a great networking opportunity, and there are sure to be many more like it in the future.

So, on a final note, the Renewable Energy Society has just begun the proverbial first day of the rest of its life. We members of the Society would like to thank everyone who has supported us in the past and who will hopefully keep supporting us into the future. Renewable energy is here to stay and so are we.