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Key Accomplishments and Activities in October 2009 thru May 2012

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Raising the resources to establish and operate the Institute:

  • Fulfilled the capital campaign goal of raising $750,000 in 2009 thru 2011, an amount sufficient to build the Institute’s building and operate the Institute through its first year (2012);
  • Received grants totaling $503,250 from thirteen foundations;
  • Received contributions, donor-advised grants, and pledges from 278 individuals totaling $247,000, including $65,000 from 148 first-time donors;
  • Organized ten gatherings of donors and prospective donors in Oakland, Berkeley, Seattle, Washington DC, New York City, Walla Walla, WA, and Cambridge (MA).  These were the first such gatherings held outside Oregon in our movement’s history;
  • Organized a gathering on August 30, 2011 of 100 supporters, including many “green” development activists, in Portland, with a program headlined by Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber and Oregon First Lady Cylvia Hayes;
  • Involved a dozen movement leaders in fifty in-person visits with donors and prospective donors.  Most of these leaders had limited fundraising experience and had never before made such visits;
  • Implemented the “CLI e-updates”, a semi-monthly bulletin circulated to over 500 contributors, collaborators and volunteers;
  • Developed and screened a compelling animated powerpoint on the CAPACES network and the campaigns to establish the CAPACES Leadership Institute.

Design and Constructing the Institute’s Permanent Home:

  • De-constructed the small wood-frame house (“our movement’s ‘first home’”) on the site and employed salvaged lumber and windows in construction of temporary “construction office” and storage unit;
  • Resolved to make the CLI building the first office or commercial structure in the U.S. to utilize “PassivHaus” super-energy efficient design;
  • Organized the groundbreaking ceremony on May 2, 2010—thirty years to the day from our movement’s first celebration of our presence on that site;
  • Completed design, design review, survey re-platting, and construction permitting process;
  • Attracted the participation of more 1,000 volunteers who put in 8,000 hours on site preparation and construction;
  • Procured donation of construction materials with an estimated value of $100,000;
  • In 2011, completed the “slab on grade” concrete floor and foundation, excavated bioswales, framed and erected the walls, constructed the cinderblock interior walls, installed the roof trusses, the “TPO” or membrane roof, and interior wall framing;
  • In 2012, installed triple-pane windows and doors, completed air-tight sealing, electrical wiring, exterior sheeting and siding, exterior painting, and insulation;
  • Set up propagation for plants to be transplanted onto the building’s 3,600 square-foot “green” roof, and planted the first cuttings into the growing medium spread onto the roof surface;
  • Received pro bono or discounted professional services with an estimated value of at least $100,000;
  • Designed the “CAPACES de Verde” program, bringing together activists and supporters of the green/sustainability community with Latino immigrant construction workers for mutual learning and dialogue;
  • Launched a photo-artistic initiative documenting the building’s construction and related activities;
  • Launched a campaign to advocate for a Woodburn city ordinance allowing outdoor murals, the first step toward eventually placing a mural on the front and side walls of the Institute building.

Developing the Institute’s Future Programs and Collaborations:

 

  • Developed the concept for the “CAPACES Leadership Institute Council of Advisors”, or “CLICA”, a national network of academics, non-profit leaders, movement-builders, and funders; recruited sixty initial CLICA members and organized the CLICA’s inaugural gathering;
  • Developed roster of priority topics and activities slated to be ready when the Institute is fully operational;
  • Developed course and session outlines for the ten-hour, five session “CAPACES 101” course, and offered the course four times;
  • Developed and offered the three-session “Fundraising 101” course covering the “non-profit” world, donor, foundation and special fundraising, plus basics of understanding budgets;
  • Took over coordination of the traditional CAPACES network activities, including quarterly “mass gatherings”, monthly fundraising round-table, monthly Conectas networking conference call, and others.
  • Received and accepted the invitation from the University of Oregon’s Knight Library Special Collections to archive PCUN’s historical materials;
  • Developed the initial concept and formed the first participants for the “TURNO” program which recruit and train cohorts of Woodburn high school students who are future candidates for leadership in our movement;
  • Opened exploration of collaborations with movement-building and academic institutions including Western States Center, the Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies (University of Oregon), Movement Building Project, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service’s Research Center for Leadership in Action (New York University), Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training (GIFT), and Center for Community Change, among others;
  • In July 13, 2011, incorporated the Institute as a non-profit; one leader from each of the CAPACES network organizations acted as an incorporator;
  • Chose and convened the first board, composed of nine directors;
  • Adopted the corporation’s bylaws and key policies on participation and organization structure;
  • Adopted a 2012 operating budget and set up financial administration;
  • Selected Laura Isiordia as the Institute’s permanent executive director, effective August 25, 2011 (Laura was the Institute’s “Start-up Coordinator” starting in February and was previously the long-time community leadership director of Farmworker Housing Development Corporation, one of the nine CAPACES organizations;
  • Approved a fiscal sponsorship agreement with the Willamette Valley Law Project, a 501-c-3 corporation which has facilitated the Institute’s capital campaign as well as the development and construction of the Institute’s permanent home on WVLP-owned property;
  • Set August 24th and 25th 2012 as the dates for the Institute’s grand opening celebration;
  • Secured a verbal commitment from U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solís to serve as keynoter for the Institute’s grand opening.

The Roof Trusses go on!

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Last month, we reported to you on the drama of raising the CAPACES Leadership Institute building’s walls.  That, it turns out, was nothing, compared to the roof trusses installation.

At dawn last Wednesday, a truck with a large crane and a load of custom-built trusses rumbled onto the building site.  By early afternoon some 70 trusses were all in place, thanks also to the quick and skilled work of our core building team, augmented by several volunteers from the Carpenters’ union.

Thanks to time-lapsed photography, set up and edited by Gene Wixson (our chief construction consultant from Greenhammer), you can paste this link http://db.tt/fo4vuPe into your browser and see in 30 seconds a good amount of the installation.

On August 15th, passersby at the site saw only framed walls laying on the concrete slab floor.  Thirty days later, the walls were up, the internal concrete block walls finished, and the trusses installed, thanks to incredible support from individuals like stone mason Pedro Martínez and organizations like Portland Youth Builders.  This coming Saturday, the weekly work brigade will be composed of and led by women—both from the local community and our supporter network.

Our fundraiser last week in New York City was a clear success.  On a busy weeknight, 18 people gathered to learn about the Institute and deepen relationships with our movement.  We still need to raise about $30,000 from individuals to reach our goal; you can make a tax-deductible contribution online at https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1002782&code=Donantes%202010)

We’re not waiting to have doors to open in order to offer the Institute’s first course.  Tomorrow, we’ll hold the first class of the five-session course we call “Movement 101.”  A dozen leaders new to our movement will dig into our history, our values, accomplishments, beliefs, and challenges, as well as articulate what calls them to serve and organize.

Sincerely,

CAPACES Leadership Institute

Volunteer Profile: Gene Wixson

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Imagine a built environment which has the power to inspire its surrounding community, as well as its builders and inhabitants. Imagine that the construction of a single office building could teach some of the country’s most disenfranchised laborers the skills necessary to join the “Green Building” workforce. Meet Gene Wixson.

Gene builds ultra high performance buildings. Sounds cool, right? It is cool. Ultra high performance, or Passive House, buildings are so efficient that they can actually produce as much energy as they consume. In a Passive House building, because the insulation and roofing are so progressive, the main energy cost is actually hot water, and electrical plugs. As of August 2010, there were only 13 such buildings in the US. Add one more.

Gene is a Construction Manager for Green Hammer, a Portland based design firm specializing in ultra high performance building, and he is currently working with PCUN on the CAPACES Leadership Institute (CLI), which, aside from providing the CAPACES sister organizations with a headquarters from which to train tomorrow’s Latino leadership, will be the nation’s first office building built to the Passive House standard. Gene’s role on the CLI project is many faceted; he does everything from coordinating the needs of the architects with those of the structural engineers to arranging with suppliers and manufacturers for supplies. According to Gene, finding manufacturers who design products significantly better than code is one of the most difficult challenges the CLI campaign faces, but it is also a challenge he feels will improve the position of PCUN and the Latino workforce they represent by helping them to build connections in an area of the “Green” industry that is seeing steady growth.

Gene specialized in Environmental Studies at Lewis and Clark College, where he succeeded in writing LEED into the campus building standards in 1996, but he has been a builder much longer than that. From working on “Heritage” buildings in the Antarctic to working with PCUN today, Gene has always been interested in the cutting edge of design. His experience on contracting jobs has also brought him into contact with the large Latino contracting workforce, and this has given him a deeper understanding of how his work with the CLI will strengthen our community. Working on the CLI project is a teaching opportunity for Gene and his Green Hammer associates, a chance to increase the job skills of the Latino framing crews that have had virtually no exposure to ultra high performance design, but will ultimately build the CLI structure from the ground up. This is a chance that Gene relishes. Gene says, of his work on the CLI project, “I love that this is a group of people who may not have work next month, who may not even be in this part of the country next month, but are still willing to donate their time and skills toward putting together what will be the coolest building in the country. That inspires me.”