The successful Geothermal Urbana-Champaign group buy program has started its Year Two. The program is being directly coordinated and led by the city of Urbana this year, with no involvement by the Midwest Renewable Energy Assn. Scott Tess of the city of Urbana, presented on the program at this spring's IL Geothermal Conference in Bloomington last month.

The cornerstone of the group buy program is a series of Geothermal Power Hour programs, which are led by GAOI working in coordination with the city. GAOI has led three successful Power Hours virtual events so far this year and the group buy is close to meeting its first sales goal, which results in rebates to the initial participants in the program and reduced installation costs for all future program participants.

For more information about the program, Geothermal U-C

The GAOI Installation Basics class, followed by service and installation testing for the GAOI credentials, was held this week in Rockford at the Local 23 Plumbers and Pipefitters union hall. The GAOI has had a longtime training collaboration with the local, but in person training was interrupted by the pandemic for the past two years. GAOI's Dave Buss led the training and testing effort on April 12-13. A second training group at the union will be underway in a couple of weeks.

It's great to be getting back to normal with in person events like this one. Thank you, Dave, for providing the training on behalf of GAOI and Local 23.

The College of DuPage in the southwest suburbs will host its successful HVAC career expo in its Technical Education Center on Wednesday, May 4 from 5:00-7:30 pm. Students from Bob Clark's successful HVAC program at the college will be there to meet vendors, distributors, manufacturers and contractors. This event hasn't been held in person for the past few years because of the pandemic, but it is a major event -- GAOI has been an exhibitor there in past years.

For more information on the event, contact Bob Clark, HVAC program coordinator, at the college at 630-942-3068 or clarkr307@cod.edu.

Bill Sprague of Area Mechanical in Rockford has taken the reins as president of the GAOI. Bill follows Dave Buss of Conner Co., who completed his two years as president earlier this month. Other officers of your association are Gary Hurley of Corn Belt Energy in Bloomington (vice president) and Brent Braker of Garber Heating and Cooling in Morton (secretary-treasurer).

Congratulations Bill, Gary and Brent. Thank you for your service and leading the GAOI. And a big thank you to Dave for his leadership the past two years.

GAOI has an overall board of 15 leaders in the geothermal heat pump industry. The other 11 board members are:

-Brian Houchin, Bratcher Heating and Cooling, Bloomington

-Dan Couillard, Element Energy Consulting, Park Ridge

-Mark Nussbaum, Architectural Consulting Engineers, Oak Park

-Kelly Gunn, ComEd, Chicago

-Gary Anderson, GWA Architects, Rockford

-John Scott, Jo Carroll Energy, Elizabeth

-Mike Gordon, WaterFurnace International, Danville

-Mike Barth, TCI, Goodfield

-Brian Pitcher, Enertech Geothermal, Metamora

-Brian Graumetz, Durbin Geothermal, Beecher City

-Mike Hameister, L&H Services, Beecher

Thank you everyone for your service!