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Hello to our MiHG members and friends,

This is a reminder about our MiHG meet coming up on Saturday April 19th at the Oak Creek Public Library. This is our second meet of 2008, our 16th meet since we started and our first since the Milwaukee Auto Show. We should have good attendance with about 40-50 members coming in for the meet. As usual, we’ll start to gather in the parking lot around 9:15am and proceed to our meeting room at 10am. Our potluck lunch will be at around 12:30pm and our Drive $mart training should begin about 1:15pm. There is a very good possibility that a local television station will be sending a crew to take some video of this meet as well. So if you’re a new member try to make this meet and if you’re a veteran member and haven’t been to a meet for awhile, this should be a fun meet. Details will follow with an agenda, directions and other specifics.


We wanted to share with our members that our MiHG will be at three Earth Day events on Saturday April 26th. We will be at the:

- Gateway Technical College Green Fair in Kenosha from 10am to 2pm. Wayne Gerdes and Randy Mays will be representing us at this event. We will be having an outdoor hybrid vehicle display and indoor table and we’ll be offering a public workshop as well.

- Outpost Natural Foods EcoFair in Bay View from 12pm to 2pm. Debbie Anders and Jeanie Wridt will be leading this effort. This event will be a meet and greet with a display of hybrid vehicles.

- Greener Oconomowoc Earth Day Resource Fair in Oconomowoc from 11am to 3pm. Ken Keuler and Bradlee Fons will be at this site representing the MiHG. This will also be a meet and greet with a display of hybrid vehicles.

We would encourage all MiHG members to consider spending part of your day at one of these events in you area. We’ll be sending out another separate email that will offer directions, posters and event particulars soon. This would be a wonderful chance to bring your family along to a MiHG event as they can enjoy these events while you meet with the public and share your hybrid experiences.


The 5th Annual Hybrid Gathering at Miller Park will be taking place on Sunday June 1st. The game will be between the Houston Astros and the Milwaukee Brewers and this will be Ryan Braun bobble head day. With the Brewers picked to take their division, every weekend game should be a full house. We have purchased a block of 60 tickets this year so plan ahead and let us know how many tickets you’ll need. Tickets this year will be $11 a piece and will get you a Terrace Reserved seat, a hot dog and a free soda. (Parking will be extra) This is still another chance to bring you family to a hybrid event. Details and a separate email will follow later this month however if you have been to the previous Gatherings you can email me with your interest. Upon receipt of payment, tickets will be sent to all attending this special event.


At our next meet we will be offering the Accutire 4350B tire gauges at $15 as well as Prius 1st and 2nd generation electric block heaters for $45. In addition, we are negotiating a group buy for the upcoming Bentley Toyota Prius Repair and Maintenance manual which retails for $70. So is you’re a 2004-2008 Prius owner, hold off pre-ordering your manual elsewhere because you’ll be able to get one with the MiHG at a lower price. The MiHG works hard to get the best products that we can at a good price for our members. Since we have no fees or dues, the MiHG runs on donations and a small profit that we make on these sales. We would encourage you to buy from us at a good price and help support our activities at the same time.

- http://www.theconsumerlink.com/MeasurementLTD/detail/TCL+MS-4350B/102

- http://www.bentleypublishers.com/prius


Lastly, we want to share the success of the 5th Annual Green Vehicles Workshop held last Friday at the downtown campus of MATC. We had 23 MiHG accept the 50% discount to attend and enjoyed a well attended event with a series of political, educational and manufacturer presentations. Wayne Gerdes has written a great write up of the event:

- http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=83513


This local event is always a good prep for the master of all events, Hybridfest 2008:

- http://www.hybridfest.com/


Lastly, (really) for MiHG members that are looking for a little road trip, the Chicago Prius Group will be holding an Earth Day meet in Lincolnwood IL. on Sunday April 27th. Many of their members have supported the MiHG it its early days so we encourage you to support the CPG with your attendance:

- http://www.chicagopriusgroup.com/


Thank you all for your support and encouragement of your MiHG and we look forward to seeing you on the 19th or at one of our upcoming events.

Bradlee Fons
Milwaukee Hybrid Group

Hello to MiHG members and friends,

This is our second meet of 2008 and our first meet since our successful presence at the 2008 MAS. We anticipate many first time members attending, so we should have a great opportunity to show them our hospitality and friendliness and share our hybrid experiences with them. We also have plans for a WITI Fox 6 news crew to be at this meet doing some taping for future on air use. In addition, WITI Fox 6 will also be doing some taping on Friday 4-18 with several of our MiHG members highlighting their fuel economy driving techniques. This should be quite a spectacular meet with lots of new people!

The main topic of this meet will be “Let the Good Times Roll” as we prepare for the warm weather and the prime season for our highest fuel economy. We already should be experiencing improved mileage and at this meet our members will share their summer tips for maximum mileage. In addition, New MiHG member Ben Nelson will be bringing his converted EV motorcycle for display and discussion. Here is a CleanMPG link regarding his project:
http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9849

Also, member Neil Radtke will also be demonstrating his working model of a hydrogen fuel cell car.

For our first timers, here’s the way things generally work at a meet. We begin to gather in the Library parking lot about 9:15am to schmooze and show off our vehicles. If the weather is good, we’ll begin check-in and our VTP’s at that time. At 10:00am we’ll begin to setup our room and by 10:20 we should be set to begin our introduction round robin. We’ll have short session and then take a short break for snacks and item sales. We’ll then have our main session and offer some updates, reviews, news, short subjects and door prizes and then break for lunch about 12:45pm. After our potluck lunch, we’ll begin our driver training sessions about 1:00 pm and begin cleanup. Beverages and utensils will be supplied but we encourage all attending to bring some food to share. (Main dishes are greatly appreciated). Be prepared to be gracious with the understanding that the agenda usually does not follow the timeline.

Milwaukee Hybrid Group Meet, No 16
Saturday, April 19, 2008
9:30am to 1:30pm

Oak Creek Public Library
8620 South Howell Avenue
Oak Creek, WI. 53154
414-764-4400

Directions: http://tinyurl.com/2kv67k

9:00 – 10:00 Outdoor gathering, discussion and VTP checks
10:00 – 10:20 Check in, room setup and informal discussion
10:20 – 11:00 Introductions and performance updates
11:00 – 11:10 Break
11:05 – 11:35 Summer mileage: “Let the Good Times Roll”
11:35 – 12:00 Open discussion
12:00 – 12:20 “Cheap, clean and quiet”- Ben Nelson and his EV motorcycle
12:20 – 12:40 MiHG updates, door prizes and Q and A
12:40 – Open Lunch, VTP results and informal discussion
1:10 – Open Personal EcoDriving and Hypermiling driver training

We will be once again be promoting EcoDriving (Drive$mart America)as the strategy to drive any vehicle more fuel efficiently in order to improve safety, save money and to lower oil dependency and tailpipe emissions. So if you know anyone who would like to learn how to save money and lower their fuel costs, invite them to attend. This will be a major part of the MiHG public outreach in 2008 and with fuel prices continuing to rise; there is no better time to start saving money than now. We anticipate more drivers interested in training so for our veteran members, we’ll need additional instructors at this meet.

Please feel free to bring any co-worker, friend or relative if they are thinking about buying a hybrid or interested in getting better mpg in whatever they’re currently driving. Our meets are the best way to get accurate and real life info on hybrids and actual hands on EcoDriving training. We’ll also have “spectacular” door prizes, free handouts and interesting displays in addition to good camaraderie. We will also have the Accutire Tire Gauge MS4350B for $15.[/B]

http://www.theconsumerlink.com/MeasurementLTD/detail/TCL+MS-4350B/102

Our MiHG has secured preferred pricing for the new 648 page hardcover Bentley 2004-2008 Prius Repair and Maintenance Manual, which will be released in June 2008. We will begin taking orders for the manual at this meet and through our website. The MiHG price will be $49.95 with pickup at a meet or a shipped price of $54.95. Here is the link for the manual:
http://www.bentleypublishers.com/prius

After the suggestion from our youngest MiHG member, we will try to begin being greener in our lunch program. We will continue to use paper plates, for now, however the utensils will be washed and saved for future meets. In addition, if each member could begin to bring your own cups/mugs it would help. Like poor driving habits, it may take us awhile to be greener with our lunch but we need to act how we preach. Bear with us and we’ll get better.

We anticipate another great and memorable meet and we thank you for all your encouragement and support in the continual growth of the MiHG, the largest hybrid owners group in North America. Questions please call us at 262-691-4349.

Bradlee and Justin Fons
& the MiHG Planning Group
milwaukeehybridgroup.com

Hello to MiHG members and friends,

Our MiHG meet last Saturday was our biggest and one of our best. The potential of rain may have prevented some others from attending, however more likely than not. We had 54 members and friends in attendance making this our largest to date. We had 38 vehicles in the lot including; 5 Insights, 3 FEHs, 2- 1st gen Prius, 10 conventional vehicles, 1 motorcycle and 17 2nd gen Prius. Other than the Insights, our Honda members must have taken the day off. We had a crew of 6 MiHG members perform our VTP checks of members tires including pumping up those that dared to attend the meet low in air.

We had members roll in from Indianapolis IN, Minneapolis MN as well as from Chicago, Loves Park and Wadsworth IL. Our WI. members came in from across the state including; La Crosse, Madison, Seymour, Kenosha, Racine, Beloit, Union Grove, Belgium, Eagle and Slinger. We had 15 first timers at this meet including 9 hybrid owners and 6 conventional owners. We also had a crew from WITI Fox News from Milwaukee at this meet filming part of our meet as well as some of our driver training sessions including Wayne Gerdes. This same crew had done some filming the previous day with Debbie Anders, Justin Fons and Sean Welch on Drive $mart and hypermiling techniques.

The main points of this meet were an open discussion of summer mileage tips for better fuel economy in whatever vehicle members are driving. We had two shows and tell including Neil Radtke’s small working model of a solar hydrogen fuel cell car as well as Ben Nelson’s electric motorcycle. We had Ben do a presentation on his EV bike, actually bring the EV bike into our Library meeting room for display and inspection. In addition we had Wayne Mitchell from the Chicago Prius Group bring in an actual battery pack from a 1st gen Prius for display.

We had MiHG sale of performance products including Accutire 4350B gauges at $15, Prius 1st and 2nd gen EBH at $40. We also announced and began taking orders for the new 600 page hardcover Bentley 2004-2008 Toyota Repair and Maintenance Manual at a $20 discount for $49.95. Shipping to MiHG members for the SG2 and the Manual will be $5 for either.

The remainder of the meet was our R & R on member introductions and performance updates, distribution of our traditional spectacular door prizes, and handout of furthest travel award to Sean Welch. We reviewed upcoming MiHG events or other events of interest including;

April 26 – MiHG participation at three Earth Day events in Kenosha, Bay View and Oconomowoc
April 27 – Chicago Prius Group meet at Grossinger Toyota in Lincolnwood, IL
May 10- Madison Hybrid Group meet at Culvers in Madison, WI
June 1 – Fifth Annual Hybrid Gathering at Miller Park with Milwaukee vs Houston
June 21 – Next MiHG meet at the Oak Creek Public Library
July 19-20 – Hybridfest 2008 in Madison WI

We concluded with our bountiful potluck lunch. Personal driver training follows every meet and we were fortunate to have some of the best hypermilers in the world at this meet. We had 13 MiHG members wishing Drive $mart and hypermiling personal training so we had our best MiHG trainers including; Wayne Gerdes, Sean Welch, Justin Fons, Wayne Mitchell, Jerad Parrish and Tim Fulton take trainees out in waves either before or after lunch. These training sessions can last from 15 to 60 minutes in length so as usual members hung out in the Library or the lot. After the Library closed at 4pm many members retired to the nearby Culvers for additional conversation.

I want to thank our MiHG Planning Team for another successful MiHG meet and encourage anyone in the Midwest to come and participate in any MiHG, MHG, CPG or CMPG event

Detailed minutes of this meet will be sent to all MiHG members and friends soon.

Bradlee Fons
milwaukeehybridgroup.com

Had a great time at the meet, picked up a tire gauge, and hung out with 2 other FEH owners! Looking foward to the next meet and filling up the room with more hybrid afficienados and more people who want to get better gas mileage. Might have to catch the Madison meet in May when I am there for work.