Ben Howard is a Sr. Rural Development Specialist for Ohio RCAP. He has helped several communities with project development and funding applications, rate reviews, asset management, and decentralized wastewater alternatives training. He has completed PV-Installer 1 certification through ETA International and participated in two solar installations, which has allowed him to give preliminary guidance on solar feasibility to communities he works with.

SESSION ONE: 
Track: TAP Skills: Regionalization
Title: Recent Regionalization Efforts: A Team Approach
Day/Time: Tuesday, 8/16 | 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Description: Regionalization is a challenging topic, and RCAP has built out a particular methodology, best practices, and set of values to help small systems be more sustainable and resilient through partnerships, big and small. The session, designed for newer TAPs and those with less experience with regionalization, will include an overview of how RCAP defines regionalization, hands-on sample activities that can be used with communities when implementing regional collaboration, case studies, lessons learned from the field, and the review of key tools and resources. Ohio RCAP team members will share their experience facilitating a bulk purchase agreement between neighboring communities. Highlights will include a description of the negotiation timeline, simple tactics to improve teamwork, pitfalls when aligning with SRF deadlines, and knowing your individual and collective role(s) as TA providers.

SESSION TWO:
Title: World Cafe – Solar Feasibility
Day/Time: Thursday, 8/18 | 10:00 am-12:00 pm
Description: A brief desktop solar energy feasibility review to help your community identify projects to pursue. Solar array sizing, payback period, and energy policy considerations will be touched on.