"NESEA 50 Years" by John Abrams

John Abrams                                        
7.01.25

NESEA 50 YEARS

When I was haphazardly building my company, South Mountain, in the 1970s, I was lucky to find and attend conferences produced by a small organization called the New England Solar Energy Association. Little did I know, at the time, that NESEA would play an outsized role in shaping my career and the work of the company, or that it would become the source of a slew of lifetime friendships. 

That would happen.

In celebration of its 50th anniversary, NESEA Executive Director Flo MacGregor had the brilliant idea of bringing together past and present board members to enjoy each other’s company, share perspectives, and talk about NESEA’s next 50 years.

More than 30 current and former board members plus ED Flo and one damn cute baby gathered one afternoon on the top floor of the old Biltmore Hotel in Providence (now called Graduate by Hilton, but looking and feeling very much like the Biltmore I used to stay in decades ago).

The full range of NESEA’s history was well-represented. There were plenty of old timers for storytelling. There was a large group of middle-timers – shepherds of the years when NESEA expanded programming, became the Northeast Sustainability Association (acronym maintained), and matured to become a premier hub of leading-edge information and innovation for de-carbonization and the renewables transition.  Finally, there were the strong and leaderful voices of the current new-wave board - younger people with new ideas and methods, but with the same passion and commitment that has characterized the organization for the past half century.

  • A group of Board-led exercises led to some compelling conclusions:
  • We need multi-generational gatherings like this more often
  • Let’s make pathways to mentorship that connect legacy members with newer members
  • We should capture the oral history of NESEA before it withers away
  • How about a book to celebrate the history of NESEA – you know, start planning it now for when NESEA turns 100 :)?
  • Connections like these give us hope for "building a brighter future together"
  • Maybe we should take BE Bottom Lines on the road and make it national.

When evening came, we shared dinner. Afterward, Alex Wilson, who became ED when he was 25, way back before most of us can remember (he turned 70 a few days later) regaled us with stories of the past that were probably sprinkled with a fable or two. Then some of us walked to Union Station for the inevitable nightcap.

Nice going, Flo. You pulled it off. So great to be with everyone - see y’all next time!