Al has a decade of experience in municipal (Town of Kickapoo) government. His professional background includes over 20 years of web-based software development for clients ranging from dairy industry manufacturers, local businesses, and municipal governments. For five years he managed training and education for a department of over 700 employees at a large printing company. He is currently working on a load management system to maximize the use of solar energy as it is generated. This system controls his EV charger(amperage, on/off), freezer, refrigerator, and water trough heater. The impact of intelligently controlling these few loads is already proving quite significant.

Jon Wedell holds a degree in computer science and has a professional background in software development, focusing on supporting scientists in the field of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy. At home, Jon is committed to energy efficiency, having completed projects such as insulating, air sealing, and installing a heat pump himself, as well as having solar panels installed. He has been a passionate advocate for such upgrades as he believes they reduce long term costs and thereby enhance individual and community resilience. Like Al, he is also working on a home-built load management system. Jon volunteered with VCED’s energy planning action team for several years before joining the board.

Lynn is retired, but her work background was in Healthcare and Education.

She is a consummate volunteer in a large variety of areas. Her experiences have been diverse with leadership on boards and committees (Norskedalen, Westby School district, Church, 4H and Sons of Norway). She has also led nature hikes for school children, worked with birds of prey and ushers at Viterbo theater and American Players Theater.

Lynn has a passion for the environment. Her commitments to wise use of energy include having solar panels and a Geo thermal system at her rural property. She loves the comfort that provides for heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. That comfort combines with saving on the monthly energy bills.

Lynn’s family raise a lot of their own food organically, process it and share it with others. The types of animals that they have raised includes horses, dairy goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits, fancy pigeons, chickens, turkeys, Highland cattle, peacocks and bees.

Over the years, others have shared how to be wise with energy and earth resources. So many little things can add up to have a big impact. She has been happy to hear about these things: putting outlet gaskets behind outlets to cut down on air leakage, turning lights off when not in a room, using programmable thermostats and turn down the temperature when not at home and at night, buying Energy Star appliances, pulling window blinds to block the sun on hot days and also close them at night. There are so many things that are common sense and easy to do.

Lynn’s passion for the community and local prosperity make her a natural fit with VCED’s mission. As a member of the board of directors Lynn will help guide the organization as we promote the benefits of energy independence to improve our quality of life, health and resilience for Vernon County and beyond.

Robert has spent 30 years in Information Technologies during which he lived 5 years off the grid. In the 25 years running a food processing business he designed and built 3 commercial kitchens including the HVAC functions. In addition to stints at local construction and logistics for local food distribution. He brings an interest in cost effective efficiency and social justice to saving money and distributed power generation to our county.