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Weatherization
Director's Manual Table of Contents
So you have been hired to run
your agencies
weatherization program. You may have come to the position
from within the WAP program and have great “Whole House”
energy skills but bring little in the way of budget and
management skills. Or you have been hired for the position
because you have management experience but know little about
the Whole House approach to weatherization.
How do you know what knowledge or skill sets you are
missing?
Knowing where
you are
is nine tenths of navigation ~ wise seaman
Following is
a brief overview of the knowledge base needed to manage a
weatherization program.
Below is a flow chart of how the manual's
information will flow
The above diagram is a visual layout of one way at looking
at the job of a weatherization director. This visual
structure will be how we will lay out this manual as well as
the manuals website structure.
In brief you
are responsible at the local level for a National program
funded by the Department of Energy (DOE). Your agency has a
weatherization contract with the Division of Housing and
Community Renewal (DHCR) which is the designated state
agency that operates the federal DOE program at the state
level.
This is how
the money flows – from the Feds to DHCR then to your agency
at the local level. Also the regulations you must follow
flow from the feds embodied in Part 440 to DHCR’s Policy and
Procedure Manual (PPM)
The three
lower fields of the above diagram are the essence of running
a good program. Think of them as the legs of a three legged
stool. Remove one of the legs and the stool will collapse
or if one leg is short the stool is off balanced. As a
director your job is to balance all three legs of this
stool, managing your production, staying within a budget and
adhering to all the regulations that relate to your program.
Not paying
attention to the details of this balancing act or waiting
till the end of a contract period had gotten many directors
in trouble. Following is a short explanation of the
problems you can face trying to keep your stool balanced.
You have a production based contract with DHCR. Your job is
to deliver “x” number of units, within budget, plus follow
all state and federal regulations on your units. Here are
some examples of the balancing act that is your challenge:
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It is late December and
you realize that you are behind on production based on
average units your crews can deliver per month and only 3
months left in the contract. Unlike a regular business
you can not make up the production problem by hiring more
staff since this will cut the budget leg of your stool too
short. You cannot reduce the measures installed in units
to speed up the production as this would violate the
regulation as to what constitutes a weatherization job.
-
Again it is late December
but this time you become aware that your average materials
and labor per units is low. If this continues for the
balance of the contract you are going to be in a situation
of having a fund balance as of March 31.
As
you can see the proper management of your WAP contract means
paying attention to details. Again this manual will
hopefully help you understand the entire process of managing
your program and help point you to the proper references for
your answer to your questions.
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