Executive Board Meeting Minutes 03/07/2010
March 7, 2010 | Filed under: Uncategorized by admin
Columbia University EWB - Executive Board
MEETING AGENDA
March 7, 2010
In attendance: Sonal, Sarah, Bruce, Bethany, Kevin, Lucy, Dhristie, Alison Ferris (subbing for Christen to represent the Uganda team)
1. Updates from PLs
Uganda-
a.Working on TAC for two projects! 1. Water 2. MFP, install electricity MICROGRID! They are going to go with a Ugandan electrician who will design the grid and set it up for them.
b.They are starting to work on their presentation for the Colorado Conference.
India-
a. Discussed travel plans. Possibly, they will send two trips over the summer. The first team will figure out how to make the teams. The second team will follow up with the information gained by the first.
b. Biomass team-looking for soil expert. Now called the “improved wood burning stove.”
c. Won $500 grant at MCN meeting.
d. “Low Power Electrical Stove” is the new name for the “low watt cooker.”
Ghana-
a. Another conference call with professional advisor. She suggested they could look into building latrines at schools or improving the latrines that are already in schools.
b. Looking into different kinds of pumping systems for our water distribution system. Advisor suggested DIESEL.
c. African cultural festival. Ghana team has a table at the Bazaar.
2. Website Updates
Add information about the Conference.
3. Colorado Conference
- Budget
a. Sarah and Kevin are attending ESC meeting asking them to cosponsor our conference attendance. ESC will only pay for SEAS students. We would like them to match the amount that we are spending from CU-EWB’s budget.
i. We will hear back from them on Tuesday.
b. We are also going to CSC to ask for sponsorship for the CC students in our group.
c. Meeting with Conference Attendees, Last Sunday, February 28.
A.Concern that persons attending conference failed to relay what they learned back to the group. How can conference attendees better benefit the group?
i. Dhristie suggests: Have an all-chapter meeting where conference attendees present what they learned and project members can ask questions. A panel, but a formal structure so that people are not afraid to ask questions and provide input.
ii. Have attendees debrief to E-Board and their projects.
iii. Make a list of persons who attended and what they learned. Make list available to all CU-EWB members.
iv. Every night in the hotel, attendees will discuss what they learned with each other.
v. They should figure out what they are going to present at the All-EWB meeting on Thursday WHILE at the conference. This will save a lot of time once they get back to campus!
vi. Howabout blogging while at the conference?
B. CU-EWB attendees should have a short, 15 s elevator pitch prepared to discuss their projects with anyone they meet.
C. CU-EWB attendees, the first night at their hotel, should have a meeting where they practice giving their pitches.
4. Debrief Meeting with Krishna Swamy (Community Lab)
a. What is the community lab?
i. Part of the Earth institute.
ii. They are creating a manual on how to do development work. How to assess needs, how to intervene, how to create an ideal Millenium Village process.
iii. They have all sorts of people working for them! Even engineers!
b. Swamy is interested in getting EWB members involved in community lab. He would like to present to us and discuss internships and possible careers with community lab.
i. How could he present to us? We never have a general assembly meeting.
ii. Possibly he could provide a Community Lab employee at one of our Training sessions, providing us with their valuable knowledge and giving them the opportunity to pitch community lab to us.
5. Training Sessions
1. CPR
a. We need the names of 2 people from each team. Uganda is already sent in.
b. Do we need CPR trained people BEFORE we send in TAC?
c. After you get people CPR trained, you have to wait a month to get your certificate.
d. Do people want to get training even if they are not traveling?
i. Certification lasts for two years. Maybe younger team members should get trained to prepare for the future.
e. Team leaders: Find out HOW many people want CPR training! NOW!
2. EWB CHALLENGE PROBLEM
a. Invite Professors and grad students for an hour lunch and present to them a problem that EWB needs solved! Have them brainstorm. Depending on the problem, we will invite EEE’s, EE’s, people from the water center etc.
b. If each team had something written, we could invite professors and grad students!
c. Sonal: How do we get everyone else from the other programs involved?
i. Have the programs rotate on a monthly basis.
ii. Give plenty of detail.
d. We need to have a detailed conversation in a way that is appealing.
i. Have the team doing the problem do an initial run-down.
ii. Then have the professor talk technical stuff.
e. We could bring back EWB alumni working in the city! Some have contacted us expressing their desire to visit and help us work out some problems!
f. Something like NOON BALLOON! Open to the student body.
g. Uganda says: We sent out a blurb through Rosemary asking for a travel mentor. We got many interested responses, not able to travel, but wanting to help us.
h. What’s the best way to get this started? Should Sarah present at your meetings?
6. Individual Programs Posting Minutes on the EWB Website
a. Currently, individual programs are not posting their minutes.
i. India has 3 meetings! They will just post the general body meeting!
ii. Sonal and Bethany will set up a meeting with the 3 program secretaries (via Doodle) to teach them how to post minutes to the website and decide where they should put them.
7. Beyond Borders Meeting
-Thurs the week after spring break?
i. Invite members of your team who might be interested in running the event. Who understand what we want out of this event.
ii. What if EWB organized the Networking night before the Sustainable Development career fair? Maybe we could cosponsor with Green Umbrella. Make it more of a professional (as in inviting professionals) event.
iii. We could have table discussions about our projects.
iv. We have to have this meeting if we are going to have Beyond Borders!
a. We should also discuss: Should we have Beyond Borders?
b. To get ABC funding, this event has to attract students. So if we want to shift our focus, we need to start planning how to budget it SOON.
v. When should we have this meeting?
a. A Thursday/Friday night dinner? Invite people from your programs.
Kevin needs to turn in our budget by THURSDAY, MARCH 25th to ABC!!! So we need a rough idea of what we are doing by this date!
-Training sessions
-Meeting with Lisa still postponed
-New idea: How about EWB challenge problems (great way to involve professors, grad students and EWB alumni)
8. Monthly General Body Meetings?
i. Conference meeting could be at our First general body meeting!
ii. We accumulate SO MUCH stuff to discuss over the course of a month.
iii. Spaces? Cinema, Davis Auditorium.
a. Should we require attendance? A certain number of meetings attended per year to be an “official member.”
i. No.
ii. People do EWB because they want to, not because we force them to do it.
b. Thursday, March 25 will be the first General Body meeting! From there, we will decide what days and what meeting patterns people would like for future GBM’s.
c. Now that EWB-USA is setting more standards for programs to meet, they will be more strict. E-Board needs to be responsible for what our projects do.
c. Slightly less structured than a workshop/training session.