EWB-Executive Board
MEETING AGENDA
January 24th, 2010
In attendance:
Sonal (President)
Bruce (VP)
Lucy & Clay: Representatives of Ghana Project
Bethany (Secretary)
Dhristie: Representative of India Project
Sarah (VP)
Kevin (Treasurer)
Alison Ferris : Representing Uganda
Christen Soden is the Uganda Project Liason, but she was unable to make this meeting.
1. Updates From Program Representatives (PL’s)
India-Dhristie-India met already. Some team members want to go the March Conference. They are looking for a mentor (faculty) for the biomass cook stove project. Won $8000 Boeing grant.
Ghana-Clay and Lucy- submitted P3 grant proposal over break. Continuing to work on water distribution system. Working in Obodon. P3 grant for latrine project because there are difficulties with the present latrine. Water project is more longterm (2 years) than latrine project (planned for this summer). Upcoming water conference organized by Prof. Chandran at Columbia: hosting as a benefit for the Ghana program. Will invite many professors and professionals. Using Ghana team’s data and experiences as a case study for the conference. It’s in April.
Uganda-Alison-Looking into unlocking and using P3 money. Coming up with business plans for expanding MFP program. Create microgrid for energy use from MFP. Water project? Uganda won $4,000. Boeing grant.
2. International Conference in Colorado
During Spring break. Difficult to cover travel costs because people will fly in from many different places. ABC usually covers ½ of travel, registration, hotel stay.
On the conference website, individual teams can post things about their projects on-line.
-Get head count of interested persons by February 7 so that we can figure out how to cover costs. They don’t have to be absolutely sure.
How many people should we send?
In the past, 2 per team, 2 from e-board. Possibly more.
People should expect to pay $200-$250. Depends where you are flying in from (it will probably be: you buy your own ticket, we reimburse you for half the cost).
We have a $500 travel grant that we can split among everyone.
Since we got the $500 travel grant we are required to have a poster at the conference. Only one poster to display all three of our projects. Send posters out to individual projects and have them update it. Guidelines for designing poster are very specific. Projects: update your part of the poster and send it to Sarah by February 7. Project posters are due February 19.
3. Vision Discussion
– Personal goals for each position.
Corporate Campaign information from Bruce: response rate of emails sent to companies is very low. From programs, Bruce needs you to look at our list of companies. See which companies would be a good match for your project. Pick 10-20 companies, and Bruce will send the companies an email. Deadline for getting list to Bruce: January 31. How Corporate Campaign works: Groups have autonomy in picking which co’s they want to reach out to. Bruce will help out and send email to the companies, but individual groups will have to present their projects.
– Overall board goals.
Sonal: We should create a clear list of things that we need, so when we make a new contact we know what to ask for. What we need: Business Cards to give to more contacts. Look more professional as an organization.
Bruce: We would like to do things more directly. Bureaucracy! Be conscientious of this! Don’t delegate too much! Do things on your own.
Lucy: Having program leads published on the website. For donate button, show exactly what the donation would be for (ask individual projects to post their specific needs). Creates more transparency within the group.
Kevin: Make website more consolidated.
Sonal: How to organize our data. Keep everyone on the same page. Right now we post information on WordPress. But there is some info that we do not need everyone to see. Look into different databasing programs. Talk to CUIT people. As the years go by, we will start losing information. Bruce: can we centralize our use of Google docs? Lucy: Howabout a Wiki?
Clay: More vocal on the website about who are sponsors are. Make it more obvious who is supporting us. Be very professional.
4. AECOM Meeting Planning
5. Budgets/Pre-Calendar
Meeting at 2 on Sundays.
-Status of Uganda Program’s Summer Travel Reimbursement
6. Create survey for Listserv
Compile list of Questions from each E-Board members.
7. Discuss how to divide work of responding to emails
8. Business Cards
9. Debrief Meetings
– Rachel Fried-Bethany is in charge of working on Days on Campus this year.
– Dr. Regine Lambrech: Director of Global initiatives and Education. Contact made by Allison S. last year. She asked “how can I help you in any way possible?” “Do you want to set up meetings with Alumni to get funding and interest?” She would help us update our materials (video, pamphlets). She wants to help us make our presentations and materials more professional. Getting us business cards. She mentioned Global Centers (2 in Africa, one in India) that Columbia is building around the world, as an opportunity for us to come in. Maybe we could set up a home base at these global centers.
Let us set up a meeting with the entire E-Board and Dr. RL.
10. Things to add to this week’s list serve
Haiti: EWB_USA wants money or French speaking Civil Engineers.
Bi-weekly “what’s new for our project” updates on cu-ewb-list emails.
11. Millennium Campus Networks
They want to meet with us. Sarah and Sonal will meet with them.
12. Haiti Earthquake
Many other EWB groups want to work with us on this. This is something that we should be a part of. EWB-USA is doing something. Maybe we can refer folks to these organizations.
EWB will send manpower to Haiti events organized by other clubs. We will not have our own event. Joint effort with other Columbia campus groups. EWB-USA wants money or French speaking engineers.
13. cu-ewb list
-Ghana stuff: Kids Engineering Day, Ask about EI travel grant and Culligan’s class
Engineering Week is February 14-20. Claire Wang, of Civil Engineering society is trying to host workshops for kids during engineering week. Invite Professors’ Children. Idea: in Carlton Café, have 30-40 4th-6th graders. Charge some fee. See bridge building, stuff blown up. Tour labs. Ghana people will run it for this year.
