February 21, 2010 | Filed under: Minutes by admin
Columbia University EWB – Executive Board
MEETING MINUTES
February 21, 2010
In attendance: Sonal, Sarah, Bruce, Kevin, Bethany, Lucy, Christen
1. Updates from PLs.
Uganda-Possibly (most likely) have a new professional advisor! There are many professionals interested in mentoring them. Working on TACS (due March 14).
Ghana-We have a professional advisor, but she lives in California. Had a conference call w/ professional advisor. Finding necessary building codes for building a latrine over the summer. Came up with design (and are fleshing it out and improving it) for a new latrine, and plans on how to improve the old latrine in case they cannot raise the money to build an entirely new latrine. They do not have the blueprints yet. They found someone who is good at CAD and will make blueprints for them. Currently they are planning to send an implementation trip, June, and an assessment trip for the water project in late July, early August.
India-In the Civil Lab, working on a prototype. We have a biomass stove prototype and are working on the low watt cooker. They still need a soil expert to help them with the soil. Contact at RIT: Many senior design teams are working on testing biomass stoves as their projects.
2. Colorado Conference
Looking into sponsorship from the Engineering Student Council. We have written them a letter.
We are also appealing to ABC.
We should send out an email telling people when to book their flights.
How many people do we have RSVP’d and confirmed? 10
3. PR
4. Survey
Results are in! Some new people have added their opinions, and:
Not very informed about the activities of the Eboard
Not very informed about the activities of the other projects
Beyond Borders: Good reviews.
How can we get people informed about the activities of E-Board?
Ideas: Invite program members to sit in on our meetings. But program members have enough meetings to go to already. E-Board should go to the meetings. –PL’s describe E-Board meeting at the beginning of their project meetings. –Have E-Board members come in and make their announcements themselves. –Invite people from all projects to work on planning training sessions.
How can we keep people informed about the activities of other programs?
Ideas: Send a program rep. from one program to present at another project’s meeting. –Have more potlucks!
5. Days on Campus
Need to do:
Projects need to prepare presentations (2 back to back presentations)
PR materials to give out
Equipment/AV we need to request: LOUD sound system.
Nice Table at the Activities Fair
Our discussion:
Ghana should involve its freshman, many of whom were recruited after seeing the DOC presentation.
Showing prototyping process. Bring in a prototype. Do we need to advertise?
Talk about what we’re doing now. Problem-solving.
We can show THE video. In the future, we would like a shorter, updated, version of the video. Anthony Yim made the original video.
Howabout if we set up the prototypes outside of the ramp lounge room?
6. Traing Sessions
CPR raining: How many people does each team want to train? Uganda needs to have a designated, CPR-trained person by March 14 for their TAC! Each team will need 1 or 2 people trained (depending on how many trips they are sending). Sarah is starting on this ASAP.
7. T-Shirts
We aren’t allowed to use our d(earth)/dt logo.
When do we want the T-Shirts by? By the conference! That is March 11th.
8. Web-site
A. Dr. Lambrech suggested that we keep our website looking new. Have a new look at least every 6 weeks. E-Board decided to spend about 5 minutes of each meeting updating the website.
B. Sponsors: Our sponsors are listed in an obscure section of the web-site. EWB University of Madison-Wisconsin has their sponsors prominently listed on their web-site. We should make a spot for corporations who sponsor us to be promoted.
9. March 6 Potluck
Come at 7:30, dinner at 8. Sonal will create Facebook event. What is E-Board’s contribution?
Bethany
Questions for Kevin:
Status of Ads on Website Project: To maintain professional appearance, we will not have ads on our website, unless they are ads for corporations that are sponsoring us.
Jin’s Reimbursement status: Kevin is looking into Jen’s check. He is clarifying complications with donations. He has to send everything at once. Still waiting.
Co-sponsoring with ROOTed: Go ahead and book them a space!
Sarah
Bruce
Dhristie
Christen
Travel Fundraising night at Campo: The E-Board thinks this is an excellent idea. Cover charge, drink specials, dancing. Party with the Engineers! Step 1: Pick a date. Right before/right after Spring Break. We decide on the weekend of the 26,27,28. Step 2: Invite the other engineering groups to attend. We’ll invite CC too. Step 3: Use our awesome tag-line: “Keep spring-break going!” Step 4: Delegate promotion of the event to the travel team.
CPR Workshops
Warning to other Teams: TAC write-up to travel has extensive health requirements. You should look into it now!
Lucy
African Cultural Festival: March 20-25. Maybe Uganda and Ghana would like to join it. In the Bronx. Would we like to set up a table?
I am a member of a Community Team going to Kenya on June 10th to Maai Mahiu. We are sponsored by the Kansas Episcopal Diocese and one of our projects is to build a latrine at the local public school. I am seeking some design options for a latrine that would be environmentally acceptable and that would also be affordable. I would appreciate any assistance or referral that you could provide. Thanks so much.