Columbia University - Engineers Without Borders

Ghana Travel Blog

clayton.dahlman — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 22:22:56 +0000

The first Ghana team arrived in Obodan earlier this week and construction of the latrine is proceeding quickly. The superstructure is about half finished and the team is right on schedule. They will be joined this weekend by the second team of Ghana CU-EWBers, who will be conducting water and safety tests in Obodan. To get the most up-to-date information, updates and media, please visit the Obodan travel blog at projectobodan.blogspot.com. Good luck to all of the summer travelers!

Stay posted here! (projectobodan.blogspot.com)

Christen — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:08:34 +0000

Friday, June 4th

By: Christen Soden

Uganda is the same as it was last year when I was on this adventure. However, the experiences now are either dulled or accentuated. I no longer wake up every morning with the wonder of being in Africa. Instead, it is another work day, with a full itinerary planned and things to do. The excitement is still there, but not everything is a new experience. I have already tried posha and atapa, driven on the brutal country roads, seen the pelting rain– so severe it hurts your skin and blinds your vision–, and lived amongst and worked with the warmest people in the world. These things are the reasons why I came back in the first place.

But today it is the renewed vitality of the Teso region that makes me wonder. It is true that virtually all our close friends from last year are or have recently been sick. Edward has had a long-running case of malaria that is only now getting better. He is Pilgrim’s scientific researcher and the staff member tasked to work most directly with us. He is quite the jokester and political officianado, making for excellent conversation. Grace, the owner of Golden Arch Guesthouse– where we stay when we are in Soroti– has also had a string of consistent and severe bouts of malaria, which enduced her to cut off all her hair “like a schoolgirl.” Through that Grace was able to carry out her responsibilities, even while devouring books per normal, and filling the house with her sweet giggle. Finally, Rita, the director of Pilgrim’s Agricultural Development Program, has burst vericous veins in her legs and is walking with a limp and a bandage. Even then, Rita has come out to the field with us several times, gritting through the pain. Instead of a grimace, she wears her sweet smile, as warm as the Ugandan sunshine, while familiarizing us with Teso life.

Rita’s vericous veins act up when she gets caught in heavy rains. The malaria rate increases with the mosquito count when there is plenty of standing water. Despite these drawbacks, a season of heavy rain is also a blessing. Upon a second glance, the Teso landscape is radically different from last year.

This year there is a harvest. This year there are cattle. The rumors of famine from last year are gone. There will be two full harvests, instead of the measly one of last year. The crops have finally risen far above the ground, and I am surprised to have to struggle to see through fields of maze, millet, and sugarcane. I had no idea that Teso’s staple food– cassava– was supposed to be a middling-height tree instead of a low shrub.

The reappearance of cattle is especially significant. The Teso have a cattle culture. As wealth increases, they buy more cattle to store and express that wealth. Today, fat, healthy cows and bulls are grazed in herds along country roads by young boys and old men in areas where we had not seen them last year.

An American woman, Phyllis, who works as an assistant headmaster at the Pilgrim-run Soroti Secondary Municipal School (or Beacon of Hope College), has said that the return rate of the students to school after their vacation break has been unusually quick and high. An indirect benefit of the rain and a direct benefit of good crops. Every blessing is not without a drawback however. The students who have not returned to school are likely helping their parents recover from the floods caused by the heavy rains in some areas, which wiped out crops.

But overall, spirits were high as we began our work in the rural communities of Usuk and Orungo. We have many goals concerning the multi-functional platforms for this trip. Not only will we be installing micro-grids to provide power and battery-charging services to the coops, but we will also be carrying out quantitative and qualitative assessments of the performance of the currently installed MFPs over the past year. Although our project is mechanized, and may thereby seem disconnected from the natural element of rain, its success actually hinges directly on the prevalence of rainfall.

Pilgrim had previously notified us that the villagers had not been operating the MFP in Usuk. We were unsure as to what could be the reason for this. On Thursday, Talia and I did the first qualitative assessment at the Usuk MFP site by interviewing members of the coop using strategically-targeted survey questions that covered everything from the cultivation of jatropha, to the involvement of different social groups (like women and children), to their outlook on the future of the project. In these conversations we found out that the villagers stopped operation of the MFP because there were no crops to process due to the poor rains and harvests. Even the competitor millers in the area had no crops to process. Apparently, Katakwi, the district within which Usuk lies, was one of the worst hit by food shortages last year. As an American working with Pilgrim told me last year, “farming that depends on weather is not farming– it’s gambling.”

Although this situation brings up the question of food security as a factor in our project, it is encouraging to see that the MFP was succeeding of its own accord prior to these external factors. In addition, the villagers were incredibly excited for the harvest and the prospects for the engine this year because of the successful harvests. I’m excited as well! I feel the hope in the air in a way that is new in my experiences of Uganda.

Uganda Team Travel Blog

Christen — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 08:03:57 +0000

Hello Supporters! Welcome to the Uganda Team Travel Blog for our Summer 2010 trip! We will try to update you as much as we can, but our internet access is sporadic, so you will have to forgive us for delays.

Also, we will probably be posting blogs that were written several days before, like the one below. We write the blogs in a word document so that we can post them when we do have internet access.

Hope you enjoy!

Sunday May 30^th

By Talia Arbit

^{With roosters crowing in the background, children playing soccer beneath the window of my half-lit room and my fellow teammates playing with wires for hours on end, I can successfully say that I have arrived to Uganda. And I must say, this journey did not come without its series of fearful moments, challenges, and of course, lots of laughter. I guess we can start with the airport, when Evram (by far the most relaxed person on this trip, also known as “the yes man”) showed up 2 hours late due to a speeding ticket he was contesting. But, alas, we made it onto our Emirates flight perfectly on time. Let me stick in a piece of advice here: if you ever have the option of flying Emirates, DO IT (said with a Starsky and Hutch voice, which is coincidentally the movie we watched last night).}

^{After a 13 hour flight, we had a 10 hour layover in Dubai and were given free overnight lodging by Emirates (see? I told you it was the best airline!). Evram, Alex and I went on a tour of Dubai with a Tanzanian couple and Ethiopian college student, And here comes my first great memory from the trip that I will share with you. Part of the tour was stopping at the beach in Dubai, where we all took our shoes off so we can touch the warm water of the Persian Gulf and feel the sand’. The tide was coming in ferociously and, before I knew it, I looked down to find Evram’s shoes floating away peacefully with the waves. After my screaming “Evram!Your shoes!” he successfully recuperated his soaking wet shoes. Thankfully, there was an available blow dryer in the hotel.}

^{We arrived in Soroti, Uganda last night after driving for 6 hours from Kampala and were greeted by our amazing guesthouse owner, Grace. The drive was quite epic- as most driving in Uganda is. Our driver, Sam, was an old driver in the army and used to drive around the President of Southern Sudan and the Minister of Finance. Still, I was continuously fearing for my life, as we were driving on a scarcely-lit, pothole-ridden road.}

^{And now- albeit abrupt- I must go. It is sundown here and I need to deet up before the mosquito eat me alive!}

Ghana Wins Round 1 of EPA P3 Award

clayton.dahlman — Tue, 25 May 2010 19:05:11 +0000

The Ghana Program is thrilled to announce that it has won the first round of the EPA’s competitive P3 award. The Ghana program is hoping to follow in the Uganda Program’s footsteps to win the final round next summer. The program will be sending seven travelers to Obodan later this summer to install a new source-separated composting latrine and to gather more data for the future water distribution system. We will be sure to post our group’s travel blog soon, so remember to check for updates!

CU-EWB E-Board Meeting Minutes: May 2, 2010

admin — Mon, 03 May 2010 04:09:22 +0000

Columbia University EWB - Executive Board

MEETING AGENDA

May 2, 2010

In attendance: Sonal, Sarah, Christen, Bruce, Kevin, Suraj (filling in for Lucy), Bethany

1. PL Updates

- Travel Plans

Ghana- 3 person July travel team, then a four person august travel team. 3 person travel team in July is an “assessment” team, so they are not filling out TAC. They are building a pilot latrine and hope to finish the latrine in the first trip.

Uganda- Pre-assessment review conference call with Peter Wa. Conference call on Wednesday with Uganda to arrange trouble. Having hard time unlocking and using their P3 money. Up in the air about travel dates.

India: Not sending a travel team. Our project is moving in a completely new direction. Matt is talking to the EWB India chapter and professors.

- ISOS insurance

2. Website Updates

- Post Travel Teams

3. ABC Mistake

We forgot to send someone to the meeting. We will lose 5% of our allocation.

4. Beyond Borders Planning Meeting

Undecided what kind of event it will be.

No dance groups.

Do we want it really technical, or a publicity thing?

- Committee/Events Chair

Get a committee and plan the event over the summer.

Bruce will work with them for PR stuff.

Do it democratically: Have members send in nominations for positions on BB committee.

5. Reimbursements

Next year:

Plan the budget better. ABC money is from your student life fees. The money has to go to support on Campus events that benefit the Columbia community. It can’t be used to support our travel needs abroad.

We haven’t heard back from Pre-calendaring. We will hear if our budget is approved in August.

- Travel
- Uganda specific grant
- Campo party

What is the best way to distribute the travel money?

India is not traveling. Uganda is sending 5, Ghana is sending 7. Divide it amongst 13 people.

6. Summer Plans

Looking for a mentor to help us reorganize this summer.

We have an appt. with Jack McGourty to work on CSIS.

Volunteer-based: whoever is around over the summer can help us.

We will be working on structural organization.

On-campus outreach with professors.

We need someone to oversee the project, to make sure that we make progress! (Sonal will do this and will be here).

Contact team members who will be here over the summer and ask if they will be here over the summer.

7. Photography Workshop

Bruce: “I’m going to go on Ebay tonight and buy myself a camera so that I can take great pictures!” Good source of PR materials. Now we have a new way to interact with our communities.

The photography session is a great way to energize people and get them interested in traveling. Angela is willing to do another session for us. We should do another workshop at the beginning of the year to get the Freshman and all team members excited for travel.

Low attendance: We did not hype up this event enough. There was a lot going on this week. Pitch this event to more than just the travel team.

8. Sarah’s Really Good Idea

We should have a “Master Calendar” that we give out at the beginning of the semester. Make all our events AT THE SAME TIME, so that people KNOW to reserve time in their schedules.
Seeing the entire semester laid out would be a great help.

Christen: Uganda created a google calendar. We started to plug everything into that.

Early in the summer, we should put together a list of all the things we want to do.

Having a list of events and how much they cost would be useful for potential corporate sponsors (SWE does this).

9. Should we do another survey?

Good question idea: How does EWB fit into your professional goals?

EWB E-Board Meeting Minutes: April 25th, 2010

admin — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 19:46:51 +0000

Columbia University EWB - Executive Board

MEETING AGENDA

April 25, 2010

In attendance: Sonal, Kevin, Burce, Lucy, Bethany, Dhristie, Christen

Alison (arrived late)

1. PL Updates

Ghana-Had another meeting with professional advisor yesterday. Finalizing summer travel details. Professional traveling with them (Ghanaian engineer in NYC) has been in on conference calls as well. Travel team has been meeting for 3 weeks and discussing what they need to bring and what vaccines they need.

Poster file was messed up when it was emailed, and the person printing it did not check the file before it was printed.

Planning water testing: what to test, what kits to buy.

India- If they are going to send a team, they will send them in August, and the purpose will be to find a project that is feasible and getting a new NGO contact. Waiting to meet with Greg van Kirk, who runs a company called Community Solutions. Inviting him to come to an EWB meeting. They work in Guatemela and have figured out how to combine micro finance with development work. Have done a successful project with smokeless stoves. He has been out of the country for a while.

Uganda- Submitted pre-assessment information on Sunday. The next day, we got an email from EWB-USA with a warning. We submitted a request for June travel trip, but our travel began on May 25. We had to modify our trip dates to avoid getting a Type A warning, so we are now going from June 1-June 25.

Working to buy everything that we need for the trip. We need to work on getting our money from the P3 grant from the Mechanical Engineering Department. We have to set up Pilgrim as a licensed vendor with the MechE department. As soon as we figure out when we are leaving, we will buy our tickets. We will mostly use our Boeing grant travel money for this summer’s trip.

Had our last travel meeting this week.

2. Website Updates

- Workshop with Angela , Master of Photography

Photography workshop, Sunday, 12-1:30 PM in 627 Mudd

HUGE interest from Uganda theme

Topics: Photo composition, how to ask, “can I take your photo?”

Should we have food? Bagels!

3. AECOM Meeting

4. Email

- Global Health AMSA

Sonal received an email from Global Health: They would like help with an event involving sleeping on the lawns, performances by dance groups. Raise interest for a petition to Congress to help with AIDS world wide.

Their planning meeting is TODAY.

5. Columbia Students for International Service (CSIS)

A new student group, institutionalizing student groups that do service internationally, put it into a classroom setting. They want to meet with us, to find out how we work and how we see ourselves fitting into their organization. They are working with Jack McGourty. They invited us to their meeting on May 2 with Jack McGourty. Sonal, Peter, and Hannah are definitely going.

6. Millenium Campus Networks

They want us to present at one of their meetings. Sonal responded to them, saying that, Yes, we are very interested in presenting. We await their response.

Yesterday’s meeting was cancelled.

Our presentation: We should have a themed presentation! Either a panel format or presentation format.

EWB E-Board Meeting Minutes: April 18th, 2010

admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:56:26 +0000

Columbia University EWB - Executive Board

MEETING AGENDA

April 18, 2010

In attendance:

Sonal, Sarah, Lucy, Christen, Alison

Bruce, Kevin

1. PL Updates

Uganda-Pre-Assessment report is due TODAY! Met this week with Vijay Modi, Pilgrim to discuss how they can use the P3 grant money. Discussed what is the future of the project after we’ve used the P3 money. Will be learning about how to use purchase orders and invoicing so that Pilgrim can order things and be reimbursed. Setting up conference calls with EarthWise(Jatropha source) and meetings with Pilgrims Edward and Dorothy. (Edward Eleazer: Pilgrim’s science researcher.

Exciting Update: MFP in one village was used so much, that the mill’s hammers were worn out. Without even telling Pilgrim, the village went and replaced the mill attachment.

The other MFP village is having leadership issues.

Deadline for us to use the P3 money: We have to use it by April 2011.

Ghana-Preparing for Earth institute presentation on the 23^rd. Narrowing down what kind of testing techniques they need to use. Finalizing latrine design. Started travel meetings (right now, 9 people want to go).

India-Not sure if they are sending a travel team this summer. We need a new contact for an NGO.

3 SubTeams are continuing to meet. Researching alternative designs and case studies.

CPR First Aid Training- Went Super-Well! Hooray!

2. Website Updates

Teams have been sending in info. Haven’t been put up on-line yet.

Before posting on-line, Bruce should make sure writing and formatting is uniform.

Add water conference info to the website.

3. DOC Debrief

Powerpoint presentation.

- Presentations

- What Worked

We had more pictures in our powerpoint! We had freshman on our panel! The amount of participation from EWB members. T-Shirts. Pictures up. People presenting were in charge of making slides for the parts that they were presenting. Anecdotes worked well for our audience. Spending time practicing is definitely worth it.

Need to work on: We need to practice our presentation. We need to have a couple of different presentations set and ready to go, to pull out of our sleeve whenever we need it. We need to be more polished (this requires time and practice).
Some prospective students got the impression that this was just a summer program. We had tried not to get into the chapter structure, because we thought people just wanted to know what we were doing. But we should have covered just a few of these basics.
Answer: What do you do on a week to week basis?
We should get a clicker to change our slides professionally.
We had freshman and a lot of the leadership is very young. So it would be good to have a couple “veterans” to give the impression that we have more experience.
Start with a video that tells students WHAT Ewb is, then “zoom in” for more information about the chapters and about our programs.
Emphasize that other schools are very professor driven, whereas we are entirely student driven. But showing the video from EWB-USA would show that we are connected to a larger, super-professional whole.

Our next big presentation is for AECOM! We have to be super polished and very technical!

4. AECOM Meeting Updates

What AECOM has said about our press materials: they would like to see more, higher quality press materials.

5. PM Stuff

Collect T-Shirt Money!

6. E-mails

- NY-EWB partnership

7. General Body Meeting

April 29 at 5:30-6:30. Discussing Beyond Borders. At the CCE conference room.

EWB E-Board Meeting Minutes: April 4th, 2010

admin — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 20:33:25 +0000

EWB E-Board Meeting Minutes April 4^th, 2010

In attendance: Sonal, Lucy, Dhristie, Christen, Alison, Bruce, Sarah, and Kevin

Congrats Lucy on the EWB Campo Party!!!!!!

Things to think about next time:

§ Continue to spend money on the DJ

§ Keep the free shots – definitely the incentive to come

§ Policing at the door

§ Already give team back money – now only need to pay back campo complementary shots

§ Compile documents

§ Possibly two per semester- definitely have

§ Campo perks – have drink specials, not as strict on IDs

§ Could look at other venues

§ At 1 – 1:30pm needed bigger policing at the door

§ Need stamps so have one way to know who is coming in

§ Talk to the bouncer about letting people in waves

§ Clear about only having one drink ticket

Program Updates

India: Dhristie

The India Team has broken up into three teams. The first is a cook stove case study team, and the project history team to get contacts

Uganda: Alison and Christen

Pilgrim is looking to expand the MFP project. Before they travel they are putting together a training manual on putting together the MFP. The team will be meeting with Modi on Tuesday, so that they can discuss details and use the MFP money appropriately. They are also planning to pass on proposal to VJ Modi for the summer internship proposal for faculty support and suggestions of who to get in contact with.

Ghana: Lucy

Had a conference call and on working on getting another professional mentor who will also be traveling with the team this summer to Ghana. He will also be covering his own travel costs. Have decided on two travel trip for the summer and are working on getting in touch with the community to decide between three different latrine options and will be distributing a survey. In addition they are also working out the details for their water project.

The water conference is this Friday. This will be another source of funding for the Ghana team, and students are welcome. Lucy will send updates to the group.

Treasury: Kevin

Conference reimbursements will be given to three team members who then distribute it to other members. We are waiting for the EWB grant money. Travel teams are still waiting to be reimbursed. Will be collecting T-shirt money this week as well and T-shirt costs will be $12. The website was also paid for.

Website Updates: Sonal and Bruce

Have updates from each team and then have a link to the minutes. Have under latest news and include what PLs should announce. Should also change the picture on the front page and can have a rotation for updating the website.

Send your updates to Bruce once a month. Bruce will sit down with Cindy this week to be website trained and will train the secretaries from each team.

PR Materials:

Update the brochure materials. Have each brochure updated by next semester. Converting brochures to black and white to hand out Friday.

Create a master presentation.

Days on Campus: Sarah

Activities fair, Barnard, and CC and SEAS days on campus.

AECOM Meeting: Bruce

Possibly meeting April 30^th

Meeting with CCE: Sonal

Want to meet with us about Lion Share. Spoke about what we want from them. Plans to hold the next general body meeting with them. Could have food at a pizza party sponsored by CCE.

Beyond Borders Meeting:

Two weeks from now. Will discuss it with general body meeting, on Thursday the 22^nd at 5pm

Alternative Gifts market: April 10^th

Not going to participate this year, but will participate in the future.

Summer Proposal for internships: Sonal

Needs to be edited. Met with Dr. Lambret, and gave good feedback and a list of contacts to reach out to. Also spoke with professor Culligan, and is planning to set up a meeting next week. Culligan is also the vice dean.

Newsletter: Get it out by May

Tips for incoming freshman –make sure to send to the incoming class

Interview with Sonal about vision

What are seniors are doing and what they are going to be doing post graduation. What is there best experience

Plans for May/the summer

Honor seniors with a dinner

Standarize tac procedures

Have a PM lunch with Matt Basinger – potentially walk down with his office

Putting together a list of all the type of equipment each team has

Civil lab space

Precalendaring

Beyond Borders

Orientation

Board meetings

EWB-USA Conference 2010 in Denver, CO

admin — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 18:51:06 +0000

Our Chapter had the honor of presenting at the EWB-USA Conference in Denver, Colorado and had the honor of hosting a breakout session. During the breakout session our Uganda program used their experience implementing a multi-platform generator as a case study for other college chapters and professionals. We feel privileged to have the opportunity to contribute back to the EWB community, and we benefited greatly from having seen the progress of other chapters projects.

Executive Board Meeting Minutes 03/07/2010

admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:38:32 +0000

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 25^th 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.