Meeting Minutes 1/29/10
Faculty/Staff Members present: Carol Johnson, Cathy Carlson, Deanne Roquet, Cliff Koski, Jeri Schwerin, Julius Salinas, Kevin Futhey, Kristi Heintz, Richard Haney, Theresa Hornstein.
Student Members present: Chandra Shoberg (Student Senator), Svea Lindgren (Student Worker), Tom Dechenes (Env. Studies)
Announcements
Introduction of new members:
Svea will be working with Wade as a student worker and will focus primarily on the Living Green Conference this month, Chandra is an LSC Student Senator, and Tom is an Environmental Studies major.
Living Green Conference: February 27, 2010 10:00-4:00
Arne Vainio will be a key note speaker
Dick followed up with Paul Thompson; he is unavailable to speak during the conference.
Cathy confirmed food had not yet been discussed, Svea will follow up.
Schools Cutting Carbon: Deanne announced LSC did not get grant funding.
Wade spoke with Deanne and suggested using other funding to go ahead with the project anyway.
-Cathy has looked into water/soda dispenser without soda company affiliation so we aren’t limited on what can be distributed from it.
-funding needs to be addressed
-should be discussed with Mark Winson
-Julius suggested reiterating the savings we will incur by going bottle-less
-Plans for drinking fountain in commons still on track?
-further discussion next meeting
LSC Presidential Search: Deanne and Dick put together an Environmental Council representative draft of qualities we’d like to see in an incoming president. This information was passed to Hanna Erpestad.
Earth Week Activities: April 22nd
Heather Grillo sent a message highlighting events
EC was asked to work on speakers
-Dick suggested we try to get Paul Thompson for this event, Dick will follow-up
Kevin will work with Heather to put together the Event Checklist
Plan to put together an Earth Week Committee at next meeting
Possible Northland College Collaboration
Deanne mentioned she was contacted by Northland College and they’ve shown interest in meeting with our group.
-Deanne will invite them to next the meeting
-Chandra suggested using the Student Life Conference Room for this meeting.
UMACS Conference: at U.W. River Falls April 9th & 10th
Deanne suggested we represent LSC by presenting our story (changes, challenges etc) in a case study format. Chandra suggested a title “Everything from the Kitchen Sink to the Compost Pile.”
–Cathy intends to present on the success of her student workers program in food service
–deadline for proposal is February 1st; Deanne and Carol will write the proposal
–Anyone interested is encouraged to go; funding is available through the EC budget.
Sub-Committee Reports
IE Sub-Committee-working on EC webpage highlighting our events and projects
Old Business
Disk Golf Course: Trash and erosion issues were brought up.
-Tom suggested more trash cans be provided; maintenance of this area is the responsibility of Parks and Rec. They are reluctant to provide more trash cans and they’ve been cut on maintenance funding.
-Dick suggested a student group be formed to approach Parks and Rec.
-Julius suggested an “adopt-a-course” movement.
-Deanne and Cathy mentioned some signage may be helpful, like “leave no trace” education.
New Business
Sub-Committees: Wade and Deanne discussed earlier that we get moving on our sub-committees
-Sustainable Purchasing Policy Committee-Kristi and Dave
-MNWW Committee-Kevin, Deanne, and Cathy
-Annual Report Committee
-Long Range Climate Action Plan Committee (Pres. Climate Commitment)-Cliff, Mark, and Wade
-Britt and Cliff started this project by doing an inventory last year
-Tom and Deanne suggested starting a special topics class to move forward.
Lower Parking Lot “Ponding Erosion” Issues: Cliff mentioned South St. Louis County SWCD is interested in working on the gully below it and creating an easement.
-Cliff has incorporated related survey work into a class
Sidewalk Salting: Kristi spoke with Don Selner with the City of Duluth about alternatives to salt. They are experimenting with a potassium acetate solution, which is a by-product of beet production, at city hall which eliminates the need for salt. This is a pre-treat solution which is applied with a watering can and can last for more than a week and works at very low temperatures. Don offered to give us a gallon of the solution to try. He pays $8.75/gallon.
-Cathy brought up the danger issue of slippery sidewalks for her staff in the mornings, as they have been heavily salting the sidewalks themselves every morning and every night.
-Kristi passed on Don’s contact info to Gary after the meeting; Gary will follow up.
Motions
No motions were made at this meeting.
Next meeting
The next meeting will be Friday February 12, from 9:00 to 11:00, location TBD.
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