Sustainability at Lake Superior College

Meeting Minutes 3/19/2010

Faculty/Staff Members present:  Cathy Carlson, Kevin Futhey, Dick Haney, Kristi Heintz, Theresa Hornstein, Dave Israel, Cliff Koski, Glenn Merrick, Deanne Roquet, Julius Salinas

Student Members present:  Tom Deschenes, Svea Lindgren

Announcements

–Deanne mentioned Hartley Nature Center’s fund raiser-Wine in the Woods– April 22^nd

-Dave invited Chris Ringsred to this meeting to share his ideas for greenhouse equipment

-WLSSD and RSPT’s rain barrel and compost bin sale is May 22, 2010 at LSC

Sub-Committee Reports

Environmental Council Retreat

-Kristi has set up an Environmental Council Share Point.  This site can be used for document sharing and editing and will also have an updated calendar.  Only EC members can view this Share Point.  Kristi will send out an email, showing everyone how to get to the Share Point page and sign up for work groups before the retreat (April 23^rd).

-Kristi and Deanne will put together an EC Retreat Agenda.

-Lunch options will be discussed at the next meeting.

UMACS

-Cliff and Deanne will do the presentation representing LSC, Cathy will help with the presentation.

Old Business

 LSC Earth Day (April 22^nd, 2010)

-We will be responsible for the key note speaker, venders, and t-shirts.

     -Speaker:  Kevin contacted Arne Vainio, neither he nor his wife will be available to speak at Earth Day.  A suggestion to do a couple of showings of Food, Inc. (watch the trailer here) followed by discussion was brought up.  The council decided it would be a good direction to go, and this will be done instead of finding a key note speaker.  A discussion leader will be talked about at the next meeting.

     -Deanne suggested we purchase copies of “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver, part of the One Book, One Community series at Duluth Public Library.  Discussion, in the atrium, by Bridget Reistad would follow on Earth Day.  Deanne will contact Bridget.  Deanne motioned to purchase 10 books and encourage Student Life to also purchase 10, with the intention of setting up a discussion on Earth Day, Cliff seconded the motion.

    -T-shirts:  Kristi reported that Mat has initiated the design contest with a March 29^th deadline.  Mat is still working on t-shirt pricing.

   -Signage: Kristi reported that Mat is pricing out possibilities for the large vinyl banner we discussed at the March 5^th meeting.  He will give an update at the next meeting.   Flyers were also discussed to publicize the Earth Day events, Kristi will contact Mat and Heather about doing this.

   -Deanne has 5 student information booths signed up. 

New Business 

Greenhouse/Worms

-Worms-Theresa discussed with Gary the possibility of moving the worms to the atrium to the planters under the stairs which aren’t currently being used.  Everyone agreed it is a fantastic idea.

-Solar Panels/Wind turbine-Chris Ringsrud attended today’s meeting to discuss our campus’s sustainability possibilities.  Specifically, ideas for integrating the solar panels and wind turbine into the new health and science building were discussed.  We all decided we need to create a list of items from the greenhouse that need to be saved and also indicate a plan for how it will be used and how much it would cost to get some of the equipment working (ex. the turbines’ charge controller would cost roughly $200 to replace, the batteries are not salvageable etc).  This will be a topic for the Environmental Council Retreat.  Chris agreed to be a part of the planning/proposal process.

     -The possibility of a Schools Cutting Carbon grant for integrating the solar panels and wind turbine into the design of the new building was also brought up, discussion is tabled until EC Retreat.

Motions

Deanne motioned to purchase 10 “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” books for around $10 a piece and also encourage Student Life to also purchase 10, with the intention of setting up a discussion on Earth Day, Cliff seconded the motion with unanimous support.

Next meeting

The next meeting will be Friday April 2^nd, 9:30 – 11:30 in the Student Life Conference Room. 

Submitted by Kristi Heintz