Bryn Mawr College Greens

Minutes 2012 October 10

10-10-12

Greens Meeting

Environmental Forum – TUESDAY the 23^rd at 8PM in PEM EAST COMMON ROOM

Theme: “Green is for Everyone”

Brainstorm about ideas/stereotypes regarding environmentalism and being green

Discussion Qs:

What does “green” mean to you?
Why is “being green” important to you?
What’s already going on around campus?

What we do as a green organization

End with pledges – have people sign a pledge about what they will do going forward; decorate it and post outside dorm room

Tasks:

Facebook event: Meg

Flyering:

Karen: Batten and Brecon and Dalton
April: Merion and Taylor
Su Oner: Park and Pem West
Betsy Helm: Radnor and Campus Center
Michaela: Thomas and English House

Rebecca: Rhoads

Anna: Erdman (dorm and dining hall)
Meg: Haffner and dining hall and Pem East
Sofia: Denbigh
Emily: Rock
Maiya: Betws-y-Coed

Encourage friends and first-years to come: EVERYONE

Email customspeople: Karen

Email recycling reps (in each dorm and committee): Meg

Email Greens listserv: Meg

Activities email: April

Food:

Harvest veggies: Maiya, Sofia, Anna, Betsy

Other food: Michaela

BIKES:

SGA special event funding for a “Bike Clinic” – people will be trained by Neighborhood Bike Works to learn how to fix up bikes

The people who are trained will run the campus-wide clinic to fix up communal bikes and anyone can come to get their bike fixed and learn how to do it

Workshop on how to ride a bike

GARDEN:

Field trip to Weaver’s Way on Oct 27^th from 11am-2pm
Partnering with Norristown for two educational events (one here and one there) and finishing the garden mural

Minutes 2012 October 03

Greens Meeting 10/3/12

Garden Announcement! Field trip this Saturday to Weaver’s Way (urban farm in Philly). Please email Maiya at mdk fifiosdj@BMC by Friday if you would like to go!

Flyering Responsibilities:

Can possibly give to Res Life and they will put them in HAs’ mailboxes for dorms
Karen: Batten
Angela Blatc: Merion and Taylor
Su Oner: Park and Pem West
Betsy Helm: Radnor and Campus Center
Karunya Venugopal: English House and Russian Center
Michaela: Thomas and Rhoads
Lee: Dalton and Brecon
Meg: Haffner and dining hall and Pem East
Sofia: Erdman and dining hall and Denbigh
Debora: Rock
Maiya: Bettws-y-Coed

E-Forum:

Tuesday, October 23^rd at 8pm in Pem East Common Room

Goals:

Challenge the traditional and stereotypical ideas about “green”
Individual responsibility – knowing that you have an impact, what you do matters
Leave with one new piece of information
What do you want to talk about in daily life?

Conversation Ideas

Start with handing out notecards for questions at any point and then collect at the end
What is sustainability/green/etc?
Advertising on campus – what’s an environmentally friendly way to do it? – Angela
Eco-justice: that environmentalism isn’t just about saving the environment but also intersects with many social inequities – brought up by Lee
Questions around guilt and environmentalism – being green is for everyone
What can Green (clubs) do for you?
End with Q&A

Election Flyering:

Collaborate with EJL to split national and local candidates

Green Corps Event and Flyering: October 11 at 7pm

Green Corps is a field organizing training program that works with environmental groups nationwide; college grads work for a year for Green Corps, getting hands-on training and experience for environmental campaigns

Minutes 2012 September 26

Greens Meeting 9/26/12

Introductions led by Karen Leitner, our wonderful Vice President!

Introducing our new Publicity Chair: April! She is from a city about an hour away from Shanghai in China. She was inspired to become a part of Greens because of intense pollution in a large lake by her city that was a huge sightseeing attraction and provided water to her city. But due to the industrial and agricultural waste and pollution, it was no longer usable and completely changed how people got their water. Witnessing this helped motivate her to notice and appreciate nature and its beauty more and work toward fighting against and preventing environmental pollution and waste.

Our Web-mistress: Emily! She maintains and updates our webpage :)

Organizing something around the election this fall:

-Most people seemed very interested in doing something leading up to the election in November

Possible ideas:

-Collaborating with the Earth Justice League because this group is going forward with doing an informational sheet highlighting Obama’s and Romney’s positions on environmental issues

-Focusing just on the Green Party since they are the environmental political group

-Doing informational/educational stuff during our meetings

-We decided to table this until next meeting so people can think about what exactly they would be interested in pursuing.

Brainstorm about Goals this semester:

-Work on cultivating a sense of personal responsibility and accountability on campus

-Getting rid of Styrofoam take-out containers

-Preventing food waste (inspired by old-school war posters about not wasting food)

-Collaborate with recycling committee

-Recycle ART

-Celebrate success/reduction about getting rid of cups

-Signs on computers-turn off to save energy; turn off chargers

-Tri-co sustainability forum

-Getting a Sustainability Coordinator – perhaps a letter writing campaign from all groups and individuals who work around sustainability

Bike Co-Op:

We gauged interest and there were a few people very interested in working personally with the Bike Co-Op :)

Minutes 2012 September 19

We started our meeting off by introducing ourselves and answering if we would rather go to Australia or Mars!
Michaela (’15 and Greens President!!) talked about what Greens is and what we do as a club on campus:
1. We work to promote green sustainability around campus
2. We work with other green groups around campus, such as the Garden group, Bike Co-op, etc
3. We also work with administrative peoples (facilities, grounds, academic departments, President’s office, etc)
Karen (’14 and Greens Vice President!!) talked about what we have done this past year:
1. We screened the movie “GasLand” about fracking
2. We held composting trials in the dining halls
3. Some of us attended a Climate Change Conference in Philadelphia
4. We helped host a couple events during Food Week in spring semester including screening the documentary “What’s Organic About Organic?” with the filmmaker Shelly Rogers
5. We held an Earth Day event which included weeding and planting in the garden
6. The Garden has expanded and now there is a part-time paid position to help organize and run the garden. There will also be a summer part-time job so look out for that if you’re interested!
Sofia (’15 and Greens Treasurer!) opened up ideas about plans for this semester
1. E-Forum: Host a campus-wide event around environmentalism, eco-friendly behavior and attitudes, and green sustainability around campus
  1. Have it be more of a conversation and not just a Q and A session
  2. Partner with the senior environmental studies seminar
2. Tri-Co Green Event!
  1. Invite Haverford and Swat green groups to Bryn Mawr to discuss what groups are doing and networking to create a greener community
3. Bike Co-Op! (The bike co-op formed at the end of last semester)
  1. The heads of the bike co-op is trying to bring a mechanic to campus to host a workshop to teach people how to fix bikes
4. Eliminate Styrofoam take out entirely!
  1. Compostable take-out? Reusable take out?
  2. Last year, Karen and Lee (both ’14) worked on a project looking into the options for eliminating Styrofoam take out and at this time, Styrofoam seems to be the best option given all of the factors BUT Dining Services is open to suggestions and conversations about different take-out options!!
5. Look into Wyndham about composting because they don’t seem to be doing that unlike Haffner and Erdman

sustainability 360 final presentations: Friday April 27

On Friday, April 27, from 1-4 pm, the participants in this semester’s sustainability 360 will present their final projects in Rhoads Dining Hall. All are welcome!