GREAT Minutes Monday August 31, 2009
Present: Aimee Rist, Thomas Rist, Lily Kay, Savanna Lyons, Gabe Pena, Scott Fanello, Lorien MacCauley, Doug Arbogast, Carl Thompson, Patty Korn, Ginger Danz, Tomoko
Topics of Discussion:
Rain Garden: Scott Fanello showed a computer-generated depiction of rain garden site (New River Elementary School in Oak Hill). GREAT is hosting a rain garden workshop Wednesday September 2 from 6-8pm. Contact: Scott_Fanello@partner.nps.gov
Green Bridge Day 2010: We are still waiting for grant approval to place 110 recycling containers on the bridge during the 2010 event.
Green Bridge Day 2009: Gabe plans to make a schedule in order to assess the need for volunteers. We have a booth reserved which will be used for educational purposes. A children’s craft is planned…members are asked to save their toilet paper rolls for the craft. We are hoping to have a contest involving the reduction of energy use and we need to look into possible prizes for the event. Ginger agreed to contact Neuton Mowers about a donation. Savanna suggested that we figure out a way to set up a laptop on the bridge with interactive carbon footprint software for participants to use.
Bridge Day Subcommittee Meeting:
Possibility of handing out brochures -Should we bother with a paper handout or try to get interested folks to sign up for e-mails and send them info that way?
A raffle would be a great way to get people contact info. We need prizes! The more prizes we can get to hand out the more appealing GREAT’s booth will be
An E-mail account for GREAT.
Activities: Recycled Binoculars & Rain Garden Game. A few more easy activities would be good.
Articles for Publication: GREAT is still in need of relevant articles for publication. Savanna Lyons offered to edit articles and organize submissions. Articles are to be submitted to Savanna before September 28, 2009. Contact: savanna.may@gmail.com
ICLEI: No progress has been made on finishing up the data and presenting to the city. We discussed getting support from the Rotary Club as a partnership opportunity. We discussed the possibility of presenting our information to the County Commission.
Education Committee: Aimee asked for volunteers for the education committee. We need to determine what information we would like to present to the schools in order to avoid redundancy (other groups are already in the schools in some capacity).
Savanna Lyons and others met with members of the JOBS Project and Coal River Mountain Watch to discuss citizen-based home energy efficiency education. They decided to look into Americorp money and grants to fund summer jobs for high school students. Our volunteers would work with the high school students to help train them to conduct audits as paid summer employment. We discussed the possibility of GREAT partnering with the school system to provide volunteer support.
WVHUB: Doug Arbogast is now a board member of the community development HUB. Their goal is to connect and be a resource for local communities. Fayette County and Anstead are targeted communities and thus eligible for grant money. A possible focus in Fayette County is a use for the Memorial Building in Fayetteville. GREAT can help guide the sustainability portion of this project.
Flex E Grant: Gabe and Doug attended a grant-writing workshop. There is a $10,000 capacity grant available. We must decide a use for the money by September 30, 2009. Carl suggested using the money to build GREAT by increasing membership and publicity. Savanna suggested possibly using the money to conduct research and need assessments in order to help GREAT focus its efforts. Board members will discuss the options before Sep. 30th.
Next meeting: Monday, September 28 at 6:30pm at the Fayetteville CVB on Court Street
