First Meeting (Take Two!) Feb. 9th @ 5:30pm

[Celeste McCoy]

Environs,

Tomorrow (Wednesday, February 9th) @ 5:30pm at the ECM will be our first meeting of the semester.  We are one week behind due to inclement weather last Wednsday. This will be an informational meeting about the semester ahead of us.  Don't forget, the ECM is located just north of the Kansas Union and across the street from the Oread Hotel.  Please note that our meetings will now be held on Wednesdays instead of Tuesdays (same time/same place).

 Environs Spring 2011 Dynamics:

Environs has so many people with so many great ideas that we feel it is most productive to split into 4 committees during most meetings.  Each committee is specialized according to the interest of the coordinators and members within it.  Every three meetings we hold a "Big Group" meeting where Environs brings in an educational guest speaker.  Speakers in the past include Eileen Horn (Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Lawrence), Mike Caron (Wetlands Expert), Scott McVey (Energy Conservation Manager), and many more.  We will also take field trips once a month to locations such as the Kansas Field Station or the Wakarusa Wetlands and of course host parties and potlucks. 

 

Here are our committees for the Spring 2011 semester:

 

Educational Creative Outreach (ECO)

We are focused on spreading awareness to campus and the local community through projects and events. We are excited to participate in activities such as Wetland Learners, fun and engaging Earth Day adventures, and advertising for and actively engaging in the new student farm.  In addition, we will spend time promoting and tabling in hopes of increasing awareness about Environs and environmental events around campus.

 

Local Food

The Local Foods committee has continued working this semester on various projects to educate and promote local foods.  We are currently planning the screening of a documentary that will be shown later in the semester to increase awareness about the food industry in general.  We also participate in many farm tours and recently attended the Kaw Valley Farm Tour to increase our knowledge of gardening techniques and healthier eating.  And finally we are utilizing the University of Kansas Student Farm to learn from and grow our own produce!

 

Environmental Preservation

We are building and continuing relationships with various environmental friends, both new and old–the KU field station with trail maintenance, the ECM with compost upkeep, the Potter Lake Project with pond restoration and cleaning, as well as the Wetlands Preservation Organization.  Last semester we held a fundraising event at the Jackpot in support of Haskell's eco-walk project.

 

Environmental Conservation

Our committee is continuing the project to bring LED street lights to Jayhawk Boulevard, funding has been acquired and we are in the final stages of planning.  We are also planning a bike safety awareness week in the spring to promote safe bicycle riding through the Lawrence community and campus.  Our campaign for this year is to promote the use of aluminum and discourage plastic on campus.  Our first step is to bring a filtered water bottle filling station to the Union which counts the number of water bottles saved while using the machine (just like the ones that already exist in the rec center).

 

 

 

See everyone tomorrow!

--
Celeste McCoy

Environs President

cmcc...@ku.edu