"Teach out" by Andrew Green to ENV294 class 12-1-2010 at SCCC

[KatMays379]

Andrew Green was kind enough to come to Ms. Katie Gagnon's/Chenu's
Sustainability Seminar class in room 206 of the SAM building today
(December 1st), and these were the notes taken.

The discussion/talk revolved mainly around what has been done and the
goals of the SCCC Sustainability club/ committee/ group as they appear
right now, and please bare in mind as this is still a very young group
the points spoken of were a little unorganized but very open to
discussion and input.

As a side note; sorry I didn't get more names in these notes, terrible
with names.

Basic intro to the group:
-First meeting a week or two ago
-VERY exciting, between 20-30 or so people showed up and not
everyone who was interested could attend
-Meeting was very open to input and a good beginning for the new
group
-During the class period, the list of notes from the previous
meeting were presented and elaborated by Andrew.

Ban the Bottle:
-Christina (last name escapes me) who is helping to lead the "Ban
the Bottle" movement and project at SCCC
came by and spoke with us about the project and sat in on the
class and discussions
-Gave a brief history of the project at SCCC, mentioned they'd
tried this before but that it'd not taken off to well
because of communication issues and such.
-Spoken with the gentleman in charge of the vending machines and
said that for every 50 reusable bottles sold
at SCCC bookstore, he'll take out a line of water from the Vending
machiens (and I think she said from the
food-snack-store thing as well, but can't quite remember)
-Have spoken with the woman who runs the SCCC bookstore (Barnes and
Noble operated/owned) about selling
reusable bottles there, which they already do, and a possible 2-
for-1 sale for the bottle to encourage sales
and help us remove lines of water
-A student in the class mentioned it would be hard to get people to
switch from bottled water in the main
building because of water quality issues (rusty pipes, water
quality is sh*t, so on), so Christina mentioned
she'll try to make that the main focus before she tries to ban
bottles.

What SCCC Sustainability committee (student government) has done so
far:
-Um...essentially "bupkiss"?
-Hard to keep things going because this is a 2 year institution
-Hard to get people involved when they don't feel they have a voice
(don't vote for student government body)
-The benefits of the committee is they do try to accomplish things
(Andrew mentioned a few, I forgot to write
them down), suggestions taken more seriously as part of the
Student government; a voice in how the school
funds are spent, so on.

Funding:
-Seems like it would most likely come from funds raised by the
group, student fees, and so on.
-May have more access if a club/part of the student government?
-Spoke to coordinator/facuklty director of the student government,
can potentially speak about funding even if
not an official club.

Ideas:
-Went over projects mentioned in the first meeting, also elaborated
about what the students in the class were
most interested in seeing happen; notably, things regarding
composting, food, and community.

Random points mentioned throughout the presentation:
-The new greenhouse (between Harvard and Boylston along Pine?)
-Water catchment as particularly interesting to the students and a
rather successful idea among the students
and as a presentation?
-Reminded the students about Puget Sound Regional Food Policy
Council seeking "youths" to represent
others on the board and at meetings.
-Cheerleeding Squad for the group :-D (could get the costume class
to make outfits for them)

Personal notes:
-Get as many other clubs/groups on campus involved?
-Get as many other organizations (Surf Rider?) involved and backing
us as well?


Hope this was helpful. May have left out small details, the notes
were funky.