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CURC Steering Committee
May 3, 2006
Conference Call Began at Noon EST
Present: Tracy Artley; Mark Darling; Jack Debell; Judi Dunn; Judi Gard;
Rob Gogan; Deb Hanson; Mary Jensen; Carolyn Noack; Mike Planton; Christine
Von Kolnitz
Absent: Dana Donatucci; Ed Newman; Lin King
1. Welcome New Steers
New CURC Steering Committee members were welcomed. Glad to have you aboard!!
2. Election Wrap Up
Mary inquired about any problems encountered by having the election online.
Carolyn stated that it went pretty well, although a few had issues
using the ballot. Some didn’t realize that to vote, they had
to use the link through the email sent to them. A suggestion was made
to have CURC members use their NRC membership login information to
vote online next time. Thirty-seven CURC members voted, out of a total
of 138 who were eligible. The names of the new Steering Committee members
are on the CURC webpage now.
3. Congress Update
The participants for the RecycleMania roundtable have been finalized;
Ed Newman, Rob Gogan, Deb Hanson and Barb Kviz will be participating.
Additionally, Beth Koprowski with ERG and Haley Mason with EPA will
also be there. The RecycleMania trophies will also be presented at
the Congress.
BJ Tipton
will be conducting a roundtable on construction & demolition
waste.
A tour of
Emory’s recycling program will be held on October 22
from 8 am to noon with the workshop following from 1 pm to 3:15 pm. It
will cost $50 to attend both and $35 to attend just one. Judi G. inquired
about when these Congress “extras” will be on the website.
Discussion turned to the CURC Steering Committee meeting planned for
October 21. A meeting location has been requested of Rebecca for 2 pm
on that Saturday. It was mentioned that having this meeting on Saturday
requires an overnight stay on Friday. Jack requested moving this meeting
to later in the day to accommodate Saturday travelers. It was decided
that this meeting would now be held at 4 pm on 10/21 so that it will
be done in time for the 7 pm social event.
The CURC
membership meeting will be held Tuesday, October 24 in the morning
as a part of the networking breakfast.
Jack mentioned that Congress scholarship availability did not come out
in time for students on campus. Jack will follow up with Kate on this.
4. RecycleMania Wrap Up
RecycleMania was a success this year. Rob stated that interest has been
expressed by bottlers in and around Atlanta in RecycleMania. EPA is
interested in defraying the cost associated with the RecycleMania website.
Rob also stated that there is a lot of interest amongst southern schools
to participate. The biggest problems, in his opinion, were some hard
feelings associated with how schools report their measurements, especially
concerning volume-to-weight conversions. Discussion turned to the usage
of standards and their importance in benchmarking. It was suggested
that standards also be made available for other sustainability measures.
Jack inquired about the gross tonnage of material diverted by all RecycleMania-participating
schools. Mary asked about statistics on the number of students who
participating as a way of “selling” the competition to
upper administrators. Carolyn stated that she enjoyed the waste minimization
contest.
5. Endorsement Discussion
Jack stated that he would like the Steering Committee to have an endorsement
to place on projects the S.C. deems deserving. Another reason that
he stated was for the Rapid Response project. Jack sent the letter
out to the S.C. and requested revisions/updates as necessary. He will
then work with Christine and Richard to have it placed under the “Resources” webpage.
A second reason for establishing a CURC endorsement is to support student
projects and coalitions. Mary stated that she has looked at the council
guidelines and they do not state that this is prohibited. Jack proposed
a system for the Steering Council to endorse a project:
- A Steering
Committee member sends a proposal out to the rest of the Steering Committee.
- Proposals
must be sent 2 weeks prior to the next regularly scheduled conference
call in order to for it to be placed on the agenda. Proposals
send less than 2 weeks prior will be placed on the subsequent month’s
agenda.
- The Steering
Committee discusses the proposal and votes on whether or not to endorse
it.
Mary suggested having a webpage on the CURC site with links to these
groups and projects. Mary will talk with Kate or Michael to ensure that
the NRC would not see this as lobbying.
6. Work Plan Update
Mary began by saying that we’re fine on the timeline for the work
plan and then went into a review of work plan projects including the
Rapid Response update, APPA, article publishing, best practices, the
toolkits and the CURC brochure redesign. Mary also mentioned that she
received an offer from Sodexho to put the CURC brochure out at a sustainability
event they were holding. Jack suggested sending the brochure out to groups
CURC would like to affiliate with, such as SCUP and AASHE. Mary will
send the work plan out to the new Steering Committee members.
Next month,
Steering Committee members should be prepared to select a “committee” to
be a part of. These include elections, website, membership and others.
Members should email Mary information on what
they are working on within CURC. So far:
- Membership:
Dana
- RecycleMania:
Rob and Ed
- NRC Congress:
Christine
- CURC
Display: Judi D.
Steering Committee members should review the work plan and decide what
aspects interest them the most.
Elections will be held for the executive board within the Steering Committee
during the August conference call.
7. Adjourn
The call adjourned at 1:26 pm.
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