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CURC Steering Committee
November 8, 2006
Conference Call Began at Noon EST

Present: Tracy Artley; Mark Darling; Dana Donatucci; Judi Gard; Rob Gogan; Deb Hanson; Mary Jensen; Ed Newman; Christine Von Kolnitz

Absent: Jack Debell; Judi Dunn; Mike Planton

1. RecycleMania
Rob reported that he had a conference call with Kate Krebs; she stated that the NRC is very interested in being the host for RecycleMania. She also informed them that NRC would be hiring someone at least part-time to work on campus issues. A Memo of Understanding was expected soon. Rob also mentioned that he has enjoyed working with ERG and that Kate seemed open to continuing to work with them. Finally, it was reported that Keep America Beautiful remains very interested in hosting the competition. Ed suggested that they may be a cosponsor.

Concerns regarding NRC hosting and private funding included:
-What happens if RecycleMania stops but there is still money left for the program? Rob wants that money to go to CURC and not the NRC.
-If the RecycleMania committee will be dealing with a corporation, then they ought to have some say in how they do things that affect college campus recyclers.

Ed mentioned that Kate offered to provide CURC with emails ending in .edu to help promote the program.

Mary informed the Steering Committee that she would be meeting with Michael Alexander with the NRC to discuss the lack of a CURC budget and to debrief on the Congress. It was noted that there was no NRC Board or staff presence at any CURC functions at the Congress. Ed stated that RecycleMania should be listed as an NRC partner on their website.

2. Congress Debriefing
Mark stated that he met with someone from NYSAR, the New York state NRC-affiliate at the Congress. He stated that there was a need for a college/university group in New York and so Mark will be a part of a roundtable geared at other campus recyclers in the state. Christine stated that the Carolinas and California have similar groups.

A discussion ensued on creating regional workshops. It was suggested that people call 15 schools in their area and invite them to campus. They could be told how to get involved with CURC. A protocol on how to do this would be useful.

Rob stated that any associations with APPA or similar groups would be classified as outreach and promotion and not membership building. Mary stated that she’d like to see the CURC offerings expanded to make membership more valuable.

Projects to be done include:
-Take the primer and turn it into a training manual
-List of grant sources on website
-Posting equipment ratings on website
-Linking award applications to website
-Volunteering opportunities

Judi and Deb offered to turn the primer into a training manual. It was stated that Karyn Kaplan and Christine have discussed updating the primer as well to include things like a chapter on RecycleMania. Mark suggested having people write case studies.

Christine suggested including on the website discussion on different recycling bin types and include contact information on who’s using what.

Mark offered to compile information for the website on grant opportunities and Tracy offered to compile information on available awards. Both the grants and the awards will be local, regional and national in scope. Both Mark and Tracy will send requests to RECYC-L for people to send them information on their respective areas of research. Both will then contact Christine about getting the info onto the website.

Rob stated that the picture from the annual CURC meeting is online but he can’t identify everyone in it.

3. Adjourn
The conference call was adjourned at 1:30 pm EST.

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