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CURC Steering Committee
January 7, 2007
Conference Call Began at Noon EST

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

Absent: Lin King; Judi Gard; Mike Planton

1. Green Textbook Initiative
Mary stated that she sent a letter to Michael Alexander about CURC’s desire to endorse this initiative. Alec Cooley responded and stated that the NRC staff wanted to review it prior to any endorsements by CURC. Mary stated that she would like to see an endorsement policy be set up. Judi D. suggested sending a form letter out to the membership and ask them to sign as their school. Mary will draft a letter to send to the members, asking them to endorse this initiative as their school’s representative. Mary noted that part of the 2007 work plan should be drafting an endorsement policy for CURC. It was suggested that CURC model their policy after those of other organizations. Mary also mentioned that she was informed that the NRC Board would not be able to review this proposed endorsement until at least April. She concluded by encouraging all to support the initiative via their schools until something from CURC can be issued.

Jack brought up the Rapid Response Project (RRP) and that it might be carried out in a fashion similar to what Judi proposed for the Green Textbook outreach. He also stated that, while attending the annual APPA conference, he saw that a number of campus recycling programs are withering. Reasons for this appear to be that recycling programs have to also become sustainability programs, therefore stretching the recycling portion too thin and that many schools do not know about the resources available to them. Jack stated that the RRP needs to be on the CURC website as a PDF. Mary affirmed that the next work plan should focus on the RRP. Jack will send out the latest version of the Rapid Response letter to the CURC Steering Committee. Ed inquired about the effectiveness of the RRP. Jack responded that the last time it was used was for Western Michigan University and that it was viewed favorably and he suggested including the letter on the RecycleMania website.

Deb reviewed the work she has been doing with the “Recycling and Beyond…” publication. She mentioned adding link descriptions, reviewing the categories and the inclusion of school-specific information. Deb will send out another request to the listserves for information to include in “Recycling and Beyond…” Mary and Jack stated that they would send items to Deb. Ed inquired about how the group reaches schools that are not a part of RECYC-L or CURC. Jack responded that CURC Steering Committee members reach out to APPA and AASHE. He also stated that he believes CURC should consider joining AASHE. Campus Ecology was also mentioned as a vehicle to reach out to other schools.

2. RecycleMania
Rob reported that 200 schools are participating this year, doubling last year’s participation. Discussion ensued on which schools registered. It was noted that community colleges were underrepresented. Ed mentioned that having Alec Cooley in his role with the NRC has been great.

Mary requested an update on the trademarking issue. Ed stated that many of the issues had been worked out. He reported that Ohio University and Miami University have worked out with their lawyers and leadership that CURC would be the trademark owner. Alec and the NRC attorneys are now working with Ed, Stacey and their schools’ lawyers. If the competition ever became revenue generating, neither OU nor MU would want to give it totally up. Rob suggested including the other members of the RecycleMania Steering Committee on the CURC calls. Since it will only be an additional 2 people, it was decided that this would not make the call too large. Rob reported that Coke was not happy with the idea of the RecycleManiacs becoming a 501(c)3.

Ed stated that the RecycleMania work plan should be a part of the CURC work plan. Ed will forward a copy of the RecycleMania Steering Committee minutes and the work plan to the CURC Steering Committee. Mary stated that she will send out a copy of the CURC work plan, which is due at the end of February. Ed also mentioned some potential rule changes for RecycleMania. He reported that Alec would be presenting about the competition at the NRC Board meeting and annual gala. There has also been discussion of having a RecycleManiacs retreat. .

Rob next reported that the EPA is losing 4% of its budget, resulting in an 81% cut to the WasteWise budget. Rob then relayed a February 1 conference call held with WasteWise. They very much want to continue the relationship with RecycleMania, but want to serve as a strong endorser of the competition. Ed stated that they are trying to get all of the regional EPA campus liaisons pushing RecycleMania. Mary stated that she will be attending a sustainable campuses conference at College Park, MD and could speak about RecycleMania there.

Ed affirmed that they are working on coming up with sponsor criteria. Rob has asked RecycleMania Steering Committee members to give 3 examples of companies they would like to see as sponsors and 3 they wouldn’t like and then develop the criteria from there. Ed mentioned that three items had been tabled: (1) the Steve Gaski award, (2) internal policies and (3) a website. Mary stated that one of the items in the proposed CURC work plan was getting 600 schools participating in RecycleMania. Ed reported that they are looking at different ways of breaking the competition down so that people may compete in different ways.

Discussion next ensued on the dialogue on the RecycleMania listserve. Christine stated that the CURC info on the webpage is password protected and inquired about letting non-CURC members know about the resources found there. Suggestions to remedy this included a discounted NRC membership rate for those participating in RecycleMania and removing the password protections during the 10-weeks of competition. Christine will send Richard Brundage an email asking if we can remove the passwords for the 10 weeks of RecycleMania and will also inquire about making the password-protected resources on the regular NRC webpage available as well.

3. Work plan
Mary will finish making comments and will forward it to everyone. At this point, she thinks it looks ok. Send comments back to Mary by February 23.

4. Elections
Mary sent out who is and is not up for reelection. Up for reelection are:
-Tracy Artley
-Judi Dunn
-Judi Gard
-Mary Jensen
-Ed Newman
-Mike Planton

Those with 1 year remaining on their term are:
-Dana Donatucci
-Mark Darling
-Jack Debell
-Rob Gogan
-Deb Hanson
-Christine Von Kolnitz

Mary reminded the group that the election is in April and information will need to be sent out this month about it. She also stated that before the next conference call, a call for candidates must be put out. Christine will issue a call for candidates to the campus recycling-related listserves. Ed noted that we must be sure to inform those who run that if they are elected, they must join the NRC if not already members. Mary reminded the group that elections will be held online again as the $30 fee was approved during the January call. Christine will remind Richard that the election is coming up.

Mary stated that February 15 is the deadline for speaker and session suggestions for the NRC conference in Denver. Christine relayed to the group that Jack may be feeling a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of organizing the CURC workshop and associated CURC activities. Ed reported that Dana and Lin finished the conference notes from the 2005 and 2006 conferences. Ed suggested that CURC link to them in their “raw” form, with a disclaimer, as CURC looks for volunteers to help with editing. Mary asked Christine to put a request out on the CURC listserve for help with the editing.

5. Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 1:23 pm.

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