CURC Steering Committee
September 5, 2007
Conference Call Began at Noon EST
Present: Tracy Artley, Alec Cooley, Mark Darling, Judi Dunn Gray, Judi Gard, Deb Hanson, Mary Jensen, Ed Newman, Becky Valentich, Christine Von Kolnitz Cooley, Stacy Wheeler
Absent: Jack Debell, Dana Donatucci, Rob Gogan
1. Congress Update
Fifty-nine people have signed up for the tour; 61 for the workshop. Jack is comping 6 people to the workshop and 3 scholarship winners will be in attendance. There are 5 onsite registration slots currently available. Planners are still working to ensure that there is enough food at lunch and seats on the bus. Mary asked session leaders if they were comfortable with the topic they would be leading and encouraged everyone to contact their session partner.
Mary requested that Steering Committee members send agenda topics for the meeting in Denver to her via email.
2. Scholarship Student Mentoring
Alec reported that 5 scholarship winners will be attending the conference; winners are coming from the University of Oregon, Georgia State University, Ohio State University, University of Michigan, among other schools. He requested that CURC steers volunteer to mentor the students during their time at the Congress. Mary suggested that Jack and Dana might be interested since they have done this before. Mark and Judi Dunn Gray offered as well. Three of the students will be in attendance at the CURC workshop. Alec will facilitate communication between the students and their mentors.
3. Elections of NRC Board Members
Mary inquired if any of the candidates running for the Board would be supporters of CURC, though she pointed out that CURC cannot officially endorse any candidate. Ed stated that Darryl Young seemed like a positive force on the Board. Mary encouraged all steers to take a look at each of the candidates’ statements and see who might benefit CURC. It was noted that there are few women currently on the board. It was also noted that one of the candidates works for Coca Cola, a sponsor of RecycleMania.
4. RecycleMania
Stacy reported that a RecycleMania Steering Committee meeting would be held tomorrow. She mentioned that they were considering using the US Dept. of Education database (IPEDS) to draw school populations. The hope is that using this database will make it easier for schools to determine their school populations. Christine noted that the information in this database is always 2 years old. The hope is that using this database will increase competition fairness. Discussion ensued on whether school subsets will be able to compete with entire campuses. Alec encouraged the Steering Committee to review the information on RecycleMania that he sent out.
Alec reported that they are close to the final version of an agreement with the NRC.
Stacy reported that she has spoken with Karen Gaski, who will be in attendance at the Congress. Rob will work her into the awards ceremony during the RecycleMania session on Tuesday.
Mary inquired about the agenda for the RecycleMania portion of the CURC Steering Committee meeting in Denver. Ed reported that they were. Mary stated that she saw the meeting as an opportunity for RecycleMania and CURC to overlap and talk about common issues.
Christine inquired about having a competition category that took into account all of the materials a campus recycles. She expressed concern that limiting RecycleMania to cardboard, paper, etc. could hurt college recycling because schools could be promoting that they recycle more. It was agreed that this would be a good conversation for Denver. Other items to discuss include how a linkage to AASHE could help the competition and how to better work with Facebook.
5. Planning for Next Teleconference
The first teleconference was very popular and the majority of participants were CURC members. Seven participants were not members of CURC, one of which signed up afterwards. Mary wanted to discuss future teleconferences in Denver. Christine suggested coming up with a timeline of teleconferences so that they can be published on the CURC website. Suggestions for future conferences included move out, training student workers, managing challenging wastes and America Recycles Day.
6. Other
Better World Books
Stacy reported that Better World Books (BWB) is a nonprofit started by 2 students from Notre Dame. They collect used textbooks from college students and provide them to schools in need, both nationally and internationally. Books that cannot go overseas are sold on a website and those that are in too bad of shape are recycled. They are currently working with Keep America Beautiful and have toured with Al Gore. A rep from BWB will be at the Congress and is interested in working with CURC and RecycleMania. Mary will forward the email she received to the steering committee. Any partnership with this group will need NRC approval. Stacy stated that a benefit to working with this group is that they can provide weights on what they reuse and recycle. Mary will set up a meeting with the BWB rep.
Promoting Our Work
Stacy reported that they have submitted a grant application to the State of Florida for waste characterizations of all colleges and universities within the state. They also partnered with the Florida branch of APPA on this application.
Becky reported that UTA’s composting program won 3 awards in the last month, 1 at the state level and 2 at the local level.
Mary stated that when CURC members have news, it should be on the CURC website and submitted to Mobius.
7. Adjourn
The call adjourned at 1:13 pm.