Engineers Without Borders

Board Meeting November 14th, 2007

November 14, 2007 at 8:58 pm | In Meeting Minutes | Comments Off

Engineers Without Borders Board Meeting

November 14^th, 2007, 7:00pm

Kelly 2057

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Members attending in person:

Evan Miles, Kendra Seniow, Rob Hess, Kelly Wilson, John Sessions, Nick Hogle, Adriane Jones, Nick Taylor.

•  El Salvador Project
  • TAC Review/Summary/Progress?
    No notice has been returned yet about the TAC conference last week. They did get one follow up question about our anchor system, which was addressed on Monday, and a reply email is going out tonight.
    One note of interest: they were complimented on our intent to investigate the Communities skill level before pressing ahead in handing them the parts and tools to build on their own.
    • Ticket Purchase
      • Doug and Evan are looking into ticket purchases in this time. Executive board approval for the travel team to go ahead and purchase tickets.
      • Kay Maddson’s ability to use her frequent flyer miles has passed its deadline. She would like some help in purchasing her ticket. Executive board approval to use our funds to purchase the tickets and she will retroactively reimburse us with frequent flyer miles for tickets for a different plan.
  • Progress update on traveler prep
    • 11/19 Project Meeting – open to all
      • Speaker on First Aid: Basic Assessment and critical treatment, general warnings
      • Evan giving Geographic Orientation to the community: pictures, discussion with former travelers
    • 12/1 (Saturday morning) Training Session - open but travelers have priority to use equipment
      • GPS : Hands-on training using the GPS that we will have in-country. John Sessions will talk to Dr. Wing and Dr. Kiser. Kay’s husband has equipment for use.
      • H₂0 Quality: discussion of water quality issues, introduction to using our field kit, including specific test procedures.
  • Status of preparations: transportation to and within country, etc. –Jessica
    Traveler Email Account
  • Isa Mundo: An NGO from Canada that is interested in partnering with us to provide fundraising support and be involved with our project in El Salvador. They will have a representative in El Salvador in Devember who will be making a one day trip to our community. Kelly Kibler will be investigating the possibility of a support partnership here.  A proposal to the Board can be expected some time in January by Kelly detailing the potential partnership in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding.
  • Portable Solar Panels: David Mandrell was able to get wholesale pricing for our group on heavy-duty field solar panels.  They roll up for easy transportation and are pretty durable.  As a backup setup for our electronics, we would probably want 2 mats, a total of $440 (normal cost is ~$800).  The project team will investigate this further and forward the information on to Kelly to pursue the idea of making them a west coast kit.
  • Project Design: Going to bury the tanks to keep protect them from the wind and provide them with support. The tanks come in approximately 5ft dia and 10 ft dia. The houses are generally placed close enough to the slope so that this can be accomplished with still using gravity.
    
    
• Fundraising
  • Banquet Thank you letters- Rob has them sent out.
  • What is the status of grant applications to the OSU Student Foundation, the COE, and others? -Brad and Kendra B.
  • Status of Coordinator – Katie and Lyndsey will be Fundraising co-coordinators
  • Banquet coordinator for next year?
  • Fundraising event for next year?

 

• IT Update – Nick H. and Rob
  • How to session beginning of next term.
    
    
• Membership –Nick T.
  • Information sent into nationals and they will be sending a receipt for payment.
    
    
• Future Speakers - Jesse
  • Next Meeting-  Wednesday of Dead Week – Biodiesel speaker- Potentially have David Hackelman or potentially someone involved with
  • Future Meeting Ideas-

-Project Update

-Other Power, Alternative Energy, Solar projects, Geothermal,

- Other Clubs- Solar Powered vehicle, biodiesel

-Activity- workshop or educational event, Habitat for Humanity Project first weekend back.

-Look at cellulosic ethonal- Christine Kelly in BioEngr does research with the enzymes.

- Have social activity

• Habitat for Humanity – Nick?
  • Update?
    
    
• PR – Adriane, Kendra S., Evan, Rob . . .
  • Price/Product list for easel, vinyl sign, etc           - Evan
    – Banner: vinyl with laminate coating and steel corner grommets - $8 per sqaure foot. we had been thinking 6×3 or 8×3 which is $144 or $192
    – Pamphlets: gloss trifold with full color - ~$170 for 200 count.
    – Easel: It was approved to purchase this last week ~$60 after shipping.

      -Continue looking into this more next January

• • Brochures – Not very Many, but can manage until January when we will have new updates. .
  • Beaver Open House – Saturday ~ 10-12 – Evan, Jesse B and Adriane can support this. We will need to bring the poster, pot and volunteers. Adriane will be contacting Brett McFarland to set this up.
  • Contact/Business list
    The idea: A database maintained by PR and fundraising (maybe with some help from IT would be helpful).  We could benefit by approaching local (basically the whole southern valley) engineering firms and other business in search of sponsorship and professional involvement.  Kendra started compiling a list of these businesses.  Next term would be a great time for us – especially the travelers with their priceless experience and knowledge – to have some company presentations. Kendra will put her started list on google documents and we can continue to add to it.
    
    
• Positions/Organization
  • We can discuss this if we have time, but keep in mind that we could use more help in fundraising and PR, especially.
    
    

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Minutes prepared by:  Kelly Wilson, November 14^th, 2007