Elections for 2008-09 Officers are Open

April 25, 2008 at 10:57 am | In Events, Old News | Comments Off

Elections for EWB-OSU’s officers for the 2008-09 school year are now underway. To vote, go to http://ewb-osu.org/vote, enter the code “officers2008″ (no quotes), and fill out the ballot. Once you submit your vote, you will be given a unique identifier string, which you must email, along with your name, to treasurer@ewb-osu.org. This is to ensure that only the votes of paying members are counted. All identifiers will be disassociated from names to ensure confidentiality. The ballot will be open until 7:00 PM on Friday, May 2, at which point the results will be made public.

Info about the candidates and video clips of their nomination speeches and the Q & A session at the nomination meeting can be found below.

Continue reading…

4-23-08 General Meeting

April 23, 2008 at 8:09 pm | In Meeting Minutes | Comments Off

April 23rd, 2008, 7:00pm

Kelly 1003

 

 

I. Announcements

· New Project Selection Committee: First meeting Friday at 10am at Valley Library Entrance. Will be mapping out process to select a new chapter. Looking for members who maybe aren’t involved yet and would like to be taking more interest in chapter activities

· Poker night on May 16th. Need donations for things to raffle off, so anyone with connections with people who can. Also will need

· Appointed positions: appointed positions

II. EWB-USA, Regions and International Conference

III. Elections

Nominees

· Aparna Shrivastava- President – Has been on the PR committee and the current Project Coordinator.

· David Mandrell- President – Participated actively on El Salvador Project. Wants to see productivity of EWB continue by empowering the other members in the club.

· Carl Moen- Vice President – Involved in project for past 1.5 years. Interested in connecting EWB with rest of community.

· Evan Miles- Vice President and Secretary – has been involved with various appointed positions and a past vice president. Curently trying to put together funding from Rotary and selecting a new project for EWB-OSU.

· Nick Moses- Secretary – Project Secretary and interested in helping chapter out as a whole.

· Rob Hess- Treasurer – Past treasurer and will pass knowledge on to treasurer to be in future.

Questions

· What is the most important thing to work on in this next year? (Kevin)

· Carl- increase membership and support projects

· David- Fundraising to support our projects and member

· Aparna- Publicity is essential to spreading our voice to the student body and community

· Evan- Completion of one of our projects and transition leadership

· Rob- Solidify our organizational structure

· Nick- Expanding membership to support a new project

· How to deal with disconnect between Exec board and Project Teams: (Kelly K)

· David- Will attend both sets of minutes

· Aparna- Wants minutes posted for both meetings,

· Evan- Someone in touch with both project meetings and on board

· Carl- Maintain communication in a new way

· Rob- Important to maintain contact but also degree of disconnect from project for objectivity.

· Nick- Have contact between board and

General Meeting & Nominations Wednesday April 23rd 7pm KEC 1003

April 20, 2008 at 4:35 pm | In Old News | Comments Off

Attendees from the EWB International Conference in Seattle will be sharing all they learned during that event over spring break.

Candidates for the positions of President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer should come prepared to introduce themselves and to speak of their qualifications following the conference presentation.

Position descriptions can be found at on the EWB-OSU website here. I encourage you to run for one of these positions and to hear from the candidates and vote. Nominations may be given to Doug in 204 Rogers Hall or president@ewb-osu.org before Wednesday evening or at the meeting. Voting (by paid members) will be online for one week - more details Wednesday.

Also keep in mind the several appointed positions that are currently open. Please let us know if you are interested in taking on more responsibilities and getting more involved in EWB-OSU! Open positions include (but are not limited to) Public Relations Coordinator and committee members, IT Coordinator, and Organic Growers Club Project Coordinator.

Don’t forget, the Application for Summer Travel to El Salvador is available and is due this Friday April 25th. Among other attributes, commitment to EWB-OSU is an important selection criteria.

And as always, free pizza and pop Wednesday at 7pm. See you there and don’t forget to vote!

Summer Traveler Selection

April 20, 2008 at 3:14 pm | In Old News | Comments Off

Are you interested in ending poverty, improving health, or solving real world problems?
Do you have the desire to make a difference?
Have you ever wanted to travel to Central America?
Here’s your chance.

Engineers Without Borders is currently seeking students from all majors to travel to El Salvador in early Summer of 2008. Selected applicants will be responsible for the implementation of two sustainable water delivery systems in El Salvador. We are looking for individuals who are ready to work alongside community members and spend time in a developing country. You must have a current passport to be considered for travel.

The traveling team will be selected based on the following criteria (note that individual travelers need not meet all criteria but must complement the capabilities of the other selected travelers):

  • Strong communication skills
  • Spanish language proficiency
  • Design and construction experience
  • Willingness to collaborate with local laborers
  • Familiarity with the project and a clear, shared vision
  • Time to prepare well for this trip
  • Current and/or future commitment to working with Engineers Without Borders

If selected, be prepared to commit a minimum of eight hours/month of volunteering with Engineers Without Borders during spring term. You are expected and encouraged to actively plan and participate in preparation for implementation. In return, all (reasonable) expenses associated with the trip will be paid for by EWB-OSU.

Summer Travel Application

Please print double-sided and write or type clearly. … we enjoy breathing and efficiency.
Completed applications should be returned to Douglas Van Bossuyt in ROG 222 by 4:30pm on Friday, April 25th.

4-16-08 Board Meeting

April 16, 2008 at 8:03 pm | In Meeting Minutes | Comments Off

April 16th, 2008, 7:00pm

Kelly 2056

 

 

I. Poker Night (Lindsey)

Night the same as Relay for Life event. Could work for our benefit in publicity and having people congregated in

II. New Project Selection Committee (Evan)

Kendra and Evan have put some work into collecting new project information. They will gather 2-3 more people. The project could be domestic or international. The idea is to narrow down the field to then creat a presentation to the board and chapter.

III. Table at Earth Day (Kendra)

Earth Day is next Tuesday from 10am to 3pm. Kendra will coordinate

IV. Next Weeks Meeting- Conference Report and Elections

The conference attendees will need to meet and discuss what to present.

V. MOU’s (Kelly Kibbler)

The MOU with Isamundo provides us with funding for IsaMundo strictly for materials for projects. This one is pretty straightforward

The second MOU is with Fonaes. They usually work on contract for 30 homes and will go in and construct 30 rain water catchment systems. The MOU will put the liability on their organization.

The board approves Doug moved, Rob seconded, all supported motion to form partnership with Fonaes. The precident will be to address MOUs as they come.

VI. Babel Tower

VII. Funding Request from Project

The last trip collected the data necessary to develop 2 gravity fed water delivery systems and established an agreement with the land owners to develop the land for these projects.

The last few weeks have been spent addressing the issues involved in working on these projects.

They need legal contracts for the water rights and to pass pipeline over land. It’s a quick process using locally-available legal councel. The ADESCO can make these contracts. There will be some costs associated with this

A permit needs to be submitted to the Ministeria Ambiental for each source. Landowner permission and a fee of $125/permit.

A TAC report has been put together and will be submitted this weekend for review for the June project.

There is a critical timeline for the June project. First the legal processes need to move ahead for legal counsel and the permitting process. Materials should be moved soon (storage is available). There is a rough estimate of $3252 for the materials and $600 for legal fees.

After these two gravity systems, there would be another small gravity system to service 5 homes. After that it would be looking at single home systems after that, potentially done by Fonaes.

The project team eventually send would be 4 students and 1 professional for in June.

The current proposal would be for $3852. I motion that we approve the $600 for legal fees effective immediately and an additional $3400 being approved conditional on legal items being completed (10-0-2).

Travel Team to Speak at General Meeting, April 9, 2008

April 8, 2008 at 10:39 am | In Events, Old News | Comments Off

Our team of four returned last week from their week-long site assessment trip to El Salvador. They’ll tell us all about it at the General Meeting on Wednesday, April 9, scheduled to start at 7:00 PM in room 1003 of Kelley Engineering Center.

At the meeting, we’ll also discuss upcoming officer elections and begin the nomination process. As always, there’ll be pizza and soda.

4-2-08 Board Meeting

April 2, 2008 at 9:23 pm | In Meeting Minutes | Comments Off

April 2nd, 2008, 7:00pm

Kelley 256

1. Maintenance Plan frorm El Salvador Project Team (Carl Moen)

Plan to cover gutters, piping, tap box down to hill silo. It also include repairs specifications and details on safety concerning human entry to closed container. Plan is subject to change with information from returning travel team.

2. Poker Night May 16th, 7-10pm in Womens Bldg lounge.

Potential games are craps, blackjack, poker, and any other requested games. Setup will come from John mills RHA cheap. They will be advertising via newsletters, posters etc. Entrance will be 5$ and will win raffle tickets.

We do need to find prizes to raffle for. Nikhil’s parents work at HP so may be able to get things from there. People with frats contacts or panhellenic council would be valued to post information.

3. Wind Turbines

They currently have approval to get on top of buildings and next week will have anemometers

4. Habitat for Humanity

We are probably going to have 1 to 2 events this term, dates yet undecided

5. Biodiesel Iniative

Their P3 grant proposal for $75,000 was submitted this last mon. They have decided to change directions and look at using direct coconut oil. The coconut is mashed and oil is extracted. They are shooting for a site assessment this coming summer.

6. New Project?

OSU alum, Kenny Short, currently stationed in Guatemala with an NGO. There are other EWB projects in vicinity and they wanted to know if they wanted to know if we wanted another project there. Douglas will email Kenny Short and request more information about the project so a committee can assess potential projects to be started.

7. El Salvador Project

The travelers returned this morning, and come bearing good news. They are looking to potentiall travel again another trip this summer to install the system. EsaMundo is willing to fund the materials for any of our projects. The summer trip will cost around $6000.

New stoves could be a potential project. David will research the potential of this project and see what the status of other stove initiatives in the community.

Aparna will know tomorrow if travelers will be prepared to give a presentation next week.

8. Tower of Babel

The language department will be constructing a “tower of babel” and have invited our group to participate. It will be occurring May 16th. A planning meeting will be next Tuesday. Contact Evan for information on time and place of planning meeting.

9. Grants

Brad has a couple that he will continue to work on.

10. Meetings

  • ES travel team
  • Lisa Farman (Katie Bruce) works with Navaho tribes in NW on arsenic issues.
  • Biodiesel: Christine Kelly or David Hackelman.

12. Fundraising

  • Books for Africa were sent in, 41 boxes.
  • Silent Auction items need to be purchased with the next with the next travel trip.
  • Letter writing- Kendra is going to put together the list of companies to contact
  1. Elections

The four exec board positions are going to be elected at the week 4 meeting. Rob will set up online voting for a week.

Position to fill currently: Organic Growers Projects Coordinator

  1. Next Weeks Meeting
  • Travelers Presentation tentatively

 

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An OSU student organization