Engineers Without Borders

Board meeting 10/21/09

October 21, 2009 at 10:10 pm | In Meeting Minutes | Comments Off

Board meeting 10/21/09

Agenda

-Review documents from a couple weeks ago

-Workshops – what and when, how they will be led

-outline for tomorrows meeting

-banquet update

-Reimbursement for regional workshop

-Travel insurance reimbursement- canceled tickets

-Reusable bag fundraiser

Reusable bags

• sustainably manufactured
• if we order 100-500 its $1.25/bag
• profits from the first order will go to the kenya project. Following orders will go to the general fund
• left over bags will be stored with Kate (sophomore heading up the project) or with Dr. Boston
• They will be sold at OSU fairs, local businesses.
• Request for $125
• approved. all in favor (Scott Adam Nick Dr. Boston)

Travel insurance reimbursement

• $400 was spent on travel insurance for the canceled trip to Kenya in September.
• Aparna purchased with her own money and hasn’t made a request for reimbursement yet
• Andy, one of the professional mentors, wants to know if he will be reimbursed (his insurance cost $103 for extra coverage)
• he opted to buy more expensive insurance out of pocket if EWB wouldn’t pay for it, should he pay the difference?
• Should have laid out at the beginning
• the easiest thing to do now is reimburse him, we do not want to harm our reputation or relationship with him
• in the future all expenses not specifically in country will be mentors’ responsibility
• This is already in our written policy on the application for mentor travel. We will list out things not paid for by EWB to be clearer

• We will reimburse all of the insurance payment from the general fund – $400 total, $103 to Andy
• all in favor, motion passes

Reimbursement for regional workshop

• We had decided on giving $300 before, and will still give this much.
• The COE gave us $1300, $243 for regional and the rest for national
• If more travelers go than we budgeted for the available money will be split between them.

Workshop funding – $65 for water testing kit for coliforms.

• This will give 25 tests, it also comes with a heavy discount
• it will be applicable for workshops and traveling.
• Daniel bailey will be buying it, he wants one for a friend in Kenya

• Request for $65
• All in favor, motion passes

Banquet update

• advertising – invite your parents, contacting radio stations
• Adam will send out radio station contacts
• mailbox stuffers still in the works.
• We have sold 36 seats so far. Ch2M Hill might buy a table. COE might as well
• We will put this on the weekly newsletter.

Meeting tomorrow

• Info from the regional workshop will be dispersed in workshops and a formal presentation one week later on
• we don’t need a presentation for each general meeting
• The membership coordinator will make an announcement about membership dues

Workshops

• Jason started committee to get them going
• he has insurance concerns for water quality testing
• Jessica Varin, Dan, and Birdie are interested in helping with water quality workshops.
• The sustainability center wants a rainwater center. Michelle talked to them on Saturday, they have a design and are working with a professor. They are looking for construction volunteers. This would be good to give people something to do (sometime after this term).
• She will get more details

Kenya trip update

• The travel team is in the process of changing.
• First priority goes to alternates, though we might have to send out another application.
• It will be detrimental to the community if we dont show up this December.
• Tickets are $1800 each in the winter, we only have $1500 vouchers. They are nontransferable, hopefully insurance will reimburse us if this becomes an issue. There might also be a fee for transferring tickets
• We havent done a lot of traveler prep with the start of the year and classes.
• We do have a mentor
• One traveler will decide if she can go tomorrow, this will determine the necessity of another selection.
• Basically we are struggling. The biggest barrier is time commitment, Many people from the summer are not around anymore.

• El Salvador in about the same boat, no travelers have been chosen. Maybe this isn’t too big of a concern

• Travelers will be chosen by end of first week in november
• Kendra will keep working on the airline problem
• we need an application for new mentors
• We will look for an assistant project coordinator to help with the workload (kendra knows someone who might be up for it)
• We need to focus on little things we can do right now.

Guiding Documents:

• We will email out document drafts to everyone
• membership coordinator – speak tomorrow.

Action items from this meeting :

• Dues to nationals ($400) are due Oct. 31. Lyndsey has emailed that she can take care of this
• All, membership coordinator – We need to work on collecting dues and reminding people often
• Kendra – confirm with Chris about using water quality kit for the week of Nov. 14^th. (This is only open weekend this term). We also need to ask Jason and potential workshop leaders if this weekend will work
• We need to decide by the end of the meeting tomorrow on the workshop this term
  
• We also need to enlist new members to help plan workshops (Jason has started this)
  
• Adam – Will get access to the MU account