Engineers Without Borders

Board meeting 11/20/08

November 21, 2008 at 4:13 pm | In Meeting Minutes | Comments Off

General:

1. EWB-USA is missing membership information for some of the travelers.  They do not have an updated list for the entire chapter. We need to send them an updated membership list as soon as possible, or else we won’t be approved for travel.

• Birdie is stepping down as our membership coordinator. For now, the travel team needs to send in a complete list of their own information immediately.  We can work on completing and sending in a chapter list later.

2. Inviting Anna Harding to be an official faculty advisor.

• John Gambatese will be replaced by Anna.
• We will send her a letter officially inviting her.

New project selection

• Scope of project was the biggest factor in choosing potential projects.

• The project selection committee also tried to find diverse projects, both geographically and technically.

• Most EWB projects are in Africa, however travel costs are prohibitive.

• 3 of the four possible projects are water projects (2 rainwater harvesting) and 1 is power related.

Key points:

Waspam, Nicaragua.

• Actually an autonomous region reserved for native traditions.
• People speak their native language, though Spanish is (hopefully) functional.
• Would serve around 1000 people.
• They are asking for a rainwater harvesting system.
• Kelly: Storing enough water with rainwater catchment, this might not be the best place to use it.
• Evan: The region is close to a river, but many people live 5-10 miles from it.

Mbita, Kenya

• A community education center (projected completion date: January 08) needs power for 20 computers, lights, phones, printers, etc.
• They have 6 hours of peak sunlight, so are considering solar panels with storage batteries.  Wind power might also be an option to help balance the power supply in of peak hours.
• Solar panels/batteries could be expensive, but the project is still doable.
• $1700+ per plane ticket

Mtwara, Tanzania

• They want rainwater catchments for schools, where attendance usually dwindles when water is scarce.
• They have put a lot of thought into the planning already.
• 18,000 euros have already been donated by a German organization. This would probably cover 2/3 of project cost.

Apatut, Philippines

• They want to pipe water from a spring to the community (about 1 mile away).
• This project might be most suitable for a student chapter.
• About 800 people served.
• Short term project.

Partnership with well-drilling NGO in Guatemala

• They have been drilling wells for a while, but haven’t done a lot of social/follow up research.
• They put out a request for help to monitor the usage of their wells after a year or so.
• This might involve annual or semiannual trips to check up on them.
• Very hands-off.  Little design or construction would be involved.
• We could do this along with another project.

Aparna motioned to remove the Tanazania project from consideration, Mo seconded.

Motion passed, 5 for, 3 abstain.

Additional information on the first four projects: