Engineers Without Borders

General meeting 10/8/08

October 9, 2008 at 3:37 pm | In Meeting Minutes | Comments Off

EWB general meeting 10-8-08

Announcements:

• Membership-$15 a year
• General meetings will be every other Wednesday starting this week.
• Banquet-10/24                                                                                                                                                  -Sign up sheet passed around.  We need help on Thursday and Wednesday afternoon.                      -We will be sending out email invites to departments.

Kevin Boston (faculty advisor) gave a history of EWB OSU.

• EWB OSU was started about 3½-4 years ago.
• Kevin has been with us from the start, and had to donate some of his own money before we were set up well enough to manage our own.
• Originally we had no money, project, or real organization.
• It has been a rough path to get where we are today. There has been some tension within the group (resolved with help from the faculty advisors), but we have overcome these problems and now have a relatively well organized board.
• Finance was one of the first big issues.
• We had little info to help us choose the project in el Salvador at the time.
• We made a lot of mistakes on the first trip.
• There were also a lot of failed design ideas (including a 70 ft. dam).
• If you are interested in something, anyone can influence the group in their own direction.
• Unique experiences offered by EWB:

-Opportunity to be vocal and express yourself in public.
-A lot of creativity in design compared to classes and most jobs.
-Experience of buying and transporting materials in a foreign country. A lot of things can go wrong.
-Also social things. Learning how to deal with water rights. Improving the way Americans are seen after cultural issues from previous US policies.

• We need 6-8 new members to replace outgoing leaders. There is enough support from them where younger members don’t need to worry about support as they work their way up.
• We have become very good at fundraising.

Evan wated to remind younger members that they don’t need technical expertise. Most trips have had underclassmen.

Project Report from Michelle and Scott:

• The term “village” is misleading for El Naranjito, they were really working with dispersed groups of houses.
• Six people went on the trip, which lasted about two weeks.
• Water is very far away from most people.  Women average five 20-minute trips a day to get water.  This has created a serious sanitation issue.

-Litter (from laundry) contaminates streams and surrounding areas.
-People are getting sick from settling for contaminated water for drinking.

• We have been implementing rain water catchment and spring fed systems, as well as wash stations.
• We have also helped distribute Potters for Peace filters and educate the community about sanitation.
• Last summer we installed a spring fed system, which piped water to tanks in two separate locations.
  

• There were many issues to work out with running very long sections of pipe with huge elevation changes and very rough terrain.  We had to incorporate air vents and pressure equalizing tank, as well as sections of galvanized pipe to hold up to above ground exposure and vandalism.
• The weather was also a huge problem. Rain (from a tropical storm) collapsed trenches and clogged pipes with mud.
• The team ran into many unexpected problems, such as air bubbles in pipelines.  The project was almost stopped by a landslide
• They also explored possible sites for future projects.
• The travelers also go to hang out with the kids and get to know the people in the community.  It was a very unique experience.
• Dealing with nature was also an experience.  There was an incredible amount of rain, washed out roads, and really big bugs.

Reminder of project meetings; every Monday at 7 in Gilmore 234.

New project selection committee meeting tomorrow at 3 in library.