CSM Engineers for a Better World

MEETING MINUTES
*February 1, 2008* EBW, Greetings as our third week of Spring 08 winds down. Minutes from our 1/29 meeting are as follows: We met in Coolbaugh 137. This is a nice venue for future meetings and Ashley has reserved it for the next several weeks. Sandwiches and juice were provided graciously by Warren Spaulding. Our first item of EBWness produced two tentative positions: Room Officer and Food Officer. Ashley Fish is now the Room Officer and Alex Gan the Food Officer. Teamwork! Next we tackled the bicycle project. We created the Bike Committee, made up of EBW members devoting the majority of their volunteered time to the Bicycle Project. The Bike Committee will hold at least one meeting per week outside the regular club meeting. We decided to keep general EBW business to the Tuesday lunch times, with some exceptions along the way. Andrea Yocom has begun gathering information on when Bike Committee members can all meet together. If anyone who could not make the Tuesday meeting would like to be involved in the Bicycle Project, please contact Andrea at ayocom@mines.edu with your weekly availability. Andrea is also taking on the admirable task of revamping our club website. We hope to have this new design running in the near future. We discussed the connections with the Rotary Club of Golden. To reiterate, EBW's official name is now Engineers for a Better World - Rotaract. This hyphenate displays our involvement and cooperation with the Golden Rotarians and this relationship will be developing over the coming semesters. I will be making a short presentation to the Golden Rotary Club in the near future to give them an update of our work here at Mines. I would like to thank Warren Spaulding for his dedication and encouragement in forging this connection between our club and theirs. Ana Ruiz reported on a recent palaver between some EBW members and part of the senior design team who designed the bicycle-powered water pump used in Ghana. Ryan and Lance passed on a comprehensive packet of information, including a working pump, to Natalie Wagner and Ana, and talked about the potential of the project continuing under EBW charge. This Ghana Pump Project will be on our list for the coming semesters. We want to incorporate some more relaxing club meetings into the semester. As such, we are looking for guest speakers, short movies to watch, etc... If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. I'd like to have a fun meeting in the next few weeks. Andrea has volunteered to make a presentation. I would like to nominate David Frossard and myself to give a recount of our mutual time in Mongolia and China last summer through a slide show. There's a video on William McDonough's "Cradle to Cradle" book, outlining his principles on sustainable societies, specifically looking at architecture and human artifice. I've seen the clip and he's a quirky guy, so that should be a good time. So, any suggestions? This next Tuesday, February 5th, we will meet in Coolbaugh 137 again, at 12 noon. The room is located on the south wall of Coolbaugh Hall's atrium, ground level. Please RSVP to Alex Gan at agan@mines.edu by 7pm Sunday night so he can get enough food for everyone. We will be discussing the Senegal project, the Recycling/Sustainability project, Ghana, and Bicycles. We are looking for group members to take on roles as project leaders. Rob Conley has expressed great interest in the Bane, Senegal water desalination project, so he may be a good candidate for project leader. The purpose of having a leader for each project is to get these efforts moving. As club president I am in the principal leadership role, but nothing productive will happen in this group without delegation and specialization. The more we split the work, the more we'll get accomplished. We have four projects: Senegal, Ghana, Recycling/Sustainability, and Bicycles. There's a lot to pick from and a lot to get done. We're all volunteers, so I know this club is back-burner to our studies, but it doesn't diminish the importance of these projects. This club is chuck full of amazing potential. I've seen it every meeting. You guys are fantastic and I'm confident this club will thrive long after we're all gone with the attitudes I've seen. SO, the bottom line of that long-winded motivational statement is this: If you're interested in taking on a project as a leader, let me know. You will not be alone. You will be working in sub-groups, like the Bike Committee. I want a committee for each project, led by one or two students, and containing at least 5-6 students each. That situation would be ideal. I want to have weekly meetings with all the committees to keep up with you all. As president I will be involved in everything, but that's just to keep the overall structure together. Let me know your thoughts. If this proposed system seems flawed, shoot me a response. EBW needs feedback to function. Let's make the Better World our mission statement talks about. Jason Fish EBW Prez jfish@mines.edu

MEETING MINUTES

February 1, 2008

EBW,
Greetings as our third week of Spring 08 winds down.

Minutes from our 1/29 meeting are as follows:

We met in Coolbaugh 137. This is a nice venue for future meetings and Ashley has reserved it for the next several weeks. Sandwiches and juice were provided graciously by Warren Spaulding.

Our first item of EBWness produced two tentative positions: Room Officer and Food Officer. Ashley Fish is now the Room Officer and Alex Gan the Food Officer. Teamwork!

Next we tackled the bicycle project. We created the Bike Committee, made up of EBW members devoting the majority of their volunteered time to the Bicycle Project. The Bike Committee will hold at least one meeting per week outside the regular club meeting. We decided to keep general EBW business to the Tuesday lunch times, with some exceptions along the way. Andrea Yocom has begun gathering information on when Bike Committee members can all meet together. If anyone who could not make the Tuesday meeting would like to be involved in the Bicycle Project, please contact Andrea at ayocom@mines.edu with your weekly availability.

Andrea is also taking on the admirable task of revamping our club website. We hope to have this new design running in the near future.

We discussed the connections with the Rotary Club of Golden. To reiterate, EBW's official name is now Engineers for a Better World - Rotaract. This hyphenate displays our involvement and cooperation with the Golden Rotarians and this relationship will be developing over the coming semesters. I will be making a short presentation to the Golden Rotary Club in the near future to give them an update of our work here at Mines. I would like to thank Warren Spaulding for his dedication and encouragement in forging this connection between our club and theirs.

Ana Ruiz reported on a recent palaver between some EBW members and part of the senior design team who designed the bicycle-powered water pump used in Ghana. Ryan and Lance passed on a comprehensive packet of information, including a working pump, to Natalie Wagner and Ana, and talked about the potential of the project continuing under EBW charge. This Ghana Pump Project will be on our list for the coming semesters.

We want to incorporate some more relaxing club meetings into the semester. As such, we are looking for guest speakers, short movies to watch, etc... If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. I'd like to have a fun meeting in the next few weeks. Andrea has volunteered to make a presentation. I would like to nominate David Frossard and myself to give a recount of our mutual time in Mongolia and China last summer through a slide show. There's a video on William McDonough's "Cradle to Cradle" book, outlining his principles on sustainable societies, specifically looking at architecture and human artifice. I've seen the clip and he's a quirky guy, so that should be a good time. So, any suggestions?
This next Tuesday, February 5th, we will meet in Coolbaugh 137 again, at 12 noon. The room is located on the south wall of Coolbaugh Hall's atrium, ground level. Please RSVP to Alex Gan at agan@mines.edu by 7pm Sunday night so he can get enough food for everyone. We will be discussing the Senegal project, the Recycling/Sustainability project, Ghana, and Bicycles. We are looking for group members to take on roles as project leaders. Rob Conley has expressed great interest in the Bane, Senegal water desalination project, so he may be a good candidate for project leader. The purpose of having a leader for each project is to get these efforts moving. As club president I am in the principal leadership role, but nothing productive will happen in this group without delegation and specialization. The more we split the work, the more we'll get accomplished. We have four projects: Senegal, Ghana, Recycling/Sustainability, and Bicycles. There's a lot to pick from and a lot to get done. We're all volunteers, so I know this club is back-burner to our studies, but it doesn't diminish the importance of these projects.

This club is chuck full of amazing potential. I've seen it every meeting. You guys are fantastic and I'm confident this club will thrive long after we're all gone with the attitudes I've seen. SO, the bottom line of that long-winded motivational statement is this: If you're interested in taking on a project as a leader, let me know. You will not be alone. You will be working in sub-groups, like the Bike Committee. I want a committee for each project, led by one or two students, and containing at least 5-6 students each. That situation would be ideal. I want to have weekly meetings with all the committees to keep up with you all. As president I will be involved in everything, but that's just to keep the overall structure together.

Let me know your thoughts. If this proposed system seems flawed, shoot me a response. EBW needs feedback to function. Let's make the Better World our mission statement talks about.

Jason Fish
EBW Prez
jfish@mines.edu