Present: Tracy Artley; Alec Cooley; Mark Darling; Jack Debell; Judi Gray; Deb Hanson; Rob Gogan; Christine Von Kolnitz Cooley

 

Absent: Dana Donatucci; Judi Gard; Mary Jensen; Ed Newman; Mike Planton

 

1. RecycleMania Update

Ed sent out the RecycleMania minutes and work plan in February. Rob provided an update on the competition. He stated that the work plan was more of a listing of goals including taking legal steps to protect the RecycleMania logo. The lawyer for the NRC is assisting with this on a pro bono basis. Rob went on to review the other goals for the competition. He stressed that the main overlap with CURC is funding but that it is more urgent for RecycleMania because they have to fund a $100,000 program through sponsorship dollars. Additionally, it is important to RecycleMania participants that the dollars used to fund the competition meet the endorsement protocol that is currently in development. The protocol will be part of the April 9 discussions.  

 

Rob next discussed this year’s competition.   The #1 issue is disputed measurements. One school participating in the food waste composting competition is reporting 5x the number of lbs/person more than anyone else. The dispute comes from the measurement adjustments they are making due to the technology used with their food waste. Many people do not agree with this adjustment. Rob stated that everyone wants to come to an amicable adjustment, but their numbers may have to be stricken from the contest if this doesn’t happen. Rob sees this as a growing pain of the competition. He thinks it’s very positive that participants care about where they finish. Additionally, he reported that the contest has sparked a lot of discussion on many other issues faced by campus recyclers. As schools are always beginning new programs, old issues are constantly recycled through the listserves. Discussion ensued on campus-specific RecycleMania issues. 

 

Alec reported that Coca-Cola has been working with the NCAA and has a foot in the door with the Final Four to promote RecycleMania. During a large party in Centennial Park associated with the college basketball event, Ryan Seacrest from American Idol will make RecycleMania announcements during the breaks between performing bands while 20-second RecycleMania vignettes will be shown on large screens near the stage. The party is expected to draw 50,000 people. Alec has been charged with coming up with some of the factoids for this. Rob is excited about the potential this creates and hopes that the NCAA will embrace this much like the NFL has partnered with United Way. It also opens the door for other sponsors. 

  

2. 2007 NRC Congress

Mark inquired about steering committee members speaking at the Congress. Christine stated that she responded to the call for topics and ideas with a possible topic being onsite shredding service. Jack covered his list for what should happen for the Congress. These included:

            -Welcoming sessions

            -Determining venues

            -CURC workshop

            -Organizing the steering committee meeting on Saturday afternoon

            -Organizing the Saturday night meet-and-greet

            -Hosting a tour of CU’s facilities

            -Sunday night welcoming session

-Determining if track sessions will be imbedded throughout the conference or integrated into other sessions

-Table topics networking lunch

-Expo booth

-A breakout for the RecycleMania awards

-A general tour of CU for conference attendees

-Recruitment of schools to attend the Congress.

Jack will send an expanded version of this list to Steers as well as Alec and Karyn Kaplan. He suggested the conference be a regular agenda item on monthly calls and requested someone from NRC staff contact him to detail the assistance they can provide

 

Jack then reviewed and solicited opinions from the steering committee members on a number of logistical items for the Congress. These included:

-Interest in focusing on zero waste during the CURC workshop. Christine felt that that would have too narrow of a focus. Discussion ensued.

-Scholarships. Jack stated that he would like to invite the scholarship recipients to the Sunday workshop. He also wants subcommittee involvement on this topic that would look at how staff solicit scholarship applications and reviewing applications that come in. Rob and Mark offered to assist in reviewing scholarship applications.

 

Topics that Jack came up with for the Congress include:

            -Shredding

            -Food waste composting

            -Roundtable on collaborations between “town” and “gown”

            -Career track: where the jobs are and how to get them

            -Is your alma mater recycling? How local governments can help campuses

Judi suggested having a topic on recycling at athletic events besides football and that there be a CURC booth and a separate RecycleMania booth in the expo hall. Judi offered to take on organizing the CURC booth. She also suggested a breakfast meet-and-greet for the CURC steers. 

 

Alec stated that the NRC is looking at tweaking the schedule to have fewer concurrent sessions. Michael Alexander is the lead on this. 

3. Work plan

Alec reported that Mary forwarded the work plan suggestions she received to him and he, in turn, forwarded them to Kate Krebs. Everything appeared to look fine. The work plan will be reviewed by the NRC board in late March and, once approved, Alec will bring it to the CURC steering committee. 

 

4. Elections

Christine sent out nomination solicitations to the RECYC-L and CURC listserves.

 

5. Project update, Judi and Deb

Deb stated that she and Judi have been gathering information from different colleges’ recycling programs and writing synopses of them, with the goal of having them on the CURC website. They will be separated into different categories to make them more user-friendly. 

 

Deb inquired about getting a letter regarding Rubbermaid containers on the CURC website. Christine requested that those wanting information on the website figure out for themselves where it should be placed.

 

6. Green textbook initiative

Mark reported that Mary posted information about the green textbook initiative to RECYC-L and received some responses. She wanted to know if she should also post it to the CURC listserve. Christine suggested that she does. 

 

7. Budget

Alec reported that Kate would like CURC to indicate projects that they would like to do but not to worry about how it will happen financially. The board will determine what is feasible. Alec stated that Mary stated that it’s difficult to know what to request without knowing what is realistic.   Alec stated that Mary had sent him points for the work plan, he had formatted them into a work plan and that it was his mistake that it had gone to the NRC board prior to CURC approval. He also stressed his role in getting the work plan approved by the board. He stated that, in his opinion, Kate sees CURC as an arm of NRC, that CURC can set the vision and she will make it happen and that CURC doesn’t have their own money. Jack restated CURC’s need to know basic budget information like revenues and expenses to determine realistic work plan objectives and future growth potential. This will become even more important as CURC raises sponsorship dollars. Alec stated that he will let the CURC steering committee work directly with Kate on sponsorship issues and stressed that outstanding issues related to past budgets be taken care of now so they don’t undermine the relationship moving forward.

 

8. Adjourn

The call adjourned at 1:29 pm.