Wait in anticipation for a post talking about the Environmental Justice tour with GreenFaith in Newark and some pictures. Coming soon.
TERRA meeting notes
February 12, 2008
The meeting went very well yesterday! Here's what we discussed, and need to move forward on:
TERRA Week:
We would like to put together a three-day campaign for the week before Spring Break, March 4-6th, which we will call TERRA week. We want to set up a table in Sem Hall (probably the Atrium) and take turns sitting at the table. We hope to accomplish the following:
• Publicize TERRA’s existence as an organization
• Distribute reusable shopping bags for free to students (Whole Foods will donate 200 bags)
• Collect plastic grocery bags from students, to be delivered to a recycling collection center
• Encourage the use of mugs with some educational materials about waste
• Provide some information about recycling procedures in Sem Hall
• Collect student signatures on a letter to be sent to Drew’s food service provider (see below)
In conjunction with this campaign/event, we would like to make TERRA t-shirts, which will help to advertise our existence. Susie, Margi, and Derek (?) are working on a logo for the t-shirt, and would welcome any input.
NEXT MEETINGS:
Tuesday, Feb 19th, from 12:10-1:10 pm, in Sem 210
Tuesday, Feb 19th, from 6-7 pm, in Sem Hall Atrium
In order to keep our momentum up for the TERRA week event, we'll have two brief meetings next week to organize and distribute the tasks that we must accomplish to pull off the event. We agreed to meet next Tuesday, the 19th, from 12-1 pm. Because that conflicts with a candidate lunch/lecture, we'll have an alternative meeting time from 6-7 on Tuesday evening.
In order to push for more improvement in the Dining/Catering Services offered at Drew, we want to write a letter offering our student feedback to Sodexho. In a positive, non-antagonistic tone, we will encourage Sodexho to implement certain changes regarding the kinds of products and containers they provide. We will collect student signatures on this letter during our TERRA week tabling campaign.
We talked about the GreenFaith Eco-Justice Tour this Saturday. Mary Rachel, Natalie, and Laura will participate, as well as Dr. Kearns. The tour takes place on Saturday, Feb 16, from 9 am to 1 pm.
In January, Drew University’s President Weisbuch signed the Presidents’ Climate Commitment, joining other university presidents around the U.S. in pledging to work towards carbon-neutral campuses. Attached you will find a copy of the commitment. Also, Drew is in the process of hiring a full-time staff person as a Campus Sustainability Coordinator.
Gene suggested that we go beach camping in late April as a fun group activity. He is checking into some campsite information for us, for beaches on Long Island. We discussed going on either the 12th or the 19th of April.
Recyclemania is going on right now on campus. It has not yet been advertised very widely. Natalie will check with DEAL students about posters and/or flyers to post about this campus-wide campaign, and will either put up posters that they give her or make some herself. We have the contact info for the person who is in charge of Morris County recycling, and she will be coming to campus soon. We intend to ask her for some more specific information about what and how Morris County recycles, because they are the ones that process Drew’s recycled materials.
We'd like to plan an event around Earth Day (April 21) that will coincide with FernFest (an annual event sponsored by DEAL). We discussed putting together an event for children of students/faculty/staff, as well as a workshop on Religion and Ecology.
We also discussed doing a video series this semester, but we didn’t actually settle on any plans for this.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
TERRA meeting notes #1
From Margi based on our last meeting! Next post will be the notes and minutes from our meeting on 2-12. And a big thanks for those who came to my chapel service two weeks ago!
For those of you who do not know what TERRA week is, we have decided to make a whole week of education, making t-shirts, raising awareness of eco-theology and what TERRA is all about.
Hi everyone! As you know, TERRA week is coming up very soon (March 4-6)!! That means we have to get everything ready asap. At yesterday's meetings, we divided up the tasks that need to be accomplished for TERRA week to happen. If you have not signed up to help with something and you would like to, just email/speak to the person(s) already working on that task. And, if you need help with a task, don't hesitate to ask! Also, we will need to take turns sitting at the table during the event. Just to remind you, we'll be tabling from 10am-2pm and from 5:30-7:30 pm on Tuesday thru Thursday in Sem Hall. Please try to sign up for at least one hour, or more if you're able. To sign up for a time slot, email Drea at anelson@drew.edu.
Tasks:
1) Reserve the atrium with Housing, Conferences, and Hospitality office--Susie Thomas
2) Coordinate cloth bag donations with Whole Foods--Margi Ault-Duell
3) Publicize the event--Natalie Finch, Calvin Miller
4) Make educational materials (flyers, posters) about recycling, waste, mugs in Cyber cafe, etc--Tai Bonilla
5) Research and write letter to Sodexho--Sam Laurent
6) Coordinate t-shirt making--Mary Rachel Moore, Laura Goldenbaum
7) Communicate with Dean's office--Susie Thomas
8) Schedule tabling--Drea Nelson
9) Coordinate plastic bag collection/recycling--Laura Goldenbaum, Nate Nims
Please let me know if I've forgotten anything that needs to be done!!! If you're unclear about what your task entails, please ask! I think it's gonna be a fantastic event! Go green team! :-)
Related events:
On Monday night, the 3rd of March, there will be a World Cafe event hosted by the Sustainability Committee in UC 107. This is a round-table discussion of Drew campus sustainability issues. It starts at 7:30 pm.
On Tuesday night, the 4th of March, the Beatitudes Society is hosting a casual get-together from 5:30-6:30 in Sem Hall 210, and we TERRA folk have been invited to participate. They will have some food and a discussion on social/eco justice resources and events that we could work on. The Beatitudes Society and TERRA could cooperate on some activities/events.
Peace,
For those of you who do not know what TERRA week is, we have decided to make a whole week of education, making t-shirts, raising awareness of eco-theology and what TERRA is all about.
Hi everyone! As you know, TERRA week is coming up very soon (March 4-6)!! That means we have to get everything ready asap. At yesterday's meetings, we divided up the tasks that need to be accomplished for TERRA week to happen. If you have not signed up to help with something and you would like to, just email/speak to the person(s) already working on that task. And, if you need help with a task, don't hesitate to ask! Also, we will need to take turns sitting at the table during the event. Just to remind you, we'll be tabling from 10am-2pm and from 5:30-7:30 pm on Tuesday thru Thursday in Sem Hall. Please try to sign up for at least one hour, or more if you're able. To sign up for a time slot, email Drea at anelson@drew.edu.
Tasks:
1) Reserve the atrium with Housing, Conferences, and Hospitality office--Susie Thomas
2) Coordinate cloth bag donations with Whole Foods--Margi Ault-Duell
3) Publicize the event--Natalie Finch, Calvin Miller
4) Make educational materials (flyers, posters) about recycling, waste, mugs in Cyber cafe, etc--Tai Bonilla
5) Research and write letter to Sodexho--Sam Laurent
6) Coordinate t-shirt making--Mary Rachel Moore, Laura Goldenbaum
7) Communicate with Dean's office--Susie Thomas
8) Schedule tabling--Drea Nelson
9) Coordinate plastic bag collection/recycling--Laura Goldenbaum, Nate Nims
Please let me know if I've forgotten anything that needs to be done!!! If you're unclear about what your task entails, please ask! I think it's gonna be a fantastic event! Go green team! :-)
Related events:
On Monday night, the 3rd of March, there will be a World Cafe event hosted by the Sustainability Committee in UC 107. This is a round-table discussion of Drew campus sustainability issues. It starts at 7:30 pm.
On Tuesday night, the 4th of March, the Beatitudes Society is hosting a casual get-together from 5:30-6:30 in Sem Hall 210, and we TERRA folk have been invited to participate. They will have some food and a discussion on social/eco justice resources and events that we could work on. The Beatitudes Society and TERRA could cooperate on some activities/events.
Peace,
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Actively updating!
Today's posting:
A few things I will try and remember to let you all know of going on at or around Drew coming up soon.
-one result of the Sustainability committee: if you either buy or bring in a plastic mug to the snack bar and get the Green Mountain coffee, it is only 99 cents. I don't know how much it is normally, but I know this is a discount. They have new Green mountain cups that are available to purchase, fyi.
-there is a FOCUS the Nation event at Chatham Presbyterian church where there will be a screening of the live webcast at 8pm eastern, with actor activitst Edward Norton, a Stanford climate scientist, Van Jones the green jobs pioneer, and Hunter Lovins, a sustainability expert. If we do not go as a group to this event, then I highly recommend that we host our own screening at Drew. You can check out the website for Focus the Nation, it is www.focusthenation.org
You can also check out a little message from Edward Norton talking about Focus the Nation on You Tube.
I heard from Facilities that the Loantaka houses will soon be getting new recycling materials. Perhaps if we call and badger, that will happen sooner.
Recycle Mania 2008 is coming soon, and I want to work with the undergrads to really push this and get the theo school involved even further this year.
I hope those of you who stuck around and took some jan term courses that you enjoyed them and didn't get bogged down too much in the work. I wish I could have spent more time with Dr. Kearns and Dr. Keller's class last week, but I did enjoy the course with Dr. Jay McDaniel on Spiritual Foundations for Ecological and Sustainable Initiatives. well, more than like 45 minutes to watch Renewal with the class last week. Which is GREAT and y'all need to see it, as well as the whole Seminary should. I hope Laura and the others who were in that course would be willing to share some highlights from the course, and some of the resources that Dr. Kearns shared with them that we might not know about yet. I would be willing to post them here. I truly enjoyed getting to know the Dmin students, Green Faith people, and all those in the class. I felt uplifted to be surrounded by so many who care so much about making a difference with how all of us care for our earth. I also felt hopeful to feel connected in some way to those who know more than I and how to get stuff done.
A second thing: I hope your break gave you a time to feel refreshed and renewed to our commitment to help change the ecological environment at Drew and to raise awareness to do anything from small to radical change to help take care of the earth the way God would want us to. I hope that we as a group can come up with things to focus on this next semester and can work together to get stuff done, now that we have a semester under our belts.
With the new year, I thought about challenging us all to three-fold pledge. First, think of one or two things we can think about in our personal lives that we can pledge to reduce or change in our lifestyle that would help us live more simply and reduce our footprint on the earth. I know I'm going to try and buy new clothes only when I truly need them this year. Which means I really have to stay away from the mall and places like Kohl's because I can't resist a sale. I'm trying to be more comfortable with what I have and give away what is still good that I just don't wear. That's just one example. Secondly, in our communities, either Drew, where we live, whatever, and pick one thing to focus on helping with or changing in that community. Lastly, I challenge us all to become more knowledgeable on global warming, creation care, sustainability, etc. I know I feel like as much as we all know stuff, we might be open to learning new things, exploring new websites, reading new books, anything.
That's my challenge to y'all. I hope I can live up to it. I'll report how my struggles are going, and I want to hear how y'all are doing with it too.
oh and I promised Antonia I would put this on the blog, a link to a survey about attempting to
identify the emotional triggers and language that support or hinder ecologically sensitive intitiatives. I hope it still is going.
www.socratesinsights.com/socrates?login=DrewU&pass=Conference
Anyways, I think that's all for now. And a selfish plug: Make sure you are in chapel Feb. 12th, Tuesday, 11:10 for a chapel prepared by me on my summer experiences in Glacier and with A Christian Ministry in the National Parks. It will be like a service we would have done in the park with an eco-theology theme (hopefully) and a sermon to follow suit. It's part of a tutorial that I took with Dr. Kearns last semester.
Thanks for reading!!!
A few things I will try and remember to let you all know of going on at or around Drew coming up soon.
-one result of the Sustainability committee: if you either buy or bring in a plastic mug to the snack bar and get the Green Mountain coffee, it is only 99 cents. I don't know how much it is normally, but I know this is a discount. They have new Green mountain cups that are available to purchase, fyi.
-there is a FOCUS the Nation event at Chatham Presbyterian church where there will be a screening of the live webcast at 8pm eastern, with actor activitst Edward Norton, a Stanford climate scientist, Van Jones the green jobs pioneer, and Hunter Lovins, a sustainability expert. If we do not go as a group to this event, then I highly recommend that we host our own screening at Drew. You can check out the website for Focus the Nation, it is www.focusthenation.org
You can also check out a little message from Edward Norton talking about Focus the Nation on You Tube.
I heard from Facilities that the Loantaka houses will soon be getting new recycling materials. Perhaps if we call and badger, that will happen sooner.
Recycle Mania 2008 is coming soon, and I want to work with the undergrads to really push this and get the theo school involved even further this year.
I hope those of you who stuck around and took some jan term courses that you enjoyed them and didn't get bogged down too much in the work. I wish I could have spent more time with Dr. Kearns and Dr. Keller's class last week, but I did enjoy the course with Dr. Jay McDaniel on Spiritual Foundations for Ecological and Sustainable Initiatives. well, more than like 45 minutes to watch Renewal with the class last week. Which is GREAT and y'all need to see it, as well as the whole Seminary should. I hope Laura and the others who were in that course would be willing to share some highlights from the course, and some of the resources that Dr. Kearns shared with them that we might not know about yet. I would be willing to post them here. I truly enjoyed getting to know the Dmin students, Green Faith people, and all those in the class. I felt uplifted to be surrounded by so many who care so much about making a difference with how all of us care for our earth. I also felt hopeful to feel connected in some way to those who know more than I and how to get stuff done.
A second thing: I hope your break gave you a time to feel refreshed and renewed to our commitment to help change the ecological environment at Drew and to raise awareness to do anything from small to radical change to help take care of the earth the way God would want us to. I hope that we as a group can come up with things to focus on this next semester and can work together to get stuff done, now that we have a semester under our belts.
With the new year, I thought about challenging us all to three-fold pledge. First, think of one or two things we can think about in our personal lives that we can pledge to reduce or change in our lifestyle that would help us live more simply and reduce our footprint on the earth. I know I'm going to try and buy new clothes only when I truly need them this year. Which means I really have to stay away from the mall and places like Kohl's because I can't resist a sale. I'm trying to be more comfortable with what I have and give away what is still good that I just don't wear. That's just one example. Secondly, in our communities, either Drew, where we live, whatever, and pick one thing to focus on helping with or changing in that community. Lastly, I challenge us all to become more knowledgeable on global warming, creation care, sustainability, etc. I know I feel like as much as we all know stuff, we might be open to learning new things, exploring new websites, reading new books, anything.
That's my challenge to y'all. I hope I can live up to it. I'll report how my struggles are going, and I want to hear how y'all are doing with it too.
oh and I promised Antonia I would put this on the blog, a link to a survey about attempting to
identify the emotional triggers and language that support or hinder ecologically sensitive intitiatives. I hope it still is going.
www.socratesinsights.com/socrates?login=DrewU&pass=Conference
Anyways, I think that's all for now. And a selfish plug: Make sure you are in chapel Feb. 12th, Tuesday, 11:10 for a chapel prepared by me on my summer experiences in Glacier and with A Christian Ministry in the National Parks. It will be like a service we would have done in the park with an eco-theology theme (hopefully) and a sermon to follow suit. It's part of a tutorial that I took with Dr. Kearns last semester.
Thanks for reading!!!
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