Canoe trip underway

It pains me to say that not all our members were able to attend the highly anticipated canoe trip this summer but fortunately we have two highly qualified representatives taking to the water ways. Our President and Vice President Ben Knapp and Julia Scott will be heading to the river this coming weekend for a fun and stream cleaning filled day and one night. We hope to have pictures to post at a later date.

End of semester, beginning of adventures for the UCM Environmental Awareness Club

LEFT: a picture of Jack's Fork. You can see straight to the bottom and the scenery is really amazing. Worth preserving and taking care of.
It is the end of the semester and we would like to do a brief recap of what we have accomplished and if you read previous blogs you will find one that lists events we are planning for next semester. That does not include the exciting summer activities we all hope to be taking part in.
Semester Recap- Started meetings again in February, elected officers, revised constitution, Planned and carried out an activity at the Warrensburg Earth Day Festival, Took part in Mess on the Mall by handing out fliers showing students where they can recycle, ways to reuse and reduce, and why it's important, Made a coalition with the Warrensburg group Citizens For Environmental Action, created a t-shirt design.
Summer plans- Work on implementing a do-not-mail registry in Warrensburg, work with the Organization for Responsive Government to show documentaries on campus, fundraisers, Work on a recycling program in one of the residence halls, AND JACK'S FORK TRIP! Two days in August of camping, canoeing, and CLEANING THE RIVER! If you are interested in attending, contact us through this blog or by e-mail at ucmenviroclub@gmail.com, the more people we have to clean the better!
Thanks for checking out our blog and make sure to stay updated to find out what's going on and how you can become a part of it.

Earth Day Festival 2009!

The day of April 18 began somewhat dreary and rainy. And when we say somewhat, we mean EXTREMELY! Non-the-less Earth Day Festival was a hit! Tons of parents, kids and interested citizens showed up and had a great time learning about ways that they can better help the environment that offers them so much. These are a couple pictures from the EAC atcivity. (No one's smiling because they're concentrating but all of the kids had TONS of fun!)Check out our displayed door at the Consignment Company in downtown Warrensburg near Pine Street and hopefully you can join us next year! 

Exciting events for Fall 2009!

If you are checking out our blog to see what we've been up to, you'll notice we are working extremely hard to get the club back on it's feet, including making some extensive and exciting plans for the fall semester. We hope to have a monthly movie showing, hold a series of events dedicated to having an eco-friendly Christmas, and make several trips to the Kansas City Farmer's market among other things! Check out our calendar of events below and feel free to e-mail us if you are interested in joining, have any questions or want to take part in anything we will be doing. Ucmenviroclub@gmail.com

Tentative schedule of events for Fall 2009
August:
Aug. 3-4: Jack’s Fork Stream Clean-up Will include: camping, water quality monitoring, fishing, and canoeing.
Aug. 18-21 OR Aug. 24-28: Week of Welcome Involvement Fair Will include: visual presentations, pictures of summer activities, list of events, hand-outs, collecting interested students contact information and handing out our own.
Aug. (towards end, possibly week of welcome): Garbage Island movie showing Will include: door prizes, organic snacks, short presentation, movie showing

September:
Sept. (second or third Saturday): River Market in Kansas City Will include: Trip to Kansas City, Farmer’s market, crafts, exotic cuisine
Sept. (warm Saturday): Stream Clean-up Will include: cleaning local stream, possibly home-made pizza afterwards
Sept. (evening during week): Movie showing

October:
Oct. (beginning): Begin Serve the ‘Burg planning Will include: involving other student organizations, SGA, and local volunteer organizations and businesses.
Oct. 10 OR 17: River Market in Kansas City
Oct. (evening during week): Movie showing

November:
Nov. (beginning): Beginning of the event series, tentatively named, “Eco-friendly Christmas” Will include: Eco-fabrics fashion show, cosmetics making, and a movie showing
Nov. (evening during week): What Would Jesus Buy movie showing. Will include: Door prizes, short presentation, organic holiday snacks.

December:
Environmental Club Social! Food, fun and whatever else.

Environmental Awareness Club Minutes
April 10, 2009

Members present: Julia Knapp- President, Ben Knapp- Vice President, Gazendra Shakya- Treasurer, Terrah Baker- Secretary
Members absent: Nick Baker

OLD BUSINESS:
Movie Night:

• We will be getting the movie in May and showing it next semester. Plans for the movie will be finalized at the special meeting held on Sunday, April 12 at 12 p.m.

Mess on the Mall:

• We will be collecting e-mails and contact information for people who are interested in our organization, as well as putting our contact information on the recycling handouts.

T-shirts:

• Voted on phrase “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man‘s need, but not every man‘s greed.” -Gandhi

Warrensburg Earth Day Festival:

• Final meeting before Festival to be held at Cave Hollow Park, Tues., April 14 at 5:30.

• Plans to pick up supplies will be made at the special meeting on Sunday.

NEW BUSINESS:
SGA:

• Meeting to discuss new by-laws will be held on Monday, April 13 from 6-9:30. Members attending will be Gazendra, Terrah, Ben and possibly Julia.

Constitution:

• Final draft will be voted on at the special meeting on Sunday.

Student Funding Committee:

• A 5 minute oral presentation will be prepared for our SFC meeting discussing why we are seeking funding. Ben and Julia will be working on that presentation.

SPECIAL MEETING

• To be held Sunday, April 12 at 12 p.m. in the Union by room 304.

• TO DO: vote on constitution, look at next years schedule, work on hand-outs for mess on the mall, plan elections, plan meeting time to finalize movie plans.

Environmental Awareness Club Minutes
March 25, 2009

Members present: Julia Knapp- President, Ben Knapp- Vice President, Gazendra Shakya- Treasurer, Terrah Baker- Secretary, Nick Baker

OLD BUSINESS:
Movie Night:

• Ben has not heard about a room so he will be reapplying for April 9 at 6 p.m. (let’s keep our fingers crossed on this one!)

Mess on the Mall:

• The EAC is now responsible for creating hand-outs for students that shows different possibilities of recycling. Need to be completed before April 22 for the Mess on the Mall event.

T-shirts:

• Ben is now in charge of creating a design for our club T-shirts. Terrah (me) is looking into prices. Need to be done in time for Earth Day Festival April 18!

Warrensburg Earth Day Festival:

• Sign building event still March 30 from 6-8 p.m. Attending so far: Julia, Ben, Terrah, Nick, Gazendra, yey! Need to finalize plans at next meeting.
  

Mandatory SGA meetings:

• Luckily for us all, the by-laws didn’t pass this time. Not sure what that means yet, and neither do they! J Julia is checking on an e-mail with a sheet that needs to be signed that was supposed to be in March 26.

Farmer’s Market:

• Terrah contacted Agriculture and design clubs and is waiting to hear back from design clubs. Will visit some teachers in the design department soon.

NEW BUSINESS:
Stream Team:

• Currently checking on water quality testing, training dates. Will know by next meeting.

Johnson County Democrats meeting:

• To be held at Justice Center in Downtown Warrensburg, March 26, at 7 p.m.

• Discussing progressive topics with UCM and community organizations.

Club Dues:

• A due of $1 will be collected at the next general meeting. There is also discussion of a $5 donation to help get the club back on its feet. If you can afford it and want to, bring that as well.

Student Funding Committee:

• Completed a form for a request of funds for a canoe/ stream clean-up trip to Jack’s Fork in Eminence Missouri, tentatively Aug. 3-4 and for the Lakota Hemp Days Festival in Oglala South Dakota on June 27-29. We have requested $400 total, $200 for each event and should know sometime in April.