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February 26, 2007 Board Meeting
Oklahoma Recycling Association BOARD MEETING Minutes
210 Ag Hall, OSU, Stillwater, OK 10:00 a.m.
Present: Sarah Kimball, Traci Phillips, David Wiesner, Garold Beisly, Ande Reed, Michael Patton, R. Fenton Rood, Ilda Hearshy, Susie Shields, Fred Eilrich, Brian Whitacre, Ellen Bussert
- Call to Order – Traci Phillips
A welcome to and introduction of the Stillwater Recycling Association members present was made by President Phillips. David Higgins was in a meeting and hoped to come later
- Approval of Minutes
Motion to approve the minutes of the 12-06-06 meeting was by Michael Patton.
Someone asked for a correction to be made noting “members of 3,000”
Ande Reed made a motion to second
- The Oklahoma Legislative Process or “Environmental Civics” Fenton Rood
Rood talked about how a bill winds through the legislative process in the Oklahoma Legislature
- Almost every bill originally submitted is not how you want it.
- The author does not always know what is in the bill
- When the bill goes to the floor, most will not know what it is about. Vote will be based on their relationship with the author.
A short discussion was held about who might be supposrtive of the State Recycling Goal. Michael Patton said he would talk to Carolyn Stager from the Oklahoma Municipal League (OML). Richard Chapman said that he would talk to the OML Executive Director.
- All the decisions are made before the committee meeting.
After it goes to the Senate, it will go to the House Committee.
The board discussed issues and volunteered for the following tasks.
- AR - We need a baseline to start
- TP – we just have to go with this as it is
- MP – what can DEQ do to help this process??
- SK – a question about baseline data – what is it?
- FR said tonnage data is only from what the DEQ collects from the landfills
- MP – every state calculates what is recycled differently
- SK – can we collect any data from the State Recycling Program?
- FR – can have author collect that information from the Dept of Central Services
- SS – Every school and state office is supposed to have a site recyclers
- MP – Tulsa knows the number of City Government doesn’t know the private industry numbers. * Proposed a committee for this summer to put together a base line
- SS compile a list of where we get the information from – Carol Bartlett could do a better job of calling
- TP – like to see what we are going to keep track of
- MP ***** Make what we are going to keep track of a future agenda item?????
- SK – something in June?? Reed will participate too.
- FR get the two private companies around the table, Weyerhaeuser to join in the ad-hoc committee.
- MP to e-mail and ask the results of 19 affiliates of what you count and what you don’t count. Will report to Board in future meeting.
Bussert volunteered to work with Richard on writing talking points and get out to all of the members. Board will ask members to contact their senator and house reps. Deadline for the next action is March 5th
FR – watch your bill and be aware that someone could take this bill and use it as a vehicle. We can find out from Richard or author if it is amended?
SK – are there any legislators that are opposed of e-waste in the landfills?
SK – would we want to talk to the COGS and give them information? MP – we’ll let Richard decide.
- Workgroup Reports
- Advocacy - Garold Beisly
Beisly encouraged everyone to be aware of the bill and get as much support through other business contacts as we can. He said getting support is an iatrical part of OKRA being successful. There are a few things the ad hoc committee needs to do. Beisly will get with Michael to get the baseline of what other states are doing. He will send out an e-mail to OKRA membership asking what should be included in the count.
- Education – Sarah Kimball
Investigate different methods of communication. SK still looking for an assistant to work on this program. If you have any materials from your organization – I have sent a form out asking everyone what they have. The plan is to make a least 3 resource trunks and put them in different parts of the state.
MP would like to add a future goal to do information in Spanish and have a resources trunk available. SK reported that the U.S. EPA has a lot of information in Spanish.
- Materials Exchange
Hershy has put together a mock up of what webpage should be. It has taken some time to get administrative support. Last week DEQ approved to have DEQ IT figure out how much it will cost to do a website. It is really a one- time cost of setting it up. LP DEQ has agreed to be responsible for the upkeep and maintenance.
MP said other states have Commerce department to host. Suggested we get with OK Dept of Commerce. He called it a marriage of waste and business.
- Market Development – Ellen Bussert
No report.
- Communication outreach
- OKRA Newsletter
Newsletter hasn’t happened. This is not the one Carol Bartlett is doing for the DEQ. Susie has to learn her new software and is having more problems with it then she expected. Board recommended that she not worry about fancy and just publish it Need items for newsletter. Susie can do it March 12-16th
The Board brainstormed and came up with this list of story ideas for content of the newsletter:
ARD 2006 results (SK has pictures)
National Recycling Coalition – new re-branding issues (MP to write)
Deadline for submitting articles is March 9th.
- Website development – TP asked SS to identify any areas that need to be enhanced. SS will send out an e-mail asking for website content. SK- asking OSU graphics art department. Asked if ECU has a graphic arts class or students who would like to work one up. DW said that he will check. TP has had conversation with people at OU and will send it down there.
- America Recycles Day
SS said she is still delivering prizes. Delivered some as recently as last week. Passed out a follow up press release. She thinks it is way to long. Wants to send it to the local papers where there are winners.
AR recommended that we have a 3 strikes you are out – if we can’t contact you within three tries, then it will go on to the next person.
SS thinks we need to expand on a youth component. She has plans to get people to sign up for information to receive electronic information when it is available.
National ARD meeting. Long discussions were held. One of the goals is to do more electronically. 112,000 entries nationally, last year when they gave away a house they got 3 million entries. Learned that many who entered didn’t even know what it was for – gamers. Saw a need for a national prize. Talked about giving away a cruise nationally. Decided to send $$$ out to states to get state prizes.
SS said they will start the planning process in May.
In New Hampshire, they promote ARD on the back of lottery tickets. Maybe in OK we could do something with the casinos. MP urged everyone to think of innovative ways to promote the contest in OK. Said it looks like most of our sponsors will continue. Events for ARD (only 300 in the country) need to be counted better. Even a speech will count as an ARD event. Definition will be flexible. Need cities and governor’s to proclaim it. Every town, SS will ask for communities to tell the ARD committee in advance about what they are doing. Need more media. SS requested help with distributing press releases. SK – 4-H Environmental Committee named recycling, illegal dumps and water conservation as the top 3 topics for their efforts. The other states were impressed y the number and quality of OK prizes. SS passed out the notebook with pictures of the prizes. Asked TP to thank SWANA for participating in the event.
- Discussion of improving workgroups functions.
TP said we really need to work on this and to get more people involved to avoid burn – out in the work groups. Asked if anyone had ideas about how to go about this
Kimball suggested that several members should be given a short- term project. Weirick (East Central University) has a new requirement for all students to do service learning projects. Weirick is going to have students to plug into the committees. We need to continue this process of improving participation. Further discussion was tabled until the next meeting.
- Committee Reports
- Membership Committee – Doug Weirick
Posting the information on the website.
NRC is encouraging standardization of business categories. Small less than 100 Employees, medium 100 – 500 employees and large business over 500 (MP).
Asked how everyone felt about membership levels and the $ amount for each. AR says it looks good, but we need to define how many members you get for membership.
MP add a category “just to be a friend.” Doesn’t want to be a member but just to donate.
MP thought that $20 was a bit too steep.
What does each NRC memberships cost us? Full voting rights it will cost $25.00 per person. $1,000 per state and $25.00 per voting member.
What does NRC do for OK? NRC will help lobby on bills if we ask them to. Pushing the national issues help us. Multi media campaign for rebranding.
$1,500 sent to NRC last year. MP would like NRC to come to OK and talk about what they can do. Looked at NRC as an insurance policy to help states when needed or when they are in crisis. Gave examples of what they did in Nebraska and Missouri. MP thinks we should give them a chance. DW asked MP what we should do about the regular membership level – should we raise it $5.00? mp Thought that might be a good idea.
MP said we could get a booth for $100 and get reduced admission to the conference. Opportunity to talk to the national person and it will trickle down to the state people. SS another thing we need to do is figure out how we will solicit renewals.
AR - Motion to raise the regular membership to $25 ANNUALLY. Second By Sarah Kimball. Passed by voice vote.
Discussion of keeping the membership list?? DW asked SS for list. She will send him the list. MP – business membership? SS – not until we have our 501 © 3.
SK – we should pass out information at the SWANA conference. Can learn who the big donors are on it.
DW and MP to talk about process on how to collect memberships.
- Financial – Michael Patton
Help grow OKRA – origin
Sent our check to IRS. $300.00 MP gave some of his own money.
$8.35 left in the account
SS says that she will use her 410.7 OWED HER as membership dues for the next 4 years.
Will have a budget for OKRA for the next 4 years by the next meeting. Right now he is working on about a $5,000 budget. Will give an idea of how many memberships, businesses we will need.
Potential of National funding through NRC. Working on this with the powers that be. If we do this right, we will be able to raise some serious money. Other states have 100 members and $100,000 BUDGETS. Other states use a conference or banquet as their big fundraiser. Maybe an event with SWANA. Newsletter advertising another idea. The MET can’t give money to OKRA, but can buy adds in the newsletter.
Find reasons for people to give money. Create spot light and you can get people to give it. He was surprised at how many people could get people to sponsor meetings and write a check on top of it. Of the 19 states that were there, 14 received state funding. MP thinks we need to find a way for OKRA to do something for the DEQ to get paid for it to fund part time staff. SS said that DEQ spent a lot of time on ARD.
TP asked MP to put ideas down on paper for the next meeting. MP agreed to do it.
- Old Business
IRA said that they received the information and might reinstate. IRA asked for more information on what we do and proposed budget for the next two years. Once they say that OKRA is received and approved OKRA can fall into the “pending” category and accept business funds.
New OKRA mailing Address:
P. O. Box 521154
Tulsa, OK 74152-1154
AR asked if we wanted a land- line or another type of phone service? Board members talked about need to have voice mail. AR said then you are basically talking about call notes. She will check on it this week. TP asked Send out a vote with information to get approval via e-mail.
- Bi-laws Committee
Susie gave us an updated version at the last meeting. MP asked for the bi-laws electronically. TP said we need to create a committee and asked for volunteers.
Garmon Smith, Ande Reed and Ellen Bussert volunteered to be on the committee. Will need to put the bi-laws on the website in the future.
OKRA 2007 Goals
Phillips asked Board members to take leadership for a goal for the upcoming year.
Ande = goal 9
Goal 7 = MP and Doug
Goal 5 TP (EB work to get date.)
Goal 1, Goal 2 Garold
EB = Send out to Board and Advisory Council members with who has what goal.
Table goals to discuss at next meeting.
EarthDay / April Activities
OSN = April 21-22 Norman
Tulsa Earth Day = April 22
ECU = water festival. Need to get brochures to DW
April 18th = Tulsa has Environmental Expo downtown
March 7th Resource management conference SS to get AR a copy electronically.
Next meeting Monday May 7th at 11:00 p.m. Location to be determined. Meeting from 11 – 2p. MET will provide lunch.
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