Meeting Minutes 9/28/04

Rotaract Meeting Minutes, 9/28/04

Elections: Elections for the remaining open positions for Fall Semester passed unanimously: Mia Ramirez ramirezm@bu.edu and Cate Oswald coswald@bu.edu for the Service Committee, Anna Ward annaward@bu.edu for Secretary.

Social: The September Social at Castle Island was great fun- lots of kite flying and relaxing. We would love to have a social every month, so start thinking of good ideas for an October social (possibly with a service theme, like having everyone bring a canned good to donate afterwards). The October social may be the weekend before Halloween (Oct 22-24).

Reports:
Jackie, President: There will be a guest speaker at the next meeting (Oct. 12), Chris Shimkin from Global Village Engineers to talk to us about the Guatemala project. Make sure to come if you are interested in this project. (See below for more info about the Guatemala Project)
May, Treasurer: Please turn in your membership form and semester dues ($10). Please bring to the next meeting if you haven’t turned them in already. May will have extra membership forms at the next meeting for you to fill out.
Cate and Mia, Service Coordinators. See below for a list of projects they have been researching. Email them for more information. (Mia Ramirez ramirezm@bu.edu and Cate Oswald coswald@bu.edu)


Service Activities Lined Up
□ Rosie’s Place- we are sending a group of 6 people to serve dinner on this Saturday October 2, 4-8 pm. There are still a few spots available, so please email Cate (coswald@bu.edu) ASAP if you are interested.
□ “Making strides against breast cancer” walk, Sunday October 17. For the 6th year, the BUSPH will be sponsoring a team for the American Cancer Society’s "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" walk. The event, a 5 mile walk along the Charles River, is Sunday, October 17th. Our team will meet at 8 am at a designated spot to register. Visit the event website at http://www.acsevents.org/faf/r.asp?t=3&i=54460 to join the "Boston University School of Public Health" Team (there is no registration fee since you’ll be part of the team) or to make a donation. Once at the website, click on "Sign Up to Fundraise Online" on the left and then choose to "Join a Team". If you have any trouble or have any questions, please contact Maggie Samuels via msamuels@bu.edu
□ “Life is Good” Pumpkin Festival on the Boston Common, Friday, October 22 & Saturday, October 23. The "Life is Good" Pumpkin Festival is to raise money for Camp Sunshine, a non-profit camp/retreat for terminally ill children and their families. The festival is on Saturday. They need volunteers on Friday, the 22nd to: distribute pumpkins, set up pumpkins, stake pumpkins into the ground on pathways, and distribute promotional material. Volunteers on Saturday the 23rd will: distribute, light, carve and count pumpkins, man merchandise booth/sales, and for activities support (parade, pie eating contest, etc.). For more information, please contact bmoran@campsunshine.org or
elizas@bu.edu And Mia (ramirezm@bu.edu) has applications that were forwarded to me as well if necessary.
□ 16th Annual City Year Boston Serve-a-thon, October 23.
5,000 volunteers from all over the city and perform service activities in a variety of areas depending on interests and preferences. Join the BU without Borders team! Contact Sasha Yakhkind, sashkind@bu.edu 617-816-0131 (a current BU student who will be participating in the event). Note: There is a $25 registration fee, but talk to Sasha about other ways of getting the $25 together! Or for information from CITY YEAR: E-mail at jrosenbaum@cityyear.org

More Service Activity Ideas
□ Interested in Volunteering for the Outreach Van?
The Outreach Van Project (OVP) is a student-run, student-directed project.
Public Health students are encouraged to participate. Great opportunity to
practice your Spanish!!
The van travels every Thursday evening, between the hours of 6pm and 10m to the
communities of East Boston providing food, clothing, blankets,
education/ referral information and basic medical care.
If you are interested you must attend a brief orientation session.
If you have any questions, send OVP an email at outreach@bu.edu
□ Habitat for Humanity- may be expensive for us to join. Need to call to get further information
□ Big Brothers/Big Sisters. Jackie will contact them about volunteering possibilities.
□ Community Services: food delivery to HIV+ people. Cate will find out more info.
□ Nutrition Works. They need weekday lunch servers. Email Cate if interested.

International Projects
□ Leilani (last year’s Rotaract president) is in Kenya with the Peace Corps. She may have projects for us- purchasing AIDS pins, or funding Internet Access. The internet access may be too expensive for us to take on ($100 a month) but we may be able to handle the AIDS pins. Email Jackie for more information.
□ Contact Onyeka about a funded practicum opportunity in Ghana with Unite for Sight having to do with education about eyes and eyesight. See http://www.uniteforsight.org/ for general info, or contact Onyeka at onyeka@bu.edu

Guatemala Project
Brief History: The Guatemala Project began 5 years ago after Mary Drake came back from doing a needs assessment at an orphanage there. She found several nutritional and disease problems associated with the poor water quality. She came to Rotaract who helped coordinate with Global Village Engineers. Please see http://www.wego.to/guatemala/ for more information.
Where we are now: The grant is written and should be in place for funding for 5 people to leave for 6 weeks. All we need are committed people who want to go to design and implement an education curriculum on water sanitation. Spanish speakers are preferable, but may not be required. We now need to identify interested students and develop a selection process before we start working on the education curriculum. There also may be a bit more fundraising to do.
Jackie will talk with Scott in the Practicum office- this may be a fabulous practicum…?
Come to the next general meeting on October 12 to hear from the Global Village Engineer and talk more about this project, especially if you’re interested in going!


Next Meeting Time: Tuesday, October 12, 5 - 6pm. Come to hear the speaker about the Guatemala project! Meetings are held every second Tuesday. The executive committee meets on off Tuesdays. All meetings in L-414.

Rotaract Executive Committee Minutes, 9/21/04

-Welcome and introductions.

-Executive Committee positions:
□ President Jackie: run meetings.
□ Treasurer May: collect dues and registration forms. Get change and manage money when we do fundraising. May is leaving in December, so we will need a new Treasurer for Spring semester.
□ Secretary Anna: email all members with announcements and minutes. Manage the blog (and possibly the Rotaract website).
□ Co-Service Coordinators Mia and Cate: contact organizations and set up appointments for service projects. This position will be roughly divided by different public health themes.
Mia: language/cultural aspects.
Cate: housing/homelessness. E.g. Habitat, Rosie Place (6 people Saturday Oct. 2, 4-8 pm).
Other potential areas: HIV/AIDS. E.g. Cambridge Cares.
Last year’s Rotaract president Leilani is in Kenya with Peace Corps. There may be some project to organize with her.
□ Social Committee Jackie: arrange and host social events
We will try to have one social event a month. October: October Fest at Harpoon Brewery?
Mia suggested we give our social events a theme or alternate purpose. E.g. bringing canned goods or clothes to donate.

-Fundraising.
□ Joe recommended fundraising about twice a year.
□ Ideas: Bake Sale, Krispy Kremes, Pizza.

-Guatemala Contact. There will be a speaker on 10/12/04 from the Guatemala project.

-Joe is gone for 2 weeks. Katie Ball can be his contact for opening the room for meetings.

-Agenda for Tuesday’s meeting:
□ Introduce Executive Committee members
□ Castle Island response
□ Rosie’s Place sign-up
□ Presentation of potential projects from Service Coordinators- Mia and Cate.
Leilani Kenya sale
□ Plan the next social (with a theme/service)

Meeting Minutes 9/14/04

Rotaract Meeting Minutes, 9/14/04

We had close to 30 students from all MPH concentrations attend our kick-off meeting. Pizza was enjoyed by all courtesy of Jackie's efforts! (Thanks Jackie!) At 6:15pm, Joe opened the meeting for a welcome and a brief summary of the purpose and history of the club. People introduced themselves.

Followed by a discussion on opportunities:
-Revitalize Guatemala Project
-Executive Committee Openings
-Group chose first Social - Kite Flying & Frisbee Event for Sunday Afternoon, Sept. 26, 2 - 4pm @ Castle Island

Then, time was given to receive ideas about possible service activities people would like the club to undertake.
Ideas suggested included:
□ Habitat for Humanity
□ Pulling together AIDS Education Packets
□ Helping www.MoveOn.org Get our the vote campaign
□ Spanish Speakers Pen Pal for Chilean Village Teens
□ Filling Wish-lists for needing kids/persons
□ Toiletries Drive similar to Operation Santa
□ Linking with Rotary Club in Nepal to assist them with Project Fund raising (one student’s Father or relative is a member of this club)

Treasurer, May, then explained about Rotaract Membership, which included Membership Applications ($10 per semester) - and distributed applications and collected dues. A brief report on the Club's financial health was stated - some $600 in funds plus $300 from the SPH are available to the Club.

The formal time ended @ 5:45pm and people came up to sign there name under different flip charts indicating an interest in:
Guatemala Project - Justin to follow up with those interested in this group

Several expressed interest in joining the Executive Committee, including:
Anna, who has since been accepted to be Secretary - annaward@bu.edu
Cate coswald@bu.edu
Casey rebholz@bu.edu
Priscilla ppadilla@bu.edu
Chris cborger@bu.edu
Mia ramirezm@bu.edu

Next Meeting Time: Tuesday, Sept 28, 5 - 6pm. Meetings are held every second Tuesday.
The executive committee meets on off Tuesdays.All meetings in L-414.

What is this about?

This blog is a convenient spot for important BUSPH Rotaract announcements and weekly meeting minutes. You can come here to get updated on a meeting you missed or to review old minutes and announcements.

We may expand this site to include a discussion board where members can brainstorm new service projects and coordinate upcoming events.

Please respond with any suggestions for how to make this as useful as possible!