Feb 1st '20 Meeting - Final Prep for Feb 21st Waste Meeting

Once again our meetings keep becoming more and more productive & exciting!

This wiki post has lots of content in it, and lots of places for you to contribute your thoughts so please read on! I have learned how to make collapsible lists, so by clicking on the little black triangle you will open up that topic’s content.

Sat, Feb 1st Meeting minutes

2/1/20, 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Morris Public Library Community Room
Attendees: Sydney Bauer, Brenna Rubendall, Amelia Nelson, Nic McPhee, Susan Gilbert, Noelle Muzzy

Agenda

  • Introductions (name, pronouns, what excites you about february?, something you want to tell your neighbors
  • Announcements
  • Plan for Waste Meeting
    • Update on what has happened since Jan 11th meeting
      • Time, date, location change
    • Things to do still
      • Email invites
        • Radio, Newspaper, City Council Members, OOS interns, church leaders, climate community list, ask Ed Brands about extra credit for this meeting, etc.
      • Posters
        • Will send these to Jade and then hopefully we can go out and put them up sometime in the coming week
      • Solidify questions
        • Syd will sort & organize the questions below, send them to Troy & Bill as things we are thinking about, and then print off a few copies so we can have them at the meeting.
      • Meeting Layout
        • Introductions, let them “present”, open up for questions & discussion, exit poll that aids in small group discussion.
  • POST waste meeting ideas
    • March meeting ideas
      • Discussion & plan, not another type of meeting
    • Future meeting ideas
      • Sandeep to present on city sustainability work
      • Students who went on Germany trip to present about projects
      • Future topic meeting about Transit
    • Future event ideas
      • Paul Martin Brat Stand
      • Attending other groups events (Fergus climate ppl, CURE, etc)
      • WCMNCN Book club
      • Movie event
      • Tabling with the farmers market
      • Diy day (make bags out of recycled materials)
Discussion Questions for Waste Meeting

Please add your own ideas and questions here! Or you can comment with questions to add!

  • (1) What is the process for handling garbage in our area? Where does it go? What does it cost?
    • If users of the system work to make the system more efficient do we save money? Does getting unwanted materials out of waste streams save Engebretson’s money?
    • What is the metric for how we pay for waste? Both in terms of business vs. residential rates and also in terms of how Engebretson’s pays to haul & dispose of it.
    • How is the waste process different between residential and business?
    • What are the proportions for residential and business waste? Who produces more waste?
    • Are the impacts different between residential and business waste? Would changing the business waste system have more potential for positive change than changing the residential waste system?
    • Is there a difference between how much recycling and garbage is being picked up? Is the desire to flip how often recycling/garbage pick up happens community wide? Is this something that could be changed with education?
    • What data do you have that you would be willing to share publicly, is there data to be collected?
  • (2) What is the process for handling recycling in our area? Where does it go? What does it cost?
    • What can be recycled in our system?
    • Do we save money recycling? Does Engebretson’s save money recycling? What are recycling incentives for waste haulers?
    • Where is the benefit of recycling seen? In our community, in other communities?
    • What impact has the “new” recycling system had on the waste stream?
    • What happens to our recycling? Does it make sense where we are sending it?
    • Does cleaning out our recycling have a large impact on its ability to be recycled?
    • How much of our recycling is being throw into a landfill anyways?
    • What types of things CAN be recycled but not in the general waste stream? Where should we recycle these things (light bulbs, e-waste, etc)?
  • (3) What are important policies in regards to waste in our area? Who sets these policies? How have these policies changed?
    • How are we/can we be cooperating with our neighboring counties on the waste problem?
    • How are we/do we facilitate these conversations?
  • (4) We have heard bits and pieces about the potential for a local composting program to begin, what is the story behind that and where in the process is it at now?
  • (5) What do you wish people knew about the local waste process? How can our group be a helpful communicator for your waste goals?
    • What are your waste goals?
    • What do you want folks to know? What message can we help spread?
    • Could we partner on a fun project?
    • How could we work with kids in school?
TO DOs Before Feb 21st Waste Meeting
  1. Send out email invites to various groups
    I will post a general email invite in the comments of this wiki. It will have a link in it to RSVP to the Feb 21st meeting. Please feel free to copy & paste it the email and then send it along to some of your networks. You are welcome to change the email however you want so that it will resonate more with your audience. Once you do that/once you know who you are going to send your email to please add that network to this list so we do not bombard the same people over and over again with emails. I have added some ideas below.

    • City Council: @syd (Sent: 2/3/20)
    • Radio: @syd (sent: 2/1/20)
    • Newspaper: @syd (sent: 2/1/20, they are going to post it in the community calendar)
    • OOS/CST/OCE Interns: @syd (Sent: 2/3/20)
    • Climate Community Email List: @syd (sent: 2/1/20)
    • County Commissioners: @syd (sent: 2/3/20)
    • UMM Posts: @Nec (Not sent yet), @Nic_McPhee (not sent yet)
    • Ed Brands Ask him if this event can be used as extra credit for his courses and then ask him to send invite email to his students: @nomuzz (sent: 2/1/20)
    • Planning commission?: @Margaret_K (Not done yet)
    • Write up a KUMM event blurb?: @Nic_McPhee, @Susan_Gilbert (2 promos sent to KUMM manager, 1 for event and 1 for monthly meeting. 2nd Feb 2020)
    • MCSA: @srosemark (Not sent yet)
  2. Hang up posters

    • Syd is going to email Jade and ask her to print our posters. We can then gather as a group for coffee sometime and go on a poster distribution adventure. stay on the lookout for an email invite to do this with us. Here is the poster:
  3. Put together exit survey

    • We want to start this survey about 15/20 minutes before the meeting ends and we want it to encourage small group discussion. People will turn in this survey before they leave
    • Survey Questions
      • (1) Name, (2) email, (3) job/role, (4) What are some of your big takeaways from this meeting/what did you learn?, (5) What are some things you still have questions about/what do you want to learn more about?, (6) What surprised you about this meeting/What is something you will continue to talk about after this meeting?, (7) Who is someone you think would benefit from the information you learned here today?
    • We could then have people split up into groups and talk about what they wrote down
  4. Make yourself a reusable name tag!

    • We want to have name tags at this event, but we don’t want to use the sticker ones. Although this is not required we encourage you to get your crafty side going and make yourself a name tag that you can continue to use at WCMNCN meetings & events.

Let me know if you have any comments/concerns/ideas about our up and coming, very exciting waste meeting!
See you on the 21st!

Invite template

Feel free to change it, highlight/bold certain parts, do whatever you want! Please make sure you include the RSVP form!



West-Central MN Climate Network Waste Meeting

Do you know where your garbage goes after it has been picked up?
Have you heard about the potential for county wide composting?
Do you understand the process for single sort recycling in our area?

If these questions got you thinking and you would like to know more we invite you to the West-Central MN Climate Network’s February meeting: WASTE.

On Friday, February 21st from 8:00AM to 9:30AM in the Morris City Council Chambers we will be hosting a discussion with local waste experts from Stevens County and Engebretson’s Disposal in order to learn more about waste processes in our area.

We will be asking questions like…

  • What is the process for handling garbage in our area, where does it go?
  • What types of things CAN be recycled but not in the general waste stream, where should we recycle these things (light bulbs, e-waste, batteries, etc)?
  • We have heard bits and pieces about the potential for a local composting program to begin, what is the story behind that and where in the process is it at now?

Join us at our meeting to learn more from our local experts & ask any questions you may have!

RSVP at this link: https://forms.gle/8TewcRJNeH7Qb6819
Join the online conversation at westcentralmnclimate.network

We look forward to seeing you on February 21st!
West-Central MN Climate Network


You are also free to include the poster in your post/email.

I just emailed Ed and I informed Jim Olson and the Battle Lake Indivisible committee.

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Should we include the link to the RSVP or like a QR code for it on the poster?

I already sent the posters to Jade to print them.
I tried to put a QR code on there anyway but it didnt quite look right.

I am going to pick up posters at 1:30ish on Tuesday afternoon.
I will make a sign up sheet for where people will put up posters. I am hoping that 2-3 of the times below would work for multiple people as a meet & distribute time. We can choose a meeting place and then either split up, or go out in groups to put up posters.

If you are willing and able to help put up posters around town please let me know which times would work for you to meet up, get some posters, and then go out and put them up. You could be done whenever you needed to be, so the time commitment is however long works for you.

  • Tue 2/4 - 2:00PM
  • Tue 2/4 - 5:00PM
  • Wed 2/5 - 12:30PM
  • Thur 2/6 - 12:30PM
  • Thur 2/6 - 6:00PM

0 voters

@amelian @Brenna @srosemark @nomuzz @EmilyB @CKA @Nec @rd_denton @EdB @Heather @rjohnson @Matthew @Margaret_K
Anyone have a bit of time this week to help put up posters ?

Fun update!
I called the Senior Center and asked if we could use their big time coffee maker for the meeting and she said, “Yes of course, anything to help out!” So that is super cool.

I can then buy some coffee beans and folks can either bring their own mugs or use mugs that we have there! Woo! Coffee!

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@Susan_Gilbert and I will be meeting at 2PM at Common Cup tomorrow to poster the town! Join us!

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I’m afraid I’m not free any of those times, but if there’s a way for me to collect posters at another point (maybe if the kind @Susan_Gilbert wanted to put some in my mailbox?), I’d be happy to do some postering tonight anywhere that’s open and not yet postered.

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@amelian and I are meeting at 5PM in the student center if anyone wants to meet us there to poster campus!

Friends!

This is just me checking in and listing out some things that still need to be done before Friday’s 8AM meeting.

Most of these things are just things I need to get done, but writing them out will help me sort my thoughts. Some of these things are also things for you to remember for Friday’s meeting.

Let me know if you have any other thoughts or things to do:

  • Make a reusable name tag. We want folks to know names while we are at the event, but we don’t want to use name tag stickers. So make yourself a name tag!
  • Bring a coffee mug! There will be coffee that morning and I will make sure to find some disposable mugs, but bring your own instead so you can have coffee to go!
  • Get coffee (this is for Syd lol)
  • Print out list of questions as a reminder for audience members
  • Designate a note taker (@syd is willing to do this but I KNOW I will get distracted and take mediocre notes so if anyone else is willing that would be fantastic)
  • Send out emails inviting folks to the meeting (everyone should do this!)
  • Put together & print out an exit survey/end of meeting activity
    • I am going to go to the library Tuesday at 1PM and work on this ON THE NEW LIBRARY COMPUTERS if anybody wants to join me & help out with questions

I can take notes, I can’t guarantee that I will not get distracted but I can do that. Are Bill and Trey open to being recorded so we can go back and re-listen/take more detailed notes?

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According to my numbers we have at LEAST 15 folks who will be in attendance. This does not include any estimates for folks who may have seen the posters around town & have not RSVPed.

Hooray! Its almost time!

Today is the day!
8AM City Council Chambers in the Senior Center!
Bring a coffee mug!
Woo!

The meeting went great!

Here are the meeting notes taken by @nomuzz. I encourage folks to go in and comment any edits/other thoughts they have. A collective note is a great note!

Here is a list of folks we should write thank you notes to (thinking about how we can utilize our shared skills & knowing we have some artists, any ideas how to make our thank you cards more personal & meaningful @Susan_Gilbert & @lorik???)

  • Ron Staples
  • Neil Weiss
  • Troy Engebretson
  • Bill Kleindl
  • Blaine Hill
  • Sandeep Kotala
  • Robert/Senior Center
1 Like