SC Minutes 7/21/2021

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EEAC Meeting July 21, 2021 Wed 5:30 pm – 7 pm   Online Zoom Meeting

Committee Reports and Updates

  1. Approved previous meeting minutes: SC Minutes 6/16/2021
  1. Program Committee (Fran acting program chair)
    1. STEM Expo Recap – Mary + River
      1. Questions to consider before pursuing future promotional events 
    2. 6/15 Program – Partnership Building for Environmental Educators
      1. Posted on YouTube + website 
      2. Lots of good suggestions from participants on the role EEAC can play to support partnerships worth considering at next Programs meeting (see 6/16 agenda for ideas captured)
      3. Sarah’s notes from last meeting: In thinking about upcoming events, I am wondering if we should consider planning for the more in-depth topic of diversity and pay in our field for the Fall, and try to do a socially distant in-person/outdoors event this summer. It would be great for our community to gather in person on a weekday afternoon. Maybe we can see if any members with parks or outdoor spaces would be interested in hosting a tour with light snacks or something?

Discussion over whether to hold Same or different event?  Brainstorming will take place between now and next steering committee meeting.  Program Committee will send invite to list serve to get fresh inputs.  Step one will be finding the date.  

Mask wearing is discussed – different rules now – norms are variable

  1. Communications
    1. Communication Committee Meeting and updates
      1. Rebranding/Logo Redesign: 
        At least 3 people interested in August 2 communications meetings now regularly scheduled for the first Monday of the month.

        Discussion of work flow for the blog- discussion of how we will solicit articles, what the editing process will be like and where and how we will be saving.   Shig has set up the blog format and has put together a sample.  Formatting is easier – single articles have been recommended rather than waiting for a collection of articles which would make it more like a newsletter.  The advantage of single articles is that it ensures more constant connections to what we are doing. 

        On Shig’s end – he has created a landing page – It was agreed that the last unpublished newsletter will be finished and published but not advertised.  Sarah suggested that we send out an announcement on the list serve.   – Every subsequent post will also be a social media post. 
        – at info@eeac-nyc.org?  There maybe an inactive EEAC Instagram page out there.
    2. Website and Database Updates: eeac-nyc.org
      1. New website (switched on, 1/13/2021).
        1. Survey (on website and newsletter) sent out 2/16/2021 (by Bonnie M.)
        2. Survey deadline 3/28/2021 (Sunday).
        3. Survey Update (Bonnie M.)

          Problem identified that folks aren’t responding to updating database – the most desirable situation would be if Shig were able to make it easy for organizations to revise and change.  Once the listing is there is the first step, but hoping that more responsibility can be assumed by organizations for evolving content.   Shig reassured us that a private link will be generated so organization contacts can edit themselves.
      2. The internal section:
        1. SC members still to be given access?
        2. Instructions to using WordPress (WP):
          1. How-to screen recording (video) #1 – Login Steps:
            https://eeac-nyc.org/login-steps/
            Next videos will include, navigating in WP, and using Dashboard.
          2. Or, set zoom appointment for a hands-on guide.
      3. Website plan – upcoming:
        1. Redesign of the website based on the Adaptive Plan – will follow the rebranding/logo redesign phase.
        2. Membership system (coordinate Shig and Mary M.) – will be tested in our permanent testing site which is now at testsite.eeac-nyc.org.
        3. PUBLICIZING WEBSITE?
      4. Database content status report. MAILING OF PRESS RELEASE?
      5. Followup on 2 requests via the website’s contact form, to subscribe to the listserv.

    3. Newsletter-blog using WordPress.
      1. Newsletter-blog landing page:
        https://eeac-nyc.org/newsletter-blog/
        password: eeac (lower case letters).
      2. Newsletter-blog, first version (ready for public):
        https://eeac-nyc.org/2021/04/23/eeac-newsletter-spring-2021/
  1. EEAC and NYSOEA Partnership
    1. 2021 Conference will be a hybrid virtual/in-person
      1. Looking for conference proposals
      2. Metro Region host: Jones Beach State Park
        1. Looking for carpool coordination

Share out in person – details will come – EEAC 2 days virtual and 1 day of regional meet ups.

  1. Projects Forum
    1. Next Steps- DISTRIBUTION OF MINI-REPORT TO ALL LISTS TO INFORM THEM ABOUT THE FORUM V REPORT ON THE WEBSITE!!
    2. REPORT ON SYLLABI BANK and FOLLOWUP ON PROJECT IDEAS FROM FORUM V

Here is a mini-report related to the EEPF projects.

  1. There continues to be significant downloading of syllabi from the TEEP Syllabi Bank. There were 115 more downloads in June, almost as many as May (118). There have been 352 downloads during the first six months of this year (through July 3) and a total of 488 for the 12 months, 7/1/20-7/3/21.

Thanks to Shig for continuing to upgrade the numbers.

There has also been a response to the outreach Mike has been conducting. Since Mike renewed and expanded the distribution of our syllabi bank statement to colleges of education in mid-April there has been an increase in downloads, from 41 in April 2021 to 233 in May and June. There have been increases in demand for all ten courses in the bank. Mike has now sent outreach to over 60 colleges of education. There are 131 in New York State.

We still don’t know for sure which schools and educators are downloading and how the syllabi will be used. No college has contributed any courses to the syllabi bank since Cornell became the fourth school to do so in mid-May.

The status of the proclamation on the “right to learn how nature works”, hasn’t changed. State Senator Jackson’s office still hasn’t responded as to whether the Senator will move forward with it. Mike is going to sit on it for awhile since he thinks it is better to have the proclamation announced in the context of the election campaign in the Fall when the amendment to the constitution calling for all New Yorkers to have clean air, clean water and a healthy environment (not exact wording)comes before the voters.

Also, suggestion made that we may want to consider asking Eric Adams to issue a mayoral proclamation if he is elected (which I assume he will be but I take nothing for granted these days). Adams and his staff have shown some interest in sustainability and environmental education in the past when they suggested that all sustainability coordinators in the public schools should be given one paid period a day to do their work- as you know the position is currently all volunteer. His staff was responsive when we approached them about expanding the number of paid periods for the coordinators beyond one period although we were not able to get that done.

We should also think about whether we want to approach Adams about increasing overall support for EE beyond the proclamation. Some EEAC members have worked with his staff in his role as borough president.

Note: The last time Mike looked a third organization had submitted information to the EE database. If we can get it up to ten, as we said at the last meeting, we can send out the public outreach notice.  River it working on this- Mike offered to help make some calls and/or send emails to some groups to elicit their participation.

  1. Adaptive Plan Accountability
    1. AP planning team regroup
      1. Membership change
      2. Meeting July (date TK), review progress/capacity and adjust timeframes accordingly
    2. COOP (Bonnie M.)

Trying to figure out a steering committee retreat – making some big decisions in the fall, some amount of time virtually and then a time for in person meeting.  Member engagement – really pulling them into our learning process.

The earlier and most advanced notification will be best for this – This is a priority for the Bonnies.

A date, sooner than later.  

  1. Membership and Finance: Mary Most – 
    1. Membership: NO CHANGE from 5/19/2021 stats:
      About 50% of members have renewed for 2021; only 24% of our Organizational memberships have renewed. 
      20 Individual Members, 1 student, 35 Indiv thru 7 orgs, 32 LIfetime 
      (vs 2019 = 42 Indiv, 12 Student, 79 Indiv thru 29 Org, 30 Lifetime)
    2. Finance 5/31/2021 report:
      no change except + 35 cent interest = $8,866.42 current balance
      Monthly Finance report saved as pdf on Google Drive (eeac40@gmail.com)
    3. Tasks COMPLETED
      • Filed IRS Form 99N for 2020 to renew EEAC’s tax-exempt status. 
      • Eventbrite lists updated: Bonnie Ralston and Mary Most compared and updated the Eventbrite lists to include membership list, TEEP lists, and Google Group list, prior to sending invites for the June 15 Skill Share, which promoted the Membership options but yielded no new memberships. 
      • Mary Most to contact the remaining senders of checks dating back to Nov 2019 recently located by Mary Leou at NYU, and make arrangements for replacement payment via PayPal or Eventbrite. 
      • For the record: Amalgamated Bank still shows Judith Hutton at NYBG as primary contact. Requested in Jan 2020 that they update signatories to Mary Most, Sarah Pidgeon (remove Jacqueline Pilati, Judith Hutton). 

TO DO: 

  • Mary Most will initiate “2021 Membership Drive” — invite all GoogleGroup subscribers and Eventbrite subscribers to join or renew. We’ve held off since the pandemic. Link: https://2021-eeac-membership.eventbrite.com 
  • Eventbrite list maintenance should move to Programs or Communications