Attending:  Chelle and Mark Naef, Jennifer Cornell, Richard Vallejo, Liz Padgett, Kris Venne, Brian McGann, Kathy Goodman, Kristen Lawton, Douglas Grady, Andrew Radin, Anthony Tolbert and Daryl Hall.

Chelle Naef opened the meeting with greetings and asked for approval of the agenda and meeting minutes for the December 6^th meeting. 

Announcements:  Mark Naef announced the Go Green Initiative National Summit will be in California some time in March or April.  An employee of his recycling company will be attending the event along with two other people from New York.  The fee to attend is $75 for students and $120 for adults.  Mark also announces that Naefrecycling.com will have a GGI web link to make available meeting minutes, news stories, etc.  Mark is very excited to announce Seymour school will also be   adopting the GGI program and hopes to have the entire Syracuse City School District on board by Earth Day. 

-Chelle noted the GGI article in the OCRRA news letter and thanked Kristen Lawton and Jennifer Cornell for co-creating the article.

-Chelle also announces the need for strong publicity and end of the year totals for recycling from Brian to be published in various news venues. Pete Wirth has requested the information along with a picture of the students in their GGI shirts in front of the chart with all the figures presented. Mark would like that information along with a digital picture to post on the web site.

-Chell will be part of a panel presenting the GGI at the Statewide Solid Waste Conference at Lake Goerge this Spring.  Her remarks will focus on Ed Smith School and the progress of the program at the school.

Team Updates:     

Generate Compost:  Kris Venne announced the compost classes are making posters about composting and he has created a compost blog online at edsmithcompost.blogspot.com.  He is excited about seeing the blog and the compost program self perpetuate.  (Miss Hall notes she witnessed students composting in the cafeteria and was very excited.)  Kris has already brought one load of compost back to the garden and says that the City is looking around for other lots available for gardening that could be used by Seymour and other schools.  Mark notes he already volunteered Kris to help Seymour School with their compost program.  (Mr. Tolbert notes that at the Realtors Open House the attendees were very excited about the GGI program and seeing it in action.  It is a strong drawing point for Ed Smith.)

Recycling:  Brian McGann contacted OCRRA to do an in-service call with his staff which will be held February 24^th, at 9am.  Mark Naef gave a presentation to the student council and is open to give the demonstration to anyone interested.    Mark asked for other opportunities to give message to the students, perhaps at the beginning of general assemblies or other gatherings.  Tony said the schedule is very busy but it may be possible at certain events such as the 2^nd grade show which has a GGI theme.

Education:  Kathy Goodman announces that the 2^nd grade show is tentatively set for April 20^th which is Earth Day and they hope to have a program that gives a message about the care of the Earth.  The show is called “The Last of the Litter Bugs”, and it has been ordered and will be reviewed for proper content.

Evaluation:  Brian confirms that they are still measuring recycled materials.  For paper slightly over 5 tons has been recycled already.  Last year for a total, 8 tons had been recycled.  Slightly over 1 ton of card board and 50 pounds of plastic bottles have also been recycled.

Nationalize:   Mark would like clarification on the duties of the Nationalize team.  He would like to know if they would be willing to be ambassadors to bring the details of the progress of the program at our school to other schools in the district.  Tony will ask the team members if they would be willing to do this.

Next GGI Meeting:  March 15^th at 3:15 pm

Report Date:             March 13^th

Other Business:  Miss Hall asks for more pamphlets on recycling dos and don’ts  and Andrew brought posters for paper products and bottle/container recycling.  Solvay Paper and Board, Daystar Recycling and Naef Recycling will be meeting to see how they can sponsor the GGI program at the participating schools.  Jenny Cornell will e-mail Sue Freeman about the number of cartridges the PTO has recycled and the amount of money raised.   Chelle would like to encourage stronger attendance for the full committee meetings.

New Business:  A lively discussion about the Ed Smith  Earth Day celebration was conducted at the end of the meeting with many great ideas being suggested.  In the past the celebration has included cleaning up the yard  and was held on Saturday.  This was nice but not very well attended.  The suggestion was to hold the event on Friday, April 21^st , as a culmination of festivities that would be conducted over the entire week and the students would participate in various ways during the school day, sort of like a field day.   During the day the students would help clean up the community garden plot and the grounds around the school.  Kris would invite the Veggie Powered Bus and Motivating People for Peace to join us along with the farmers who helped with the compost program.  More discussion is needed.