Meeting Minutes / October 3, 2011

Meeting convened at Humbrews at 6:00.  The resignation of Bill Hoopes as Treasurer was made official and Scott Willits was welcomed as the new Treasurer.

We again discussed low turnout at meetings and other events.  With the resignation of our Volunteer Coordinator, M.J. has agreed to take on the job.  We discussed asking all members what their interests are and recognizing that some members have narrow interests and may only participate at that level.  Some may be willing to join only to contribute the funds to the cause but not participate in any other way.  The membership will be contacted to determine their levels of interest.

Meetings were also discussed in relation to poor attendance as well as the confusion of every-other-month meetings (“is this the month we meet?")  with meeting time changes that come with summer and surfing daylight availability.  Member Wes Smith suggested that meetings be held in conjunction with Ocean Night.  Since much of the membership comes for the movies, we could meet before the film starts.  Anything involving lengthy discussion can be continued at an alternate location or at a later time.  The motion was made to have the next meeting at November Ocean night.

M/S/A                  Willits/Mazurek/Unanimous

M.J. reported on Raptoberfest participation at the recent Noll Longboard Classic in Crescent City.  The “One Foot at a Time” templates were printed up and participants collected trash on the beach then created mosaics using the templates.  The mosaics were photographed and the photos would be posted on the website.

RAP (Rise Against Plastics) efforts were continuing to ban single-use plastic bags in the County.  Tabling efforts will focus on collecting signatures in support of a ban.  Retailer support will be sought to eliminate the offering of bags in more local stores.  Mention was made of a recent article in the San Francisco Examiner regarding HSU engineering students and a study reporting that 3-5 million bags are used in Arcata each year.  Although the number seemed inflated, the math implied those numbers were actually less than the 500 bags per year represented by The Bag Monster. 

Future plans were for Jen to work with local drinking establishment to eliminate, or at least reduce, the number of plastic straws used by offering them only at customer requests.  Also, the collection/reduction of cigarette butts is being addressed further.

The concept of speaking at a future Chamber (of Commerce) Mixer to address local businesses on the topic of single-use plastic reduction would be considered as time is appropriated at these events for speakers.  Also, “atta boy” (or “atta brah”) cards will be considered to encourage merchants who help to reduce the use of disposables in the course of their business.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:59 with plans for the November  meeting to coincide with Ocean Night at Arcata Theater Lounge during the first week of the month (day to be determined).