Sustainable Development Society Minutes                                                         April 4^th, 2008

 First task was to go through the agenda:

• Dylan sent a letter to other societies about the SD soc.
• The Japanese society and One World responded

• The website:
  • Contact the computer science society
  • Emelia was going to talk to Katherine Needles about the power point presentation already made.
  • Mariella was going to talk to Jacob about making the website again
  • Amanda and Dylan also talked about working on the power point presentation. They will meet Thursday to work on the website design.

• Past achievements were passed around, the list was already complete.
• The venue was discussed and Rebecca will follow up with ideas for next year

• Mind map:
  • It was discussed what the society would do with it?
  • Like an index page for a company, the mind map can locate all the society’s events and activities, and will serve as an interim web site to maintain curret info
  • USERNAME: susdevsoc, PASSWORD: susdevsoc
  • URL: http://www.mind42.com/mindmaps

• A contact list was passed around with names and contact details of SASI members.

• The SAEF climate change conference was discussed.
  • Emilia was going to contact someone from the geography department
  • Dylan was going to contact Daniel (One World and Climate Campaign) as well
  • Mariella was going to send them both information concerning our role in the conference.

• Buy Brian a Bike update:
  • Susan Horesman (sp?) was very positive- she said the University was giving bikes to different departments to encourage use.
  • Brian is currently not answering his emails, so no update from him.
  • The temporary day is set for the 6^th of June.

• Darfur movie:
  • Have not heard anything back from Andreas concerning the movie

• 4^th years dissertation conference:
  • Information was given to members in all years of SD program
    • Polly/Rebecca will contact 1^st year SD Students
    • Michael 2^nd years
    • Dylan 3^rd years
  • Dylan volunteered himself to give information to the 3^rd year SD class…

• Dylan presented a plan to follow the SMART guidelines to keep the society’s aims focused and organized.

• The future format of meetings:

• The administration will meet fortnightly in the Mansfield building
• The other night there will be a meeting in a pub where half an hour of the time will be spent discussing administrative activities as the other half will be a chosen discussion of something that has to do with SD.
• Amanda volunteered herself to write a letter for the sponsorship of a pub to hold the meetings in.
• Sweaters need to be re-ordered for fresher’s week in the fall (next week this will be discussed and decided about ordering)
  • Louisa will bring the design of past jumpers/t-shirts next week
  • Melissa has the information from last year’s sweaters and t-shirts.
  • Is there an interest in changing the design of the sweaters?

• Tim O’Riordan on the topic of a discussion on climate change:
  • His climate change study was discussed by Dylan
  • Currently there are not enough society members who would form a panel for similar student surveys about awareness and behavior however

• The society would like to hold more interdisciplinary debates with other societies.
  • Societies would be invited to join a discussion at one of our fortnightly meetings in the pub.

• An informal meet and greet/BBQ:
  • Where would we host it?
  • Perhaps Pillars of Hercules? They have a café , Dylan said he would get in contact with them about a potential business contract.

• Questions were raised about sustainable, local and organic stores in St Andrews:
  • There was interest in organizing a promotional night- invite a chef who has done a lot of work with these types of food.
  • Since the local council in Fife would like to increase diet awareness (Fife Diet), perhaps we could work with them? Dylan will contact.
  • The local council also has plans to reduce the amount of waste produced in the town.
  • Emilia said she would speak to Simon Pepper about endorsing the letter to ask an establishment to sell sustainable, organic and locally grown foods.

• Sponsorship:
  • Mariella said she would get in touch with Ben and Jerry’s about giving us free ice cream for an event.
  • Dylan said he would write a sponsorship letter, Innocent Drinks was brought up as a company of interest.

• Questions were asked as to where the SD bags can be sold.
• Amanda’s plastic bag proposal:
  • We would set up a stand in the centre of town somewhere (Market St fountain, or South St church area) where people would drop off all of their extra plastic bags.
  • Would need some kind of structure to make sure the plastic bags don’t fly away.
  • Amanda will contact Susan Horseman about pursuing this project.

• Questions were asked whether Leslie New should be added to the contact list Dylan presented.

• Dylan’s day-to-day changes:
  • There is lots of talk but no doing
  • Brought up the idea of writing a monthly entry in a journal about SD
  • Idea brought up about someone from the saint living as sustainably as possible for a week or so and then writing an article on it.
  • It would be the similar as One Worlds living off of a £1 a day.

• UN youth and student association (UNYSA)- we would follow the same program where we would teach children about sustainable development.
  • Mariella said she would talk to someone from the Lumsden club to see if they were interested in helping find out how we could pursue this idea.

• Linnea suggested we talk the children on field trips next year, as well as the SD soc going for walks and on a trip.
  • Details still need to be discussed.

• Nicola brought up an idea about a ‘green ball’ for next year.
  • How can we influence other societies to do the same things?

Following this brainstorming session, Amanda and Dylan will compile a list of possible goals and targets, and present them next week, when SD Soc will begin compiling a draft set of goals and targets, as well as some provisional dates for events (Fresher’s Fayre BBQ, Plastic Bag event). See y’all next week!