MINUTES
WAVE MEETING
Water Awareness
for the Vanderburgh Environment
TIME AND PLACE OF MEETING
WAVE met
DISCUSSION
Susan Fowler mentioned contacting Jim Daniels and/or Lauren Preske, who work at USI, and are part of Sustainable Evansville and the Eco Tours. These tours explore land use and how it relates to water. Other resource people mentioned were Roger Lehman, Building Commission, and Rob Brown, Building Commission, who studies the geology of Pigeon Creek.
The group decided that WAVE should respond to those people who attended the January 28 gathering at the 4-H Center. The attendees will be mailed all the WAVE documentation to date, and those people who did not attend the gathering on January 28 will receive a summary of events. It was decided that all of this information should be mailed out no later than March 5.
Tom Donahue, Canoe Evansville, talked about “Pickin’ on the Pigeon” on Saturday, April 24. The WAVE
group agreed to have a booth display at this event. Tom also suggested
advertising WAVE’s booth at this event on the various
Web sites of offices and organizations represented at this meeting—
Tom also suggested adding to the Web sites of SWCD, Vanderburgh Surveyor, and Westside Improvement those Web sites (if they are available) of those people and organizations who attended the first WAVE gathering on January 28, 2004. Brenda Jeffers said those sites have been posted to a table that is part of the mailing to go out on March 5, and the information is posted on www.riverfriendly.com .
The group talked about WAVE having its own Web site. Holly McCutchan informed some members of the group before the meeting that Rick Obenshain said that RC&D is willing to apply for non-profit status and create a Web site on WAVE’s behalf.
The group talked about planning a second WAVE gathering. The
group discussed several options for a meeting site. Some of the places
mentioned are Howell Wetlands, Howell Shelter House, and
Tom Donahue told the group that he felt that WAVE needed some media coverage. He suggested approaching a local government official, such as the Mayor, who could recognize and give approval of WAVE at a press conference. Tom feels this approach will give creditability to WAVE when being endorsed by a newsworthy person, such as the Mayor. He suggested writing a press release and giving this release to TV and other media organizations. He also feels WAVE should assign a person for news reporting. Tom said that WAVE can act as a clearinghouse for water-related issues, and this endeavor can be achieved by setting up connections and networking. Trena is going to have an article written about WAVE activities in the Westside Improvement Association’s newsletter, OWL.
Tom also discussed developing a master plan for WAVE and said using a model from other similar organizations would be a good way to start. Jerry Carter, Southeast Environmental Task Force, Chicago, Illinois, addressed the group about environmental law as it relates to state legislatures and how this task force worked with legislators to get things done in Chicago.
Brenda said she thinks that the group should write a mission statement for the WAVE organization. Everyone agreed, and Tom gave tips to the group and wrote a practice mission statement (Exhibit A), and Brenda said she would like for the group to research some more mission statements before the group decides on a final statement.
Exhibit A
To bring environmental water awareness to Vanderburgh County and to provide
the educational information and resources that act as a central repository for all
water awareness issues that affect our community
The WAVE group did decide to have the next meeting at an environmentally enriched location.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 4:30 p.m.
Brenda Jeffers