Video Contests in Higher Ed. Sustainability

Chances to show off your video editing prowess abound in the higher ed. sustainability community these days. Everybody from the National Wildlife Federation to AASHE wants to see what you are doing to advance sustainability at GMC. So dust off your 8mm or get out your phone -- or whatever you use to shoot video -- and win us some stuff, huh?

• Presidents Climate Commitment Video -- http://www.aashe.org/conf2008/ACUPCCvideocompetition.php (DEADLINE OCT. 1)
• Lucid Design Dashboard -- http://www.luciddesigngroup.com/contest.php (DEADLINE OCT. 24)

COMPOSTERS WANTED

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Anyone is welcome to participate.
Sign up once, or do it on a regular basis.

Kitchen pickup daily between 3 and 5 pm.
Only takes 20 - 30 minutes.

Deliver the full compost bin from the Chartwells kitchen to the farm and return the empty compost bin from the farm to Chartwells.

If interested please contact:

Amber Sarubbi sarubbia@greenmtn.edu
Or
Jesse Pyles pylesj@greenmtn.edu

REGISTRATION OPEN

Building the Future
Connecting Student Service, Activism and Policy Work in the Wake of the 2008 Elections

November 8, 2008
McCardell Bicenteniall Hall, Middlebury College
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Conference Registration
Call for Student Presenters
Many Vermont students are trying to create a better world, addressing issues such as climate change and poverty, through a variety of means: activism, community service, advocacy and more.
Join in conversation with students, community organizers, and policy makers to build meaningful collaborations that will create the future we all seek.

Visit www.vtcampuscompact.org for more information and conference agenda.
Green Mountain College has sent a student contingent to this conference in the past. If you are interested in attending as part of a GMC group, contact Jesse Pyles.

CROP Walk

Everyone from the Green Mountain College community is invited and encouraged to join in this years 7th annual CROP Walk. The walk is to raise money for a wide range of hunger needs, from those around the world to food shelves in Poultney & Fair Haven. "We hope to raise $15,000.00 this year! Will you help us? It's not too late for you to join us." Invites CROP Walk Coordinator, Carol Thompson.

The walk will kick off from the north end of Fair Havens Park on Sunday, September 28th at 1:30 pm. Everyone participating will walk through the part together. Then those who choose to may continue on a 1.6 mile or 4.4 mile journey. There will be water and rest stations along the walking route. At the conclusion of the event walkers will return to the park for drinks and ice cream.

If you are interested in taking part in the CROP Walk please contact Carol Thompson at 802-468-5309 or email her at cthomp4591@aol.com. She can set you up with a walkers packet so that you may start collecting sponsors.

POST UP

My buddy Rbo (she told me in 1999, "it's kind of like J-Lo") is doin' some amazing work in Kansas City with New Roots For Refugees -- everybody should check it out. New Roots, a partnership of the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture and Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas, is essentially developing farms, farmers, and markets by integrating refugee producers into the KC food system.

In addition to being an awesome farm planner, event coordinator, volunteer herder, and community supporter, Rbo is marketing and communications savvy. So today, I'm stealing a play out of her blog book. To find out who was reading her posts to the New Roots site, Rbo raffled off tote bags to folks who left comments on her blog. I don't have totes, but in the school spirit of sustainability, I'm raffling off recycling stickers and free use of our Kill A Watt meters to lucky students who comment. So just make a comment to this post, and keep an eye out for results after Labor Day.

Reporting for Duty

My work life has become a series of applications and reports. Seems like my summer has been filled with this type of paperwork, or with meetings about doing it. So without bogging you down with the details, I thought I'd share the kinds of things that are coming out of the Service-Learning & Sustainability Office of late:

• GMC's greenhouse gas inventory report (more info to be spread around campus soon)
• AASHE Conference poster application
• Jenzebar Foundation student award nomination
• President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll enrollment
• Sustainable Endowments Institute Innovator Award application
• Service-Learning/Natural Areas journal article intro
• AmeriCorps VISTA Progress Report
• Rocky Mountain Institute proposal
• Orientation posters
• Annual staff self-evaluation

Thankfully students are returning next week to knock me off my reporting horse, and onto actual campus and community programs.

Farmed Out

I've said it a thousand times (including in my recent AASHE interview)but I'm totally in love with our farm. This summer GMC's Farm and Food project has been growing food and their stellar reputation. They had a great piece in the Burlington Free Press a couple of weeks ago on fossil free farming, and I hear there was a piece on them that I can't seem to find in the local paper over the weekend. Meeting with our new admissions team yesterday about sustainability initiatives on campus reminded me how frequently students and others here value the farm as an opportunity to practice the sustainability education they're receiving "in the classroom." In addition to the endless work to be done by committed folks in the farm program itself (talk to Lisa "Pantsy" Veniscofsky about what you can do to help out), more than 60 student volunteers last semester visited the farm as part of our dining hall compost program. The farm regularly benefits and contributes to grant ideas for the Student Campus Greening Fund -- e.g., the greenhouse energy upgrades of last semester, recent hoophouse renovations, and the local food programs of the last couple of years. And the summer Farm Camp, Poultney Farmers Market, and CSA programs are incredible outreach efforts that contribute to the College's strong reputation in the local community. If you're not yet involved with our farm somehow, you're missin' out. Stop down early in the semester to see what's growin'.