Health Assessment Meeting Minutes, March 1

In attendance: Erin, Ashley, Allan, and Caroline

During this meeting, we worked on the initial health assessment survey which was originally submitted by Caroline. Going through the survey question by question, we added clarifications where needed and added/ deleted questions as appropriate. We decided some questions were better answered by the census and/or Ernesto and decided to separate those questions out from the general survey.

We also discussed the letter which would be given to Ernesto to help explain the logistics of the survey process.

Ashley will take this draft of the survey and format it as appropriate. She will also write an initial draft of the letter to Ernesto. She plans to forward both of these documents to the above mentioned members as well as Juan (as he has been involved with the health assessment). They will have until Saturday to add comments or corrections and then the documents will be forwarded to Juan for translation. The final documents will be sent to Laurie on Wednesday morning (March 11th) for review and to give to Ernesto. Ashley also plans to put the documents on the blog for everyone to view prior to our next general meeting.

Energy/Pumping Meeting Minutes, February 26

In attendance: Erin Jenkins, Goldah Moore, Ashley Giesa

Topics of discussion:

- Goldah presented her continuing research on two pumping system types – grid-tied conventional pump, and a pump powered by a dedicated solar module. She handed over packets of materials for each type including sizing criteria and price estimates from colleagues in the US. We discussed three possible methods of obtaining either of these systems: importing from the US, purchasing through a Central American dealer, or looking for similar substitutes readily available in Nicaragua while on the assessment trip.

- We discussed that another option to add to the pump types is in fact not a pump, but exploring the possibility of a gravity fed system by looking at any water sources above the land to be irrigated.

- Erin presented the mind-map she has been working on for the assessment trip and everyone contributed to its development.

Action Items:

- Goldah will continue to expand the information she has gathered to include supply lists for checking availability and pricing of components during assessment trip.

- Erin will attempt to catch up with Goldah on research of other possible pumping stategies (non-electric, and combining with a future micro-hydro system).

- Erin will thoroughly read the information packet presented by Goldah.

- Erin will add items to mind map that were discussed as well as following out other bullets to their end. Hopefully these culminate in questions that need to be answered before or during the assessment trip. Deliverable is deligatable action items for many more people the next meeting.

- Someone PLEASE come up with a good name for this subcommittee!

Next meeting:

-March 12

-7 pm

-856 NW 60^th St. Seattle, 98107

-Corner of 9^th and 60^th in Ballard

-Enter through back door.

Irrigation/Water Resources Meeting Wednesday February 18th

• Erich reviewed documentation for evaporations calcs
• Kari will be able to perform evap calcs (this wil not be necessary prior to assessment trip)
• Lolly introduced field soil test that can be used
• Lolly to forward soil test website to irrigation team
• Lolly to review with Kari applicable soil tests for irrigation project
• Team to construct/provide necessary testing equipment to Kari for soil investigation during site assessment trip. some materials may be available in matagalpa
• Kari to investigate possible pH testing, Lolly lives by brew shop, can get pH strips if necessary
• Erich has a lot of experience with drip irrigation installation, will inform of opportunities to do pea patch vist
• Irrigation team to compile questions for Laurie
• Ashley will forward questions to Laurie
• Assessment team to do a bacteria test of the drinking water. Seattle U has a really easy procedure. we need to get the bacteria strips and bring a Pringles can (or similar) with us (or purchase there)
• Assessment team to do a visual survey of possible contaminants to the drinking water and / or irrigation water.
• Assessment team to do the health survey to tell us whether the water is causing any health problems.
• Assessment team to bring water samples from both the drinking water and irrigation water back with us for testing in the U.S. -- we need to figure out containers for this and get a letter either from our chapter (on some sort of letterhead) or from a lab here saying why we have water samples in our luggage. other chapters have done this, should be no problem.
• Next Water Meeting to be announced soon.

Fundraising opportunity?

I am excited about the following and found it to be a very interesting potential fundraiser so I thought I would share…

A professor and the advisor for EWB at Michigan Tech University (my alma mater) started a project called Kidsview (http://www.kidsview.org). The idea being to get cameras into the hands of children to see the world from their point of view. He has mostly used EWB-MTU as the method of distributing the cameras to interesting locations. The cameras are sponsored by donors at various rates ($20-50) based on what the donor would like in return-- see the web site for details.

I just exchanged emails with Kidsview about how we might coordinate to create a fundraising opportunity for EWB-PSP while still supporting his project and not just stealing the idea. His response was that we could certainly work something out where our chapter received the majority of the funds raised. Of course the photos would be ours to use for further fundraising opportunities. I can envision Christmas cards or just prints if some turn out really spectacular.

Of course we could wait and do this with the implementation trip, but not only would that be after the fall fundraiser, we all know patience may be a virtue but is no fun at all. So… to do this on the assessment trip we could either try to get people to sponsor cameras in the next month (okay maybe a little crazy with everything else) or just buy a bunch of cameras on our own and work out the details later.

Kidsview is sending me more detailed information soon on how he normally deploys cameras- he is prepping for a Bolivia trip with EWB-MTU right now as well.

Erin

Mind Map for Assessment Trip

Erin recently created this mind map to help get organized for the assessment trip. If you click on it you can actually read it. Feedback strongly encouraged...

Minutes from February 23rd Meeting

In Attendance: Ashley, Erin, Erich, Amelia, Bryan, Juan, Kathleen, Andrea, Rebecca (let me know if I missed anyone)

Ashley Giesa
Updates to project:

• 501 application approved for irrigation, but not for micro-hydro
  
• spoke with EC regarding funding - they will be coming up with a chapter wide funding program for professionals wishing to travel that will involve some kind of monetary contribution from the professional
• Travel team ordered plane tickets and some accommodations for April assessment trip
• Ashley spoke with Diana Underhill and an EWB project manager and attended a webinar explaining next steps for project
  
• Erin, Kari and Ashley to speak with EWB-USA project Manager on Monday March 2 to discuss pre-assessment paperwork
• Kari and Ashley to meet with Phil Thompson of the SU Nicaragua team on Monday 3/2
  

Erich Ellis
Updates to Water Resource group:

• Had a meeting on Wednesday February 18th (Attendance: Ashley, Erich, Kari, Lolly)
• Discussion of soil sampling-Lolly found some good information pertaining to types of soil sampling and what is needed for each application - need to schedule a day to teach sampling
• Erich putting together materials list
• Lolly to put together a list of tasks for the travel team

Erin Jenkins
Energy Team/Water pumping team update:

• Project role change- to focus on the information needed for getting the water supply for the irrigation system
• Still looking into possibility of coupling the two systems and creating the irrigation system with the possibility of future expansion for micro-hydro
• Next energy meeting scheduled for 2/26/09

Caroline Broadbent
Health Assessment Update

• Caroline reviewed the health assessment that she came up with for the group.
• Many concerns about specific language or questions needing more clarification.
• Juan to translate final draft into Spanish
• Discussed the need for the agronomist to send back the assessment to our team so that we can make sure he understands the questions
• Meeting on Sunday 3/1 to discuss health assessment in full
• Still planning on finalizing health assessment within the next week.

Kathleen Prom

• Discussion about fundraising project at the end of the year
  

Next Meeting March 9, 2009.

Project Status Update

• Our 501 application has been approved by EWB-USA.
• Waiting on approval for pre-assessment paperwork.
• Travel team has purchased tickets for assessment trip from April 16-April 25.
• Working on finalizing health assessment.
• Energy/Water pumping team and Water resource/irrigation team are working to create material lists and specific tasks for travel team.