Minutes from the May 4th, 2000 ICO Steering Meeting
Present: Melinda Tuhus, Jessica Rostow, Scott Lutz, Tina Fiasconaro (Sister City Project), Adrienne Dest, Kent Lyle

Upcoming Trips:
May 5 (Fri.)
- Cooperative High School Group will be visiting a salt marsh at the Milford Audubon Center. Leader: Christin Arnini (393-0484, cevea@yahoo.com)

May 6 (Sat.)
- Neighborhood Group is planning on going canoeing and to the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association river cleanup. Leader: Melinda Tuhus (287-9811, tuhus.dubrow@snet.net)

May 6 (Sat.)
- Highville Mustard Seed Charter School Group is going rollerblading on the Farmington Canal rail-trail in Cheshire. Leader: Jessica Rostow (776-3906, jessica.rostow@yale.edu)

May 20 (Sat.)
- Fair Haven Middle School Group is planning on a bicycle trip. Leader: Adrienne Dest (488-4160, adrienne126@aol.com)

May 21-23 (Sun.-Tues.)
- Cooperative High School Group is going on a backpacking expedition to the Adirondack Mountains. Leader: Christin Arnini (393-0484, cevea@yahoo.com)

Past Trips:
Apr. 8 (Sat.) - Highville Mustard Seed Charter School Group went hiking over in Devil’s Den Nature Preserve in Weston. (They were supposed to go to Great Hill but were prevented by transportation problems.) The weather was fine and everything went well, in spite of a minor first aid scrape. Leader: Jessica Rostow.

Apr. 30 (Sun.) - Cooperative High School Group went hiking on the Appalachian Trail up to Mt. Everett. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful hike, with a great view from the top. Note: Three of the kids didn’t show; the adults outnumbered the kids on this trip 2:1. Leader: Christin Arnini.

Sister City Project:
Tina Fiasconaro described the work of Rural Sponsor Program, which focuses on the Nicaraguan city of León, and how New Haven ICO might be able to participate in this program.
The economic situation in Nicaragua partly results from the problems caused by agricultural devastation resulting from deforestation, poor cotton growing practices, heavy pesticide use, and community upheaval (due to urban migration).
The Project promotes the maintaining of fruit trees, vegetable gardens, and other organic methods by Nicaraguan children as part of a family and community-oriented program. In addition, it allows children to learn about the environment and its preservation.
The ICO involvement would be in assistance with fund raising and equipment obtaining, as well as pen pal letters between New Haven and León youth participants. New Haven kids could also participate during packing days, in which equipment and goods are prepared for shipment to León. The next one is June 10 (Sat.), at 9:00am.

Melinda and Jessica were unsure about whether the program would work specifically for their groups. Adrienne expressed some possibility of aligning the Fair Haven Middle School group with this program. Flyers were distributed for distribution to other leaders (Christin). Kent mentioned that New Haven ICO could give occasional cash or equipment donations in exchange for receipts. He will check with ICO National to see whether such donations would be reimbursable for grant reports.

For more information about this project, contact: The New Haven / León Sister City Project (562-1607, newhavenleon@igc.apc.org)

Chairperson Succession: Melinda passed out a description of the chair's responsibility. The object was to designate a successor should Melinda need to step down. This list will be provided in a separate e-mail. She noted that many of these activities are delegatable to other volunteers, some of which may need to be recruited. In terms of recruitment, Scott volunteered to post a listing in the New Haven Advocate. Several other people in the meeting mentioned helping to "lighten the load" of the Chair by assisting with some of the activities on the list.

Melinda mentioned the idea of a 2-year renewable term, in which other volunteers could express interest in becoming chairperson. So far, there is no identified candidate as Melinda’s successor. For more information, contact: Melinda Tuhus (287-9811, tuhus.dubrow@snet.net) Steering Committee Meeting: >From now on, the potluck dinner part of Steering Meetings will start at 7:15pm, and the actual meeting will start at 7:30. This will facilitate a smoother meeting and allow people extra travel time for the actual business end of things.

Etc...

- Melinda handed out an AMC brochure about trail work volunteer opportunities.
- Melinda passed out a Natural Guard summer program application (5th-8th grade). Some group's kids could apply for this program. Contact: Melinda Tuhus (287-9811, tuhus.dubrow@snet.net)

Upcoming Meetings:
June 1 (Thurs.) - The next Steering Committee Meeting will take place at 7:30pm at Scott Lutz's house, located at 118 Linden St., 2nd floor, New Haven. As usual, this meeting will be a potluck dinner, which starts at 7:15pm.
Contact: Scott Lutz (624-4422, salutz@aol.com)

Note: There will not be a New Volunteer Orientation Meeting during the month of May.