Mystic Watershed Collaborative
Steering Committee Meeting
March 4, 2003, 8:30 - 10:00 am

Attending: Molly Anderson (facilitator), Mauricio Artinano, Chelsea Bardot, Lisa Brukilacchio, Dale Bryan, Nancy Hammett, Jennifer Hill, Paul Kirshen, Janet Kovner, Lisa Waters

Next Meeting: March 25, 2003 from 2:30 to 4:00pm (TIE)
Facilitator: TBD

Introductions & Announcements:
New Members: We would like to welcome Jennifer Hill from Groundwork Somerville, Chelsea Bardot, and Mauricio Artinano (Mau) to the MWC Collaborative. Chelsea is currently a freshman at Tufts, a student in Lisa B’s class and is managing the education portion of Water Watch. She is very interested in MWC education projects. Mau is also a freshman here at Tufts and is a student of Lisa Brukilacchio. To learn more about the MWC please see the web site at www.tufts.edu/tie/mwc.

Upcoming Events: 7th Annual Mystic Herring Run Festival - May 3rd from 1- 5 pm at the Mystic Riverbend Park in Medford

EMPACT: The system is currently shutdown. The site will be live by April 15th. The web site has been translated to spanish. The funding expires in September 2003 therefore, funding for next year is needed. Last fall; MyRWA, MIT, and CEE were awarded funds to support a nutrient management project in the Mystic basin. There will be a press conference held on May 17th to unveil the EMPACT web site. The city of Somerville will be present to provide computers to demonstrate the web site. This conference will be coordinated with Tufts. An Advisory Council is being formed to meet several times per year to collaborate and sequence important projects. They will provide input on EMPACT and river use. This Advisory Council will also help bring credibility to the projects.

River Institute: A possible funding opportunity is available through the North East Educational Services, Inc. Mark Murphy distributed the RFP to Paul Kirshen last week. These $25,000 grants are to be used for developing undergraduate environmental leaders. The funds must go towards program development. The River Institute could use these funds to pay for staffing, trips, speakers, etc. The deadline is March 21st. George Ellmore has recently received one of these grants to fund the GIS Center for three years.

There are ten openings this year for internships through the River Institute. Publicity is needed to fill those positions and the deadline is April 1st. Dona Neely, a UEP Certificate student, is interested in participating in the River Institute although, she is need of funding. Dona wants to work with the MWC to extend the MWC PowerPoint presentation. The presentation will include overviews of topic areas and problems. There will be options to view additional information on the major topics. She will provide the draft outline to the collaborative for feedback. This presentation needs to be completed by April.

Student Responsibilities: The MWC student representative’s responsibilities include:

• Attend meetings regularly
• Provide info on how it looks from a student’s perspective
  
• Take initiative on projects
  
• Bring “thinking like a student” to the table. How might students respond or engage?
  
• Ask if you need help.
  
• Help with publicity of the MWC to the Tufts community.

Education & Curriculum:
Eco-Reps: The Eco-Reps have been meeting informally in groups that specialize in certain areas to include organic gardening and food services.

Water Watch: Tufts students are working to educate elementary children. The initial focus was on teaching as many programs to as many students as possible. The focus has now changed to developing lasting relationships with schools. There are two curriculum programs to include kindergarten and fourth grade. The Tufts students visit each class 4 to 5 times per year. There are 12 education volunteers in Water Watch currently. A survey is also being developed in the near future to determine what teachers need.

Groundwork Somerville: Groundwork Somerville is currently working on developing a web site. A draft version will be finished by the beginning of April and the entire site will be launched by the end of the semester. The web site includes a calendar o events, current critical issues, maps, and geology information. There are four people working on the web site and the site is targeting journalists.

Mystic River Education: A group of people met with Joe Ruben, Head of the Teacher Resource Center at the New England Aquarium. They are working with him to develop a curriculum for the Mystic. At the meeting, they examined what work has already been completed to include the Tritech web site, and individual teacher’s projects. On March 6th at 2:00pm, the group will visit the Aquarium to see what resources are available.

Herring Run: This year, the Herring Run will be coordinated differently. The structure will be built as a festival to include the race verses a race with a celebration Tom Lincoln from the Hormel River Task Force, has received the permission to use the Riverbend Park as the festival location. The city of Medford is a cosponsor this year and the MWC is invited to become involved with the festival also. Letters have already been sent out to ask for donations to fund the event. The MWC should be able to provide a booth at the event, volunteers to help out, and possibly an educational activity. Having Tufts as a formal sponsor will enable the Provost to speak on the relationship of the university to the river. This will provide the potential for partnership building.

EJAM: On February 25th, the East Boston forum was held. On March 12th the Woburn forum will be taking place. There is a training scheduled for April 5th and the Summit is scheduled for April 12th. Julian is concerned if the EJAM principles have been adopted by MyRWA, etc. For more information on EJAM goto www.tufts.edu/tie/EJAM.

Staff Transitions: Molly Anderson will be leaving Tufts as of June 30, 2003. She wants to teach and work on educational partnerships. She will no longer be the MWC Liaison. Lisa Waters will be working only part-time from home as of March 14th. She will be designing and managing the TIE and partnering web sites.