Mystic Watershed Collaborative
Steering Committee Meeting
December 12, 9:30-11:00

Attending: Kwabena Kyei-Aboagye, Molly Anderson, Melissa Bailey, Eleanor Bates, Lisa Brukilacchio, Dale Bryan, Janet Kovner (facilitator), Molly Mead, Grace Perez, Lisa Waters

Next Meeting: Thursday, January 9, 11:00am – 12:30pm (TIE)
Facilitator: Kwabena Kyei-Aboagye

Events & Announcements:

• MyRWA Winter Speaker Series – began Dec 9th. See MWC web site for upcoming dates and times

EMPACT:
Currently, all water quality equipment is dormant for the season and the site will be active again on April 15th. The web site was recently tested for the ability to meet the guidelines for disabled accessibility. The results demonstrated that the site failed in this area. Currently a version of the site in Spanish is being developed. The new advisory group will be meeting before April 15th and will be able to provide more formal feedback. Historical data is now online and they will be adding additional text soon to help explain the information.

Environmental Education:
Police Officer Johnston from the Marine Division in Everett is interested in working with environmental education. He is especially interested in habitat restoration, water quality monitoring, and education for grades K-12. A meeting needs to be arranged to collaborate everyone’s ideas and efforts. A basic training for environmental education should be offered to ensure that respectful environmental education is promoted. Our goal should be to encourage critical thinking, as opposed to telling the students what to believe.

Herring Run:
The Herring Run is still in the process of being coordinated. The run will most likely be a 5K run. The tentative date of the run is May 3rd and on Jan 7th a group will meet to coordinate the event. This year, we hope to increase the attendance of non-runners.

Mass Campus Compact:
The Mass Campus Compact is offering a $1500 grant to one of its members to work with partnership high schools such as, Malden High School, to discuss environmental justice issues in their community. A 2-day workshop is envisioned if Tufts is awarded the grant.

Mystic Maps:
Molly went to the Library of Congress on her last trip to DC and copied historical maps of the Mystic River Watershed. These maps dated back to the 1700’s. We hope to have these maps digitized and placed on the MWC Clearinghouse web site very soon.

Funding Strategy:
MyRWA did receive a $55,000 check from an anonymous donor, as part of a 3-year grant. These funds will be used to develop a survey to determine river usage, develop an outreach campaign, and for signage. We need to begin to do fundraising to other private foundations to raise an additional $153,730 for a 3-year project. On Dec 17th at 2:30 at the TIE office, a group will meet to begin to coordinate this project. Kent Portney’s students from his Political Science class have finished their survey on the Mystic and will be providing the MWC with the results soon.

EJAM:
The first EJAM Forum occurred on December 2nd. The event was not well-attended; the speakers, however, were fabulous. The participants were very active listeners and conducted a great discussion. The next advisory meeting for EJAM is on Dec 18th at 3:30.

MWC Outreach:
The MWC needs to increase outreach to make connections within the community. An idea was presented for each steering committee member to attend at least one community organization’s meeting per month. The member will then be responsible to write up a brief report about the meeting to present to the MWC. Anyone interested in doing this should begin attending meetings by the next MWC Steering Committee meeting. Everyone should try to concentrate on city organizations working on diversity or environmental issues. A good place to begin to find community groups is at Town Halls or local libraries.

MyRWA Funding Update:
The MyRWA Board is currently developing a strategic plan to examine priority areas and how they interface with the River Institute and the MWC. The original plan had been to hire a new development staff person to implement the funding plan prepared by MyRWA’s consultant. Due to Grace leaving, that hiring process has been placed on hold until MyRWA sees what skills the new Executive Director brings. At that time, those plans may be revisited. John Reinhardt is collecting resumes for the Executive Director vacancy and will interview approximately 5 – 6 candidates. Libby Larson will begin working full time as of January 2003. Thirty hours of her work will concentrate on water quality and 10 hours will deal with proposal writing.

River Institute:
The River Institute has begun the solicitation for internships. The internships will be posted on the web site by the end of the month. The RI needs to increase and target outreach efforts. Furthermore, the RI is in need of funding for this year and coming years. An MWC intern placement is a possibility. Supervision, duties, and all funding issues need to be determined ahead of time. UCCPS could possibly fund the intern if it is linked through the MWC.

MWC Liaison:
The idea of using the remaining Omidyar projects as UEP Field Projects is no longer an option. Veronica has sealed the commitments. There is still a slight possibility with considering CEE and Environmental Studies students.

Water Watch:
Water Watch invited Lois Gibbs to speak at their Earth Day event. They need to raise $3000 to pay for travel, lodging, and an honorarium for Ms. Gibbs. Molly and Dale will suggest locations for them to try to obtain funding support.

MWC Membership:
To fill the student representative vacancies, Lisa Waters will be sending out an email to recruit students.