Mon, June 27 2011: ##Programs## Two main arcs - how do we choose programs, and how do we administer/run them? This is an overview and initial conversation, we should follow up with a big meeting in Sept. - work charts, problem trees, etc. Recommend we form groups around program areas today, we can shuffle later & revisit in Sept, and that we come to some consensus on what our program areas are? Both today, and what we’d like them to be in the near future. ###Choosing programs### Summary of current programs (help out, add in stuff where you can!): How should we define a program? A program is an issue area or topic, There are also cross cutting practices. **1 Petro-chemical industries and extraction industries** * Tools: Spectrometer, NDVI, Endocrine disruption screen, UV, water quality, thermal camera * Sites: Gulf coast, Gowanus/NYC, (possible: appalacchia), Gas patch, tar sands, Butte * Collaborators? Skytruth, LABB, Gowanus canal conservancy (is greatly affected by this, but acting in area 3), **2 Environmental health** (in many cases related to the above) * indoor/outdoor (is this “presence of harmful chemicals, frequently resulting from chemical or extraction industries, or from industrial production of goods like indoor furniture; and resulting health effects on living organisms?”) * Outdoor: NDVI, GRM, spectrometer, Endocrine disruption screen, water quality * Sites: Gulf Coast, NYC, gas patch * Indoor: spectrometer, roomba, Endocrine disruption screen, thermal camera * Sites: homes, schools, * Collaborators? Asthma files, **3 (this one needs work) Changes [sustainable] land usage? Ecological sustainability?** * (is this ecological productivity -- soil health, photosynthetic activity, ?) sustainable agriculture - local, organic, small, family, community, broadly defined * Tools: near-Infrared camera, GRM, NDVI * Sites: Wetlands - silt, runoff, riparian buffer zones, bioswales), Somerville ##Working groups:## First name is chairperson/lead coordinator for the group's topic: 1 Outreach - conferences, meet ups, barnraising, exhibitions - **Sara**, shannon, jeff mathew 2 Retail - kits: **Adam**, Stewart, Jeff, Mathew 3 Fundraising- **Jeff**, Shannon, Adam, Mathew (grant writing), sara (grant writing), Liz 4 Outcomes - outreach with existing data, legal/policy leverage, papers, exhibitions - **Shannon**, Sara, Adam 5 Evaluation, interviews- **Shannon**, Sara, Mathew 6 Public Archive/Online systems? web infrastructure - **Stu**, Jeff (liz in part) 7 GM Forum, printing - **Mathew**, Stu, jeff, shannon 8 PR - press releases, social media outreach, website content - videos- **Liz**, Jeff, Stu 9. Budget- **Shannon**, Sara....everyone ##Tool Working Groups:## _In Use_ 9 GRM: Kites and balloons- **Mathew**, Stu, Liz _Not Proven Yet_ 11 Infrared camera (NDVI, NRG, false color) - **Jeff**, Stu, Liz 10 Spectrometry - **Jeff**, Sara 12 Roomba - **Sara**, Shannon (liz interested in air qual sensors for wide use)--Indoor air 13 water quality/endocrine disruption- **Sara**, Shannon, mathew, liz 14 thermal camera - **Liz or Stu**, Jeff, Sara 15 Research and Development future projects - stereo camera for 3D, deriving point clouds, diy lidar (liz interested) stu, sara 16 Program area review -- assess our work in the context of our program areas, every x months (6?) Review every 6 months? Other timelines depending on working group ----- Other notes: ##Summary of existing work today:## * Publishing & kits: * GM Forum * PLOTS Website, community blog, PLOTS archive * balloon mapping kit, spectrometer kit, (infrared camera, thermal camera) * Public Events & outreach * workshops, hackathons, barn-raisings * lectures, attending others’ public events (dorkbot, local meetups, community planning meetings) * Site work: * Gulf coast: summarize? Oil spill, flooding, wetlands loss * Gowanus: water and air contamination, bioswale remediation zones * Portland, Butte, Somerville, WCU, Providence, Togo, Belize... more? Which have a long-term commitment? * Topic areas: * water/land contamination (oil, etc) - extraction industries * environmental health (in many cases related to the above) * wetlands loss & wetlands as remediation zones * sustainable agriculture - local, organic, small, family, community, broadly defined * others? * Feedback loops: * GM Forum interviews and articles * PLOTS Archive, interviews, comments, embedding, “how to use this data” * Journals, op-eds & other writing * public events, exhibitions, * data refinement, analysis, interpretation in all of these feedback loops * data outreach - publishing our work and getting it taken up by law, policy, research, academia, education * Proposals: we’ve already done this for some; these ought to exist on the website, no? * choosing process -- how many? 3-5 sites, no less than 7 major programs, site or otherwise. * mini vs. mega projects - how may can each person tackle? More than one staffer on each project? * could there be larger #s of mini projects, or each person can have their own mini project which may mature into a mega one later down the road? Limit on how many mini programs? * early, mid, mature projects: 70%/20%/10%? how to narrow them down? Base this partially on documentation/literature produced * choosing could be related to how many people sign up to work on the project? “putting together a team” - where people might only have 3-5 projects each, max? ##Summary of tools:## Kites and Balloons * Need full set for all wind conditions and a guide for choosing flying * potential for air quality monitoring by building line-runners. IR → postprocessing for ndvi Stereo Cameras → postprocessing for topography / 3D Thermal Camera Air Quality * VOCs * Carbon Monoxide Water Testing * Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Nutrients * Heavy Metals * Micropollutants, organic compounds, etc. * biologicals * fecal coliform/total coliforms * bod/cod * turbidity *Soil Testing * Nutrients * Heavy Metals * Micropollutants ###Administrating programs### * Recommend groups of 2-3 for each program/project, where one person is lead. (this became Working Groups, above) * Both group leadership and membership can rotate every 3-6 months, for sites, this is partially limited by proximity. * Recommend autonomy and budget control (with reviews/checks/balances) within each group to reduce overhead and make decision making localized. Different groups can figure things out based on local context and share, rather than making top-down decisions.Cross-subscription of members should maximize communication. * each group ought to meet by phone once or twice a week. Only 2-3 people should be easier. Post weekly notes.