Present: Jerry Codner, Karin Harjes, Doug McEver, and Lynn Leopold

• Jerry passed out copies of the slides that were used at the Water Quality Monitoring Conference at Wells College on May 2002. We reviewed all the slides and noted those that were site-specific and fairly simple to understand as possible slides f or IO member and Speakers Bureau presentations.

• We reminded ourselves that we are each looking at specific watersheds in the RPP to pull out info that is specific (Lynn-eastern watershed, Jerry-southern watershed, Karin-western watershed, other EPPOC member-northern watershed).

• Jerry suggested looking at the roadbank/streambank erosion survey on the web which summarizes problem areas by tributary or sub-watershed.

• Karin reported that we did not get funding for the PSA grant proposal we sent to the EPA nor the smaller grant proposal we sent to the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat and Fund. Karin will ask Deb and Sharon for the proposal rejection letters to see if it is worth changing the proposals to resubmit them with more detailed information.

• Lynn and Karin went to Eagle Broadcasting on June 3^rd to meet with Duane Andrus regarding the advertising possibilities of our PSA campaign and for Lynn to record her PSAs. Duane provided us with area coverage, type of audience reached an d pricing information for the four stations at Eagle Broadcasting. For every ad you place, you get one free, which means that all the following prices are for 2 ads.

1. Lite 97 (97.3 FM)- $50
2. Q-Country (103.7 FM)- $45
3. WHCU (870AM) - $35
4. WTKO (1470AM) - $20

• Based on the fact that EPPOC currently has only $570 in the budget for the PSAs, we cannot repeat the ads as much as we would like. To reach a large audience with a relatively small amount of ads we decided to put the initial PSAs on Lite 97 which h as the largest coverage area.

• At Eagle Broadcasting Lynn recorded two household hazardous waste ads and one motor oil change ad with Joel. Joel agreed to send us an MP3 file of the recordings after he has added background music for us to listen to.

• Doug recommended we place our ads twice on Saturday mornings around 10am alternating among the three ads. He also thought it would be good to place the household hazardous waste ad right after Agway’s ad on Thursday mornings. This way people w ill hopefully think about buying less toxic products the next time they go to Agway!

• Karin will talk with Duane to see if he agrees with our strategy and to begin putting our ads on the air. Will also send the MP3 file of the ads we record to as many stations as possible in the watershed to be aired as PSAs.

• In the mean time EPPOC will continue working on some ads, which we think are important topics such as the septic maintenance, well/drinking water protection, recreational boats on the lake and erosion control.

Karin gave a summary of her meeting with Dennis Montgomery on May 30, 2002:

• Insurance: The insurance agent Dennis has for all of his boats is Peter Robinson, at Loomis La Pann located in Glenn Falls. This agency is very good and has experience with passenger vessels. As the floating classroom would be certified as a "Coast Guard Certified Passenger Vessel" instead of a "Research Vessel", the cost of insurance would be approximately $4,000-5,000/year. A "Research Vessel" would cost around $2,000-$3,000.

• Dennis recently finished all the training and tests to become a certified captain and will soon get his captain's license.

• Boat Restoration: The restoration of the boat may take longer than he expected because he wasn't able to get interns from Ithaca College or Cornell to help him. In order to finish the boat for the Fall, Dennis will have to take out a loan, pr obably from Alternatives Credit Union. He suggested we ask for letters of support from any interested organizations including schools to help him show the Credit Union that we are serious about the project and there is interest and a need for a Floatin g Classroom on Cayuga Lake. Letters of support would also be very helpful for EPPOC as supporting materials for grant proposals.

• Teaching Equipment: Another idea that Dennis had was that the Network, or any other interested NGO, could ask for equipment donations from petri dishes and secci disks to radar equipment. The airline research company, Lockhead Martin that has a sonar research station in Cayuga Lake, South of Lansing, may be someone to approach either to plan visits to their research facility or for sonar equipment donations.

• Both EPPOC and Dennis are short on time to begin classes in the Fall of this year. However, we agreed that we would continue working towards the Fall goal to keep the ball rolling. This way we can get as much done as possible in terms of grant writin g and fixing the boat while we create curricula and promote the Floating Classroom which will take a long time.

• Possible teachers: We also spoke about a few teachers Dennis knows which may be interested in the Floating Classroom that work in Auburn and Seneca Falls: Kelly Sevier-Fallone, Extension educator for Environmental Issues with Cornell Coopera tive Extension of Cayuga County, conducts water quality programs with youth and adult audiences interested in Owasco and Cayuga lakes (Sharon Anderson knows her and she is also on the Speakers Bureau) and Linda Tompkins of Seneca Falls also facilitates e nvironmental education classes for teachers.

• Next Step: Dennis will work on the boat as much as he can and will contact Patrick Sullivan from Cornell and Paul Tatar a K-12 teacher who is close to retirement. EPPOC will meet with representatives from the Sciencenter, Cayuga Nature Cente r, Wells College, IO, Network, PRI and school teachers to see how much interest there is for the Floating Classroom and to ask for written letters of support for the project both for Dennis and for future grants.

• Karin also spoke with Sharon regarding the possibility of having the Network serve as the "umbrella" organization for the Floating Classroom. The Network is positive about the idea and would like to be part of the Floating Classroom Steeri ng Committee, however before becoming the umbrella organization, the Network’s Outreach Committee wants more clarity including:

1. What is the projected budget/how will the project be funded/will we need grants?
2. How much will EPPOC invest?
3. Are schools interested and can they afford it?

• EPPOC agreed that a meeting with organizations which may be interested in the project would be useful. We need to meet again to discuss the Floating Classroom in more detail and make a workplan to be presented to interested organizations. EP POC will meet Tuesday, June 25^th at 5:00pm at the entrance of the Public Library to develop a workplan and organize a meeting with other organizations which may be interested in the project. At this meeting we will also review a letter Karin has drafted as a survey which we can use to determine how much support there is for the project.

Proposed Next Meetings:

• Floating Classroom Meeting: Tuesday, June 25^th at 5:00pm at the entrance of the Public Library
• Monthly EPPOC Meeting: Tuesday, July 23rd, 2002 from 5:00pm-6:30pm, location TBA

CLW IO 2002