Notes from 3/15/2011

Today's meeting was a skype session with a new guide, Mr. Ronald Mierau. Here's what we learned:

• During the 1960s and '70s, Mr. Mierau worked as a civil engineer with a humanitarian group in Vietnam.
• Projects that he assisted with: (1) constructing a 26 mile irrigation system of canals for water distribution and (2) refugee housing. Houses were built simplistically to maximize the number that could be built with the group's funding.
• One lesson learned from the irrigation project was that it did not carry water to families farther away, partly because of social constraints.
• Mr. Mierau gave the team helpful information about outhouses and also mentioned how he encountered toilets built over fishponds. As for the outhouses, Mr. Mierau emphasized the importance of including a screened smoke stack painted black; wood is not a suitable material to build with in Cambodia; 1-3 years for 6 people to fill latrine pit.
• Confirmed that he is able to help the team with working in an Asian culture. (Can be a social adviser)
• Suggested that the team look for latrine information from the WHO, Peace Corps, and IVS

The team also discussed upcoming events:

• Skype with Soknay on Sunday March 20th
• REB demonstration Friday March 18th @ 2:00-3:00 pm
• Meeting. Sunday March 20th @ 2:30 pm
• Farm trip with Dr. Wilkie: Dudley Farm and/or Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park
• Remember to watch the video of the $35 latrine that Richard sent us. Here's the link.

Notes from 2/27/2011

Agenda/what we accomplished:

• Organized Powerpoint slideshow presentation for the March 2nd meeting with Richard and Susan
• Discussed what to include in a Handbook for Richard and Susan:

- overview of contents

- 512

- copy of the Powerpoint presentation

- Post-it reminder for for banquet and winter break assessment trip target

- contact info

- list of questions

- timeline (to be prepared by Jon)

- first half of post-assessment forms

- notes from skype meeting with Soknay and Polin

- assessment trip goals

• Formulated a list of questions for Richard and Susan:

(1) What are some pressing needs of the Cambodia people that you feel are important to address?

(2) Is this latrine project feasible?

(3) Does it address the most current pressing needs of the Cambodian people?

(4) Are you knowledgeable of other latrine initiatives in our target area?

(5) Do you have any knowledge on a good price limit to make our project cost efficient and affordable?

(6) With knowledge of the government program, does it affect your stance on the project?

(7) What are your thoughts on Soknay’s proposed education project?

(8) What are your thoughts on Soknay’s proposed seed funding project?

• Contacted the following people:

- Soknay for the government official contact info (Jon)

- SNV representative for a skype date (David)

- Mr. Ronald Mierau follow-up (Briana)

- Dr. Lindner for Dr. Greene's contact info, March 2nd's meeting, etc (Alex)

• Proposed stages for our project:

Stage (1): All contacts and documents input - Friday April 1st

- Dr. Greene's latrine designs (plan a visit in March)

Stage (2): Solid latrine design (research) and Education Program

- Option ideas for latrine design - Wednesday April 20th

- Rain collection (ceiling runoff?)

Stage (3): Assessment Trip

Stage (4): Build our latrine at Dr. Wilke's digester (experiment)

- Reassurance

- show SC

Stage (5): Method of Implementation

- SC method?

- Instruction manual?

• Discussed the following items:

- contacting EWB-International Cambodia group

- when/how to begin preparing educational program

- contacting/linking up with photojournalism student for documentation

Next Meeting: Tuesday March 1st at 9:30 AM in Library West- we will be practicing our presentation for Wednesday night's meeting. Be prepared to talk about your slides.

(Ps. Sorry the formatting is a bit messed up)

Notes from 2/22/2011 Meeting with Dr. Lindner

The goal of today's meeting with Dr. Lindner was primarily to show her our presentation for next week's meeting with Richard. Dr. Lindner approved the presentation, but had a few suggestions:

1) Change title from "Design Specifications" to "Proposed Design Elements (or Options)"

2) Add the slides from the last meeting with Sokany

3) Prepare a notebook for Richard that includes:

- a list of questions

- our contact information

- a copy of the presentation

Other items discussed:

• In the future, plan to have 1 meeting per semester with Richard
• Maximum cost of latrines (~$50)?
• Remind Richard of Banquet on April 6th
• Add a couple of days to our assessment trip and conduct a program about engineering. Ask Macedonia about their education program. Connect with schools in Cambodia, Cambodian engineers, and university faculty.
• Create a fundraising project for home gardens
• Address water management issues in a second phase, overlapping with the latrines (Phase 1: Latrines --> Phase 2: Water Management). *Set intentional target dates
• Develop a means of gaining photo permission (ie. signing a statement of consent) to address ethics

Next meeting: Sunday February 27th @ 8:00 pm

Notes from 2/20/2011: Skype with Polin & Soknay

At tonight's meeting, the team skyped with Polin and Soknay. Here is the information gathered from our conversation:

• Latrines are considered a good project, however:
• The Cambodian government plans to implement 1 latrine per family by 2025
• Starting in the urban areas and working their way out into the rural areas
• Soknay will give us contacts from the Cambodian government who are a part of this latrine project
• We would create a latrine design that can be shared with the government to implement

Other possible projects:

• water management (community pond, canal, dam) to help with the 6 month period of no rain; mainly concerning agricultural purposes*
• introduce engineering to students going to university during a 2-3 month stay**
• small home garden project (~$1000-2000)

* Soknay stressed that the water management project would be very helpful and important for the communities. The team discussed the possibility of incorporating water management into the latrine project.

** Since a 2-3 month stay seems a little unfeasible at this point, the team discussed the idea of offering engineering workshops during our assessment trip, as a small side project, since local students expressed a lot of interest in the project during the previous assessment trip.

Other updates:

1) To maintain effective communication, we will be skyping Soknay and Polin once a month- Alex added these future dates to the calendar.

2) We discussed skyping SNV within the next week or so.

3) Unfortunately, the IC replied that there are not any Cambodian students currently available for us to talk with. We discussed other options of native Cambodian contacts.

4) We will be meeting with Dr. Wilke within the next couple of weeks.

5) The meeting with Richard and Susan is officially set for Wednesday March 2nd at 7:00 PM.

6) Our next meeting is Tuesday February 22nd at 9:30 AM in Dr. Lindner's office.

Presentation for Richard and Susan

1) Intro and Objective (Sarah)

2) Assessment trip, Conclusion, and how we got there (David)

3) Design Ideas (Ashley)

- Materials (REB and materials) (Laureen and Alex)

- Costs (Laureen and Alex)

4) Collaborations (roles too) (Sarah)

- Soknay/Polin

- Greene & Ronald

5) Conclusion & Questions

- goals, objectives, their thoughts

Drop individual parts in the dropbox folder "Put your slides here"

Notes from 2/15/2011

Our first meeting at the new time of 9:30 AM was quite successful.

The agenda:

1) Mr. Ronald Mierau – email; skype/conference call date; email Kristin

2) Richard and Susan – email date to Dr. Lindner; need to make a presentation

3) Post-Assessment forms ?!?

4) Contact the International Center again

5) Dr. Greene - email Dr. Lindner to obtain contact info

6) Skype with Soknay - email and ask for future availability

During the meeting, we accomplished this list and also received a lovely REB presentation from Laureen. The next meeting will be at 8:30 PM this Thursday the 17th to begin preparing our presentation for Richard and Susan.

Note to everyone: remember to forward all responses you receive to your emails to all group members!

Notes from 2/6/2011

The highlight of last night's meeting was Alex and Sagar's informative presentation on latrine piping, which should be in the dropbox for future reference.

As a side note, we are attempting to change our regular meeting time from 8:00 PM on Sunday to some time during the week, perhaps in the morning. Everyone be sure to fill out the new doodle!