Minutes

Surfrider Foundation Oregon Chapter

Portland Organizing Committee Meeting

10 June 2003

www.Surfrider.org

Markus Mead

Katie Breene

Melissa Gilbert

Andi Bernard

Carin Schweitzer

Haley Brown

Garren Watkins

David Revell

Rob Williams

Mark Hupkins

Josh Nielsen

Dave Spencer

Chris Bessmer

Magnus Bernard

1. Introductions
2. Review – PNW Training Conference

The PNW training conference was held last weekend in Westport, WA. Kevin Ranker our PNW coordinator, Mark Rauscher and Matt McClain from National, and Dave Revell, the Oregon Campaign Coordinator all presented on interesting and useful topics. The Bend organizing committee has been having great success at their general interest meetings and we hope they will start up Surfrider’s Snowrider Project this Winter. Other topics were: Beachology, Media contacts, and Tips on Coordinating with State Agencies. Minutes from the conference can be reviewed on our Oregon Chapter website.

3. Mother Ocean Day Festival

Oregon had two festivals – one in Pacific City and one in Coos Bay. Both events were successful with beach clean up, sand sculpting contest, clean water paddle out, and raffle. Thank you to all of the wonderful merchants who donated raffle items, and to our dedicated volunteers who helped out at both events.

4. Membership Drive

Surfrider’s annual membership drive is on NOW! It continues between Memorial Day and Labor Day. This year as an incentive for our volunteers we are offering a bonus. For every person who you get to sign on as a member, you get a sticker. For every five folks you sign up, you get a free Oregon Chapter t-shirt! Individual, business, and corporate memberships are available.

 

 

5. Department of Human Services/BWTF

The Oregon Department of Human Services will host a public meeting regarding their proposed ocean water testing program on Wednesday, June 25th between 6:00 and 8:00 PM at the Portland State Building, 800 NE Oregon St. in Portland.

The reason Oregon is now implementing a water quality program is because our volunteers and our letters from concerned citizens.

This meeting is being held because our volunteers, members, and supporters sent a significant number of emails, letters and phone calls to the state indicating that it was important to us, the beach going public, to have an input on Oregon’s water quality testing program.

This is what you can do: 1) Attend the meeting, 2) We will train you on speaking points, 3) Let us know what aspects of water quality testing are of importance to you so that we can make sure everyone’s concerns and comments are heard. Please show up! We want standing room only to make sure the state understands just how important this is to the public.

For more info go to the website or contact Markus Portlandsurfrider@hotmail.com or Rob rideoutas@hotmail.com .

6. Chris Swain, Activist Swimmer

Swain is swimming all 1,243 miles of the Columbia River from the headwaters to the Pacific--a historic first--in order to launch a comprehensive campaign designed to raise public awareness of the Columbia, educate the public about the spectrum of threats facing the River, highlight promising solutions, and connect interested citizens with local protection and restoration efforts.

We are attempting to swim (we’ll paddle our surfboards) a portion of the Columbia River with him. He will be in the Portland area next week. Tentative date is next Thursday, 11:45am on Tomahawk Island. We need enough volunteers to join us to make this event media worthy. Media worthy means lots of folks, and lots of bodies in the water with him. For more info go to the website http://www.columbiaswim.org or contact Markus at Portlandsurfrider@hotmail.com or Rob at rideoutas@hotmail.com.

7. OMSI – Coral Reef Adventure (3 Mar –Sept 2003)

The display committee has been meeting frequently and they have come up with a wonderful mock up of a display gear towards children and adults living in Oregon. We hope to have the display up at OMSI within the next week or two. Way to go Haley, Katie, Andi, Dave, and Greg!!

Volunteer opportunities: 1) Tign up to work at the OMSI booth. Contact Tina at Tiamotina@cs.com.

 

 

8. Sand Sculpting Contest – Seaside, OR

We have been asked to have a booth and to potentially participate in the Annual Sand Sculpting Contest in Seaside, OR. To help coordinate, or to participate in, this event please contact Tina at Tiamotina@cs.com.

9. Media Contacts

We have a number of issues on the table at the moment and having personal media contacts would be very helpful in getting the word out regarding these different issues. We are also looking for a volunteer to coordinate our media efforts. This would entail being our contact to the media contact who would then triage reporters to the appropriate chair people. If you have any experience with the media/PSA’s etc, or have a media contact, please contact Markus at Portlandsurfrider@hotmail.com.

10. Opens