[fsf60k] jentury 21
- From: richard wiltamuth <dwiltam@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: fsf60k@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 16:54:01 -0400
dear friends,
at last night's meeting, jen brady-cotter proposed to bring us into the 21st
century with a web site. she revealed a prototype that can accommodate basic
information about our group such as a mission statement and contacts, as
well as photos, video, and links for facebooking, tweeting, tittering and
all those state-of-the-art means of communication. a logo for the site is
key, since it will top each page, and jen has a graphic artist in mind to
create one. the aim is to have the site online by october, possibly preceded
by an "under construction" early form. jen, who will be the site
administrator, is the perfect person to lead in the creation of this mother
of all web sites, but she will need lots of assistance---particularly in
providing content.
for the immediate future, jen plans to convene a brain-storming session on
the porch of her new summer (and fall, winter and spring) residence in
patchogue in about two weeks. at that meeting, assignments for generating
content will be made. if you would like to attend, email her at
jbradycotter@xxxxxxxx if you can't attend but have suggestions on design or
content, email her. after the meeting, jen hinted at the possibility of a
celebratory toast at the blue point brewing co. facility, which is
conveniently located nearby; she is negotating with the proprietor.
jen estimates the web site will cost $100 to $300 per year. this compares
favorably with estimates obtained from three commercial design companies on
long island. the cheapest of those has a startup fee of $999 and monthly
maintenance cost of $49. this plan does not offer nearly the features
proposed by jen.
in other business, pete white pointed out that friends paid $1,400 to have
tax returns prepared., even though most of the money moved in and out of the
account came from the students club and the college groups. plus many hours
wre spent in getting the numbers together. he suggested a sharing of the
cost and workload. formation of campus chapters is one way to ease the
burden.
residents of nuevo amanecer have not getting water from their well for
several weeks; instead, another nonprofit is temporarily bringing a water
tanker. the problem stems from the demise of the diesel generator and an
arsenic test by a purported government employee. this person then urged
drilling a new well about half a mile away and piping that water to nuevo.
he then suggested he would be glad to serve as the contractor for the new
project. meanwhile, the residents of the area where the new well would be
dug are opposed to the idea of sharing their water, so drilling there seems
unlikely. we agreed that whatever agency employs him needs to be contacted
to find out whether the shutdown is valid and if so, how the arsenic levels
can be brought into compliance. there are two suggested ways to reduce the
arsenic. one is to have each household filter its drinking water with a
device created by a new jersey scientist. the willingness and ability of
nuevos to do this was questioned. the other method is to install a filter at
the source to treat the water before it goes into storage tanks. pete
pointed out that $6,500 being held in a nuevo water account by conchita
could pay for the filters. it was pointed out that only water being consumed
or being used to wash vegetables or other foods being ingested has to be
treated. water for irrigation, bathing, animals or other purposes does not
have to be treated, so the amount of water that has to be treated could be
only a fraction of the total water brought out of the ground.
a recent visit to nuevo showed that 80 percent of the homeowners' plots have
not been planted. the reasons are unclear, pete said, but they may be afraid
to plant until the rainy season definitely arrives. lack of motivation is
another possibility, so a give-back policy may be needed. for example, if a
family's children are not going to school, their water could be reduced.
finally, the group agreed to have a space at cow harbor day, sunday, sept.
27. volunteers and tables will be needed.
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