October 16, 2024
Attendance: Alex Kinsella, Liz Maloney, Sebastien Bigorre, Lanie Plueddemann, Carolina Camargo,
Alan Gaul, Dina Pandya
#1 Beach cleanups (first Thursday of the month at noon)
• Nov 7 - We will email STF list for volunteer. But often it works well to get a
group to show up. Students, postdocs, communications, an ERG?
• Dec 5 - Alex
#2 Lunch and Learns
• Dr. Kumara - January, after work around 5 pm, LnL + potluck event. Plant-based foods
• Stephanie Madsen and Mary Ryther - Alex will email to find their November availability
• Megan Amsler - heat pumps, home energy infrastructure, community solar
• If Stephanie and Mary can’t do November, see if Megan could do Nov/early
Dec. Otherwise, maybe March/April next year?
• At our Lunch and Learns, we should promote STF activities to get the word out more
#3 Garden/landscape updates
• LOSOS meadow
• Birch tree was saved from behind Clark and moved to the meadow by LOSOS
• Is Clark funding available? Follow up with Dave. This would be something to get
people to spend more time at the office, so it’s in the interest of Facilities.
• Invasive removal: Going well! Removed bittersweet and porcelainberry from next to Clark
lot and on the hill between Clark and Fye.
• What might be able to go in place of the invasives on that hill and also behind Clark
where a bunch of porcelainberry was just mowed? Kai will check on how much it
costs to replant with natives.
• Can we put in a tree next to Clark lot where there used to be an elm? Rick was supportive
last year but we haven’t followed up on it yet.
• There’s another tree behind Clark that will need to be moved: Kousa dogwood, diseaseresistant.
Seb is looking into whether we can move it rather than cut it down.
#4 Funding opportunities
• Facilities funding opportunity — STF list is on Google Drive and facilities will look into
how it lines up with their goals and will fit into funding.
• Link to document:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/
1HiuX_hseK2S3W5MHG9yliWEc15CE_edm9LLu4KFRz6U/edit?usp=sharing
• Lots of history on the website, so can look there for other ideas.
• DEI funding opportunity — STF could become an employee resource group (ERG) and
receive funding and structure from DEI. Requirements would be having flagship events
each year and meeting with Natalie.
• Natalie wanted us to change the “task force” part of the name. Dina points out
that we already have logo, branding, etc., so that would be pretty inconvenient.
Seb points out that our work is “short-term” compared to climate change, so the
task force name does make sense!
• We will move forward with both funding opportunities to see what next steps would be.
#5 New business
• Alex and Seb met with Stephanie Madsen and Mary Ryther from town. They have a lot
of cool things going on in the town that we can advertise to WHOI folks.
• Swap shop at the transfer station: labs/individuals can bring old items that they
don’t want.
• One-time styrofoam collection November 23rd
• Litter-free Falmouth event in November
• Idea: Once a year newsletter to the institution about STF activities and programs they
can be involved in?
• Similar to Earth Day email?
• The group likes this idea!
Our next meeting is Wednesday, November 20th at 1 pm