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Sustaining a Student Sustainability Movement

Sustaining a Student Sustainability Movement. Ben Datema and Patrick Margherio Sustain Mizzou University of Missouri. What is Sustain Mizzou.

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Sustaining a Student Sustainability Movement

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  1. Sustaining a Student Sustainability Movement Ben Datema and Patrick Margherio Sustain Mizzou University of Missouri

  2. What is Sustain Mizzou “Sustain Mizzou is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit student organization that promotes a sustainable way of life at the University of Missouri through education, cooperation, and local action regarding the environment” • Non-partisan • Positive, local action oriented • Run by volunteers for volunteers • No membership dues, time requirements

  3. Some Results • Tiger Tailgate Recycling : 78 tons (going on 5 years) • $12,000+ collected for local food (5 years) • 500+ notebooks made • 14 ongoing projects (18 total in org’s history) • $79,000 in grants (4 years) • Recycling Coordinator Hired (2007) • Student Sustainability Fee passed (Feb 2009) • Campus Sustainability Plan created (Jan 2009) • Sustainability Office Created (July 2009) • Record Meeting attendance: 94 (two weeks ago. It started with 7 members in 2004) • Advocacy meetings with everyone from professors to Chancellor, System President, and Board of Curators • Started Statewide Conference, Keynoted MEEA Conference • Going on 6 years active, with 6 presidents, 26 execs ever, and 7 exec board transitions (partial or whole)

  4. Advocacy: Evolution vs Revolution • Evolution: transitioning from what is to what should be over time by changing the current system progressively in positive ways • Revolution: upsetting or partially dismantling the current system and replacing it – in whole or in part – with something new • Everyone is trying to do something good Ex: Stepwise vs Sudden change

  5. Organizational Threats • Rapid Turnover Rate • Opportunity Hoarding/Ego • Competing Priorities • Lack of Initiative • Lack of Critical Mass • Attrition/Burnout • Cliquey-ness

  6. Leadership Development Process • Identifying interest • Talking to interested members • Education/History of campus issues • Giving interested members small responsibility (Convincing them that they can be leaders) • Gradually larger responsibility (Convincing them that they can be good leaders) • Self-actualization (They don’t need you anymore!)

  7. Leadership Transition • Demystify • What does the job actually mean? • What does the job actually look like? • Empower (Transition) • Give them the opportunity and power to enact change • Support (Get out of the way!!!) • Be available for questions and provide support, but let them run the show! • Acknowledge their formal authority in the group (no, really! Get out of the way!!!)

  8. Seniors: Get the hell out of the way!!!

  9. Documentation & Institutionalization • Being Dynamic • Meeting campus needs • Testing projects to prove their value, then (possibly) transitioning them to staff/faculty • Putting projects on the shelf • Collective knowledge (odds are someone ahs tried this before)

  10. Failure is not bad!!! • Make plenty of mistakes, but learn from them • Don’t make the same mistake twice (or three times) • You’re in college to learn, not to know

  11. Contact Us!!! • Pat Margherio • PatrickMargherio@gmail.com • (314) 610-1817 • Facebook! Twitter! LinkedIn! • Ben Datema • BDatema@gmail.com • (417) 818-9689 • Facebook! Twitter! LinkedIn! sustainmizzou.org studentsustainability.missouri.edu

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