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<br /> <br /> 1 <br />Orange County <br />Commission for the Environment <br /> <br />Meeting Summary <br /> <br />April 11, 2016 <br />Richard Whitted Meeting Facility, Hillsborough <br />________________________________________________________________________________________________________ <br /> <br />PRESENT: Lydia W egman (Chair), May Becker, Peter Cada, Thomas Eisenhart, Lynne <br />Gronback, Loren Hintz, Bill Kaiser, Bill Newby, Rebecca Ray, Sheila Thomas- <br />Ambat <br /> <br />ABSENT: Jeanette O’Connor, David Welch <br /> <br />STAFF: Rich Shaw, Brennan Bouma GUEST: Kathleen Smith <br />_______________________________________________________________________________________________________ <br /> <br />I. Call to Order – Wegman called the meeting to order at 7:30 pm. <br /> <br />II. Ad ditions or Changes to Agenda – Shaw handed out a gift (flashlight) to CFE <br />members from the Board of County Commissioners’ office as a gesture of appreciation <br />for the citizen volunteers who serve on this and other advisory boards. <br /> <br />III. Minutes – Wegman asked for comments on the February 8 and March 14 meeting <br />summaries. Kaiser noted that he should have been listed as present. Hintz motioned <br />approval with that correction; seconded by Cada. Motion approved unanimously. <br /> <br />IV. CFE Outreach Opportunities / News Articles – Shaw reviewed CFE’s March meeting <br />discussion of potential news articles for 2016, including articles on climate change, <br />hydrilla, new parks, and the effects of poverty on the environment. Cada and Kaiser <br />discussed ways of summarizing information from other sources rather than writing new <br />content. CFE members agreed to change the frequency of news articles to quarterly. <br /> <br /> Bouma reminded CFE members there are other outreach opportunities, such as the Last <br />Friday events in Hillsborough, the upcoming Earth Evening event (April 29), and radio <br />spots on WCHL radio and the new WHUP radio station in Hillsborough. Gronback, <br />Kaiser, and Hintz agreed to help out at the Earth Evening event in Hillsborough. <br /> <br />CFE members discussed ways of engaging the public using social media, such as <br />Facebook and Twitter. Ray and Cada described how these outlets can be used to <br />provide news, photos, and links to more detailed information. Gronback noted how social <br />media can be much more effective at reaching people than the newspaper. Hintz <br />suggesting including content from some of the update items on CFE meeting agendas. <br /> <br />CFE members recalled that former CFE member Steve Niezgoda developed a CFE <br />Facebook page, but it has not been used since May 2015. Gronback offered to contact <br />Jeanette O’Connor to learn who has access to the Facebook account for providing new <br />content. She noted that the CFE ought to develop some code of conduct for the use of <br />this site. Hintz offered to post information about the Earth Evening event. <br /> <br />Kaiser asked for introductory information on the use of these and other forms of social <br />media. Wegman asked Gronback and Cada to help lead a discussion on the use of <br />social media at the May meeting. Cada will look into whether his source of summaries of <br />peer-reviewed articles on various topics would be suitable for use by the CFE.