Officer Information for OceanS.A.F.E.

Hello Everyone, we have selected some of our officers...Kandice Garibay will serve as our Volunteer Coordinator and Robby Gross will be our Social Coordinator. We are still in need of a treasurer and an Outreach Coordinator. Please see below for descriptions of the needed officers:

III. Treasurer: The treasurer will be responsible for all financial aspects of the group. This includes obtaining funding, collection and turning in of dues, and keeping track of all expenses and filling out necessary paperwork for the group. There is also an orientation required for the treasurer to go through to understand all responsibilities of the org. Sources of funding include: Senate of College Councils(SSB 4.204) or call 471-3166.
IV. Outreach Coordinator: This person is responsible for bringing outreach ideas to the organization at our first of the month meetings. This person can choose to do their own research to gather ideas or solicit them from members of the org. The latter is considered the best idea. The OC will present a list of ideas at our first of the month meeting explaining ways in which we can support each of these and then the group will vote. It is imperative that whichever ideas are brought up have enough background for the group to understand how and if we can help.

Those of you who are interested in these positions, please email me and let me know: oceanadventurer@mail.utexas.edu


If you want to pursue one of these positions, you have to plan on attending the meetings because that is when we will be discussing the options of the group. Robby suggested a co-chair option as well, which I think would be a great idea. So if there are multiple people interested in the positions, let me know and you both can head up that part and it would also make it more productive, I think. That being said, I am posting the other two positions below; if someone is interested in joining either one of these committees, let me know as well.

V. Volunteer Coordinator: This person is responsible for finding local/statewide sources of volunteer activities for the group. We will be participating in one volunteer activity at the end of each month. This person should research or solicit ideas for the group to participate in and coordinate date/time for the event to take place. It should be something relating to water in some way or rehabilitation of wildlife. These ideas should also be brought up at the first of the month meetings and no later than the second meeting of the month. This person is also responsible for coordinating with the staff of the volunteer location to let them know we are coming and want to participate.
VI. Social Coordinator: This person is responsible for our parties and will work closely with the volunteer coordinator. Parties or social gatherings should take place after the volunteer activity has been done and should be conducted in a safe manner for everyone. These can consist of anything form pool parties, IMAX movies, dinners, bowling, putt-putt…this is a way for the organization to be rewarded for doing outreach/volunteering activities and also to get to know one another better.

Information for current officers is as follows:

President: April Idlett; oceanadventurer@mail.utexas.edu
Vice President/Volunteer Coordinator: Kandice Garibay; kandice_1113@yahoo.com
Social Coordinator: Robby Gross; robbygross@hotmail.com

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Next Monday we will be discussing our outreach project, volunteer event and our first social outing. See you then. ~AMI

OceanS.A.F.E. meeting today

Today we are having our meeting at the turtle pond at 6pm. We will be discussing officer positions and discussing the first task our our group. For those of you who had trouble finding us last time. I have dark hair and am wearing a light blue t shirt with a red hoodie. I will be under the tree probably with my laptop open. If you are interested in being an officer, please try to make the meeting so we can meet you and you can find out more about the duties. Thanks, see you at 6pm. ~AMI

OceanS.A.F.E. News for 9/21/06

Hello all, due to an overwhelming response of members requesting Mondays, I have decided to keep our Monday meeting time. I apologize to those of you who preferred Tuesdays...you can always check the website or email me if you want to know what is going on. That being said, our second meeting will be held on Monday, Sept. 25 @6pm at the turtle pond. We will be discussing officer positions, so if you are interested in being an officer, it is important to try and make this meeting. We will also be discussing membership and funding for the group. I have a meeting with The Ocean Conservancy next week for ideas for our group as well which we will be talking about at the first October meeting. That's it for now, everyone have a great weekend and have fun at the game if you're going. I will see you on Monday!!
-AMI

Meeting Details from 9/18/06

Hello, yesterday we had our first OceanS.A.F.E. meeting. We met some of the members and discussed ways to increase our membership. We currently have 28 members on the email list and are looking to expand this number greatly. The next meeting we will be discussing membership and officer descriptions. If you are intersted in being an officer, please attend the next meeting to find out more. After that, the first meeting of every month, we will be voting on our outreach event of the month as well as our volunteer activity. Outreach events consist of issues such as overfishing, pollution, captivity issues, etc... and will involve the group getting info. out about these concerns. Our volunteer activity will be more hands on and will include things like canoe cleanups, adopt a creek cleanups, Barton Springs outreach, etc...the volunteer event will always take place at the end of the month. The two meetings in between outreach voting and our volunteer activity will be focused on making resources to educate the public...t-shirts, signs, buttons, etc...and also guest speakers. So everything went well and we hope to see everyone at the next meeting.

First Meeting Today...Sept. 18th

Hi Everyone, don't forget that our first meeting will be held today at 6pm at the turtle pond. I was going to change the location because of the rain, but it looks like it will be nice for the rest of the day. Hope you all had a good weekend...my friends and I were successful with the beach cleanup and Padre was great as usual. I am excited for our first meeting and hope to see you there.

Event News as of 9/11/06

Ok...so the Padre event is still going on. Don't worry about not being able to make the first event...we will be planning another trip down later in the year when everyone gets adjusted and not on ACL weekend :) The Padre meeting was changed today because of weather. If anyone still wants to go, be sure to call me (408-644-6702) before Wednesday so I can take care of the room for you, unless you're making your own plans. Reminder, we will have our first meeting next Monday...and will be discussing more upcoming events if you would like to participate. Have a great week...also if the weather looks bad on Monday, be sure to check this site for location changes.

A "Padre meeting" will take place here at the turtle pond...Mon. 9/11/06 at 6pm. We will discuss transportation and work out any reservation issues that need to be handled. All who wish to go, please attend. If you can't make it, call me. 

Event News as of 9/7/06

Hi all, everything is going well so far. We have 5 people expressing interest about the trip. News on the motel update. Earlier we quoted $60/per person based on 4 person occupancy. Today we found that the Super 8 has cheaper prices and it would actually run $30/per person. That is a lot cheaper and leaves more money for food and recreation. We will be holding a short meeting @6pm next Monday (9/11) at the turtle pond for those of you who want to go. It will be a chance for all the Padre people to get together and meet and coordinate any travel arrangements that need to be taken care of. I will also offer my two carpool spots if anyone still needs a ride. I turned in our paperwork today and we are official...also our organization advisor is Dr. Mike Raney...most of you know him as your Marine/Freshwater Bio. advisor as well. We discussed getting professors from UTMSI to stick around on Wed. and offer mini-lectures to our org., so that is something else in the works. Hopefully, this post clears up any confusion on the trip and otherwise. If you can't make the "Padre meeting" give me a call and I can take down your info. so we can get you set up with transportation. Members, my phone number is 408-644-6702...call me for any reason. I can help clear up any issues and take care of arrangements if need be.~AMI

South Padre Beach CleanUp---Sat., Sept. 16 @ 9:00am. Join OceanS.A.F.E. for its kickoff event!! 

First Meeting and Event Coming Up!!

Hello Marine Bio Students! OceanS.A.F.E.'s first meeting will be held September 18, @ 6pm at the turtle pond (next to the Biology greenhouse and the FAC). We will be discussing the logistics of the group as well as planning upcoming events and volunteer projects for the group. We will also be discussing items of concern that need our attention (i.e. overfishing, pollution, sea animals in captivity, etc...) We will focus on one issue per month and devote our time and energy into bringing awareness to that issue as well as doing what it takes to help remedy the issues. Very similar to the marine science seminar, we will try to bring speakers to the group that can help to shed light on certain issues and let us know what we can do to help. I want to get a friend of mine from The Ocean Conservancy to do our first topic...which would be overfishing in the gulf. I want to also announce our FIRST EVENT! We are going to South Padre on Sept. 16 to participate in a 4 hour beach clean up. My self and some other people are leaving Fri. night and planning on coming back Sun. afternoon. Hotel for the weekend is $238.00. That includes a room on the beach with two queen beds. I suggest 4 people to a room which would make the cost of lodging $60.00 for the entire weekend. Obviously you would have to bring your own spending money. For those of you who do not have transportation, I can take two people in my car (first come, first serve). You can also carpool with each other. I am more than willing to take care of hotel arrangements for everyone, that would require a definite YES on your part that you're going. Otherwise I have to pay a cancellation fee and I don't want to do that. Details of the weekend are as follows: Sat. morning @ 9am meet at Travelodge hotel on the gulf side. We will start from there and do cleanup for 4 hours...afterwards we will have lunch at this great tiki restaurant on the beach. Then we can go surfing, body boarding, swimming, etc...There are also dolphin watches available as well as the Sea turtle rescue center located across the street from the hotel. If you want to go for sure, please send me an email confirming...remember I can take two in my car, basically the first two people who respond get the spots. I would love for everyone to be able to go...I think this is a great way to kick off our group and also a good way for us to get to know each other. Please send me an email: oceanadventurer@mail.utexas.edu
if you want to go. Otherwise, I will see the rest of you at the first meeting! Have a good week and remember to bookmark this website, so you can reference it easier. It will updated every other day with news about the org! ~AMI

Introducing OceanS.A.F.E.

I would like to introduce the new student organization, OceanS.A.F.E. This organization is currently open to University of Texas/Austin students that are interested in marine conservation. We will be having our first meeting on Septemeber 18th at 6pm at the turtle pond. If we have bad weather, I will update this site with a new location. This is the offical website of the organization. All anouncements and meeting times will be posted here. I am planning a trip to South Padre to participate in a coastal cleanup the weekend of Sept. 16, 2006. My friends and I will most likely be camping and will be cleaning up the beach for 4 hours on Sat. The rest of the weekend will be left to you to spend as you like. There are dolphin watches, sea turtle rescue centers, surfing, body boarding and live music. There is also no UT home game this weekend, I checked:. This will be the first event coming up. I do volunteer work with The Ocean Conservancy and will work on getting one of the members to come speak at one of our meetings in the coming month. This organization will be participating in many exciting events. Some include: Town Lake canoe cleanups, Adopt-A-Creek programs, Barton Springs outreach, local diving (if certified), field trips to UTMSI, beach trips to learn about animal rescue,outreach seminars. We will be addressing important conservation issues and doing our part to get the word out and offer support. We will also have round table discussions of marine science topics to relay information to students. Notice to members or interested students, please post all inquiries about the organization to this website, via the comment link or send them to oceanadventurer@mail.utexas.edu
I am looking forward to getting this organization up and running and also to meeting all of you. Thanks. ~AMI