How to start your own

Ecology club

By Ellenore

I'm not going to preach to you the evils of pollution, cutting down the rainforest, etc. You wouldn't be READING this unless you were concerned. You definitely wouldn't read it for grammar lessons. :)

Most people are concerned but can't think of anything to do to help, short of contribute money. And if you're a teenager like me, you either have enough money that if you save up you MIGHT be able to buy a Ping-Pong ball one day or you have plenty of money but you waste it buying stupid stuff on the spur of the second that you will never use. ("Look, a long purple wire that bends! Cool! How much is it?" "One hundred bucks" "I'll take it!") The only thing you really have to give is your time and talents. So how can you help?
One good way to actually DO something about the environment is to start an ecology club. (Who DIDN'T expect that?) My friends and I helped found one last year. The club's name is YEAT (Youth Environmental Action Team). Here are the steps we took:

1) Decide you want to start an ecology club: Do you really want to spend all the time and effort it will take to start a club and keep it going? It's A LOT of work. But I personally find it very rewarding. I've become very close to everyone involved in the club and it's great knowing that you're actually doing something to help the environment. It's extremely rewarding doing a club like this. But, again, it's NOT for the weak of heart. :)

OK, we weren't exactly the ones who did this first step. A certain teacher had seen that students in our high school science club were very interested in the environment, but the science club had so many things to do during the year that not much time was spent on the environment. So she talked with the science club sponsor and they decided to make a new club, YEAT, as an offshoot of the science club.

2) Find an adult advisor: Most schools require that you have some sort of advisor. Even if they don't, it's a good idea. People will take you MUCH more seriously. A teacher or administrator is probably the best bet for an advisor because he/she has a direct "line" to the rest of the faculty and school. Ask your favorite teacher(s) if they would be willing to help you. (It's also best to ask science teachers since the environment is more in their "area") If you can't find a good teacher or administrative advisor, a parent can work as an advisor also. He/she can do more like Mrs. Vicki and that's nice, but basically an advisor makes sure you don't screw up and helps you if you do.

Our aforementioned advisor's name is Vicki. Actually it should be Mrs. S (I can't say last names), but that makes me feel like a Hedgehog on "Welcome back Kotter". Vicki, if you're there, I'm sorry I had to use your first name. BRIANA AND JAMIE MADE ME DO IT! OH GOD, THEY THREATENED ME WITH KNIVES! IT WAS AWFUL! So get mad at them :) Vicki actually started the club and does a GREAT deal of work on it in addition to her regular teaching duties.

3) Decide what you want to do project-wise: What projects do you want to do? What can you realistically do, time and money-wise? Which projects do you think would help the most?

For a list and description of YEAT projects past and present, follow the link

4) Decide how much money you need and determine how to get it: Do you want to have dues? Do you want to apply for a grant? Do numerous fund-raisers? Do you have some environmental organization in your community that will help support you?

YEAT is mostly sponsored by a Learn and Serve grant and by our local Clean and Beautiful commission, though we do have fund-raisers occasionally. There are MILLIONS of grants out there that can help you, so find out about and apply for as many as possible. Filling out all the paperwork is difficult and slightly confusing , so it's good to have your advisor help you fill it out or at least check it over. I know paperwork sucks but it's a necessary evil if you want to get a grant.

I wouldn't recommend having dues your first year, because that might put a serious damper on your membership. One reason people do YEAT is that it's completely free and that you can do as little or as much as you want to. But if you think dues will work, go for it! Fund-raisers are good, but they're better just for special projects. Unless you and your members are GREAT salespeople or one of your fathers is an ex-Beatle, you probably won't get ALL the money you need from fund-raisers. Some traditional fund-raisers are: bake sales, car washes, selling T-shirts, and asking for donations from community businesses.

Our Clean and Beautiful commission has been WONDERFUL, supplying us with both money and people. Usually when we have a contest, they supply the prize money. We are truly blessed to have their help. If you want the help of a community environmental or even service organization, talk to the president or chairperson and ask if you can make a presentation at one of their meetings. If your presentation's good and you sound like you know what you're talking about, you will usually not have a problem.

5) Schedule your projects and plan ahead: You don't have to get exact dates (you can vote on those at meetings), but it's a pretty good idea to know APPROXIMATELY when you're going to do what so you can go ahead and get school board approval, etc. ("Is the Environmental Festival going to be in late or early Spring?")

6) Write a constitution: This basically explains how the club operates. It should answer questions like: What's the club's purpose? What are the rules? Do you have offices? What are the offices? What do the officers do? If you have dues, how will you keep up with them? Will you vote on officers or somehow appoint them? How will you keep up with membership?

Will you keep up with man hours? How? How will meetings be conducted? How often are meetings? Our offices are:

Briana* and Jamie*- co-captains

Me* and Crystal- Public Relations

Charlie*- Fundraising captain

Craig, Jessica, other involved members- hall captains for paper recycling

*denotes founders

7) Gather members and other public relations stuff: To have a club you need members, the more the better. This, my friend, is why we have 2 PR officers. You do this CONSTANTLY, throughout the year. Be creative. Get people to notice you. Some ideas for PR are posters of all sizes hung up everywhere, flyers, advertise free food at meetings, reward trips/activities/parties for hard-working members, commercials on announcements, sending out reminders of activities to active members, word of mouth, and LOTS more. Those are pretty much our main things. Do ANYTHING to stand out. :)

8) The actual school year: Plan your first meeting carefully and make SURE people know about it. Continue having meetings throughout the year in addition to projects. Keep up with members by sign-in sheets. At meetings, ask participants about how the projects went: What was good? What was bad? How can we improve it for nextyear?

9) Plan for next year: Wasn't that fun! Aren't you TIRED? Rest for a while and then start planning next year. Try and think of ways to expand your projects so that the whole school system can get involved. Good luck!

If you have any further questions about YEAT or starting an ecology club,

e-mail us at: YEAT@juno.com.

YEAT projects

1. Paper recycling - We put blue trash bins in every classroom in the school with signs and a back-up ad campaign that made it clear that they were for PAPER ONLY! Then every third Thursday (or when the bins got too full), we emptied all the bins into a large bin in the back of the school designated for paper-recycling. Then a truck came and took all the paper out of the bins and to where it would be recycled. One Saturday we even took a field trip out to the recycling site.This project was rated very successful and is about to be in it's third year. Also, we havestarted this project or something like it at every school in our system.

NOTE: The little bins, big bin, and truck transportation wasfunded by Learn and Serve. This project was somewhat expensive, so I would recommend using either your big club grant or getting a mini-grant. Also, I don't know if I clearly explained this earlier, but our announcements are over the TV so we video tape commercials with a camcorder bought by Learn andServe. These guys are great. :)

2. Telephone book recycling - What do you do with your old telephone books? Phone book origami? No! Sacrifice them to the God of the science lab? No. Eat them? No. Recycle them? Yes! :) What you just heard was an excerpt from a telephone book recycling commercial (written by Jamie or Briana, phone book graciously eaten by Charlie). Telephone book recycling was a contest to see which class could collect the most phone books to be recycled. There were first, second, and third place winners and they were all awarded money prizes. They could use this money for anything. Most of our past winners have either contributed to local charities or had a pizza party. Or , most likely, they've done both.

3. Guest speakers- YEAT sponsors several guest speakers during the year to speak on environmental issues. The speakers are usually at night, and usually a good crowd shows up. There is a publicity campaign for the guest speakers. Also we are not hindered by the fact that science teachers offer extra credit if you attend a guest speaker. Vicki :) tries to find a very diverse group with diverse opinions.
One of our most interesting nights was a debate between someone in the US Forestry Service and someone with a forest protection group called Forest Watch.

4. Petitions- Establish yourself before you do this or people will think you're an environmental wacko. :) And don't do too many or people will get sick of you. Make sure your petition is written very well and pick your causes. Make SURE you check with your adult sponsor and the school administrators before doing this. Don't say I didn't warn ya.

5. Envirofest- MY personal favorite. We hold this event in the gym every spring and all of the classes come and look at it. This festival's purpose is to educate people about the environment in general as well as some individual environmental concerns. We have done this in the past by using displays (student-made and otherwise), poems, puppet shows, mini theaters, a student recyclable art contest, theme songs (if you want a copy e-mail us), and games.

6

. Adopt-A-Mile- Those of you in the USA probably already know about this. You adopt a mile of highway and pick up litter beside it once a month. This is actually a science club project, but YEAT helps out. :)

7. Christmas Tree Recycling- also known as "Bring one for the Chipper". :) This is held in January. People bring us their X-mas trees and we putthem in the chipper and make them into ..well, wood chips that people can put in their gardens. This is sponsored by the county Clean and Beautiful commission, we just help out.

8. Adopt-A-Stream -We are planning to start this project this year. We "adopt" a local stream and check it out chemically and biologically. If you find something wrong (species of insects are dying, etc.) you report it. Adopt-a-stream is a VERY useful program and we are looking forward to doing it.

9. Reward banquet- For all active YEATS. :) Both parents and faculty are invited to eat a delicious meal and watch a video of commercials and projects during the past year. They can also see the YEAT scrapbook and the YEAT project board.

10. The YEAT project board- The OFFICIAL YEAT project board. :) It shows all the projects YEAT has done over the years and is displayed at the Environmental festival and any conventions we may happen to go too.

11. The YEAT scrapbook- the OFFICIAL YEAT scrapbook. :) It shows all the projects YEAT has done in detail and is displayed with the OFFICIAL YEAT project board.