Post-Meeting Announcements

Veg/Vegan Nutrition Workshop
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•       VERDE will be hosting a workshop on vegetarian and vegan nutrition on Tuesday, March 2 at 7:30pm. Dietetic students from the organization Students Understanding Nutrition Now will be doing a presentation on where to get certain types of nutrients when eating a vegetarian or vegan diet. This workshop will take place in SLC 101D.
      -We will be chalking on Sunday night near the Union to advertise for this event. Contact fsuverde@gmail.com, if you are interested in helping with this.

Needed: Someone with experience writing press releases
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•       VERDE is hosting Meatout Day at the end of March (see meeting minutes for more info) and we want to reach as much of Tallahassee as possible with it. One of the ways we are looking to do this is by sending out press releases to the every local news venue available but we need help. Contact fsuverde@gmail.com if you have experience writing press releases and want to spread the word of Meatout Day.

Meatout Day pending date change
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•       Presently, the Meatout celebration is being planned for March 26 and 27 NOT March 19 and 20. The decision to move back the date of the celebration was made after the general VERDE meeting to give us more time to plan and advertise because we believe this can be a truly awesome event. (This is the only change in the Meatout plans, everything else in the meeting minutes remains the same).

Pending state legislature that affects animals
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•       The 2010 Florida Legislative Session starts on Tuesday, March 2, 2010 and there are a several proposed bills that affect animals
       -Senate Bill 1276 and House Bill 543 aims to allow local governments to ban specific dog breeds this would force people that live with dogs of those breeds to move. This bill would actually but not actually doing anything to address the abuse that is often inflicted on these dogs.
       -Senate Bill 318 and House Bill 709 would require people possessing, selling, trading and importing certain venomous non-native reptiles to have a permit for handling the animal. This bill would address both the capture of venomous reptiles for sale as pets and the damage that they can do to our ecosystem as invasive species. People who currently have permits for reptiles that fall under these classifications would be grandfathered in.
       -See the text of these bills here:
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/SECTIONS/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=42937
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/SEctions/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=43125
•          At Tuesday’s meeting, attendees decided that they were interested promoting awareness about this legislature, there might be a campaign in the future
 
Meeting Minutes 03/01/2010
 
Meeting Minutes
February 23, 2010

Recap of Liberation Exhibit
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•       There was a brief review of our February event, the Liberation Exhibit
      -VERDE hosted PETA2’s exhibit entitled “Liberation” from Feb. 16 to Feb. 18 on FSU’s Landis Green.  The exhibit approached vegetarianism and veganism from an ethical standpoint, pointing out the similarities between past cruel practices towards and present cruel practices towards humans.
     -The exhibit drew a lot of attention and visitors.
* The local news station, WCTV did a minute long segment on it, a story about VERDE.
* A story about the exhibit appeared in the FSview (on the front page, below the fold).
* A lot of people stopped and asked questions about the exhibit, picked up literature about vegetarianism/veganism/animal cruelty.
•       A little over 30 people joined our mailing list.
    -Check VERDE’s Facebook for pictures of the exhibit.

Meatout Day Preparation
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•       There was a discussion about the upcoming VERDE-Environmental Service Program) event, Meatout Day.
     -March 20 is Meatout Day, a day where people are encouraged to learn about the benefits of veg/vegan lifestyles and ultimately try eating solely veg or vegan for a day.
     -Right now, Meatout Day is being organized as a two-part event
         * First, we are trying to get local dining places to offer really nice veg/vegan specials on March 19 (the day before Meatout).
            + We are trying to get local (off-campus) restaurants that are already veg. friendly to offer really nice veg/vegan specials and carry a flier letting people know that Meatout Day is coming.
            + We are also trying to get Suwannee and Fresh Foods to make specials of the day veg/vegan and spread the word of Meatout with advertisements on their tables.
               o We will be suggesting specific recipes for the meals, so they have something to reference.
      * Second, we are working on getting together a veg. block party and Meatout Day dinner party.
         + For the veg. block party, we are aiming to get people from all the different veg. friendly and animal rescue related places in one area distributing info and vending different food items.
              o The block party would take place during the day on March 20.
         + The Meatout dinner party will be a relaxed affair with a speaker (who will be announced at a later time) and some bands playing.
             o We are looking into getting this catered by a local vegan chef.
         + Currently, we are looking to have both March 20 events at the Infoshop (the block party would outside in front of it, the dinner party would be inside)
   -There was a discussion about the different ways we can advertise the Meatout event. Meeting attendees volunteered to help with some of the following:
     * Dropping off fliers on/off campus
     * Tabling (on campus most likely) at Market Wednesday, other days
     * Chalking on campus
     * Finding bands to play at the dinner
     * If you are interested in volunteering for any of the activities mentioned below, contact fsuverde@gmail.com)

Campaigning for better veg/vegan options at FSU
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•       There was a discussion about possible campaigning for better veg/vegan options on campus.
   - It suggested that we encourage veg/vegan students who have meal plans to contact the management at the dining halls
    * It was suggested that we put up fliers and table to motivate students to write-in to the managers of the dining halls (contact info would be provided) relaying their dissatisfaction with the current meals offered.
    * It was suggested that we designate a week later this semester for this activity.
    * Note: A more hands on approach to improving food in the dining halls might be feasible if someone who currently have a meal plan really wants to get a campaign started. No one at our meeting had a meal plan.
    - It was suggested that we petition the Trading Post to carry more veg/vegan friendly items

Putting together pro-veg/animal rights literature
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•       There was a discussion about creating more pro-veg/vegan and animal rights literature
   - Some of the suggested topics for pro-veg/vegan and animal rights lit were:
    * Ecological impact/sustainability of veg/vegan diets
    * Cruelty in the meat industry
    * The cruelty involved the egg/dairy industries
    * A flier providing responses to some of the reasons people say they can’t go veg or vegan
  - It was suggested that VERDE members get together after Spring Break to have a flier/zine making night (and potluck)
   * It was suggested that attendees gather information on topics they are interested in spreading information about, bring their info to the flier/zine night where will put together as much lit. as possible and critique at a late meeting.
 
 
VERDE is hosting a nutrition workshop!

On March 2, dietetic students from Students for Understanding Nutrition Now (SUNN) will be giving a special presentation about how to eat right as a vegetarian or vegan. Find out what nutrients are already abundant in many plant based food and which other ones you might have to work a little harder to get.

This workshop is sure to be educational whether you are just interested in learning about a plant based diet, recently switched over to a plant based diet or have been veg or vegan for a while.

Facebook link.
 
 
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