ACA November 2014 General Meeting

The final ACA meeting of the Fall 2014 semester was held on Tuesday, November 18th in the SAC Ballroom. Full meeting minutes can be found on the ACA website: http://www.utexas.edu/staff/aca/minutes/2014/11/18

Generously hosted by the Office of Sustainability, the meeting boasted a refreshing twist: integration of sustainable breakfast and waste management with reusable utensils and recycling and compost bins available. We learned...by doing! Pretty awesome. Check out the bee-U-tee-ful spread they provided us!

As per usual, we kicked things off with a welcome and announcements from our esteemed President.
She updated us on changes to the Course-Load Reduction options for international students.



We then heard from the Office of Sustainability and got schooled on the amazing variety of initiatives they're working on.

Zero Waste Coordinator Jennifer Hobson

Karen Blaney, with an overview of sustainability initiatives (and JAZZ HANDS).

Any presentation that includes an XKCD comic has my heart forever.

#truth

I know you all love photos of presentation slides. Why else would I continue to insist on taking and posting them?!

Claire Moore presented on the HealthPoint Wellness Program on campus, discussing Farm to Work, the Tobacco-Free Campus initiative, and being Wellness Champions:

Much to the delight of the ACA members:

No one has EVER been this happy at a meeting before.

It was probably because prizes were being offered. 

Yep, that's a mustache mug prize.

Grace Hsieh then presented on the Energy and Water Conservation Program:

Sustainability folks have the best puns: 

I mean, I can barely handle how cute this is. THANKS A WATT for ensuring I'll never look at an electrical outlet without seeing a hilarious sidekick again. 

The Office of Sustainability wrapped it up with updates on the Sustainability Directory: 

Next up was a Bridging Disciplines Program update from Emily Watson: 

And then a presentation from the Wellness Network: 

Frances Nguyen and Katy Redd. I love that this photo totally embodies the loving exasperation we sometimes experience with our teammates. 

Justin Brady and Kayla Ford gave a final plug for the rebranded ACA Pod Program: 

Kayla Ford, reporting for duty!

And finally (whew, this was a full meeting, y'all!), Rob Reichle offered some updates on the Office of Undergraduate Research: 

Which included this gem of a photo in his presentation:

Send that kid back to the early '90s, because I cannot EVEN handle how fly he is!

And now, everybody's favorite blog post segment: Announcements, Introductions, and General Photos of the Crowd.

The APSA PDD Coordinators have reached the highest level of cohesion, as evidenced by their choreographed announcement:

Announcement from the "Guy's Table" (I'm pretty sure 3/4 of the ACA men are sitting at that table):

Triumphantly pointing at something/one important!

New ACA additions!

Josh Barham, getting us pumped about...SOMETHING (sorry, I was still distracted by the hilarity of the sustainability puns and stopped taking notes): 

"Hey, I'm a nice guy."

"Now let's go get 'em!"

And FINALLY, real evidence that of our special composting after the meeting!

Yeah, I ended the post on a photo of trash and compost bins. 

Thanks a watt, everybody!