Re: BOYD

[Kathie Brosemer <kathie@cleannorth.org>]

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Date: Saturday, June 14, 2003 7:07 AM -0400
From: Kathie Brosemer <kathie@cleannorth.org>
To: Don McGorman <mcgormd@hotmail.com>, officers@lists.cleannorth.org
Subject: Re: cancelled

replies in text...

--On Saturday, June 14, 2003 3:14 AM +0000 Don McGorman
<mcgormd@hotmail.com> wrote:

> I'm not criticizing the decision to cancel BOYD 4.0 but potentially Clean
> North will lose significant credibility over this.

Perhaps.  "significant"?  We did hold a public "cry for help" back in April
when our location issues surfaced.  We were in Oliver Lehto, posted on our
own website, and numerous calls made to Randy R. of the city.

> It might help if we identified an alternative.  Is anybody working on
> this?

Feel free to post anything you find on www.cleannorth.org.  I'll post
www.recycle.net for the institutions/large businesses.  The reason we did
our event was there _was_ no alternative for small businesses and
individuals.  If there were, there'd be no need for us.

> Perhaps the city would provide something as it's their landfill
> that will be impacted?

Considering that Randy had no time/budget for helping us in the spring?  He
wouldn't pay the rent at the Wellington Mall site.

This has always been a stopgap exercise to provide the solution for the
folks with one or five computers to get rid of, who don't have access to
the recyclers.  It has never been "sustainable".  We need a free location,
free transportation, and free recycling services in order to carry it out,
and every event so far, at least one of those things has produced a major
stumbling block.  The actual cost (not counting our volunteer labour) of
recycling is near to $20 per computer.  There are folks who balk at our
loonie, and the school board bad-mouthed us for months when we had to come
back to them for help with transportation costs the time they dumped 60
Unisys monitors on us!  Unless the city does a ban at landfill, there is
really no motivation for anyone to participate in this besides their good
karma.

Yes, we make some $ on sales, but we cannot count on that, we cannot
contract for thousands in fees to carry out the event and take the risk
that we'll make that in sales.  It's too unreliable.  The mall was a great
sales location, but would the Bingo Hall have been?  I doubt it.

> There is a new message on the CN voice mail left Thursday from Randy Roy
> at the city asking for someone to call him.  Perhaps it's about BOYD?

Probably.  He has my home number, I'm in the book, he also has Peter's
number.

> I'm afraid that unless there is an alternative, most of the tons of
> equipment that we have been asking people to hang on to will end up in
> the landfill.

Probably.

> For example, at Roberta Bondar Place the OMNR has been
> stockpiling equipment in a computer room, the space in which they will
> soon need for a major IT rollout.  I cant see them storing it somewhere
> else so it will likely be disposed of in the only available manner.

If they have a roomful of equipment, they could undoubtedly get a recycler
to take it by putting a posting on www.recycle.net.

> Individuals and organizations that feel let down this time may not want
> to participate next time.  There may be a few volunteers who give up on
> us too.

Perhaps.  It's the risk we'll take, considering it was not going to be
workable this time.  But I think most places will continue to make their
decisions on a case by case basis, doing whatever is expedient at the time.
See the ad in the paper about the Huron-Superior board doing a computer
sale this week.  Remember Sault College, and the ADSB, trashing dumpster
loads right after our event in years past.  We can't let these things
bother us.  We have to do what's right for Clean North.

Note that as of Wednesday when we cancelled, we had not received a _single_
schedule request for a drop off time from a business/institution for the
Friday.  No phone call, no fax.  And it was only a week until the deadline.

We hadn't started scheduling volunteers in earnest.  I have about ten
emails, some from our great regulars saying "I'm in!", three from really
great regulars saying "sorry, can't", or that it will be a struggle but
they'll be there, and four from new people.  Even if all the new folks get
mad and leave in a snit, that's a loss we can handle.

> Before I changed it a few moments ago, The outgoing message on the CN
> voice mail still referred to BOYD as the next CN event; I changed
> recorded and activated.

Thanks for doing that.  I've posted on cleannorth.org about the
cancellation, I'll also be speaking with a Sault Star reporter today and
will get a story out.


k

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