Author Archives: rmw2@illinois.edu

Last Meeting of the Semester :’)

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Hello, members of Red Bison!

This Saturday at 10 am, we are having our last meeting of the Fall 2021 Semester (please hold back your tears </3). We are going to be burning the piles of accumulated plant debris throughout the South Arboretum Woods, and we will meet at the Red Bison shed. To RSVP for this meeting, please fill out this Google Form.
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Since there will be a fire at this week’s meeting, we will require you all to be extra conscious about what you’re wearing. Long pants will be required and jeans are preferable. Do not wear any synthetic or plastic materials. It can melt your skin off when mixed with fire! For your top layers, it would be best to stick to cotton materials or natural fibers (like real leather). Wearing closed-toed shoes will also be necessary, and please be sure to bring plenty of water for yourself. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
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We also wanted to remind members that Red Bison has created their first Annual Undergraduate Award to help support an underrepresented individual who is passionate about the environmental sciences. This $500 award is open to all full-time undergraduate students of any major. The deadline to apply is December 31st at midnight. For information on applying for this award, please refer to this document.
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We’d also like to promote a UIUC RSO that reached out to us this week in search of new members. The club is called the American Fisheries Society, and they want to spread the word on internships, social hours, and all things aquatic! If you’re interested in keeping up with these activities, here are some links for ya:
Email listserv:  https://bit.ly/3kS2qRL
Twitter: @afs_uiuc
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AFSUofIStudentSubunit
Please direct any questions to the RSO president George Balto at gbalto2@illinois.edu
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Lastly, I’d like to recognize that my time as a member of Red Bison is quickly coming to an end. I want to express my sincerest gratitude for all the years I’ve spent within this club. Everyone I’ve met in Red Bison has been so passionate, kind, and fun to work with. This chapter of my life is one that I will reflect on with great fondness for many years to come, and I wouldn’t have had such a great experience without everyone’s eagerness to get their hands dirty with some restoration ecology practices. Thank you all so much for connecting with me during this time and giving me the opportunity to grow within this amazing club. :’)
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I’ll see you all on Saturday! Have a good week.
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Best,
Rachel Waltermire (she/her)
Soon-to-be-former Secretary of Red Bison

New Secretary, Undergrad Award, and Last Meetings!

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Good morning, members of Red Bison!

Fall break is rapidly approaching, meaning the semester is quickly coming to an end, as are Red Bison activities for the year. Before talking about our last meetings, I’d like to announce two very exciting things the club did in the last week.
  1. We elected a new Secretary for the Spring 2022 Semester! Vijay Shah (he/him) will be taking my place as Secretary next semester. He is a first-year graduate student in chemical engineering who is very excited to recruit more non-NRES students into the club while on the Executive Board. Congratulations to Vijay!
  2. With the money that we raised from our Plant Sale earlier this year, Red Bison has created their first annual Undergraduate Award. This is $500 that we will reward to any full-time UIUC undergraduate from an underrepresented background who is passionate about the environmental sciences that Red Bison specializes in (restoration ecology, land management, conservation, wildlife biology, botany, etc.). To learn more about this opportunity and apply, please refer to this document. 
Lastly, I’d like to tell you all about the last meetings that we’ll be having this semester. As mentioned last week, we will be burning our piles of accumulated brush (wood debris) at the South Arboretum Woods on Saturday, 12/4, at 10 am. We will meet at the Red Bison shed, and you can RSVP to this meeting here.
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We are currently debating whether or not to meet on Saturday, 11/27, considering it’s during Fall Break. If members are interested, we plan to continue to cut honeysuckle on the prairie plot near the SAW. We would meet at the Red Bison Work Shed at 10 am. If you are interested in making this meeting happen and participating in it, please fill out this Google Form so we can assess if it’s worth it to schedule a meeting for this day or not. 
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That’s all for this week! Have a happy Thanksgiving!
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Best,
Rachel Waltermire (she/her)
Soon-to-be-former Secretary of Red Bison

Quick Follow-up to Rachel’s Email

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Hi team! Hope y’all are doing well as we approach fall break. Hang in there!

Quick addendum to Rachel’s email – voters in this election will have to have attended 3 Red Bison meetings this semester in order for their vote to be counted. This is done to try to put Red Bison in the hands of its most active members. We will be checking our attendance records in order to ensure that voters have met this requirement. If you are unsure as to how many meetings you attended, or concerned that your presence may not have been recorded at one or more meetings, please email us ASAP at redbison.rso@gmail.com.

Finally, if you have been to 3 or more meetings this semester, please vote! It takes 5 minutes at most. If you’ve been to 3 or more meetings, you are the most qualified to vote for candidates, because you likely know them personally. Your participation helps keep Red Bison strong. My hope is that by voting, the general members will be encouraged to take greater ownership of the club – to help make it what you want it to be.

You can cast your vote here. The winner will be announced at the meeting this Saturday. Thank you, and take good care of yourselves.

MichaelRed Bison President

Secretary Election & 11/20 Workday

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Hi, everyone!

This week, Red Bison is looking forward to electing a new Secretary on the Executive Board for the Spring 2022 semester! We have three candidates running for this position. To hold the election fairly, we have created this ballot on Google Forms.

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On this ballot, you can learn a bit about each candidate (their name, major, year in school, hometown, and personal statement regarding why they’d like to become the Secretary). We’d like to ask members of Red Bison to participate in the voting process throughout this week by going to the form, reviewing each candidate, and using the last question to place a ranked vote. You will list each of the candidate’s names in a list like: __(name 1)__, __(name 2)__, __(name 3)__, 1 being your most preferred candidate and 3 being your least preferred candidate. We are using a ranked voting system to do our best to avoid any bias in the election process.
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The voting is open and will continue until Friday at midnight. The new Secretary will be announced at this week’s meeting at 10 am on Saturday, 11/20. Please reach out to us if you have any questions about this process, and thank you for participating in the election!
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Speaking of this week’s meeting, on Saturday, 11/20, at 10 am, we will meet at the Red Bison shed at the South Arboretum Woods. To RSVP for this meeting, please fill out this Google Form. This week we will be prepping for future fires! We’ll be working on continuing to improve the fire pit with the help of our faculty advisor Dr. Ward, as well as consolidating the brush piles for an upcoming brush burn. We’re planning to do this brush burn for our last meeting of the Fall 2021 semester on Saturday, 12/4. To RSVP to this meeting, please fill out this Google Form. It should be a fun way to wrap up an amazing semester!
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That’s all the updates I have for you all now – I hope you all have a wonderful week 🙂
Best,
Rachel Waltermire
Red Bison Secretary

Upcoming Campus Events

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Hello hello!

I hope you all are doing well as Fall break approaches. I am emailing to let Red Bison members know that there will be no meeting this weekend. Instead, the Executive Board will be meeting to do things like organizing our files, working on the website, setting up online banking, etc. We will also be planning the rest of the semester’s meeting, including next week (11/20). So stay tuned! I’d like to use this opportunity to remind folks that we will need a new Secretary on the Executive Board for the Spring 2022 semester. If you are interested in the position, please fill out this Google Form.

I’d like to use the rest of this email to share campus events coming up that have a focus on sustainability.

1. The Student Sustainability Leadership Council (SSLC) shared this event with us:
Climate strike this Friday:

  • “The ISU Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) is hosting a climate strike this Friday, November 12 at 1:00 pm at Uptown Circle in Bloomington. Students from ISU and other nearby universities like Wesleyan and UIUC will march on the ISU Quad in protest of the empty promises that COP deliberations bring each year. Here is a sign-up sheet for carpooling. Follow SEAC @ius_seac to stay updated on ISU climate endeavors.

2. From UIUC Amnesty International – This week we are hosting an Environmental Justice Campaign! We have 4 events coming up:

  • November 11th at 7pm – Environmental Racism Amnestea @ University YMCA
  • November 12th at 3:30-6:30pm – End Plastic Waste – Tote bag painting event @ Murphy Hall in University YMCA
  • November 13th at 1-5pm- Sustainable Fashion: Thrifting at the Y @ Latzer Hall in University YMCA
  • November 16th at 6-7pm- Coping with Climate Anxiety Amnestea @ University YMCA

3. From iSEE’s website: Illini Lights Out is happening this Friday (11/12) from 5:30 – 7:00 pm in the lobby of the Foreign Languages Building:

  • Illini Lights Out is back! iSEE invites students to join this effort to reduce the campus environmental footprint just by turning out the lights. On four Fridays this fall — Sept. 17, Oct. 22, Nov. 12, and Dec. 3 — Illinois students will volunteer their time from 5:30 to 7 p.m. to shut off lights in campus buildings for the weekend. Fill out this form to sign up for a monthly event, meet at the Foreign Languages Building lobby to get your assignment, and go save some energy! Get a free cookie when you turn in your tally sheets! Please note that iSEE will adhere to any updated campus COVID-19 protocols for this event. Participants must wear a mask and follow campus rules to ensure safety for everyone! Questions about ILO? Email iseeinterns@gmail.com

That’s all for this week! Have a good weekend, everyone 🙂

Best,
Rachel Waltermire
Red Bison Secretary

Halloween Meeting 10/30

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Happy Halloween, Red Bisoneers!

As many of you already know, this Saturday (10/30) Red Bison will be having two Halloween-themed meetings: one at 10 am and one at 6 pm, both held at the Red Bison shed.

At 10 am, Wildlife Extension Specialist and Assistant Professor Joy O’Keefe will be there to teach us all about the ecology of bats in Illinois and answer any questions we may have related to that. We’ll also be carving pumpkins, drinking apple cider, and some of us will be wearing Halloween costumes at this time! All extra activities are optional, so no pressure. If you’re able to bring your own pumpkin for carving, that might make it easier to accommodate everyone. We will have some to provide, though (check for updates in the GroupMe regarding this). Later in the day at 6 pm (weather permitting), we will be using our fancy new fire pit to make a fire and have some s’mores together. To RSVP to either time, please fill out this Google Form: https://forms.gle/3pgntuFDcgz1PW9c9 You can choose whichever meeting you’d like to attend – we would love to see you at either time and have our first real Red Bison social day in a very long time!

Additionally, I wanted to bring awareness to the fact that Red Bison will be in need of a new Secretary on the Executive Board in the Spring 2022 semester. I will be leaving the University next semester and we’d love to find someone to fill my shoes for next semester soon. If you are interested in this position, please fill out this Google Form: https://forms.gle/NqeXbysVQkWiVGqz8

Lastly, if you’d like to join our GroupMe, you can use this link! See you all soon!

Have a great rest of your week,

Rachel Waltemire (she/her)
Red Bison Secretary
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If you’d like to be unsubscribed from our email list, please send a message saying “unsubscribe” to redbison.rso@gmail.com

Upcoming Meetings and GQD

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Hello!

This Saturday, October 9th, Red Bison will be meeting at our Work Shed at 10 am to collect native seeds from the Pollinatrium Prairie and spread them throughout the South Arboretum Woods. To navigate to where we’ll meet, please refer to this map.  As usual, if the weather prevents us from meeting, we will reschedule for Sunday – same time, same place. If this happens, we will send out an email and a message on our GroupMe – so let us know if you’d like to be added to the Red Bison GroupMe! For this meeting, we recommend wearing long pants and to have socks that cover your ankles, as well as being sure to bring water/sunscreen/bug spray to be comfortable. To RSVP for this week’s meeting, please fill out this Google Form.
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Additionally, Red Bison will be participating in Green Quad Day, an event led by the Student Sustainability Leadership Council (SSLC). This event recently got rescheduled and will now take place on Tuesday, October 12th, from 10 am to 4 pm at the Anniversary Plaza. We are currently looking for volunteers to staff our table! This event will give you the opportunity to check out other amazing groups on campus that focus on sustainability, such as From the Ground Up, Facilities and Services Sustainability Division, Ten Thousand Villages, Stop Line 3 CU, and many more! On top of that, volunteering for this event would be a great way to help support our group, get to know your fellow members, and practice your speaking skills. We’d love to see you there! To RSVP for staffing this event, you can use this Google Doc to schedule your shift. We are hoping to have 2-3 volunteers at our table at all times. 
 
That’s all for this week! In terms of future Saturday meetings, we are likely going to continue collecting native prairie seed at the SAW on the 16th, and on the 30th, we are planning to have a fun, social, Halloween-themed day! Keep an eye out for future updates about these meetings!
Have a great rest of your week,
Rachel Waltermire
Red Bison Secretary