The Rotary District 6440 has invited our EWB chapter to be part of their annual conference.  This is an exciting opportunity to interact with many of our biggest supporters. Approximately 400 Rotarians from clubs throughout north and west suburban Chicago and northern Illinois will be in attendance.  We will have the opportunity to have a booth, speak to Rotarians about our projects, and book speaking engagements.

We will be forming a subcommittee to head up this important effort.  Volunteer opportunities include:
- Subcommittee Chair
- Graphic design for the booth presentation materials
- Production of presentation materials
- Project team members to coach speakers and provide content for the presentation materials
- Logistics coordinator for travel, scheduling and materials production

The Rotary Conference will be April 29- May 2, 2010 in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.  Please contact Marcella Bondie Keenan (marcellabondie@gmail.com) and AJ Voth (aj_voth@comcast.net) if you are interested in participating.

Thank you to Rotary District 6440 for this invitation, and thank you to Rotary International for their continued support of our projects.

We are thrilled to formally introduce our speakers and sponsors of the EWB-USA 2010 International Conference, March 18-21, 2010 in beautiful Denver, CO.  Take a look below to see what we have to offer you this year!

Please note: Regular registration rates are ending midnight February 28, 2010.  Check out the discounts you can receive here.

Keynote Speaker

Joseph Grenny: True Power Starts with the Heart

Plenary Speakers

Bryan Willson: Got Impact? Cross-Disciplinary Partnerships for Long-Term Global Change

Karen Luken: Using Waste as a Resource

Panel Presentations

Panel: Challenges of Sustainable Economic Development

Corporate Panel: Embracing Change and Leveraging the Power of New Generations

The Green Earth Institute (GEI) (www.greenearthinstitute.org) is a non-profit established in 2002 to promote nutritional health and environmental sustainability.  GEI is seeking a volunteer with hydraulic engineering expertise to help with water and irrigation issues on its 60-acre farm in Naperville, IL.

GEI is largely financed through the sale of organically-grown crops on its farm in Naperville.  In order to support its irrigation requirements, GEI has contracted for the installation of a new water well and is planning for a rainwater harvesting system and a 25,000-gallon water storage cistern to be installed in 2010.  Drilling the new well is scheduled for mid-February 2010; weak water volume is expected, so a multiple-source system, drawing frm the well, from rainwater, and from a small creek is under consideration.  Additional storage, through building a larger cistern and/or adding an above-ground storage system may be needed.  GEI is seeking a volunteer with hydraulic engineering experience to advise the Executive Director on system design and estimating expected pressure and flow rates through the system in order to determine the proper pump configurations for drip and spray irrigation systems and to determine associated irrigation schedules that can be supported by the anticipated water supply.  The volunteer would be directly assisting the Green Earth Institute as this is not an EWB program.  If you are interested in volunteering or have questions, please contact Ron Niehaus at rajnieh@comcast.net and Steve Tiwald at stiwald@greenearthinstitute.org.

In light of the recent devastating earthquake in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, the EWB-USA community offers our thoughts and well wishes to the people of Haiti. While EWB-USA does not work in the field of disaster relief, our chapters do partner with the various communities within the country to work on community and infrastructure needs. EWB-USA projects directly support communities and work closely with local partners to design and implement sustainable engineering projects.

If you would like to get involved in supporting Haiti, here are three ways you can make a difference:

1. If you would like to make a contribution to one of our projects in Haiti, please click here.
2. If you would like to make a donation that directly affects victims of the earthquake, please visit the Red Cross.
3. There is an immediate and dire need for French speaking Civil or Structural Engineers and on the ground organizations are in critical need for skilled assistance. If you are an experienced engineer and speak French or Creole please click here for more information.