This page is a bit of pouring out of heart, sharing our visons for our future &
the sweeping changes we hope to develop over the next year.

HVME has been around for 12 years. Our mission is environmental. We have alsways said our mission was to keep usable waste out of the wastestream and get those materials used appropriately. This is true and we have had a modicum of success. But, quite frankly, we have been preaching to the converted, meaning those who already grasp the idea of reuse and conservation. This is not enough! We now know that the way we have spread our message, our Community Warehouse, while fun (we never know whats coming thru our doors), has been too passive an effort. We must get out into the community more even if the Community Warehouse part of our operation suffers. We, therefore, are turning all of our attention to the 2 following projects:

1. the REUSE-a-BUS - art by Shawn Dell JoyceBecause of its uniqueness (one of only two such programs in New York), our services are difficult to visualize without visiting our facility and thereby we are under-utilized by the community we have been developed to serve, educators. To remedy this issue we will launch a “REUSE-A-BUS” that will bring the materials to the educators and teach them how to use our “stuff”. We visualize a vintage double decker bus whose first level will carry our materials to be distributed to teachers at their schools. The top level will be a traveling classroom used to conduct workshops/inservices. When it is not at schools the REUSE-A-BUS will be at festivals. The bus will be powered by “green (environmentally appropriate) fuel” allowing us to “walk the talk” and expand our environmental education mission to include air quality issues. project update - full proposal 3/05

The project is designed to be financially self sufficient within two years through fees. Daily rates will be $500/day and HVME seeks corporate sponsors to invest in one day increments. Donors will be allowed to choose the location that they wish the REUSE-A-BUS to visit and a banner will be shown indicating the sponsor for the day. HVME needs to raise $300,000 to fund the project for its first two years which includes the purchase of the bus.Our first $70,000 has been raised from NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation. A tentative launch date for the project is Fall 2005 but the project will be piloted in several communities and local districts before then. Those interested in having the REUSE-A-BUS visit their community either in its pilot or final incarnation should notify HVME’s Executive Director, Jill Gruber

2. STATEWIDE PROGRAMS RUN BY THE STATE DEPT OF EDUCATION - availablility of programs like this throughout the state – to date there are only 3 programs of this nature in the entire state and they are all located in the southern part of the state. We believe that all teachers and students should have access to programs like this and that the State Education Department should fund them completely. This can be done for about $2,000,000 a year, a small, affordable price for a program with the potential to benefit so many. If the programs are fully funded as opposed to the present State funding sources (NYS DEC at 50%) causing both programs to raise the money elsewhere. This means that the materials cannot be given away (free) as they should be and it severely cuts down on the ability to do the follow up education that should accompany the use of the materials in the classroom. We also feel that the NYS Council on the Arts should also have the same attitude about programs like ours, which they don’t.

In order to realize this goal the idea would need to be adopted as policy by the state legislature who would then direct the state education department to implement it. To date we have contacted State Senators Larkin (larkin@senate.state.ny.us , Senator Saland ( saland@senate.state.ny.us - R.-chair, senate education committee) and assemblyman Steve Sanders (sanders@assembly.state.ny.us -D.-chair, assembly education committee). Though Larkin has met with me and guided me to Saland, neither Saland or Sanders have responded to date. write to them and other members of both houses for the environmental conservation and education committees. All info you need to be active is on the NYS website http://www.state.ny.us/ (click on "government").

We'd like feedback from you about whether or not you think this a good idea. If you approve and are willing to help our campaign please let us know and we'll keep you on a list of folk to call upon when we need support.

3. POSITION AVAILABLE - THE RIGHT PERSON IS OUT THERE
It is hoped that sometime in the next year our executive director & founder, Jill Gruber, will begin to phase herself out of the organization for personal reasons. The plan at this point is to share her position, half time whereby ahe will be working off site for three weeks a month and on site for one week a month. Needed is the right person to share this postion half time initially then phase in to full time or find another person to share it when Jill is ready to leave for good. The salary, to start, is $15,000/year. No benefits initially (health insurance is available through the organization but at your own expense initially). This position is funded 50% by NYS DEC and must be matched by other funding. This can be in the form of grants that a person with initiative can find and augment their salary. Also the position can be full time right out of the gate if the funding is found (must be the initiative of the job candidate). There is no doubt that this is a challenging position and out ideas for filling it are just forming and will be developed based on the people applying. Anyone interested should contact Jill directly. We recommend emailing a resume with a cover letter stating what you have in mind. This, hwever, should not be done until you have visited our facility and fully understand what we do.