Some people are planners, others initiators, others still just talk and talk. We here at the Sietch are hopefully more of a combination of the first two and most importantly on top of those characteristics, we are leaders. After hearing an idea get panned around by quite a few of my friends here at Clark, I got the fire started towards making the idea a reality, and this past Wednesday it happened: an actual community gathering of students from our department to share their artistic talents rather than their mental talents. Yes, we had a coffee house, or more theatrically named, Kafe IDCE.

It was awesome to see some of my close friends and some that I see often in our shared basement study space belting out tunes with voice or instrument, sharing favorite verses, or just lighting the place up! At first, I was a little harried with thoughts of how exactly we were going to transform a rather aseptic conference room into a comfy lounge spot. But in true IDCE spirit, the community came together and pitched in to making a rather wicked performance space. I can safely say we had at least 30-odd attendees, happily full from coffee and goodies from Big Y (a concious effort by me to support the closest local supermarket possible; coffee was organic and filtered with unbleached filters!).

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On a separate “note”, I helped out in the campus center with another fellow Clark Sustainability Initiative (CSI) member this week on a CFL campaign. We had CFLs to give away to each student that turned in an ‘old tech’ light bulb. Even with sending out emails of the event campus-wide and making e-announcements on Facebook (ugh!…not my idea of getting the word out, but hey, what do I know) we only had two people come by in a span of two hours during lunch. I think we may need to change tactics and just set up shop in a few dorms a day. That way all interested parties will need to do is go on up to their room, unscrew the bulb, turn it in to our table, and they can walk happily back with their brand spanking new CFL. However, be wary if you break one. I was not aware they contained mercury until tabling the other day and was sheepily embarrassed to recall that a few months back I had bought one to only later drop it as I opened the package. Of course, you can guess where this is going. Yup, I picked up the shards with bare hands! So, please make sure to dispose of these little devils properly since they are hazardous material, if broken that is. Don’t let it deter you from huge energy savings!!