Specific to CCW's Community Service Committee Meeting...

9/8/2025 Update:  Eric has informed us that they can now take 15 (instead of 30) volunteers so we're going (more confidently) forward with that sign-up plan for CCW.  We have launched the registration through the CCW web site with the ability to link the waiver that participants will have to sign. Elysa and Eric and everyone else interested can use that link to sign up today-->  https://cornellclubdc.org/event-6322506

9/4/2025 Update:  Steve created the posting for our first community service event of the fall here:  https://cornellclubdc.org/event-6322506  as a placeholder/save the date. I will apply a little more detail, and most importantly, we need a sign-up system with 30 slots, so I'm inquiring with Eric to see if DCCK provides an online sign up or we should just register folks ourselves.

8/31/2025 Update:  With info gathered by Eric, we have scheduled CCW to staff DC Central Kitchen 9-12 noon on Oct. 12. Stay tuned for an event listing at the CCW web site to provide sign-up details, logistics, waivers and parking info.  Working doc.   Elysa has indicated that she will try to report our progress at the Sept 9 CCW Board meeting-- THANKS, Y'ALL!

8/20 Gathered Zoom meeting  3:15 pm Meeting Minutes:

Attended:  Eric, Elysa, Maggie

We discussed some Community Service opportunities to organize, including 

1. staffing for DC Kitchen and/or Capitol Food Bank (based on her successful experience with both in the past, Elysa will investigate setting up a staffing for a January "Cornell Cares" event that CCW runs, 

2. for World Central Kitchen, and apple gleaning (which can support Arlington Food Assistance Center, I think-- that Eric will investigate to create an event (for one or the other) for October/ November.
   
   Maggie will work with Steve P to post those events proactively for our CCW membership to sign up. 

We also discussed the value of engaging families for multi-generational participation. Some food prep activities may have an minimum age of 12, but it's valuable to make the events family events... and making them social for our CCW members, even if it means just going for coffee or lunch afterwards.

 Maggie has service leadership opportunities "in the can" if a Cornellian wants to engage their 10th or 11th grader to organize a very late fall leaf-raking fundraiser for a high school club, or Community Clean-ups. 

Preparing our event posting to generate sign-ups:  While it is overly detailed with some concepts not relevant to all events, this event-planning checklist can assist one to develop an Event Posting that Maggie can review/edit before we send it on our committee's behalf to Steve P (VP Programming) to post for our club members under Events.  (Also, as an FYI, Maggie has a lot of web pages and Google Suite knowledge if we need to web-base sign-ups in any way, like if we have multiple shifts for events or logistical details that need to be conveyed at the last minute. I don't think our first 2 events will be complicated in that way, however.)

Most of the agenda as it was originally prepared below is for informational purposes and we did not thoroughly discuss. Review for context if you wish. Thank you so much for sharing your ideas with our committee for forward movement. It's going to be a great year in Community Service!

Next meeting:  Maybe we'll target early November?  I don't think we need another committee meeting until after our first event when we can reflect on how it went, unless Eric wants to call one to help him lead our "harvest time" event. Rather, with your permission I can share our e-mail contact info wiithin our committee. I am available for a one-on-one Zoom meeting to bring Eric's investigation through to event-posting, but am more reliable by e-mail, frankly, while I'm traveling all Sept. 

By meeting next in November, we high five about our first success, can apply what we learned in order to nail the January Cornell Cares event.  Elysa, I will learn from Cornell / Ithaca what kind of details they need from us in order to take advantage of their PR systems and much larger mailing list across the DMV. 

 FYI: we can pick a target date, get Steve P to put it onto the CCW calendar as a "save the date" and fill in the details afterward.  So as soon as you find a date to make a commitment to an organization, lets see if our committee can attend on that date, and we'll fine-tune from there.

 This was our meeting agenda with important link:

Duration: 40 minutes. If business is not finished, we can re-open the link below and try for a little more.  Our next meeting need not happen before October-- thanks!

Attending:  Maggie, Faiz, Eric B, Elysa (for first 30 min.)  We might get another drop-in.

Focus: the vision for our January, 2026 "Cornell Cares" project, possibly associated with 

a) staffing a World Central Kitchen (WCK) event (Eric is investigating), or 

b) developing a means to serve a community center that meets needs of underserved community in Alexandria. (Faiz is collaborating on the second project development.)

In the future, if we need an in-person meeting near Alexandria's community center, we could meet here instead:  

Cafe Soleil or Cafe Urbino or one of these spots . If arriving by metro, hop on the free trolly to get yourself down King street toward the waterfront. The trolly runs regularly from the metro station where you see it out front, is FREE to hop on, hop off, and is for King Street and is charming.  Paid parking info. 

 
c)  Community Clean-up or maybe a clothing drive in October or November or January. We need a location and a leader for each of those events, so volunteer to lead other young alumni or folks who will soon be great friends!  If we want to grab attention, we could combine a "kick-off" to a food or clothing drive with a happy hour. HH grabs eyes on Instagram.

d) We might also be calendaring a book talk on Dream Hoarders (for the good of giving insights to people who provide scholarships to people in need. Morgann is a possible co-chair for such an event and I might be able to draft another CCW member who contributed enormously to the CCW book conversation we had on the title about 16 months ago.

e) Anne S and Maggie are meeting online in Zoom at a date TBD  to schedule the next Art Gallery Visit (supporting federal workers and first responders) or Museum meet-up.

f)  Doug R and I are firming up true "Service/Volunteering" opportunities with ParkRun. Possible easy volunteer op combined with a running social for Oct. onward.

g) For background on CCW's efforts for Community Service under Maggie's leadership since January when she was appointed VP/ Community Service - review Maggie's focus on attracting more membership into CCW for the purposes of charity fundraising and community service that use the brand new Cornell Running Group to create connections, buzz, and funds for good.  For depth and context, you can read the section way down the page called "Running Journal" from March onward.   

h) Maggie is investigating the needs and structure of BACK ON MY FEET organization (not only for volunteers to run with the Members, but also to assist with resume editing, workplace skills training that help people experiencing homelessness. But she is at beginning stages only. It is not a light commitment if one wants to volunteer with their system. But it's amazing help to folks recovering from substance abuse or other difficulties resulting in homelessness.

h) Significant computer science help is needed in the COMMUNICATIONS committee for CCW. Please send Karen names of Cornellians who could support her (and replace me as acting webmaster.)   We really need techy volunteers!

i) FYI, I support people planning events with an evolving and highly detailed checklist, so I hope it helps people feel empowered to put on events for CCW whether for Community Service or other reasons.

j) I strongly advise attending Board meetings for CCW as a means to see about increasing involvement and meeting  great people. To that end, I want to update folks on the status of our scheduling of those meetings by quoting a proposal shared by our new Pres Mark Fornasiero, but whatever is eventually formalized will be posted as "events" on the CCW calendar which makes it really easy to download the details onto a Google or Outlook or Apple calendar when you hit the registration button:  I look forward to providing more details at our first Board meeting on Tuesday, September 9th at 7pm at the Cornell Center. Pizza and beverages will be provided. This will be an in-person meeting to kick off the year, and our plan is to go approximately one hour and catch up socially afterwards at a nearby bar for those that can join. I would like to propose we continue having the meetings on the second Tuesday each month at 7pm, with approximately half in-person at the Cornell Center with the others being hybrid (highly encouraging in-person attendance when possible) at another DMV location, similar to how Gil and Mike graciously hosted them in the past at their offices.         

Blast from the past--- an exerpt from CCW's 2015 Annual Report

Community Service

CCW had another excellent year of service, with more than 150 separate alumni volunteers attending 14 separate events in the DC area. These events took place in DC, VA, and MD, and covered the causes of poverty reduction (mostly in the form of food banks and produce-picking farm events), pet events (including adoption events, facility care events, and donation drives), and environmental integrity (including environmental cleanups and tree plantings).

CCW celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month with a co-sponsored community service event with the Cornell Latino Alumni Association at a Catholic Charities emergency shelter. Over 40 alumni attended our sesquicentennial service event in November, where they cleaned the entire facility for the Washington Animal Rescue League, donated over 400 pounds of pet care items, and listened to updates from the College of Veterinary Medicine Dean Michael Kotlikoff and Dr. Elizabeth Berliner from Cornell’s Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program.

Fall Service Weekend volunteers picked 1/3 to 1/2 ton of apples for area food bank and frequent partner Arlington Food Assistance Center. Our alumni volunteer hours mean a tremendous amount to food banks. We anticipate another “fruitful” year thanks to our dedicated alumni volunteers.