The Environmental Action Movement (TEAM), held its first meeting of the semester this past Tuesday where future planning of fundraisers, beach cleanups, and re-charting took place.
During the meeting, members took time to discuss and research any pre-existing beach cleanups that they could collaborate with such as the Alamitos Beach Cleanup.
As for other collaborations, TEAM hopes to work with other clubs on campus such as the Biophilia club, who share similar goals with TEAM, but also focus on establishing racial equity on campus and spreading awareness of the hardships of different POC groups.
However, TEAM President, Alicia Jenson said there were difficulties when it came to reaching out to other clubs on campus.
“A lot of clubs unfortunately don’t have all of their contact information listed on the Viking engagement portal and so that’s where I think we’re falling short,” Jenson said.
The Environmental Action Movement (T.E.A.M.) club advisor Desiree Ann Montenegro (middle) and club president Alecia Jensen (left) go over ideas and minutes with secretary Lauren Fox (right) on Sept. 10, 2024. (Emma Lloyd)
Desiree Montenegro, TEAM advisor, also shared plans on the club doing events similar to Yoga on the Lawn to promote mindfulness of the Earth as well, but they are always looking for new opportunities.
“The officers right now are exploring some new opportunities for collaboration, including, but not limited to things like applying for grants and getting funding for creating recycling programs here on campus that benefit not only the community, but also the students that are here on campus,” Montenegro said.
In terms of social media, TEAM faced setbacks as the club lost access to their Instagram and remained inactive since June 2023 with the turnover of students and club members.
Kennedy Tiodores, former TEAM President and current TEAM Communications Officer, now handles social media-related matters and plans to focus mostly on their regained Instagram for the club’s social media presence.
“We have Instagram, yeah, we kind of lost access to Facebook with the account information so we meant to restart it. But with our Instagram, we’re going to try and keep it posted with weekly reminders of events and meetings we’re going to have,” Tiodores said.
TEAM is also on track with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s office 2030 vision to spread environmental awareness as well as achieving sustainable practices.
TEAM holds meetings open to anyone every Tuesday, both in person and on Zoom from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. with locations to be determined.