Greater Gwinnett Group
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The Greater Gwinnett Group is part of the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club. The Group serves residents in Gwinnett County and surrounding areas.
Mission Statement
"Empowering Gwinnett citizens to build sustainable communities"
Our Goals:
The Greater Gwinnett Group's goals are to:
- Get all Gwinnett cities to sign on to the Cool Cities Initiative
- Protect the quality of Gwinnett's streams, lakes and rivers
- Be an active voice in Gwinnett's electoral and legislative process
- Educate and empower Gwinnett citizens to become a voice for zoning and development of livable communities
- Reduce the amount of solid waste disposed by Gwinnett residents
- Create a space for social events for Gwinnett Sierra Club members and their friends, families and neighbors
- Increase membership and the diversity of our members in the Greater Gwinnett Group of the Sierra Club.
How we do it:
Have monthly meetings for socializing, sharing personal environmental interests and concerns, and to learn about environmental issues.
Have monthly social events and Outings to explore different parts of the county, meet other members and enjoy our green space.
Conservation focus areas:
- Educate others about the problems of invasive exotic species, by hosting a privet pull or other event to eradicate invasives each month
- Educate others about the issues of urban stream quality by hosting several stream cleanups each year
- Educate voters about the environmental positions of the candidates for county commissioner
Click to see some of our previous activities
- Next Meeting
- Calendar of Events
- Meeting Location
- Rustle the Leaf Cartoon
- Freecycle
- Tips for the Environment
- Useful Info
- Mailing List
- Resources
- Contacts
What's Happening in the Gwinnett Group
| Date: | Third Thursday of each Month |
| Doors Open: | 7:00pm with light refreshments |
| Meeting Begins: | 7:30pm |
| Location: | Willowrun Condominium Clubhouse. 1015 Country Court, 1 mile north of Pleasant Hill off Club Dr. Both members and non-members are welcome. CONSTRUCTION: Please be advised that road construction is to be performed at Pleasant Hill and Club Drive which will not allow "thru traffic" from Pleasant Hill to Club Drive. An alternate way to the meeting place is to use Cruse Road which is about a mile east of Club Drive. From Pleasant Hill turn left onto Cruse Road, then turn left on to Club Drive. The entrance to the Willowrun Condominiums will be on your left. |
We'll be pulling invasive plants such as privet at Willow Run Condominiums. Why at Willow Run? In return for using the condominium clubhouse every month for our meeting, we pull invasive plants monthly. If you've ever enjoyed one of our meetings, would like to be of service to our local environment, or would like to better know our members, please consider joining us. Feel free to bring friends and family. Please contact Terry Jones at 770-921-0242 for the actual dates and go to meeting location for directions.
Looking for You - Monthly Socials
The Gwinnett Group likes to have fun. So much so we could use some help with monthly socials. Qualifications: fun loving, likes to laugh, doesn't mind being told a few bad jokes, has an interest in meeting other Sierra club'ers to chat about interesting subjects once a month or so. Heck, while we're at it why not advertise our interests in socializing and conservation while chuckling about this? If socializing or getting the word out (two positions) interests you, let us know! Please contact Curt Smith: 404-294-6686, chsmith@speakeasy.net
Volunteer Opportunities
The Gwinnett Group has several volunteer opportunities available.
- Events and Outreach - Represent the Sierra Club at festivals and events. You'll be partnered with a seasoned volunteer, shifts generally last 2-3 hours, and we'll provide a badge or t-shirt. Contact Terry Jones.
- Membership - Help contact new members to welcome them into the club and work on other social events for members. Contact Mamatha Gavini.
What's Gwinnett Group's conservation focus? It's Water Protection!
We're starting up a committee and group program series focusing on
how to be effective at protecting our creeks, ponds, rivers and water
shed. A side benefit includes use of water law enforcement
to make sure a developer's plans follow all the water protection laws.
Have a development going in and you'd like to see what you can do
to stop it or modify its plans? If there are creeks, ponds or
wet lands on this property, there's much that can be done.
Calendar of Events
Interesting monthly programs on Gwinnett, local
environmental and travel subjects. Contact Curt Smith (email: csmith@javadepot.com) for
details on this month's program and activities.
Also visit the Georgia Sierra club chapter calendar page for more events http://georgia.sierraclub.org/calendar/
The Gwinnett Group's Program Line up (Group General Meetings are noted with 
):
| May |
5/15 Thurs 7:00pm, Greater Gwinnett Group General Meeting. Carol Hassel with Gwinnett Open Land Trust will speak to the group. |
| June |
6/19 Thurs 7:00pm, Greater Gwinnett Group General Meeting. |
Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful Subdivision Database
The Gwinnett Sierra Club Received this Request from Gwinnet Clean and Beautiful.
We will NOT provide them information concerning our members, but if you wish to submit your own information, the contact information is included below.
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Kate Hartmann, I am writing on behalf of Connie Wiggins at Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful. We are currently compiling a list of all Gwinnett County subdivisions with appropriate contacts in order to create a database that will allow us to communicate more effectively with the public. Our goal through this project is to distribute information pertinent to subdivisions ranging from garbage collection to recycling to volunteer events and also to establish a relationship that will enable us to better aid citizens. As a nonprofit organization Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful provides an incredible service to county residents with a return of more than twenty dollars for each dollar invested by the government. We are hoping that with your help as a passionate and effective environmental organization we can expand this service and better not only the living conditions but the natural environment of Gwinnett County . If at all possible we would appreciate access to your contacts in Gwinnett County subdivisions with such information as name, address, phone number, and e-mail. We will not provide this information to any other source and we will not solicit these people for money.
Thank you for your help.
Kate HartmannResearch
Intern
Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful
750 South Perry Street, Suite 310
Lawrenceville, GA 30045
Kate Hartmann
770-822-5187 Phone
770-822-5179 Fax
Kill a Watt
Do you want to reduce your electric bill, and use energy more wisely? Have we got a deal for you! The Gwinnett Group has purchased four "Kill-a-Watt Meters". This is a nifty device which you plug into an outlet, and then plug an appliance in to the meter. In a few short hours this handy-dandy little device will tell you how many kilowatts that appliance uses.
Do you leave your pc, monitor and printer on 24/7? How much does that cost to leave it on when it's not being used? Does your coffee maker have a clock (which you never look at and isn't even on the correct time)? Do you leave it plugged in 24/7? How much does that cost?
Borrow one of these devices for a week or so, and learn how much you can save by turning things off. We will bring the meters to the meetings each month, or you can call one of the excom members to make arrangements to borrow one. (and for the techno-savvy, these meters can give you lots more information about your electric usage. I just don't know what that stuff means, or how to use the information.)
Meeting Location
Every third Thursday of every month the Gwinnett Group of the Sierra
Club offers a public meeting and interesting program on the environment
or travel.
Doors open at 7:00 p.m. and the monthly meetings start at 7:30 p.m.
Directions: Willowrun Condominiums Club House (located next to
a small lake and hiking trail)
1015 Country Ct. Map: http://tinyurl.com/4y9gb
Lawrenceville 30044
Call Nancy for directions: (770)
925-1997 or cell 678-480-4699
Directions: Pleasant Hill Rd, East
from I85 (away from the mall)
- 4th Stop light turn left onto Club Dr.
- North 1 mile
- Right into the 2nd entrance into Willowrun Condominiums
- Follow Country Ct. following the signs to the club house in the back of the subdivision.
Rustle the Leaf
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” That should be the motto of Freecycle™
We all do our best to Refuse, Reuse, and Recycle, but I bet we could do a lot more if we just knew how. Take a look at the discards that you send to the curb on “trash day”. Do you think anyone could use any of it? Or look at the mound of “trash” that your not-very-green neighbor puts out on the curb practically every pick-up day. There goes a nice bicycle, you exclaim, and a vacuum cleaner in better shape than yours, and look at all the cardboard boxes!!!
Freecycle helps us do our part to reduce waste and the burden on landfills, by simply using list-serve technology to find someone who wants our discards. It may be hard to believe at first what some people would want, and drive a few miles to take. The boxes and foam packing material that your new products come in become “moving boxes” to folks who need them for that purpose. Or excess project lumber, paint, wire, carpeting, caulk, tiles, fiberglass batting, rope; even windows, doors; and those toys your children outgrew. Freecycle items ideally are those that would otherwise go to landfills, that local charities generally can’t accept. Broken down, but reparable items—yard equipment, a pressure washer, bikes, exercise equipment, tent, power tools; or stuff you can’t transport to the thrift store: sofa, refrigerator, desk, rug, blankets, large tire for a tree swing; or weird stuff, like your old trophies, Avon bottles you thought would be worth something but aren’t, dog food, magazines; the list goes on right to the kitchen sink.
You offer the item on a post; someone (often several people) request it. You email them back to say they can have it and arrange for pick up; they come out and pick it up; you both benefit, and you meet a new friend. It’s fun. Of course there are some guidelines. You will learn these upon joining.
You can also ask for items; you simply post a “Wanted”, for whatever you’d like to have.
Freecycle™ is a Yahoo site; access it at http://www.Freecycle.org. Find your nearest group, and join. Set your preferences to receive all posts, once-a-day compilation, or no emails (go to the site and access the messages when you want to; read them all or search for what you are looking for). Do it soon, or you may miss out on that sewing machine my wife is ready to offer up.
-- Written by Rick Krause of the Sierra Club's Georgia Chapter Greater Gwinnett Group
Up to Top
Recycle your TV's, monitors and computers
Do you have a dead computer or monitor lurking in the garage or corner of your basement? Or a TV or other electronic equipment and you don't know how to properly dispose of it?
Did you know that the fastest growing solid waste stream in the US, and the primary source of toxic heavy metals introduced to our landfills, is 'e-waste', the huge and growing quantity of obsolete electronic equipment? Zentech, a local computer recycling company, will recycle just about any kind of computer equipment, for a nominal fee, and they sell high quality refurbished computer and office equipment. Do your part to help address this problem by recycling your old computer equipment at Zentech and by purchasing recycled computer equipment instead of buying new.
For more information please visit www.zentech.org or email julian@zentech.org. Zentech is a very small Atlanta based company located at the junction of I75 and I85 in mid-town.
Zentech charges $10 to recycle a TV or computer monitor. This is a money loosing deal for Zentech who's providing this service on environmental reasons. Did you know that there's 5 to 9 pounds of toxic lead in the glass face of your CRT or TV? Yup it's partly the reason why those things weight so much and it leaches into ground water when these things are put into land fills.
Another service to us computer users and the environment provided by Zentech is "reuse" of salvaged computer components. Zentech has quite a supply of cheap beyond belief CDROM drives, disk drives and a few very good monitors. When I was dropping off my load of dead stuff, I saw a batch of recent IBM 17" monitors for $75 each. This is a steal. You might want to trade up your crummy old 15" monitor for a better 17 incher for a modest round trip price of $80 to $90 bucks! I personally don't advocate "reducing your use" of computers, but I do advocate "recycling" and "re-using" computers and components.
Thanks for not putting TV's, computers and monitors into the solid waste system
Useful Information:
OPT OUT of Junk Mail and Identity Theft!
One easy way to reduce your junk mail and at the same time reduce your chances of identity theft is to "Opt Out". When you "Opt Out" you will no longer receive credit card offers in the mail. To do so, simply call 1-888-567-8688 or go to www.optoutprescreen.com
GA-GWINNETT-NEWS Mailing List
The purpose of this list is to distribute a monthly electronic version of our newsletter, the "Gwinnett Sierran". Subscription to this list is open to members of the Sierra Club only.
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Archives for Feb 2008 - May 2008
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Resources
Download Gwinnett Group files
See all the Gwinnett Group documents on the Resources webpage.
Contacts
Interim Chair:
Tom Morrisey
Email: thmorrissey@bellsouth.net
Phone: 404-513-4069Interim ExComm Members:
Tamyra Hyatt
Email: tamyrahyatt@hotmail.com
Phone: 770-622-7878Nancy Brideau
Email: Nancy.Brideau@georgia.sierraclub.orgDan Friedman
Email: dan3688@aol.com
Phone: 404-367-8499Lucy Brady
Email: lucyart2@yahoo.com
Phone: 770-945-4896Treasurer:
Lydia Pochatko
Email: Lalli1920@comcast.net
Phone: 770-609-3261Webmaster:
Sue Koenig, CCP
Email: Sue.Koenig@georgia.sierraclub.org
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