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Environmental Challenge Founders Letter Each year PNWIS sponsors or co-sponsors educational events that range from our annual technical meeting, covering many environmental topics, to professional education seminars, specialty conferences, and local presentations on environmental topics of interest. All of PNWIS professional technical programs are aimed at providing environmental professionals with current information and an unbiased forum for open discussion. Beyond providing professional educational opportunities for its members and the public, PNWIS has actively supported educational programs aimed at the k-12 level. In cooperation with the A&WMA headquarters, PNWIS has funded the training of more than 120 science teachers in Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, and Alaska. More teacher training sessions are planned. PNWIS provides about $5000 per year toward such training and has been successful in obtaining matching funds and grants to leverage our own cash investments and volunteer efforts. For more than 30 years, PNWIS has supported university scholarship through student paper competitions at our annual meetings. Modest scholarship have been distributed annually through this process. Many of these students have continued in the environmental field and now work for industry, regulatory agencies, consultants, and academic institutions. We plan to continue this method for encouraging and rewarding environmental scholarship but we want to do more than the few hundred dollars per year distributed through this method. We want to establish a long-term scholarship fund for university level students studying environmental sciences and engineering. The purpose of PNWIS's university level scholarship program is to encourage the study, understanding, and resolution of real world environmental challenges. It is our intention to do so through the PNWIS Environmental Challenge, a contest with cash prizes which requires students to find a solution to a complex environmental situation using a team approach. The Environmental Challenge proposal, accepted by the PNWIS Board of Directors, is attached and explains the contest program in greater detail. Students at universities with established environmental science and engineering programs in the PNWIS region will be eligible to compete for the cash prize, currently proposed as $5000. They also will be given a travel stipend to attend the PNWIS annual meeting at which they will give a presentation to interested members. In addition, PNWIS will propose that participating universities develop an elective course around the requirements of the Challenge. Feedback from educators has been positive in this regard. The Environmental Challenge is ready to move ahead through the volunteer efforts of PNWIS members to administer the contest and judge the solutions. However, our major concern is the long-term reliability of funding for the Challenge prize money, the scholarship. To ensure the viability of PNWIS's scholarship program, we have established the Environmental Challenge Fund with a goal of $100,000. Conservative investment of these monies will fund the Environmental Challenge or equivalent scholarship in perpetuity. It is PNWIS's intent to use the Challenge Fund only for the actual scholarship monies and the travel stipend for the winners. All other administrative obligations of the Challenge will be borne by the Section. The Challenge Fund will be managed by a Board of Directors selected by the President of PNWIS and approved by the PNWIS Board of Directors. We are seeking assistance in meeting the $100,000 goal from a variety of sources. On an annual basis, the PNWIS Board of Directors will make a determination whether the operating budget can contribute to the Challenge Fund. Local Chapters within PNWIS, which manage their own budgets, will be asked to consider further contributions. We are asking private concerns for contributions including many firms which are employers of PNWIS members. We also are asking each current member of PNWIS to make a one- time tax deductible contribution of $100 or more to the Environmental Challenge Fund. Your contribution will not only aid the growth of the Fund directly, it will help PNWIS demonstrate to other potential contributors that we are serious about our support of university-level environmental studies. In addition, we think the long-term availability of this scholarship program will eventually mean more interest and excitement about environmental science and engineering studies at Pacific Northwest schools. Please consider the one time contribution of $100 to the PNWIS Environmental Challenge Fund as demonstration of your support for our future environmental specialists and engineers. Checks may sent to: PNWIS Environmental Challenge Fund Please also remember that many employers support matching gift programs and that PNWIS's tax exempt status and the educational nature of the Challenge Fund make this an ideal opportunity for company giving. This overview of the Challenge may leave you with questions regarding many of the details. Please feel free to contact us for more information. With best regards, Scott A. Freeburn, P.E. Armina Nolan |
