Cowspiracy, Vegan Potluck, Semester Recap

In mid-December, Veg Club hosted a free screening of the animal rights documentary Cowspiracy, which focuses on the environmental reasons behind veganism. The film was well-received and we had a thoughtful discussion afterward.

Later that week, Veg Club and S.A.V.E. teamed up for an end-of-the-semester party in the form of a vegan potluck! Foods included tator tots, spaghetti with faux ground meat, sloppy joe's, pakoras, hummus, pretzels, chips, chocolate chip cookies, Oreos, bread, and a Tofurky roast! We had a blast hanging out with cats, a turtle and a snail. We also played some games (i.e. truth or dare and never have I ever). Dares included licking the floor, crawling on the floor with a chair balanced on the back, pouring water over the head, and eating strange food creations (you don't even want to know). We also shared our favorite restaurants and our favorite events from the semester. The most popular ones seemed to be our rice and cage demos, as well as our volunteer trip to SASHA. We noted that we felt like a community this semester more so than any other so far.

This semester has been an impactful one! In September, we gave away coffee at Campus Fest, hugged people and danced in a chicken costume for Hug A Vegan Day, and squeezed two people into a dog cage to demonstrate the way factory farmed animals live. In October, we walked in the homecoming parade carrying an environmental-animal rights message, scooped poop and visited animals at SASHA, and put 740 pounds of rice on display to show how many animals are killed for food per day in the U.S. alone. In November, we gave away vegan Thanksgiving food and held our annual Adopt-A-Turkey Bake Sale. In December, we screened Cowspiracy and celebrated together at our potluck. Though at times members were swamped with their own lives and couldn't attend meetings, we still always pulled together as an efficient team for our events. We are proud to have such a dedicated group of activists who fight for animals.

Holly, Veg Club's president for the last three years, will be graduating in the spring, so elections were in order! Congratulations to Paige and Torrey, our co-presidents for spring and fall 2016! We also awarded superlatives to our regular members as follows:

• Holly: Best Dictator
• Paige: Most Dedicated Member
• Torrey: Most Entertaining Check-Ins
• Scott: Longest Running Member + Most Tardy
• Emily: Best Leafleter
• Katey: Biggest Heart for Animals 
• Reanna: Best Cat-Facts Prankster
• Chris: Best Honorary Member +  Rice Hauler
• Bill: Most Spirited Wolf

Meeting Notes for Jan. 13

At Tuesday's meeting, we ate peanut butter chocolate bars, talked about life, and outlined events for the semester, tentatively as follows:

January

• Get Involved Fair (Jan. 20th from 11am-3pm in BTSU Ballroom)
• Broiler Chicken Demo (Jan. 26th from 11am-3pm at Union tables)
• Fundraiser/Raffle (Jan. 27th and 28th from 11am-3pm at Union tables)

February

• Ditch Dairy Day
• Vegan Hot Chocolate Giveaway (possibly combine with DDD)
• Fish Demo

March

• Veg Myth vs. Fact Demo
• Documentary Screening?
• Rally for Change OR Pay Per View?

April

• Eco Fair
• Chalk the Sidewalks
• Paint the Rock
• Volunteer at SASHA
• Vegan Potluck/End of Year Party

Meeting Notes for Oct. 14

At last night's meeting, we discussed upcoming events for the rest of October.

On Tuesday October 21st at 8pm in Olscamp 115, we will be showing the environmental-animal rights film "Cowspiracy" in place of a regular meeting. Members also need to bring club shirt money ($11-$13) by this date!! In addition, members are asked to bring a few facts about the egg industry in preparation for another event.

On Wednesday October 22nd at 6:30pm at the Spirit Rock, we will be painting the rock veg style. Also on Wednesday in the Union at from 12-1pm, Dining Services will be featuring free vegan food, so we encourage people to go check it out!

On Wednesday October 29th from 11am-3pm in the Union Oval, we will be having a demonstration about the egg industry. The meeting on Tuesday the day before will be used as a work day. At this point, our ideas for the event include to have a chicken costume, a member sitting in a small cage, some sort of signage, and a petition. We also will pass out plastic easter eggs that have candy and a fact about the egg industry (possibly, one of several that could be color-coded and 'collectible'/shareable).

Tentative Fall 2014 Schedule

Here is the tentative schedule of events for fall 2014! :) Check out October to see what's coming up soon (painting the rock and eating at the Oaks at the new vegan station).

Fall Semester

September
9/4 Campus Fest
9/20 Volunteer at SASHA
9/16 Pig Crate Demo
9/18 Officer Training

October
10/22 @ 6:30pm Paint the Rock (Meet there)
10/7 @ 1pm Eat at Shoots
10/21 @ 8pm Show Film "Cowspiracy" (Meet Olsc. 115)
10/29 @ 11am-3pm Egg Demo (Meet in Oval)
Club Shirts

November
Veg Myth/Fact Demo
Adopt-A-Turkey Bake Sale
Vegan Potluck
Officer Elections

December
World Hunger Demo

Meeting Notes for March 18

Upcoming events:

• Speciesism film screening - March 25th at 7pm in Olscamp 219
• Rabbit Sanctuary Volunteering Trip - April 5th
• Veg Fest in Michigan - April 13th 10:30am - 5pm
• Vegan Donut & Puppy Chow Sale - April 15th & 16th at 11am-3pm in Union
• SASHA Farm Volunteering Trip - April 26th
• BGSU Eco Fair - April 23rd
• Final potluck/end of year party - May 3rd

Other Notes:

• NO meeting March 25th
• Keep thinking of ideas for DAB meetings & the vegan station at the Oaks

Meeting Notes for Jan. 14

After discussing the upcoming Dining Advisory Board meeting and the collaboration with dining services on constructing a vegan station in the AYCE facilities, we touched on our plan for this semester. Here is our tentative schedule (though we will be researching some other ideas such as protesting), which will also be supplemented by doing events with SAVE:

January
Get Involved Fair (24th, 11-3, Olscamp 101)
Bake Sale (29th, 11-3, Union Tables; bake night instead of meeting TBA)

February
Ditch Dairy Day (26th?, 11-3, Union Tables)
Kindness to Animals Day: Pledge to do something kind for animals & get free food
Eat together at Aladdin's

March
SASHA Trip
Bake Sale (International or candied goods?)
Eat together somewhere

April
Rabbit Sanctuary Trip
Bake Sale (donuts???, in the Union Oval??)
Final potluck/party! :)

Meeting Notes for Nov. 5

At last night's meeting, we tie-dyed our adorable new Veg Club shirts; we can't wait to see how they turned out and rock them everywhere we go! We also discussed upcoming events:

• Nov. 7th @ 8:00pm in the Business Administration building 1002, SAVE will be showing the film Happy Feet.
• Nov. 12th @ 7:30pm we will meet at the rock in place of a regular meeting. We chose the colors green, pink and blue to paint with!
• Nov. 13th @ 5:30pm at the Oaks a guest chef will be giving a vegan cooking demonstration in honor of National Vegan Month. All are encouraged to attend!
• Nov. 17th @ 5:30pm we are having a vegan potluck at the Common Good, so bring vegan food! We will be meeting at Starbucks @ 5:15pm for those who want to walk there together.
• Nov. 19th @ 7:30pm we will meet at Starbucks to walk to the Common Good for a bake night in place of a regular meeting. On Nov. 20th, we will have a vegan bake sale 11am-3pm.
• Dec. 5th @ 8:00pm we plan to show the short documentary Fowl Play; details to come.

There will be no meeting on Nov. 26th, so the next regular meeting that we will have in our usual room in Olscamp will be Dec. 3rd. Most likely we will hold officer elections that day (though this was not discussed at the meeting) so that the new terms can begin in January. This semester is really flying by and we are certainly keeping busy with lots of fun stuff!! :)

Meeting Notes for Sept. 24

At our meeting last night, we discussed upcoming events of interest being put on by BGSU and by SAVE. We also decided on dates for Veg Club events that are happening in October. We will be eating together at the Happy Badger on October 3rd, hosting a vegan bake sale on the 18th, and volunteering at SASHA Farm on the 20th. To help take pictures at these events and more, we unanimously elected Ciara as our new historian! It was a pretty packed meeting, so check out the slideshow for the details.

Campus Fest, Baby Otters, Chili Cook-Off

On September 13th, (despite a few threats of rain), we had our first event of the year: Campus Fest! Over 300 organizations set up tables outside the Union for BGSU students and community members to check out. It was refreshing, exciting and almost overwhelming to see so many people come together to get involved in a spirited, lively environment. The positivity, interest and curiosity of those who stopped to inquire about Veg Club was really encouraging. Lots of interesting conversation! We ran out of several piles of literature and all of the Oreos we were serving, and we filled three sign-up sheets with new e-mail subscribers! What an awesome start to the semester! Hopefully, we will see some new faces around and continue to grow as a group... Let's make an amazing year together!

On September 18th, we had our first official meeting of the year, complete with veg music, banana chips and cheeseless veggie pizza! Everyone introduced themselves and we talked about our favorite animals and our shared veg experiences (e.g. the protein question *gag*). It was pretty much unanimously decided that baby otters are the cutest. We also tossed around a few ideas for this year and shared what we would like to get out of being part of Veg Club. Everyone is really looking forward to finding support from fellow veggie friends this year!

On September 21st, a few friends from Veg Club and SAVE took a trip last night to SASHA Farm Sanctuary and Safe Haven for Animals in Michigan for a Fall Festival and Vegan Chili Cook-Off. Before grabbing baked potatoes and sampling some delicious vegan chilis which people were voting on, we strolled around the farm and said hello to our animal friends: goats, sheep, pigs, cows, chickens, ducks, emus, horses, donkeys, turkeys, dogs and cats. It is truly heart-warming and moving to see how free and happy they are there, and it was exciting and comforting to be surrounded by so many people who support SASHA and love animals. In the evening, everyone gathered around a giant (and extremely hot) bonfire to enjoy the lovely autumn-night weather and roast vegan marshmallows. Yum!

Summary of Notes/Events Spring 2013

Things we did Spring 2013:

• Get Involved Fair
• Pay Per View (pay people to watch an AR video) with Mercy for Animals
• Bake Sale to fundraise once a month
• Screen documentary "Forks Over Knives"
• Eat-Togethers once a month (Happy Badger, Aladdin's, potlucks)
• Ann Arbor Trip
• SASHA Farm Sanctuary Volunteer Trip
• Eco Fair
• Surveyed Campus for idea of vegan food co-op
• Worked with Dining Services to plan vegan station Shoots at the Oaks
• Made amendment to our constitution to include all animal products as our focus (not just meat)

Minutes for Apr 9

Veg Club Minutes from April 9, 2013

1.)    Eco Fair: we will be having a booth at the Eco Fair on April 17 from 11:00-3:00 PM in the Student Union

-          We will be creating our poster for the event at this week’s meeting at 9:00 PM in Olscamp 206. Come by if you want to help with the poster or the Eco Fair itself!

2.)    Eat Together: we will be having a potluck dinner April 20^th at 6:00 PM at The Common Good (113 Crim St.). All are welcome.

Notes for March 19

1.) Upcoming Bake Sale: we will be holding an internationally themed bake sale next Monday and Tuesday (March 25 and 26) from 11:00-3:00 PM in the Student Union.

-we plan to offer sesame fudge, mochi, baklava and banana-chocolate empanadas

-there will be a bake night to prepare for the event at Miriam and Mallory's house on the evening of March 24.

 

2.) Upcoming Sasha Farms trip: we will be joining Save in a trip to volunteer at Sasha Farms this Saturday (March 23).

-we will meet at the Student Union Starbucks at 7:50 AM and departing at 8:00 AM

-we expect to leave from Sasha around 2:00 or 3:00 PM, which should place us back in BG between 3:30 and 4:30

 

3.) Miriam attended last week's Dining Advisory Board in Holly's stead.

 

4.) Cooking class: relevant BGSU chefs were receptive to our suggestion of their hosting a cooking class, though they were curious as to whether we wanted merely a demonstration or a class. We expressed our preference for a cooking class.

 

5.) Happy Badger last Saturday: Veg Club went out for lunch to the Happy Badger this Saturday. Everyone who attended reports having enjoyed the experience and (especially) the food.

Notes for Feb 12

Veg Club Notes from February 12, 2013

1. Aladdin's Eatery: we will be departing from the campus Starbucks at 5:30 PM on Sunday, February 17 to go to Aladdin's Eatery in Toledo for a group dinner.*
2. Bake Sale: there will be a bake sale February 19^th and 20^th from 11:00-3:00 PM in the Student Union.
   -bake night will be Monday, February 18^th at 8:00 PM
3. Forks Over Knives: we will be showing the documentary Forks Over Knives, which discusses the health benefits of a vegetarian/vegan diet, on February 26 at 7:30 PM in Olscamp 223. All are welcome to attend.
4. Survey: we decided on the questions for our campus survey into BGSU community diets and interest in a vegetarian/vegan co-op restaurant on campus.
5. Cooking lessons: Miriam proposed that we partner with the Indian Student Association to offer cooking lessons on Indian food (much of which is vegetarian or vegan). Miriam will be contacting the association on our behalf. More details to come later. 
   
   
   *This event has already happened.

Notes for February 5

1. Movie:
   - we decided we would like to show a movie this month.
   - we decided to show Forks over Knives, which focuses on the health benefits of a vegetarian/vegan diet
   - we are tentatively planning to do the showing in one of the large classrooms in Olscamp, out of concern that the theater may be booked (and because these rooms may be cheaper).
   - the movie will be shown in the fourth week of this month, tentatively February 26 at 7:30 PM. The movie will replace our usual evening meeting.
   2.) Bake Sale:
   - we are planning to have a bake sale later in this month (tentatively the 19^th and 20^th)
   - the bake sale is also to be used as an advertising event for the movie and the club. Pamphlets for the movie will be passed out and we are likely going to create a new trifold.

3. Eat Together
   - we are planning to go out for dinner Sunday, 17^th of February to Aladdin's Eatery in Toledo.

4. Old Flyers
   -If you see old Veg Club flyers (any flyers you do see are old), please take them down because the information about our meeting place is wrong. 

5. Survey
   - we will be using the campus updates and a survey website (e.g. Surveymonkey) to deliver a survey about BGSU community diets and attitudes toward the creation of a vegetarian/vegan co-op restaurant/store on campus.

Notes for January 29

Veg Club Minutes from January 29, 2013

Business

1.) Vegetarian/Vegan Co-Op Research Results

• As part one of the project of trying to start a vegetarian/vegan co-op at Bowling Green each member looked into one of several existing programs at other schools or programs (Hiram College, University of Washington, Oberlin and the Co-Fed organization) and reported their findings to the club this week
• After some discussion of the various models we achieved agreement on wanting to develop a student run/cooperatively owned (non-profit?) business that would be open to all members of the Bowling Green community.
• It was also decided that, given the scale of the project, we would do well to try to involve other organizations that might have the interest in and resources to help with this project (e.g. Net Impact).

2. Monthly Events
    

• It was decided that we would like to have one special event each month, in addition to our monthly eat together
• It was also proposed that we endeavor to have one bake-sale per month, as our bake-sales have been fairly successful. We are, however, hoping to increase our variety of offerings at future bake-sales. For example, we are planning to have a pancake bake-sale.
• Special Events discussed included:
  - Participating in the Eco Fair in April (we had also wanted to bring a speaker to campus and it was proposed that we have the speaker come as part of our Eco Fair event)
  -Cooking classes: though no month was proposed, we are considering taking cooking classes
  -Documentary showing: we are probably going to screen Forks Over Knives
  -Sasha (Sanctuary and Safe Haven for Animals) Farm: we are planning to collaborate with Save in a trip this semester to Sasha Farm in order to do volunteer work for them.

Meeting Notes for Jan 22

Events

1. An-Arbor Trip This Sunday:
   - We will be leaving at 10:00 AM from the Student Union Starbucks for An-Arbor, Michigan, to partake of the city's fine vegetarian and vegan cousin and shopping opportunities (Notably, we are thinking of going to either or both the People's Food Co-Op and Whole Foods for groceries, followed by lunch at The Jazzy Veggie).
   -We should be back in BG by 4:30 PM.

Business

1. Bake Sale:
   - We made ~ $38 at this week's bake sale, which we considered a successful event
   - Profits were tempered a little more because we had been in debt $9 because of a mistake about how much money was in our club account
2. Get Involved Fair
   -We had significantly fewer people interested at this week's Get Involved Fair, though this is probably largely a function of the fact that attendance was generally unusually low at the fair.
   - That said, we warmly welcome all to our meetings (Tuesdays at 9:00 PM in Olscamp 206).
3. Dining Advisory Board Meeting—many things were discussed at the last dining advisory board meeting; here are some of the highlights:
   - One of the focuses of the meeting was on The Sweet Shop. At the advisory board meeting, Holly noted that we would like to see more vegan sweets.
   - The university is considering new commuter meal plans.
4. Starting a Vegetarian/Vegan Food Co-Op on campus
   - Though it would obviously take a lot of work, Miriam's proposal of trying to start a vegetarian/vegan food co-op on campus was met with unanimous support.
   - As part of our initial planning, we are getting in contact with and researching schools that already have such food co-ops for inspiration and tips on how to get started.
5. Surveys
   - We would like to return the campus dining experience surveys at next week's meeting. If you are participating in the survey please remember to finish your visits before then.
6. Other ideas for the semester:
   - Though nothing concrete was decided, we briefly discussed what other events we might want to plan for this semester. Ideas included: another documentary screening, taking a cooking class together, Pay per view info videos/ other collaborative work with Mercy For Animals, pamphleting, and bringing in a guest speaker (likely a task to be approached in collaboration with other campus organizations). 

Notes for January 15

Here are the minutes from this week's Veg-Club meeting (Tuesday, January 15, 2013).

Upcoming Events:

1.) Bake Sale: we will be having a bake sale Friday 18th of January from 11:00-3:00 PM in the Student Union. Food will be prepared Thursday evening; comment ASAP if you're interested in joining us for the food prep or the sale itself.

2.) An-Arbor trip: we will be visiting An-Arbor, Michigan January 27 for lunch and to partake of the city's excellent veggie shopping options. Specific times to be sent later.

Other News:

1.) New treasurer: Kate has been elected as our new treasurer; congratulations and best wishes, Kate! 

We also discussed an email from students concerned about the treatment of fiddler crabs at Walmart and whether or not we could/should do anything about it.  Our homework for the next meeting is to do some research on fiddler crab well being and how these kinds of stores treat their animals. Come to our next meeting with insights, or comment here, or email us at bgsuvegclub@gmail.com!

Next week we will also discuss further plans for the semester. If there is something you would like to see us do, again, please come to the meeting or comment or email us!

Reminder:

Don't forget to fill out our surveys for Dining Services! Let us know if you'd like a copy!

Meeting Notes for January 8

January Events:

1. An-Arbor Trip: we are tentatively planning to visit An-Arbor, Michigan on January 27 for lunch and shopping. Let us know if you have ideas for activities!
2. Get Involved Fair: the Get Involved Fair is January 22 from 11:00-3:00 PM and we would like volunteers to staff our table there. We will plan for the fair at greater length next week.
3. Bake Sale: we are planning to have a bake sale January 18, details to be worked out later.

Dining Services Updates

1. Dining Services has asked us to fill out monthly surveys about our experiences with campus dining. Holly designed the requisite survey and each member was given a copy of the survey for this month. The survey requires dining at Kreischer, The Oaks and Carillon Place once per month. Email us (bgsuvegclub@gmail.com) if you weren't at the meeting and would like to complete the survey!

Constitutional Amendments

1. A constitutional amendment to our mission statement so as to modify it to acknowledge those who want to eliminate all animal products from their diets/lives (vegans) was passed with unanimous support. The previous language referred only to meat.

October 23 Notes

Blog posts will not include check-ins for the privacy of Veg Club members.

We had a series of updates concerning our efforts to try to improve vegetarian and vegan options on campus.

First, Holly's report: Holly is our representative to Dining Services and attended a recent meeting where she was, unfortunately, unable to do more than provide her introductory remarks because of time constraints and the presence of a large number of people in the meeting. On the plus side, Holly did have time to ask about having an ingredients list—though Dining Services seemed unreceptive to this on the grounds that their chefs prepare food slightly differently at different times.

Update on contact from Peta (courtesy of Jennifer) we are still waiting to hear further suggestions from our contact in Peta who has had success at improving vegetarian and vegan options at their own school. We are especially interested in suggestions about how to approach Dining Services and what kinds of questions would be best to place on a survey to explore campus support for improved vegetarian and vegan meals.
It was also suggested that we might want to look into what it would take to include meal preference surveys for all future incoming students.

Finally, Marketing and Communications has informed us that if we want to poll the university electronically the way to go about this would be to make-up our survey using one of the many survey websites that exist and then we could include a link to the survey and details in the daily announcements.

We will be showing Veg-Educated showing November 8 at 7:00 in the Student Union Theater.

We will be tye-dying shirts at next week's meeting! If you're interested please bring a white shirt to next week's meeting!