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Here you can find out about the upcoming meeting and the latest meetings. If you missed a meeting, here is what we learned and what we talked about.

Contact Kate or Meghan to update you on what you missed, please!

Meeting with Shannon Harris: June 1st, 2008, 3:00pm at Kate's house

Shannon Harris' presentation was fantastic--thanks so much, Shannon! Not only did she describe her fascinating environmental part-time job, but she inspired all of us to continue what we are passionate about, which for many of us is helping the planet. You may know Shannon Harris, who calls herself a "Dumpster Diving Diva." She told us about her really interesting passion, which is preserving the easily re-usable items in homes that are to be torn down and shared with us a really interesting presentation about her journey through this green movement, her discoveries, challenges, and what she perceives the opportunities are for our TNG members and every other individual.

As for our plans for our next TNG Summer Project, we brainstormed some really creative (yet realistic) ideas, and managed to fit them together reasonably. For example, we thought of having a 4th of July float in the Kirkland parade, which will involve a fee and plenty of fun decorations (a hybrid Toyota Prius, for instance). Perhaps a public clean-up at Juanita Beach park, and a picnic to get people excited about it. Hopefully we'll have a MySpace page soon, so that we can get our name out a little more--so please add us! :D

Green Home Tour: Tuesday, May 27th, 2008, 4:30pm onwards at the Weber's house

TNG will be toured the home of a local family (whose daughter is one of our members) living here in Kirkland. For several worthwhile months the Webers have been working on their house that has been remodeled with several environmentally friendly ideas and sustainably built features incorporated into it, including proper insulation and even a green roof!

You may have heard about this: the Discovery Channel is doing a feature about their home soon!

Our tour through the Weber's green home taught us loads, and was by far a wonderful field trip. We learned all sorts of optimistic things about the house, for example, the benefits of solar panels, a green roof, triple-paned windows, super-insulation, and so much more. The turn-out was great, however perhaps some people still need a few reminders (you know who you are...). If you are one, it would be helpful to you to ask another TNG member about the experience. Also, you may have missed part of an interview with a Kirkland Reporter (to be issued on Wednesday, June 4th). Thank you so much, Weber family! On Tuesday, May 27th in the afternoon, TNG will be touring the home of a local family (whose daughter is one of our members) living here in Kirkland.

Earth Day Event: April 19th, 2008, 9:00am-12:00pm at Cotton Hill Park (Kirkland)

We viewed a fascinating event in Kirkland, open to anyone, where we witnessed 60 local goats munching away at the non-native English Ivy and Mongolian blackberries on some steep terrain. The area was hopefully nearly cleared, with help from volunteers willing to assist at the event. We hope you enjoyed it if you came! You sure missed out if you didn't.

Event: February 10th, 2008, 3:00-4:30pm at Kirkland Junior High

A local citizen of Seattle and KEXP radio staff, Lisa Shimizu, presented her re-make of Al Gore's documentary, which aims more toward kids and is even more understandable for adults too. She was personally trained by Al Gore and his helpers to give the same slideshow as shown in An Inconvenient Truth, but decided to alter it to be more kid-friendly. After the presentation, TNG and Roots & Shoots from Peter Kirk Elementary co-hosted the event, sharing information about polystyrene, lunch trays, etc.

Field Trip: October 17th, 2007, 2:00-3:30pm at Green Car Company

For an educational trip somewhere nearby, we took a visit to the Green Car Company. We learned about electric, bio-diesel, hybrid, ethanol and other cars and what effect (if any) they have on our earth, in contrast to an SUV or especially a Hummer. We'd also like to thank the Green Car Company for the great bags of information that each of us (who attended) received! After listening to Susan Fahnestock and Kellie Jordan from GCC speak to us about their company and what they do, we got to sit in the Kurrent NV and on a Vectrix electric motorcycle! Many of us were surprised to learn how comfortable and how easy-to-drive they look!

Campaign #1: April 22nd 2007, 1:00-4:00pm under PK Elementary Dome

Our first campaign was mostly a success. We posted flyers throughout Kirkland and even part of Houghton. 21 out of 27 members attended so we divided into 4 groups: West of Market St, East of Market St, Houghton Neighborhood, and Park Place/Lake Washington Boulevard. Flyers were  requested to be placed in Shnoo's Yogurt, the Kirkland Library, Emerald City Smoothies, Park Place Books, Noah's Bagels, Kit's Camera's, Starbucks, QFC, George's Place, The Bike Shop, Terra Bite, and the Kirkland Teen Center. We'll wait and see if they're put up in windows and on counters. The purpose of our flyers is for publicity so we hope to get more people around our area interested in what they can do to help prevent Global Warming.

Meeting #3: January 28th 2007, 1:00-4:00pm at Meghan's house

We watched An Inconvenient Truth, directed by Davis Guggenheim, about Al Gore's slideshow. We learned much more about Global Warming and the Greenhouse Gas effect. Learn more about what we learned on the About Global Warming page, or the sites on our Links page. Most of the attendees brought their $6.40 required for TNG. If you are not aware of yourself paying this fee, contact us by email (see the Contact Us page). 17 out of 23 people came to this meeting.

Meeting #2: November 19th 2006, 1:00-3:00pm at Nicola's house

We discussed: How we can help, El Niño, Hurricanes, the Seed Vault, etc. We did not get around to watching a video from the Discovery Channel because of our lack of time. We brainstormed about topics such as what we can do as a team to help out, fund raising, more publicity, and what we could learn about. We also took votes about our new domain name, an email for anyone with questions to email us about, and we switched around our jobs. The new jobs have been posted on the Members page. Our new domain name is going to be www.tngeneration.org. The Next Generation has bought it but hasn't published it to that site yet. The new TNG email is tngeneration[at]hotmail.com.

Meeting #1: July 16 2006, 1:00-2:30pm at Kate's house

At our first meeting, Kate and Meghan taught us about Global Warming, having watched An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore. They shared with us some ways that we can help prevent Global Warming in our own household (on the How To Help page). Everyone received a job that they were happy with and became interested. 8 out of the 13 people invited showed up at the first meeting. Nicola volunteered to create a website and within the next week, our website was up and running. Towards the end of the meeting, one of our members suggested the name: The Next Generation.