SOI meeting 3/18/10

We did not have SOI today because our president, Jade Borgeson, was at a Model United Nations conference. Therefore we did not get to discuss possibilities and ideas concerning our “big event” for seniors at the end of the year.

SOI meeting 3/11/10

Today we had a short meeting to check everyone's jobs for tomorrow. I am planning on making cookies for the sale. We didn't discuss much else, but talked a little about having a party for the seniors after the IB exams were over. We will probably talk more about that next week.

SOI meeting 3/4/10

Today we managed to get even more people into SOI. The members from the previous meeting were there along with Katie Owen. Before watching the movie, we discussed an upcoming bake sale. We set the date for next Friday, and assigned jobs. I will be making more food from the organic sugar and flour I used before. We then watched the reminder of the movie. It talked about food industry screwups and then gave a list of ways to eat healthy and keep a clean food industry. We then discussed how the movie was biased, but that this was an important factor in convincing others of our views. I think we managed to get a lot in considering the meeting was only 15 minutes long.

SOI meeting 2/25/10

Today we continued watching Food Inc, but we managed to snag one more person (Eric) to watch the movie. Our disccussion today was about the nature of organic foods in the industry, and how they are bought up by major companies and industrialized. This got me thinking about many of the organic foods I eat today and how "organic" they may really be. Also, these organic foods have to travel just as far as inorganic ones. Eating locally is probably the best idea. Next week, we will finish the movie.

SOI meeting 2/11/10

Today we continued to watch Food Inc.. As far as the movie segment, it was about the nature of corn and is use in America, which he had learned about when we read Pollan's book in TOK. However, what was interesting was the attendance for this particular meeting, as well as the decline in between meetings. Attendance had been steadily dropping, and today it reached a new low of 3 people: Jade, myself, and Marissa. This has prompted action on Jade's part to oversee who does and who doesn't get CAS hours.

SOI meeting 2/9/10

This week we continued watching Food Inc. This segment was mainly about the animal treatment in factories. Again I noticed the pro-vegetarian nature of the shots. No argument was made for organic farming of cows or chickens, they only mentioned that what was there was bad. The movie has been one sided and has presented a sort of loaded question in the way that it bashes things that are not organic without showing support or negativity towards organics. I am curious to see the reaction of the club to the movie at the end.

SOI meeting 2/4/10

We were not able to meet in the past few week's due to Jade's absence. Today, we starting watching Food Inc, a documentary which includes Michael Pollan, the author of The Omnivore's Dilemna which we read in Theory of Knowledge last year. So far the movie has been very insightful, but I have started to notice how the overtones of the movie help make it practically organic propaganda. It reads like a novel rather than an encyclopedia, unlike a traditionally unbiased documentary. This week we also decided to have two meetings next week, in an effort to finish up the movie.

SOI meeting 1/14/10

We had no SOI meeting today. However, I have been able to fit more organic foods into my diet.

SOI meeting 1/7/10

Last week we had a very brief meeting. Its sole purpose was to hand out surveys about responsibilities and times for upcoming events. In the meantime I have been attempting to eat more organic and local foods when possible.

SOI 11/23/09

Today we had our SOI Food Festival. We didn't have a specific theme but generally we tried to have "international" food. Nearly everyone brought something, and everyone was able to attend. Some people who were not in SOI also attended. We tried to have members bring their own utensils, but we ended up having to use some extra tableware that we had. We also had the misfortune of scheduling SOI on the exact same day as Mr Hyer's Chili day, which distracted from our comparatively smaller event. Next week, we will discuss poster ideas.

SOI meeting 11/16/09

Over these past two weeks our main focuses have been raising money through food sales and organizing a "food festival." Although our first attempts at raising money through food sales failed due to a lack of food, we hope to start up sales this week. We have assigned jobs for who makes the food, the day it's made for at who will staff. We also discussed having a food festival, which will commence on the Monday before Thanksgiving, a half day. Instead of our originally planned "Bring in $5 or food," this "practice" food fest will be exclusive to SOI members, and everyone will bring food. Soon we hope to raise enough money to possibly make a garden.

SOI meeting 11/2/09

This week we were not able to have a SOI meeting as our leader was absent from school. However, I am still signed up to help sell tea and snacks at break on Monday, and these sales may continue for quite a while.

SOI meeting 9/20/09

Last Thursday we had the first meeting of SOI (Sturgis Organic Initiative). In it, we discussed our plans for the current school year. We talked about distributing organic foods as well as educating the masses about the benefits of organic food. We also talked about how we might be able to raise money for SOI by selling organic foods at break, and about the possibility of sponsorship from local shops and farms. Our first sale will be on the first Friday of October.