Connect Ithaca Team Updates

The Connect Ithaca Team (Carlos, Elisabeth, Gregory, and Tania) has done some great work to date. Below is a summary of our work to day, followed by a summary of our plans, and preceded by our goals.

Goal 1: To engage the Cornell community in learning, discussing, and eventually approving the vision of Connect Ithaca, which includes collaborative planning for an Ithaca-wide personal rapid transity (PRT) system.

Goal 2: To outreach to the downtown Ithaca community about Connect Ithaca and work with any other parties in promoting PRT in Ithaca.

Work To Date:

- We conducted some research on what cities around the country have done to become more sustainable. Information that we found was used by the Connect Ithaca Steering Committee when it presented to the Mayor of Ithaca information about PRT and the group's goals.

- We created other materials for the group, including a mission statement and logo.

- We created a google group for communication (connect-ithaca@googlegroups.com), helped set up a temporary website (www.connectithaca.org), and set up a blog for the Ithaca community together with some groups at IC and Cornell (www.sustainithaca.org).

- We distributed 27 tent cards about Connect Ithaca during Apple Fest and talked to community members about Connect Ithaca. We made some good connections with locals.

- We have engaged several student groups at Cornell. We have created a committee within the Sustainability Hub to promote Connect Ithaca's vision.

- Through the Sustainability Hub, we met with members of the Student Assembly Environment Committee at Cornell to talk about the possibility of approving a Resolution in support of Connect Ithaca's vision.

- Through the Sustainability Hub, we have set a date (October 29 @ 4:30PM) for Connect Ithaca to present about PRT to the Cornell community.

Work To Be Done:

- We are working on a Statement to be endorsed by organizations in Ithaca, including student organizations at Cornell and IC.

- We will seek the endorsement of organizations to support Connect Ithaca's vision.

- We will update the website with more useful information about Connect Ithaca.

- We will continue doing more outreach (such as to the Greenstar Meeting today) at Cornell and elsewhere to build support for Connect Ithaca.

- We are looking into getting copyright, trademark, and non-profit standing for the organization

The Connect Ithaca Team meets on Thursdays at 10:30AM and Fridays at 4:30PM every week.