Anti-litter leaders train for board roles

About 30 Keep Louisiana Beautiful board members from Patterson to Lake Charles attended a board training event Tuesday at LSUE.
David Kiviaho, co-owner of the Kissa Corporation, said, “The directors for Keep Louisiana Beautiful asked us to do these regional meetings to provide information on board governance and what does a board do. Because some of the boards of the affiliates are connected to municipalities and some are connected to non profits, we developed this training program to speak to both of their needs.
“The main focus we have is letting people know that, when you sit on a board of directors, you are on that board to work. You are on it to better your community. You are not on it to climb a social ladder. There is work to do in your community, and we are giving them the principles of the board to show them how it is constructed so they can do their work properly.”
Kiviaho and his sister, Sharon Sandifer, co-owner of Kissa Corporation, are traveling the state training members of 39 affiliates of Keep Louisiana Beautiful, and representatives from nine different areas attended the training session at LSUE. The event was one of four being held around the state. Kiviaho and Sandifer had already conducted the training event in Hammond and LaPlace, and their last stop will be in Monroe.
Those at the event included Donna Baltakis, director of Keep Eunice Beautiful; Eligha Guillory Jr., assistant administrator for the City of Lake Charles; Patterson Mayor Rodney Grogan; Susan Russell, executive director of Keep Louisiana Beautiful; and Sarah Kelly, affiliate coordinator for Keep Louisiana Beautiful.
Kiviaho spoke about the challenges and solutions attendants would face as board members, how to recruit stellar board members, what actions each board member would complete, the skills needed for each board member position and board subcommittees.
“We are very interactive so that we are eliciting responses from the folks here so that they can hear the challenges that other people have across the state,” he said.
Kiviaho suggested rating a potential board member’s skill sets including education, developmental/fundraising government relations, public relations, waste and recycling, community and economic development and finance. Kiviaho also recommended reviewing bylaws, holding regular board meetings throughout the year and a board retreat, and building relationships with city council members.
As a member of the board of Keep Eunice Beautiful, Karen Parker of Eunice said she wants to make the community aware of light pollution.
“More and more lights are going up around Eunice,” Parker said. “It’s a big deal.”
In addition to working with Keep Eunice Beautiful for the past year, Parker is also associated with the International Dark-Sky Association, an organization that advocates the protection of the night sky and promotes environmentally responsible outdoor lighting.
“There is light trespass, when you are blinded by a neighbor’s light while out in your own yard,” Parker said. “Only light your property and only use the lights when you need to use them. Its just simple things to be aware of.”
Bobbie Young has been on board of Keep Lake Charles Beautiful for about a year, and she is also president of the Lake Charles Garden Club.
“This the first regional meeting I have gone to, and it reflects things that we do in our garden club,” Young said. “I want to know how to get some of my garden club members active with Team Green and get the community people involved because, even though we won the cleanest city, there are certain parts of the city that are not clean and its not good — how do you get people not to go out and litter?”
Young cited the cost of cleaning up litter in Louisiana during a recent year.
“When I joined the board and I was told that it costed $40 million to clean up litter in Louisiana, I thought, ‘Thats a lot of money’” she said.
Young said about 51 percent of litter is thrown out of vehicle windows, and another 17 percent flies out of the back of vehicles.
“When you get out and participate in cleaning the city when we have contests and you physically get out and clean and you see it — the cigarettes,” Young said. “It’s unbelievable the amount of cigarettes. People just open their vehicle doors and dump the ashtrays.
“Some business places have banned cigarette smoking and there are no facilities outside, no provisions for those who smoke. They just throw them on the ground. When we did the cleanest city contest, right outside of a hospital, people would go across the street and throw them. You go back a week later and there’s another 2,000 cigarette butts. Businesses need to provide a space for those who smoke.”