Speaking at the 2015 SEED Awards

Recently I was asked to speak at the South Bay Business Environmental Coalitions 2015 SEED Awards. Here's some of the hilarity that ensued!

Hello! I am Christina Kull Martens from the South Bay Business Environmental Coalition Board of Directors. I wanted to take a moment to welcome you to the 2015 SEED Awards on behalf of the board.

Keep in mind, if this organization was a person, it would be old enough to vote, drink, even rent a car! It has developed into a deep, interconnected organization that has relationships and impact far and wide.

Now to introduce the board. My elected officials- I’m sure you’re accustomed to the double clap after I read each name- that way one person doesn’t get big applause, and another a golf clap. Let’s Practice (Clap-Clap).

• First, our Current President Grace Huizar
• VP Lisa Ryder Moore
• Secretary Stephanie Harris
• Treasurer Lyonel Martens (Forgot my husband last year- have to make a big deal out of this one!)
• Past President Michelle Nicholls
• Mary Hewitt
• Sona Kalapura Coffee
• Matthew Mazzoocco
• Scott Martin
• Jaime Lozano
• Kermit the Frog (Just kidding! Seeing if you were listening. Hey- it’s not easy being green!)

A little about me- I’ve been a member of the Board for 7 years and work for Northrop Grumman. Yes, we’ve won a SEED Award twice…so I wrote a book about it! It’s called “Bring your D.O.G. to work: A (green) person’s best friend”. If you want a leg up on next year’s competition, we’ve got it for sale in the back! It’s full of short funny stories about all of the great projects my teams have done. And it’s full of bad jokes- but you wouldn’t expect that from me, would ya?

SBBEC’s focus is to provide collaboration opportunities to South bay network with professionals on environmental issues. Since many of you have been with the SBBEC or SEED Awards for a while, we don’t want to duplicate how we talk about the org each year, so Doug keeps challenging me to be creative- 2 years ago it was a top 10 ala David Letterman, last year was Haiku, and this year what was it?

Doug-Iambic Pentameter.

Christina-Yes! Does everyone remember that from their high school English classes? Shakespeare did it best- it goes ba-DUM (like good-BYE) alternating in the stanzas. Doug, do you want to give them an example?

Doug- sure. This one’s the most popular bit from Shakespeare: (Christina- make sure you say it with an English accent!)
Shall I compare thee to a Summers Day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

Christina- Think I can do it? (Cheering) Ok, here goes.
Shall I compare SEED to the SBBEC way?
Members art more hippy and pure volunteers.
Green winds do shape the science fairs of Day
And our mixer’s drinks are all too short to stay!

How did I do? (clapping) So what’s the challenge for next year, Doug, mad libs?
Again, congratulations on being nominated for a SEED award.
It creates focus not only on your efforts, ut also on the culture shift of the community. You’re all role models, and I hope to write a book on YOUR organizations green efforts in the future!
Congratulations from the South Bay Business Environmental Coalition Board of Directors.