Early afternoon yesterday, Shane and I were afforded the opportunity to connect with Anna of Green Empowerment who is currently in Cajamarca. We had a whole list of questions to ask, so it proved to be a useful time to connect. From the call, there were a few major points I want to pass along. The audio recording is worth listening to as well.

First, Soluciones Practicas will hopefully be hiring a sociologist in the next week to implement the survey we sent a couple weeks back. This sociologist, and a technical surveyor, will draw data from several communities in San Pablo, including information about the previous water systems and specifics on how/why those previous water systems didn’t work out so well.

We also talked about funding this project/these projects because there are at least a few communities which could be the recipient of support, although Suro Antiguo would likely be the first. Grants are certainly one revenue source we are looking at, and we have a few potential leads. We’re also interested in potentially connecting with a local Rotary chapter because the San Pablo project could be right up that alley. One experiment, however, I think we can jump on right off the bat is using The Point to raise funds for a specific component of the project (for instance, hiring the sociologist). Yesterday, I came across a pitch titled, “Save NewsPageDesigner.com.” In less than 24 hours, and using the power of the internet to find a niche audience, they were able to raise $2,500 to save the website. I think there are two distinct components to the campaign’s success:

1. The “ask” was for a concrete goal. I feel as though non-profit fundraising is commonly for a large, nebulous amount of money. By breaking the “ask” down into specifics (hiring a sociologist, paying for a water tank, etc.), I feel donors might be more willing to support
2. You commit to donate, but aren’t charged until everyone in the community agrees that it’s a good idea.

For us to experiment with The Point, however, I think we need to: identify what specifically we want to raise money for, have a plan for marketing the fundraising effort, and set metrics for defining success with the experiment. The cool thing, though, is that we can experiment with this right away.

On the call, we also spoke briefly about Green Empowerment offering an “internship” to ODA members over summer 2009 for those that want to travel to Peru. Anna is receptive to the idea, but we need to better understand what specifically we need from GE to make that happen.

Starting off our Wednesday evening meeting on the 12th was a discussion on our current project, Peru. The skype call with Anna, who’s currently in Peru, was rescheduled to Friday the 14th at 1pm. We gathered some questions that we could send to her beforehand so that she’ll be able to answer them in a little more detail. Hopefully chatting with her will fill in some questions and give us a few answers to help keep us on track.

The possibility of receiving credit for traveling to Peru was also thrown around at the meeting. There is a chance that through Green Empowerment we may be able to get an internship which could get credit through study abroad. We’ll be asking Anna a few questions on this topic as it seems like a great opportunity.

Addressing funding, the group decided that a goal of two bake sales before the end of the term would be a great goal. Garrett volunteered to chair the financial section of ODA and will be looking into getting a bake sale setup outside of the Duck Shop (hopefully during book buy back, where there’ll be lots of students with money). Sandra also said she would try to sift through some grants and try to locate a couple that we could get on soon. Another good topic that was brought up was that when fundraising around campus we should be more specific as to where each donor’s money is going. For example, instead of doing a bake sale for ODA, we’ll be holding a bake sale for a solar panel that will power the water system. We felt this would give them more confidence in their donation as well as feeling a little more connected to the project.

The website is soon to be updated (Dan is fixing it up as I type) and hopefully it will be a little more user friendly after we change some things.

It should also be noted that a retreat has been planned! It is tentatively scheduled for all of Sunday, Nov. 23rd, most likely in and around the EMU. Hopefully all of our members will be able to attend as it’ll be a great opportunity for some progress as well as a chance to learn about each other!

Our next meeting will be at 5 pm next Wednesday at the fishbowl, hopefully we’ll see everyone there!

Wednesday evening gave the group an opportunity to get a jump on some goals that needed to be accomplished by the end of the term.  It was my first time with the ODA crew which that night included Adrien, Dan, and new member Nikki (who seemed well equipped for PR duties).

To start off the night Dan addressed the community surveys that have been sent off Anna in Peru. These surveys which contain a range of questions from, “How accessible is your drinking water?”, to “What is the condition of your land?” will then be given to members of the San Pablo community. Hopefully we will better be able to understand this community, their social interaction and how to best implement this project. Right now we’re waiting to here back so that we can compile some data.

A large part of the meeting was devoted to funding questions. Campus fundraisers seem like the most reasonable to accomplish before the term is over (seeing as how we’re already 6 weeks in..yikes!) so we discussed our options. Alex Goodell showed up to talk about a combined fundraiser with his group, Students for Global Health, but it seems like we’ll have to wait on SGH’s people power until next term since they’re busy with their own project at the moment. Daniel had suggested that we hold a party at the Campbell Club Co-op, but apparently its been booked with parties for a while. So as of now, the most legitimate (and feasible) fundraiser looks like a bake sale. Perferably we could do this at one (or many) of these parties at the Campbell Club because both Dan and Alex mentioned we could make a few hundred dollars in one night. It’s not bad for selling brownies and I think this would be a great start to get the fundraising-ball going. Next week we’ll meet back up with some concrete ideas for other types of fundraisers to be working on for the future.

The adviser questions still seem to be lurking. The problem with having a board of advisers is that we must have several faculty or community members who are willing to make a sacrifice and donate their time to this group. Most of the faculty that we want are already too busy with their own lives to help another out another cause. We decided that it may help to take a more specific approach when addressing potential advisers because it will lay out our expectations of them as well as what they can expect from us. That way we can find people who are not only willing to make this time commitment but who are also knowledgeable in the areas we’re seeking assistance.

As some have mentioned, the website needs updating and will hopefully be adjusted soon. We plan on reviewing the site soon and looking for areas that can be improved. Dan, Nikki and I are possibly meeting this weekend for a powwow to discuss some changes to the site. We hope that we can make it easier for people to find information regarding our current project by including a YouTube video which explains it in detail and in a medium thats a little more interesting than text.

And it looks like Dan was right on with the 1 hour 20 minute meeting time, and we’ll do it next week hopefully bringing some great fundraising ideas with us.

• 5 November 2008 - Meeting notes - ODA [Google Doc]

The Point is an old idea with a new twist. It’s a website which allows you to establish a “cause” (or reason you’re raising money) and solicit funding for it. The new twist is that, instead of immediately donating, the audience pledges their money towards the project. Once the pledge jar gets to the requested amount, then credit cards are charged. If not enough people rally around the project by the due date, then no funds are raised.

I think this approach has an interesting psychological advantage. There’s no cost to commit to an idea, and you’ll only donate if enough people think the project proposal is a good idea. It’s a bit like a 30 day money back guarantee.

Furthermore, if we can market it well, I think this could be a really effective way to fund certain physical components of a project (the solar panels, for instance). We give as much information as we can about the project, and the funders know exactly where their money is going.

The best example I’ve found is the “Pansenor Water & Electricity Project.” We can do it even better!

The water project is off to a good start. We just heard that the Christadelphian Meal A Day Fund of the Americas will be supporting a water project in Suro Aniguo with a $15,000 grant for the rehabilitation of the exisiting water distribution system, sand filters for households that the potable water system doesn’t reach, and community work to sustainably manage the water resource. In the next 2 months, we’ll be undertaking the socioeconomic and technical surveys in this and several other communities in the district of Tumbaden with the goal of launching a larger project to address the critical water needs in this area. Check out my post on the Green Empowerment blog for more about the area.

Arguably the most amazing film I’ve seen this year, “FLOW: For The Love Of Water” is playing at the Bijou Cinema in Eugene this Friday at 7:30 PM.

Granted, it isn’t the most uplifting film in the world, but it’s a must-see. Even if you’ve seen it before (hint, Shane), I would highly encourage you to come see it again. It is so many adjectives I’m lacking right now, and might just convince you to get involved with ODA.

As Shane mentioned earlier, he and I spent the whole weekend at a Green Empowerment workshop covering solar, solar water pumps, wind turbines, and a few other topics related to energy development in the developing world. It was about 20 hours of total immersion in how to scope, install, and maintain appropriate technology. Not entirely what I was expecting, but cool nonetheless.

For me, the most beneficial component to the workshop was the hands-on experience in assessing, say, water demands of a village and determining how many watts the solar panels had to provide to the pump in order to meet the demand. Whereas I don’t claim to be an expert in this arena, I feel comfortable in saying I would be a good assistant to this part of the project in the field. It’s also sweet that we now have notebooks full of slides and equations to reference back to. I think Shane and I could definitely put together a whiz-bang session for the fall retreat.

On the other hand, I think I had hoped the workshop would cover more of the cultural/social/political issues you can run into (although these are largely dependent on the country you work in). There’s quirks that come up in every project, and I would’ve loved to hear a roundtable of different scenarios Green Empowerment has had to address. I would’ve also liked to cover project design more in depth, but I suppose that’s why this was a technical workshop and not a learn everything workshop.

Overall, though, it was a great weekend spent learning about how to implement solar and wind installations.

This weekend, I spent most of my days at a technical training, put on by Green Empowerment at PSU. The training was divided up into 3 sections: 6-9 PM on Friday, 9-5 PM on Saturday, and 9-5 PM on Sunday. Most of the time was spent in a classroom where we learned about specifics of solar and wind electricity generation and using these things to pump water. Four times throughout the sessions, we would break from a classroom format for hands on time, where we got to work with and assemble the systems we were learning about.

For this reflection, I will start with the things I didn’t like, and then end with the things I did like. For me, having not been in a class setting in awhile, the 8 hour blocks on Saturday and Sunday were difficult for me at times. I would have preferred a different division of time (perhaps a session across multiple weekends). Also, I felt like the teaching sessions got bogged down in details at times. Finally, I wish that we could have spent more time talking about interacting with the people we’re helping–something that both Michel and Jason agreed occupied 90% of time spent when working on a project (be it electrification, water pumping, or otherwise). However, given that this was a technical training session, I was not too bothered by the technical focus.

Things I liked: While I said that I felt that sometimes the session got bogged down in too many details, for the most part I appreciated the in-depth approach to teaching us about the technical side of such a project. The book of slides they gave us will serve as a good reminder of all of the lessons we learned, and I look forward to having it when I design and implement a project. I also very much enjoyed the hands-on sessions, where I got to work with a voltmeter, solar-panels, a wind-turbine, and ask informed people all of the questions that came to me, both practical and theoretical. I’m glad that I got to do this electrical work now in a friendly, no-pressure environment full of people who know what’s up, because it’d be a lot harder (and potentially very costly) to have to pick this stuff up in the field. Finally, I enjoyed the chance to meet and spend time with a wide variety of intelligent, pleasant, and motivated people. Almost everyone there had a project they were working on. I got to chat with them and exchange ideas. I just regret that I didn’t get anyone’s contact information, because I feel that there were a lot of potential partners there.

In conclusion, though the format was hard on me, the experience was definitely positive. I’m glad I have the skills and knowledge that I do now, and I feel that they will be very helpful to me in the future.

Join Oregon Direct Action, and work with students at the University of Oregon to promote basic needs sustainably in Peru and elsewhere.

Currently, we’re looking for several bright, passionate students on campus interested in helping to provide safe and reliable water access to communities in San Pablo, Cajamarca, Peru. You’ll get to learn all about project research, design, implementation, and follow up (think needs assessments, appropriate water technology, and Participatory Rural Appraisal). Our team, at the moment just three people, has room for people to help with Operations, Finance, Communications/PR, and as many Associates as we can manage.

There’s a community kick-off meeting on Wednesday, the 22nd of October at 7 pm in the Knight Collaboration Center (room 122 of the Knight Library). If you are a student at the University of Oregon, please contact us or RSVP on Facebook to give us a heads up on the number of people showing up. We’ve got to make sure there are enough snacks for everyone.

Also, we’re looking for professors and professionals alike to serve on our Board of Advisers for the fall term. The advisers will meet with the ODA team once per month tentatively on the third Wednesday to discuss project developments, give feedback on project and funding ideas, and help improve organizational strategy. Additionally, we hope the advisers will become more intimately engaged with our projects, as everything we do is easy to follow along with on our website.

The applicants will be voted in by the team after the first joint meeting this month on the 29th of October. Positions will be term by term, although applicants are more than welcome to serve indefinitely. Please contact us if this sounds like an awesome fit for you.

Hail Mary it was. After dropping the ball for the last two weeks, Shane and I worked hard this morning to get our application in for the 2008 Staples Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition. Overall, I think it turned out quite well, especially in terms of summarizing our project and how we’re going to involve both the communities in San Pablo and the University of Oregon. It’s weak, in my opinion, near the end, as we discuss just how we’re planning on funding this project and what our inspiration for it was. I’ll be interested to hear what reaction we get (and hopefully it was submitted correctly. I emailed it in early because the server was down and then did the online form about 40 minutes after 3 pm).