We began our retreat with a quick meeting to allow everyone to fill the others in on what they’d been doing. Everyone had completed the action items from the previous meeting. Adrien contacted Kristen and Allen Hall Advertising. Dan and Adrien worked on the Clinton Grant Proposal and Dan powered through the last of it to get it in on time (go Dan!). Dan also finished outlining responses to additional grant proposals. Finally, we continued in our quest for additional grant sources, with Adrien finding out about the Knight Library grant database from Kirsten.
Next, Adrien told us about her meetings with Kirsten, head of the Environmental Leadership Program and an ENVS adviser, and Allen Hall Advertising, a group which does pro bono advertising work for groups on campus. Allen Hall Advertising told us that they’d already decided on their projects for the upcoming year, but that they would tell their members about us and see if anyone would want to take on additional work for us. Adrien said that Kirsten seemed very enthusiastic about our group, its vision, and the progress we’ve made so far. In addition to telling us about the Knight Library grant database, she told us that she’d pass any other grant information on to us. Having worked for an NGO in India, she has many contacts there and told us that she would put us in touch with them if we ever decide to refocus on India. Finally, she put us in contact with Andrew Hyde, a board member of Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG), an NGO currently working extensively in Peru.
Next, I talked about the email contacts I’d made with Solucciones Prácticas, asking for details about projects, planning reports, surveys, after-action reports on what worked and what didn’t, etc. At the time of this meeting, I’d just sent a letter to a person I’d been told would have the information I was looking for. The next day, a man, Javier, told me that they could send me information, but that it was in Spanish. My ability to speak Spanish is currently quite rusty, but given that I plan to go to Peru, I’ve decided that it’s time to get practicing. I told Javier that I would appreciate whatever he could send me, in English or Spanish.
Also, during these emails, I’d been sending a standard template letter asking for information, and we decided that this would be a template letter we would continue to use in all requests for information.
Dan then talked about a meeting he was going to be having with Wayne Centrone of Health Bridges International, another group working in Peru, about the possibility of adding a medical relief component to our project in Peru. The meeting will be tomorrow and Dan and I both plan to attend.
Finally, we talked about Hannah, who is currently in New Zealand working on a project and mostly out of contact. We figured that we should be flexible and not worry too much if other group members need to take time to take care of other things. We figured that all we would ask of Hannah is that she write a blog post or two, if she gets the chance, about what she’s done and learned while in New Zealand.
With that, we wrapped up our meeting after 33 minutes, and Dan allowed me to deviate from our tight schedule to take a 45 minute (strictly enforced) nap, to recover from my 24 mile bike ride in Portland that morning. Sure enough, after 45 minutes, there was Dan.
