Geeks Without Borders

December 17^th, 2003

First, the bad news: we here at the Geeks Without Borders office in Eugene were all too busy working on various stuff that we were unable to go see the new Lord of the Rings movie today. (My project list is now down to two pages, if I collapse all the detail). Hopefully, we'll all be able to see it soon.

Upcoming projects:

Due to work schedules (we're an all-volunteer organization, remember) and financial constraints, there has been some shift in schedules.

Esperanza Para Los Ninos, an orphan home in Sonoyta, Mexico has been delayed until January, 2003. We have all the equipment and the funds needed, so this one is definitely a go, we're only awaiting reply from our contact person in Arizona about the exact dates. We're going to be updating and testing/troubleshooting computers that are already there, as well as networking them and hooking them up to the internet via a wireless connection to a house that's about 20 miles away as there is no land line that goes out to the orphan home. More information on EPLN can be found on their web site:

Chiapas: This one is also a definite go. Unfortunately, communication is difficult to the region, so we've had a hard time coordinating with our contact there. We're looking at a mid-February time frame, though. We will be setting up a school with five systems, networked and connected to the internet via a land line. These systems will be used for education, especially teaching literacy, for children in neighboring communities.

African Commission on Human and People's Rights: They have requested a heavy-use copier, which we have obtained for them. We have two identical models, and preliminary testing showed problems. We have obtained the parts to make them work, though, and now they await only shipping to Gambia. Unfortunately, at 75 pounds each, shipping looks like it's going to cost us around $600.00 (we're still looking into ways of getting that reduced). We're about $500.00 short of that in our budget right now. So your donations are, especially now, most appreciated!

One Sky (Sierra Leone)

They have requested 15 computers, including two laptops, which we will be providing as soon as we have them. Currently, after our other projects are filled, we should have four computers left over, so if you have any extras lying around, please consider a donation. Remember that all donations are tax-deductible for the fair market value of the item.

Upcoming fundraisers:

We are currently planning Nerd Ball 2 in Eugene in January, and Nerd Ball 2.1 in Portland, Oregon in February. The last one was a success so we decided to do it again. The owner of Diablo's has invited us back again, and we have five bands who have volunteered to play for us. Since five bands was too many to do all at once, we decided to add a second one in Portland (where most of the bands are based). We are currently scouting for a location up there. We will also once again have the infamous Nerd Auction and raffle.

Norwescon: Yep, we're heading back to this Seattle-area Science Fiction convention to promote Geeks Without Borders. We will have a table and a room party at Norwescon in the SeaTac Airport DoubleTree in Washington. Come one, come all, and bring your change jar. In addition to raffling off a real-life functioning TRS-80 computer, we will be having a change drive, encouraging everyone to bring in that change jar that you all have sitting in a closet or a corner of a room somewhere and dump it into our Giant Bucket.

Current needs:

With the end of the year comes the beginning of Tax Season. This is your last chance to get a tax credit for 2003 for any donations. If you need ideas on what to get us for Christmas (or Hanukkah, or Solstice, or Kwanzaa, or just because :-) here are a few of our specific needs as they stand now:

Unexpectedly, we have many more motherboards and CPUs than we have cases to put them in. So we could really use all your empty ATX-style cases right now.

We also need two laptops, preferably P-2 or above, which we'll ship to Sierra Leone.

We also still need about 8 more complete desktop systems, again preferably P-2 or better.

And, as always, we're behind budget on cash. $500.00 more will allow us to ship the copiers to ACHPR in Gambia. And of course anything that gets donated beyond that will be put to good use! Remember that we are a 501(c)3 organization, so all donations are tax-deductible.

Help us spread the word!

We have uploaded an advertising flier that you are welcome to (and, in fact, highly encouraged to!) print out and post at your place of work or school, or wherever (please do follow local rules for posting such things, though!) The flier can be found at: http://www.gwob.org/flyer1.jpg

And, we have finished our End of Year report. If you'd like to see it, you can find it at http://www.gwob.org/2003annualreport.html

Both of these will have links from our home page within a few days, but for now you can access them directly through the links above.

Thank you all!