Geeks Without Borders – Status Report for Wednesday, October 1^st, 2003

Hello again!

I'm back, with a new news update for Geeks Without Borders.

First off, as you can see, the mailing list is now active again. After intense negotiations with Yahoo, and thanks to poor security, we were able to re-activate this mailing list, despite my previous email account with them being deactivated. It should be noted that the “plutherus” account, from which you previously received email to this list, no longer exists. For email, please send to pat@gwob.org, and if you prefer Yahoo Instant Messenger, my new ID there is executive_geek.

Eugene Celebration last weekend was a great success. We raised enough money to fully fund our next project (more on that below). Even more importantly, we met loads of great people (And a special welcome to all the new members of this mailing list!), got a very positive reaction, and even forged a partnership alliance with another group, Mac Renewal (http://www.macrenewal.org), who refurbish old Macintosh computers for donations locally and internationally. We have also received many computer donations from people who met us (or whose friends met us) at the Celebration.

Upcoming fundraising projects include:

Orycon! This is a science fiction convention in Portland, Oregon. As at Norwescon in April, we plan on having a table set up. (We are eagerly awaiting a response from the fan table coordinator. So if you know anyone on the con-com there, you might want to mention this to them!) And we will also be hosting a room party on both Friday and Saturday nights to generate awareness for GWoB. Orycon is November 14-16, and you can get all the information you want about it at http://www.orycon.org/orycon25/index.html.

Nerd Ball 2. Nerd Ball 1 was such a success, we're doing it again. This will be in early November. Details are still being hammered out. We have five bands who've volunteered to donate their time (and we may have to whittle this down to three. Hard choice, they're all great!) Exact date and location to be announced later.

Several exciting projects are in the works. Upcoming include:

Esperanza Para Los Ninos. In coordination with a volunteer in Arizona, we are helping this orphan home in Sonora, Mexico. We will be visiting near the end of October. We are installing 3-4 computers, including networking equipment, a shared printer and scanner, educational software, and internet access. Their home page is under construction, but what's there so far can be found at http://www.esperanzaparalosninos.org/

Chiapas: We are going back to Chiapas, this time to set up a school which will be used by Maya children from several villages in the region. This will include another small network of 4 or 5 computers, including one laptop. This one will be in early January of next year. More details will be in a later announcement.

African Commission on Human and People's Rights. This is a multi-national group set up by the African Charter on Human and People's Rights, and meets bi-annually. We have acquired a heavy-use copier to be used to reproduce documents during session, and a scanner to help make all documents available electronically. They await only more toner and shipping arrangements.

Sierra Leone. This is a big one. They have requested 15 computers, including laptop machines. They have been approved, and we have the networking equipment and CDRW's, but are still looking for more donated computers to send them. Once we have the requisite equipment, it will all need to be shipped to Sierra Leone, so your donations are much appreciated!

About donations:

New! Track your donation! From now on, if you give us your email address along with your donation, you can track the progress of all equipment you donated, from its receipt from us, through testing, combination with other equipment, and set-up, implementation, and continuing use in the field. What fun! :-)

And, a reminder that, as a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation, all donations to Geeks Without Borders, whether monetary or computer equipment, are tax-deductible. We really need your donations to make this all work. We have many projects in the works, and even more pending approval, equipment, and funding. So please, help spread the word. Tell your friends, neighbors, and relatives. You can donate directly on our web site, through our PayPal link: http://www.gwob.org/makeadonation.htm (And the bug that was sometimes causing the page to blink has, I believe, been finally fixed for ALL browsers, so you can hopefully stand to look at it now!), or by shipping to our office in Eugene.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly. You can reach me via email at pat@gwob.org, via Yahoo Instant Messenger at executive_geek, or via my mobile phone 541-517-6371.

And thank you all for your interest, and your support!

-Pat