Twin Cities Give Camp Update

[Donn Felker]

From the website (www.twincitiesgivecamp.org)

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Hello All,

It's time for a long needed update. First off, I apologize for not
being more connected - going this long without an update will not be
the norm from here on out. There has been a lot of stuff going on
behind the scenes to get things rolling and we're finally able to make
some moves.

Before we get into the nitty gritty details I'd like to introduce
Brent Edwards. Brent is one of the other coordinators of the Twin
Cities GiveCamp. I also coordinate, but GiveCamp is too much work for
any single person to handle. You'll probably see postings, emails, etc
that reference him or even come from him.

Before we can get things rolling we do have some good news and bad
news. Lets start with the good news.

The Good News: We Found _a_ Charity To Work With
I have personally contacted over 30 charities and only a couple have
responded with an open hand for us to help them. Only two had work we
could actually help them with (others had scope beyond what GiveCamp
can handle. Between those 2 only one of them could make the timeframe
in which we had handed them. This left us with one charity to help.
Those of you who have volunteered already know who this charity is.

The Bad News: Date & The Location
Originally New Horizons of Edina had offered to house the GiveCamp.
Unfortunately due to reasons undisclosed they are not able to provide
the facility services this time around. Unfortunately we found this
out late in the game. Upon finding this out we contacted two other
locations that had offered up space but the requirements were to
difficult for them to meet in the given time line and they did not
work out. Therefore, as of right now ... we have no place to house the
GiveCamp on Nov. 14th/15th.

This is an odd situation to be in as the first thing you do when
setting up a GiveCamp is secure a location. It's your most important
resource other than you, the developers/designers/dbas/IT Pros. We are
now 2.5 weeks from the event and we have no place to go.

So what do we do now? Microsoft has graciously stepped up to the plate
and secured us a guaranteed spot in the Microsoft Bloomington offices.
But, there is a catch. The earliest time we could get a guaranteed
time would be in January. This is definitely not ideal as we have
already postponed this event ONCE. Now we're having to postpone it a
second time. Hopefully, three times a charm and this time around
everything will fall into place. We already have food sponsors, coffee
sponsors, give away's, XBox's to play while we're at the camp etc.
We're ready to roll, but our location is not until January.

So when is the event? The event is going to be held on Jan. 15th -
17th. The 15th is a Friday. We will be starting after 12-noon (yes we
know you might be at work still) and you can show up anytime after
that.

We apologize for having to move the event date again but it looks like
this third time should be the charm.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best Regards,

Donn Felker
Founder/Coordinator Twin Cities GiveCamp