May 19 Meeting Minutes

[rtavakian]

If I mis-speak or there is a content mistake, please don't be shy about it.  The last thing I want is for us to be confused or to mis-represent any of you!

@ Alex- We went over a lot and these minutes are only a brief summary- ask any and all of us for whatever help you need to be caught up and know what you've got to do.

-Rob

 

Commenced Meeting:

-Brief Introductions and recap of our skills and interest in Startingbloc. 

 

Steph: Marketting and Branding, Organization, and Making Presentations

Noor: Research Associate, Good at finding others strengths, Looking for Inspiration

Hsiu: Creative Presenting, Organizing, Flexible Schedule due to nature of rental property work

Konrad: Working in Philly at a start up firm, Systems-based organization

Rob: Starting an Incubator in Central PA, Small Business Consultant in NJ

Magen- Mentor, Interested in a career combining film and social impact

Alex was absent- but not forgotten.

 

Konrad Recapped his briefing on our Social Innovation Challenge:

 

Goal: Improve Community Resiliency and empower communities in the Niger Delta region of West-Central Africa.  Design a strategy and sollution to address problems and allow betterment.

 

Competition:

-A 2 page breakdown of our proposal will be required (by presentation time or by the time we get to NY?)

-3-5 State Department workers from the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operation will sit as a judge pannel in NY for all of the SB groups

-Each group will be given 10 minutes to present their projects to this pannel

-5 teams will be chosen to move forward, will be given feedback, and will be given 24 hours to workshop their proposals

-1 team will win untold fame and fortunes... though we have an idea of what it is- previous winners have recently won passes tothe "All Fellows Conference"- http://www.echoinggreen.org/blog/echoing-green-fellows-gather-to-celebrate-and-collaborate

 

Project Guidelines

-This is a short-term project- 18 month maximum commitment

-Feasability of project will be a major consideration of judgement

-Immediate implementaion is desired

-We must be able to measure impact,

-We must be able to Track Progress (have a defined process)

-Someone mentioned Having a failsafes in place "...if it doesn't work"

 

Overview of CSO's PDF file

 

General Brainstorming:

Feasable and implementaion in Immedate time were big reasons many projects in Magens class didn't move forward. 

Knowing stakeholders for a hypothetical project- do we reach out to real stakeholders to learn more?

Field workers already may have identified much of the data which we need, connections we may need

Being senstitive to what is culturally appropriate. 

-Learn something about the reputation and work of varrious institutions and groups: NGO's Local Government(s), US Government, Outsiders, etc.

Identifying leaders and community partners by looking at connections on NGO, For Profit Organizations, and Government Webstites

 

At this point we agreed that we needed to learn a lot more about the subject matter in order to move forward in a meaningful way, and divided up work which we will be due via email by this wed, May 22 @ 9:00 EST.

 

Hsiu: In charge of Google Doc and synthesizing group

Steph: General Background, People, Culture, general history, Identify general challenges and needs

Joelle: Government Institutions, State Govt, US Aid, etc, how do they measure impact?

Rob: An overview of NGO's already working in the region

Konrad: Reach out to World Bank contacts and try to learn about the region, impact measurement metrics, anything else useful.

Noor: identify models for social enterprise existing in the region, appraise strategies and effectivemess

Alex: Look into different incentive models we may be able to use for our project

 

Other work needed to any who wish to take it on: Look up CSO's work and operations, so we have a better understanding of our audience

 

We'll post our findings in a google doc by this wed,

Our next meeting is at 4:30 PM EST on Sudnay, May 26th

 

That's it!

Add any comment, concerns, or thoughts- If you're finding that your topic is too broad or is a rabbit hole of information, reach out for help- if you

feel like you need some more work to cut your teeth on, I'm sure we can find someone you can lend a hand doing research to!!!

 

Talk to you all soon!

-Rob