Scary email from OLPC

I received the following email in response to a question I had about how many laptops we could apply for. It implies that there may be serious changes to the grant program. Reading between the lines, I wonder if they might not discontinue the OLPCorps Africa program. I sure hope not! That would break a lot of hearts!!!

[note: bold highlighting is mine. Janissa]

Hi Janissa,

The 2010 program is still in development at this point. We're still evaluating if the 2009 style Corps should continue. We should be announcing the 2010 program soon. We'll announce these opportunities on the list serve below. Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Best,
Paul Commons

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Please join our mailing list to stay updated: http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/Corps

Janissa

Students Name Their Project

I got word from Andrew that they've held a contest at Nohana Primary School for the students to name the project, and the teachers have selected a winner, "Our Treasure Highland Computer School." The winner will get an as-yet undisclosed prize. They've also designed a logo, but we're still eagerly waiting to see it. Good job, students!

Janissa

Nonprofit Formation, step 2

I got the articles of incorporation for our nonprofit, Laptops to Lesotho, notarized today, and I sent the by-laws to our new Secretary, Sarah Balcomb, to sign. We've got a third Director, Andrew Dernovsek. I am serving as President/Treasurer, just until we can find someone to be Treasurer.

The Idaho Nonprofit Center has been a great help. I couldn't have done it without them. They've made it so easy, it is actually fun, and we're making progress!

Janissa

OLPC Deployment Schedule

I made an interesting discovery while going through the OLPC Deployment Guide's Sample Deployment Schedule. According to their schedule, we shouldn't expect our XO laptops to arrive in country until Day 125 (always assuming that we get a grant, of course). Assuming Day 0 is when OLPC makes their decisions on who gets grants, which in the past seems to have been mid-April or later, that would put Day 125 at mid- to late August! How can that be? That's when we'll be leaving! I need to go back and read blogs from previous grant recipients to see when they received their laptops. This has me very concerned.

Donate your OLPC XO laptop on Facebook

I've started a Facebook group to try to reach people who've received XO laptops through the OLPC Give One Get One (G1G1) program with the hope of getting those who aren't using their XOs anymore to donate them to our project. Short of that, maybe we can find someone in Idaho and/or Ohio to loan us theirs to use for hands-on fundraising.

Go to:
Donate Your OLPC XO Laptop on Facebook.

Getting the word out - Facebook, Twitter

I've now got a Facebook page for Laptops to Lesotho. It's also been added to the Facebook Causes, though I still need to register it as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with the IRS before we can start accepting donations on Facebook. And, I've got a Twitter account for Laptops to Lesotho, aka Laptops2Lesotho. So, the advertising infrastructure is set up, but we'll hold off generating some buzz 'til we're officially a nonprofit.

Join our cause at:   Facebook Cause -- Laptops to Lesotho
Follow our Tweets, go to:  Twitter -- Laptops2Lesotho and click Follow.

Forming our nonprofit organization: Laptops to Lesotho

We asked our friends for suggestions, and now we have a name for our nonprofit, Laptops to Lesotho (Inc.), the organization we'll use to raise additional funds for our OLPCorps Africa project. I've got our EIN number from the IRS, and I've written the mission statement, by-laws, and articles of incorporation.

I still need to recruit and confirm board members, then I'll be ready to submit it to the Secretary of the State of Idaho for incorporation. Once that's done, we'll register as a nonprofit with the IRS.

If we're lucky, all these legal steps will be done before Christmas, and we can start collecting donations during the giving season.