[sf-lug] Reminder: fundraiser tomorrow for Linux in schools tomorrow

[Christian Einfeldt]

Hi,

A number of volunteers for Partimus.org have been working very hard
for free for 6.5 years now in various public schools around the Bay
Area to place GNU-Linux machines in public schools.  We have
established a good foundation, and we now want to build on that
foundation.  The teachers appreciate Linux, are not afraid of it, and
use it heavily for a wide variety of functions,
including some mission-critical functions such as reporting grades and
so forth, at least in some schools.  In some of the schools, Linux is
the only platform to which the kids have access for reaching the
Internet.

All of this is a marvelous accomplishment, and we want to extend that
achievement. But to do so, we are going to need to bring in funds.  We
have been running entirely on volunteer fumes.  If we are going to
expand, we will need to establish a financial foundation to build on
the foundation of goodwill we have achieved and technical prowess that
we have demonstrated.

Toward that end, we are holding an initial fundraiser to build a
fundraising committee on December 15, 2010, at 5 pm at 1601 Turk
Street, at the Creative Arts Charter School, in the Board Room.  The
purpose of this meeting is to create a group of dedicated volunteers
who will focus on fundraising for our Linux-schools efforts.  We will
be providing modest refreshments, and we
will be asking for a suggested donation of $25.00 at the time of the
12/15/10 meeting to kick off our fundraising drive.

Free open source software has created a lot of jobs and wealth, and
now is a great time for us to expand our efforts to bring the
considerable benefits of free software to those who really need it
most, namely, public schools whose budgets have been mercilessly
slashed for more than a decade.  Supporting education fits very well
with the FOSS culture of expanding knowledge, transparency, and
democracy.  Attending this fundraiser would be a great way for the
members of this list to make a commitment to supporting our proven and
very successful efforts to get FOSS ideals into the broader society.

We will not be asking for too much of your time.  We will only be
asking you to share your contacts will us, and help us do outreach to
get your friends and neighbors to make small but meaningful financial
contributions to our efforts.

One of the specific goals of the 12/15/10 fundraiser will be to
prepare for a larger fundraiser to be held in the spring at the
Creative Arts Charter School.  That fundraiser will be a large
installfest and FOSS festival.  We are planning to have booths for Bay
Area FOSS-related groups, such as local LUGs and local FOSS-related
businesses, both large and small.  We will have
barbeques and games for kids.  It will be a fun, family-oriented event
that will have the dual purpose of raising money and soliciting
hardware donations, which will be triaged on the spot and we will
install GNU-Linux on machines that are brought in, so that we can turn
those machine right around and install them in the 6 Bay Area Schools
where we have a FOSS presence.

Also for the 12/15/10 event, we are asking people to bring working
laptops, printers, monitors, keyboards, and optical mice towers to
donate.  Our minimum spec for donation is 512 MB of RAM and at least
1.8 Ghz chips or the AMD equivalent.
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