Archive for the ‘Meetup’ Category
Pics from Feb 10 iVolunteer Meetup
Friday, February 13th, 2009
This week we flushed out development tasks, got developers access to the files, got briefed on the legal aspect of things and took a look at a new homepage mock. Thanks to Rally for providing space, pizza and beer!
Check out Stepan’s iVolunteer set on Flickr.
Great Crew at First iVolunteer Meetup
Friday, February 6th, 2009
Thanks again to everybody who participated in our first Meetup. Bonus thanks to Stepan and Andrew for taking such great shots of the crew.
Stepan’s Set
Andrew’s Set
The Story of iVolunteer: A Boulder Newbie’s Perspective
Monday, February 2nd, 2009
(or–What the Hell am I Doing Here?… Seriously.)
Imagine you’ve just arrived in Boulder. Imagine you’re me, and you’ve just arrived here from (dare I admit it so early on?)– uh yeah, Dallas. You’re loving the mountains, the air (if there were just more of it, please), the coffee shops. And then you kinda luck into hanging with the coolest group of smart, driven, passionate, confident, community-oriented people this town has to offer. Pretty sweet life, huh?
Oh yeah, except… ahem. You’re unemployed. In this economy.
The suck-fest news is that you’ve got no income. The good-fest news is that you’ve finally got at least part of the substance to craft an answer to the ever-so-popular-and-not-at-all-annoying “So what do you do?” question. And the “what they do” gig at iVolunteer has all kinds of potential to effect change in how volunteering happens in local communities all over the United States.
Last Tuesday, an impressive group of folks came together at the Van Heyst Group here in Boulder in answer to the call for help with the iVolunteer endeavor. The group split into the geeks and the non-geeks and got to work. Like Obama said in his inaugural speech, “For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.” And damn straight if everyone didn’t get right to it. The non-geeks started knocking around ideas– communications, writing, brainstorming, wondering what the geeks were doing… All great stuff to be part of.
Although this Boulder newbie may not know in which direction the winds of vocation may blow or what I’m going to be when I grow up, what is for sure is that there is power in surrounding myself with people I want to be like. Regardless, when this caliber of folks comes together to make profound, positive change happen in the world, I want to be part of it.
Why Does iVolunteer Feel Like Startup Weekend?
Monday, February 2nd, 2009
I’ve been to three Startup Weekends and at each one I was newly impressed by the energy that comes from working hard with smart people on something cool. With those events setting the bar so high for me, I have been incredibly pleased by how many times in the past week people have told me how much the first iVolunteer Meetup felt like a Startup Weekend event. That’s high praise in my book.
Hearing that there seem to be some parallels between Startup Weekend and the iVolunteer project got me asking myself some questions:
Why does iVolunteer feel like Startup Weekend?
What can we
swipelearn from the Startup Weekend process?
To get insight on the second question, I’m going to go the source and talk with Andrew Hyde, Startup Weekend’s founder and iVolunteer team member. (Check out his post on iVolunteer here: http://andrewhyde.net/ivolunteer-meets-with-a-bang/) I’ll write up my thoughts on that interview soon.
For now, here are my thoughts on the first question: Why does iVolunteer feel like Startup Weekend?
It’s about community.
To steal from David Cohen’s excellent Startup Weened Top 10 post, “Future co-founders will meet, experts will emerge, people will catch the startup bug. This is good for you, and it’s good for your town.” That’s what people have been saying they got from our first Meetup and I can only see that expanding as folks get down to the nitty gritty of getting iVolunteer off the ground.
It’s not about the Benjamins.
Although the air may feel entrepreneurially-enriched, participating in a Startup Weekend isn’t likely to make you wealthy. Neither will working on a guerrilla nonprofit startup. Realizing that nobody is going to make any money with this is actually pretty refreshing. Or, Nicole Glaros put it so aptly, “we don’t need no stinkin’ business model.”
“You decide your level of involvement.”
Structurally, the two endeavors have some common elements. I guess there’s a bit of Project Mayhem built into both. The projects are somewhat loosely defined at the start, then people self-organize into groups who then take on functional areas and tasks they find interesting. Nobody is in charge and people are free to take on as much or as little as they like.
This Tuesday (Feb 3rd), the iVolunteer crew will be giving an update at the Boulder Denver New Tech Meetup. Show your support for the project and see the awesome startup community first hand. Note that our next working session will be on Tuesday (Feb 10th) at Rally Software. More details to come.
iVolunteer Meetup – Tues, Jan 27 5-9pm
Monday, January 26th, 2009
iVolunteer Meetup Location
iVolunteer Meetup
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
5:00pm – 9:00pm
Van Heyst Group Office
719 Walnut St
Boulder, CO [map]
As mentioned at the last New Tech Meetup, iVolunteer’s first working session will be held on Tuesday, January 27. After the closing of RedFish Brewery, the folks at the Van Heyst Group graciously stepped up and offered their space to our efforts. Thank you!
iVolunteer has no employees and is entirely a not-for-profit endeavor. We see the project as a way to support community organizations across the country and also as a showcase for Boulder’s incredible depth of startup talent. We’ll have our laptops out hacking on code for the iPhone app and website, working on marketing plans, writing blog posts, and doing whatever needs doing to make iVolunteer successful.
Equal parts social and working, this is a great opportunity to meet interesting people in the Boulder community and work on something big. Bring your friends and anyone else who might be good to have along for the ride.
RSVP here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=46562643122
Thanks!
Dave Angulo (@daveangulo)
Rich Grote (@heyrich)
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