I was invited to a meeting recently at the Lewiston School Department for the purpose of brainstorming about a potential project proposal which would be sent to Hewlett Packard's Digital Village grant program. They are inviting communities to develop projects to help move all of the residents of the community into the digital age. Proposals are supposed to address three areas of concern to HP: in-school programs, neighborhood center programs, and home-based efforts. Although I was invited to the gathering as a representative of the Library, once the direction and purpose of the meeting was made clear, I was also able to represent AVCNet. This whole effort needs to move along quickly as proposals are due around November 7. We did some rough brainstorming and one member of the group from the Bates Development Office who has a great deal of grant-writing experience has agreed to pull together the application. At this point, they are mainly looking for organizations to sign on as partners. Partners would be organizations who have worked to help bring our community into the digital age or those who have the resources and vision to begin helping in the near future. Partners are being asked to provide the following information at this time: 1) people, groups or organizations currently served by the partner 2) resources and/or services which are being provided or could be provided 3) past experiences with partnership efforts in the community 4) any specific programs which could be offered by the partner which could help in bridging the digital divide and become part of this overall grant project. The grant proposal does not require alot of specific detail on the exact project at this time, so we could sign on and then help to work out the details later. For more information on this program, visit: http://webcenter.hp.com/grants/us/digitalvillage/ I would propose that AVCNet sign on as a "partner" in this project. I would be glad to try to answer any question that you or anyone had regarding this initiative. Board Members: Please respond ASAP as to whether you support AVCNet signing on as a "Partner" here. Anyone: Please provide any feedback regarding how we should be answering the four informational points above. thanks, Rick -- * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Rick Speer rspeer@lplonline.org Lewiston Public Library http://www.lplonline.org 200 Lisbon Street Voice: (207) 784-0135, Ext.208 Lewiston, Maine 04240 Fax: (207) 784-3011 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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