Help Needed

  1. I'm not sure how to bring the dispossessed and discouraged audience together. I'm willing to start small (we may be really small!), and to figure out as we go along how to get the word out and bring more people to the table. If you have ideas, let me know. I'm looking for simple, no-frills ways of finding and helping those who feel this way. Community centers? "Under-performing" or alternative schools? Religious communities? Help?! 
  2. I'll also need to find meeting spaces in each city. I'm willing to meet in a living room, a classroom, a library--anywhere someone who cares about improving the education conversation in this country is willing to arrange. If you can help in one of the cities on the dates above, email me at [email protected]. (If you really care about this and your city is not on the above list, reach out and let's talk.) I will need space both for Friday night and Saturday, and they don't have to be in the same place--but the Saturday venue needs to have access to the Internet (without filtering Web 2.0 / social media sites).
  3. I'm not doing this to make money, but if you can think of a creative way for me to fund this travel, let me know at the above email address. I'll ask for donations for the Saturday workshop, but don't want anyone not to come because they can't afford it. If the first month of this experiment works, perhaps I'll start a crowd-source funding campaign. If your school/library/organization wants to sponsor the Saturday event, that would be great. For the cities where Audrey might join us, we'd need to fund her travel as well.

Site Considerations

Sites for both or either workshops should have the following:
  • Wireless Internet, with limited or no filtering of social networking / web 2.0 sites
  • Whiteboard(s)/chalkboard - not required, but helpful
  • Projector (standard vga connector) - needed for "Hack Your Education" but not needed for "Education Declaration"
  • Table / chairs (adult-sized) with the ability for smaller groups to work together during the workshop

While there are no set parameters for room size, but potential rooms should accommodate a minimum of 20 people.

Supplies

It helps to have the following material supplied for the "Learning Plan" (typically Friday night) session:
  • Post-it notes, standard square 2"+ size, colors not important
  • Pens
  • Name-tags
  • Standard note-paper, enough for participants to take notes