This weekend concludes the Ann Arbor Give Camp ( #AAGiveCamp ) and also the Knoxville Give Camp ( #KnoxGiveCamp ), which was acting as a satellite camp for Ann Arbor. I have to say that I am grateful for the opportunity to give a bit of my time and effort for some great causes but I am also very grateful for the tasks to be complete. It was a very fun time if a little exhausting from time to time.
The Charities
This year, we were able to assist two charities. This was a pretty big deal in that we were able to fully complete two projects with our local team. They did an excellent job (but more about that later). The two charities that we worked with were:
Interfaith Hospitality Network of Washtenaw County
The Interfaith Hospitality Network of Washtenaw County (IHN) is a shelter for families experiencing homelessness in our community. Our mission is to provide temporary shelter, food and support services in a caring atmosphere of dignity and safety. More than providing just a bed and a roof for families, our goal is to support the families in securing and maintaining their own home.
These guys were a ton of fun. I had the pleasure of working directly w/ Julie and Joel, both of which were wonderful people and a great joy to work with. In fact, Julie won the my respect (and those of my team) by the simple fact that she baked us all cookies AND brownies for the give camp!!! Unfortunately, since we were remote, we were unable to partake of the cookies, but still the gesture meant a lot. Food = Love… ;)
Latino Family Services
LFS provides and coordinates bilingual, culturally competent comprehensive health and human services to residents of Wayne County, Michigan, with a special emphasis on the underserved Latino population […] enhancing the quality of life for individuals and families of Wayne County for the ultimate purpose of improving families’ social, health, and educational functioning while enhancing their community environment and increasing economic self-sufficiency.
Although I initiated the conversation with Latino Family Services, Mike and other team members quickly took off with this project, often leaving me trying to catch up. Consequently, I did not get to spend much time with the coordinators of Latino Family Services, but I heard only great things about them.
The Team
Okay, I could spend PAGES bragging on the Knoxville Team. It should suffice to say that they are a great group of people. Not only are they all talented and intelligent folk, but they also were willing to donate their valuable time to this cause. In some cases, these guys were giving up the last quiet weekend before a long business trip or driving 1.5 hours to get to and from location every day or simply giving up their own personal time after a hard week at work. They all did an excellent job and I am glad to have been able to work with them. Here is this year’s great team and their respective twitter handles!
Guys, I really appreciate your effort! Thanks for making it such a great weekend!
The Tasks
All in all, we completed most of the tasks that we set out to do over the weekend. I am actually very proud of the team for this because we hit ALOT of blocks. In fact, the first half of the camp itself felt as if we were hitting constant resistance. Each block was unique and not necessarily the fault of any single source, but I have to admit that there were some pretty trying times as solution after solution was met with resistance. Through it all, the team kept up a great attitude and kept chugging at it, even if it meant working until the wee hours in the morning or getting up at the crack of dawn. Through it all, I learned several key facts that I’d like to share:
- I, apparently, am not 100% geek due to the fact that I don’t have a DNS server set up.
- Routers, despite their configuration, might still block port 1443.
- Do not hit the friggin’ green button… you may need to… but just don’t do it!
- Medium Trust is the devil and security permissions suck.
- CS4 is grudgingly awesome. I wish I knew how to use it.
- Mike and Alan make pipes look cool. I almost want one!
- Do not check a database into source control!
- The aforementioned security issues are somehow better than no security at all.
- Even though you selected “Broadcast Now”, it does not mean that you are broadcasting.
- Cell phone on speaker + microphone = remote intercom system.
- Only Alan Stevens would fly the bird to an entire remote audience and get away w/ it.
- Though you may be a PHP guy, you can still rock some .Net
- Oxite is not quite there yet…
- UStream.Tv and FTP upload speeds are inversely proportional
Good times were had by all!
In Conclusion
The give camp was a great success. I truly enjoyed working w/ my team and also interfacing with those in Michigan. I would like to especially thank Mike and Jennifer, who had to deal w/ my nagging phone calls, incessant emails, constant DMs, and occasional text messages. I am sure that they were almost sick of me by the end of the weekend, but I appreciate their support and the level of effort that they and the rest of the Give Camp team put into setting this up. Also, thank you guys for taking a moment to remember my birthday in Michigan!
Finally, at the risk of sounding like an Academy award speech, I would like to thank Crystal, my wife. It takes a very special woman to deal w/ 9 sweaty, loud men invading her home with technology and beer (of course, some of that burden was offset by Cicelie… she could usually handle Mike + 1). Also, she worked diligently to make sure we all were well fed and watered. Today, Crystal said that she wished that she were able to do what we were doing and work with these charities to help out. To be honest, she did as much (if not more) than I in helping these charities and didn’t even think twice about it. Thanks, babe.
Well, the Give Camp is over and I now officially have my free time back. :) Lets to it again (but not for another year)… :)