I have heard from Marc Schechtman again; the reason we were not reaching him over the summer is that he summered in Poland (his wife’s family is there). There will be a large project within about 2-3 weeks, quite possibly WAY too large for AHN and the homeless of Asheville to cover. Stay tuned.
I have gotten Sky’s 933 MHz P-III up and running well, but the CD-RW and modem are not verifiable… Sky has agreed to pay for new items and the new RAM in it… a working computer for $36. The RAM chips we bought also will allow us to finish work on the other Dell P-III machine. I need to do some finishing work on the Compaq P-II… but the end result is, we are close to having 4 machines working for that $100 investment, scavenged and threw away 8 others, and the rest have not really been looked at yet. We are also replacing Paquita’s laptop (giving her old one to Mike), and should have that machine purchased by the time you read this if we don’t get sniped on eBay.
In service,
Moss
I just received the following email (edited) from Teddy Gerlach, a Warren Wilson student and apparently FNB leader:
“Right now Food Not Bombs is being run by students at Warren Wilson college. We get our food from donations at the French Broad Coop and Earth Fare. Every Sat we cook whatever donations we get and then have a free picnic at around 2:30–3 at Pritchard Park. This coming Sat. will be the first picnic since last May. … If you have any questions please feel free to write back or call me at 216-990-5247. “
Today was the Asheville-Buncombe Coalition for the Homeless meeting… and, as I stated, I did not make it, and don’t think anyone else went to represent us.
This evening was the Warren Wilson College Service Fair, where they try to get students involved in community service issues. Mike, Paquita and I went, and we had a great time. We got to ask a few questions…
… including learning that Food Not Bombs served last Saturday at Pritchard Park and the student group is trying to get better organized, including finding people in the community to serve when school is not in session. The group apparently is having problems with Asheville Police allowing them to use Pritchard Park, and they have no idea what other options they have. I was told that the group would be getting in touch with me.
In service,
Moss
Thursday’s meeting was short but sweet, and 5 of our regular members walked away with annual bus passes. (This saves us $30 per year for handicapped and $60 per year for regular over the cost of monthly passes.) We also gave out 2 monthly bus passes, and after the meeting I took Willie and John out for new shoes at Payless. We also printed 200 copies of our revised Community Resources Guide — let me know if you need any to pass out… and if you learn something that changes in the information presented.
When I got home, there was a message from Warren Wilson College. The topic was the upcoming Service Fair, to be held THIS TUESDAY. This was the first contact we had received (this semester), and they did apologize for that when I informed them of it. Mike and I will be going; others are welcome if you like to come, but two should be sufficient. The Fair starts at 5:45, so Mike and I will be catching the 4:30 run of the #29 bus. They also suggested we might schedule an event on campus just for talking to students about AHN; we’ll need to think about that. So once again, I have to throw something together that makes it look like we’re prepared for things like this, LOL.
We have filed our sponsorship papers with MindFreedom International. This sponsorship will cost us $35 per year, and will keep us more in the loop (although I’m pretty deep in the loop as it stands).
In service,
Moss
Sorry I didn’t get this updated after the last meeting. We had a great meeting with 9 people in attendance, two new members. (Me, John, Mike, ShutterBob, Willie, Julie, Jason Hester, and Beverly, plus one guy who was hoping for money for a bus ticket out of town.)
PROJECT CONNECT IS UPON US! Volunteers are needed for September 12 from 8 am to 2 pm ; I assume the event itself begins at 10 am. BE THERE, and please try to help. I just mailed out a call for help on the Yahoogroup; contact information for helping is in that email.
Beer Bash II is over. Bruisin’ Ales donated 4 sixpacks, 3 of which were by Terrapin (in Maryland). 4 members (including myself) showed up for distribution, getting one six-pack of killer brew each.
Extra thanks to ShutterBob, who not only has done a bang-up job on his photography project but who also gave me a ride to Habitat to pick up a chest of drawers for my otherwise-homeless roommate.
We got our CD. We had some projects on the back burner that have been taken care of (lots of people have been holding their breath for us to get hold of this money). Next meeting: REGULAR MEMBERS get annual bus passes (that means Mike, Willie, John, and Beverly if they want them). These people have been to over half the meetings they could have attended since joining.
If we have a lot of “new members” (i.e., people who just want bus passes), we will hold the lottery as suggested. The lottery will give out up to 2 bus passes at each of the first and last meetings of each month until we run out of money.
Guess that’s about it.
In service,
Moss
We had a good meeting, with 2 new members and 3 of our core group. It was more informal than most, but we got everything covered. We did not get by Bruisin’ Ales to pick up the new beer, will do that next week.
Cynthia came over today to learn about the computer project, and brought a friend with her who was impressed. She did not commit to coming over and working on the project, but part of her problem is her healing leg and her inability to walk the half-mile to and from the nearest bus stop.
Mike came over to work on the computer project, and we dismantled the least-worthwhile computers, keeping drives, memory chips, and cards (modem, sound, video, and one Ethernet). The remainder of these boxes are going to the trash, which will give Danny more room in his room… I will be tossing some of the least useful hard drives (under 3 Gb). So we’re just about ready to start building working computers from what’s left.
In service,
Moss
We have identified all the computers by model number, and have cleaned and identified most of the spare component parts and cords. The next step is to take one of the “good” ones and plug it in to a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and wall socket to see if it works and what it reports that may be different from model specifications. Sky and Mike have put some time in on the project, Cynthia has said she will soon.
Thursday’s meeting was pretty good, with lots of information. We went over the feeding places and times and who is doing them, to update the Community Services brochure (which Emily Walters, the homeless liaison for Buncombe County Schools, had prodded me into doing). We discussed last Tuesday’s Asheville-Buncombe Coalition for the Homeless meeting. We talked about our finances (including the fact that I found the paperwork on the CD and it doesn’t come due until the 24th). We arranged for bus passes for Willie and John (Mike already has his). We also paid the co-payment on some prescriptions for Willie. John is going to talk to me soon about using my SOAR training to get him SSI or SSDI Disability.
Among the items to come out of the ABCH meeting are the following: Western Carolina Rescue Ministries has added two more beds to their womens’ shelter, and added two rooms for families, also the mens’ shelter has opened the chapel for overflow sleeping. It seems to me that the ABCH meeting takes more time and covers less information than ever. I have asked either Mike or Paquita to attend next month’s meeting to give me a break.
BEER DAY REVISITED: When I went on Thursday (after the meeting) to pick up the proceeds of our collection jar at Bruisin’ Ales, Jason told me that he had 3 more six-packs of beer that had gone out-of-date and could probably find a fourth to make it an even case. Mike and I will be picking that up next week; if anyone wants some of this, let me know. Three cheers to Jason and Julie!
Guess that’s it for now.
In service,
Moss
Thursday’s meeting showed our core group except for Beverly — me, Paquita, Mike, John, and Willie. We discussed the advances in the computer project; folded new brochures; Paquita gave me her laptop to try to determine if it is broken and can be fixed; and we unanimously voted to become a Sponsor to MindFreedom International (at a cost of $35 per year).
Regular members will get bus passes next meeting; Bus Pass Lotto starts on the last Thursday of the month, and will continue on the first and last Thursdays until we run out of money.
Somebody needed to get a letter out in response to last week’s Mountain Xpress article… with everything that I’m doing, it wasn’t me. If I can get around to it I will.
If you’re not on our Yahoogroup, you’re missing the reports from all the other organizations we are affiliated with. Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homelessinasheville to sign up.,
In service,
Moss
I have done the first round of categorization on the computers, with the help of Sky (who has first dibs). We have 5 Pentium III machines (at yet-unknown speeds), one of which has already been cannibalized sufficiently as to possibly be junk, several Compaq Deskpros with no model number so no way to tell what they are without plugging them in, and one AMD K6-500 which is as good as a P-III 500. The rest are P-II, mostly 300, 333, or 366 MHz and a few very, very old machines which will only be good for parts. If anyone wants to come help with the rest of this project, come on — how much work you do on the machines will determine your getting one when we’re done.
Sky is also cleaning the All-In-One printers, and says that only one so far has any scratches on the glass of the scanner. (One has been determined to be junk, its ink cartridges were held in place with duct tape.)
The next step is underway and involves finding what is left on the machines and what is needed. No use doing that with the ancient ones, which is why we did this step. Then we go through and cannibalize the older machines for whatever parts may be useful. And then we start to work building working computers. After we get at least one computer running, then we can start testing the monitors and printers.
Long road to go. Come help.
In service,
Moss
Update: Some of the above has been edited. We will probably just work on the 5 good machines for now, cannibalizing the P-IIs and older for parts. I would say that 5 good computers would be a good return on a $100 investment, wouldn’t you? (Although we may wind up needing to buy a few pieces.) So far, nothing has been tested, and we’re still running cleaning and identification procedures.