Hello NZ volunteers<br><br>Two questions:<br><ol><li>Would you like to add your details to the olpc map? <br><a href="http://olpcmap.net/">http://olpcmap.net/</a> is a good place to see the current deployments, projects, and the volunteers around the world. Here is mine - <span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://olpcMAP.net?id=383003">http://olpcMAP.net?id=383003</a> - and I have also added a brief for Auckland and Wellington (which can be altered to better describe us when I get your feedback). If you put your own info on the map then people can contact you based on what you put as your expertise and interest areas. <br>
<br></span></li><li><span style="font-size: 10pt;"></span>Would you like to visit a deployment in Oceania at any point? NO PRESSURE, I don't expect you to drop everything and go anywhere right now, nor do I expect you to be self funded like Tom and I did when visiting the Samoa schools (just because we are insane, doesn't mean you have to be). <br>
I have been talking with Michael Hutak (OLPC Regional Director, Oceania) about compiling an expertise list so that as opportunities come up, those interested can be contacted. Given the commitments we all have, knowing who is interested means we can quickly contact those people and see who has availability). One idea has been to put your details on the olpc map, however, that maybe too public for some of us, so I am hoping other ideas come out of a discussion. We will continue to look at how we can fund volunteers supporting Oceania deployments. <br>
As a reminder, Oceania has deployments in Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Tuvalu, Niue, Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, and soon in Kiribati, Tokelau, FSM, New Caledonia, and Palau.<br>If you are interested in going to deployments in other parts of the world, by all means say so and I will see if we can get people talking to the right people around the globe. This is one of the reasons the <a href="http://olpcmap.net">olpcmap.net</a> was invented. <br>
</li></ol>Treat these questions as open to discussion - it would be great to share our thoughts. The new year seems a good time for us to discuss our direction for this year and what we would like to keep doing, stop doing, and/or start doing. In Auckland we will meet again on Saturday 8 January. I am guessing there will be a lot of people still on holiday, so maybe a few weeks from now it would be good to do a skype or IRC across New Zealand once we have all had a chance to put in our two cents for 2011. <br>
<br>Enjoy the beautiful weather :-)<br><br>Tabitha<br><br>