This last weekend a group of developers (names below) took part in a project to build the Animal Humane Society a new Volunteer Registration System. This registration system would replace their long and drawn out manual paper management process that they had. The GiveCamp started around 3pm on Friday and continued until about 3pm on Sunday when the product was demoed. The Animal Humane Societies Director of IT, Director of Volunteer Services and Database Administrator/IT Support Staff was present to view the product. We are glad to say that they were very happy with the outcome of what we were able to create in such as short amount of time.

Check out a couple images here, and here.

I would personally like to thank the following:

The Volunteers: THANK YOU for coming out and making this happen. Without you we would have never succeeded.

• Jon De Long
• Scott Koland
• Baskin Tapkan
• Brian Seebacher
• Brent Edwards
• Jeff Brand (for being our location steward) :)

The Non-Profit: We all appreciate you being on site during the entire GiveCamp to answer questions and give us guidance on the project as the weekend progressed.

• Animal Humane Society
  • Gayle Robb
  • Terry Walker

Sponsors: Without  you we wouldn't have had a place to work, food to eat , a version control system nor a webhost!

• Microsoft (Special thanks to Jeff Brand for being at the Microsoft office all weekend to let us in and out of the building. Also, thanks to Kevin as well!)
• Magenic (Special thanks to Brent Edwards and Jay Meekin for handling the sponsorship!)
• Urban Bean Coffee (Special thanks to Greg for opening up earlier than normal for us so we could get our caffeine fix!)
• Jimmy Johns in Bloomington - Thanks for the sandwiches!
• SvnRepository.com - Awesome source control that we were able to access even when at home. Speedy & reliable.
• DiscountASP.NET - Hosting for the GiveCamp product that we created.
• Agilevent - Technical guidance on the project (and some monetary support too)!

Again, thank you everybody. It was fun, grueling and a rewarding experience.

Until next year ... :)

- Donn

It has finally arrived! This weekend is the first Twin Cities GIveCamp that will be held at Microsoft (MAP).

We will be building a new Event Registration System for the Animal Humane Society.

We hope to see you there. If you can make it down, even for 1/2 a day we would really appreciate it.

Here's the info you'll need if you decide to stop by:

What You Need To Bring To GiveCamp

Give Camp Schedule

GiveCamp Food & Fun

A quick update: We are in the process of identifiying the charities and non-profit organizaitons that will we will be helping this round. Over the next month and a half we will be sending out correspondance to charities, volunteers and organizers in regards to the logistics, business need and overall volunteering effort.

I (Donn Felker) will be at the MDC (Minnesota Developers Conference) next Wednesday (9/30/2009) and I will have fliers with me for the Give Camp. See you there.

A Give Camp is a weekend-long event where software developers, designers, and database administrators donate their time to create custom software for non-profit organizations. This custom software could be a new website for the nonprofit organization, a small data-collection application to keep track of members, or a application for the Red Cross that automatically emails a blood donor three months after they’ve donated blood to remind them that they are now eligible to donate again. The only limitation is that the project should be scoped to be able to be completed in a weekend.

During the Give Camp, developers are welcome to go home in the evenings or camp out all weekend long. There will be food and drinks provided at the event. There will also be game systems set up for when you need a little break. 

At the Give Camp, there is an expectation of “What Happens at Give Camp, Stays at Give Camp”. Therefore, all source code must be turned over to the charities at the end of the weekend (developers cannot ask for payment) and the charities are responsible for maintaining the code moving forward (charities cannot expect the developers to maintain the codebase).

Click here to volunteer for the Give Camp

Click here to sponsor the Give Camp