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

GiveCamp is an intense experience. Lots of hard work, lots of heads-down coding and interaction with the client. However we're only human and we all need to take breaks.

We will be providing Food & Drink for the GiveCamp volunteers. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner will be provided. Snacks, soda and waters will also be provided to the group throughout the event. We want to make sure you're running at 110% if at all possible. However ... there are times when we all need a break that doesn['t include food. Therefore ... 

We will have a couple of XBox's on site. A couple of them will be running Halo 3, and another one will be running a full version of Rock Band.

We should have a great time, through code, through networking and creating a solution for a great non-profit here in the Twin Cities. See you all this weekend!

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

Since we will be at Microsoft we have to abide by their buildings access regulations. This means that we will _not_ have overnight access as other GiveCamp's have had in the past. Not a huge deal as the hours are very open (and it gives us all a few hours to rest!).

Therefore the hours of operation for the attendees at the GiveCamp at the Microsoft office are going to be as such:

Friday:      2pm to 11pm
Saturday:  7:30am to 11pm
Sunday:    7:30am to 5pm

Here's the schedule:

Friday:
12:00 PM – Organizers will Arrive at Venue and begin setting up (put out signs, drop off food, drinks, etc.)
02:00 PM – Begin sign-ins for attendees
03:30 PM – Opening Ceremonies (introduce event, charities, developers, sponsors, partners, etc)
04:00 PM – START THE CODING!

Saturday:
All Day: Continue Coding!
AM – Training for developers & charities, any interviewing or news folks come out to document the event
PM – Training for developers & charities

Sunday:
AM – Continue working, but start to wrap up
01:00 PM – CODE FREEZE (turn in code, finalize deployments, have lunch with everyone)
03:00 PM – Final Ceremonies (developers & charities demonstrate the application)
05:00 PM – Reception

For GiveCamp you will need to bring your own equipment.

Feel free to bring whatever you want, but here is what we advise:

- Yourself (of course) :)
- Laptop
- Keyboard & Mouse (if you need one)
- Ethernet Cable
- Usb Thumb Drive
- Wireless cards (if your laptop doesnt have a built in).

If you have any extra routers, hubs and cables that you can bring we would appreciate that you bring those too! Why router/hubs/cables? Just in case we have issues getting internet connections I'd like to have some sort of hardline access somehow. I really doubt we'll need this, but this is a "just in case" type of thing. Also, we plan on having some XBoxes set up on the projectors and we may need a hub to connect them if everyone wants to take a break and play a quick game. :)

The thumb drive is just in case you _cannot_ get access to the net we can still transfer the files to you via the usb thumb drive so you can contribute.

We will provide the tables, chairs, white boards and so forth.

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.

The first Twin Cities Give Camp has been postponed. This is not a decision that was made in the haste of the moment, but one that the entire TCGC Coordination Team (Founder, Coordinator, Business Analysts, etc) discussed over the course of the last couple of weeks. We decided that it would be necessary to reschedule in order to ensure that the event was a success.  

New Horizons of Minnesota has graciously sponsored the Twin Cities Give Camp. They will be providing a location for the event to take place. Our biggest thank you goes out to this organization for helping out such a great cause.

Visit the New Horizons website to find out what great training they have available: www.nhmn.com

The official date and location of the first Twin Cities Give Camp has been set! The event will take place on April 25th & 26th at New Horizons in Edina, MN. Visit the When & Where page for more info.

We are happy to announce that SVN Repository will be sponsoring the Twin Cities Give Camp. During the Give Camp developers, dba's and designers will be developinng custom applications for charities. These teams will need to share files and ensure that a proper revert and back up strategy is in place while at the Give Camp. SVN Repository has been gracious enough to sponsor the Give Camp with an account to enable souce hosting.