I tried to call in late but it looks like I missed it

I was at a teacher/parent conference...Luke and I touched base for a couple minutes. He's got sick kids at home. We'll try agian next Friday 7:45AM. Evonne, thnx for starting the new Feb thread.

Happy February. And I wanted to make sure that everyone knew that in a matter of days I will be passing across the great divide, entering into unknown territory, breaching the final frontier -- yes, that's right, Luke will be another step closer to collecting his social security (and Canada pension) pay checks: the old guy's turning 40.

Happy Birthday, Luke!

I called in late to FC too, obviously missed you being there, John.

I'm going to bow out from FC for now anyway because my life is too unsettled to properly participate in this dynamic group. However, I will continue offering what I can to the various FC projects I've connected with the last months.

Rock on you power houses! You're all truly amazing.

Sorry to hear that Pash, I hope you can stay as connected in Food Chain as much your unsettled life will allow for now. I hope the fact Luke is turning a whopping 40 didn't scare you away ;-)

Pash, I hope things settle soon and well for you. I'll miss your positive contributions here. Good luck.

Lukester, hippy bathday mon! so you're 04 now and think that's the beginning? well you're right -- enjoy to the fullest -- try to make it out in August so we can celebrate!

Everyone, I invite you to connect, contribute to, and help grow the Peace Tiles World AIDS Day 2007 effort. Thank you!

Thanks Lars, I will keep contributing, just likely I won't continue trying to keep up with all the fast moving Foodies for now. I'm way too fond of PT to not keep an eye on them--as well as a few other threads where my experience and interests can find places to wade in!

Lovefest! Evonne, can't wait to see you in Portland...and Mark...and many other onetters (Michael M, Gerry Gleason, Arthur Brock, Mickki Langston, Julie Caldwell, Ethan McCutchen, Lewis Hoffman, Brandon Sanders, Ted Ernst...). Onet love.

Luke, wish you could come up to Portland to celebrate the turning of your years with us. Sending virtual confetti to shower you with light.

Pash, please keep in touch! Sorry we will miss you in Portland, and I am glad we will still see you around here.

I am very excited about the work Nurture.biz is developing through collaboration, and I look forward to the insights these next 10 days will provide for our work.

Anne Marie and I just got off a call, and we asked what one one goal we wanted to achieve within six months. And then for fun, how would that change or not change if $250,000 was added to the equation?

We looked at our first office today, a great little setup for us while we grow: two rooms and shared reception in a larger A/V equipment facility with another web/flash interactive company upstairs. The right mix, close to home, affordable....an amazing gift! Now we file for corp status and get this ball rolling properly....a whole new set of challenges ahead.

Evonne thank you for bringing LOVE to the FC thread this month.

Yes. Love is the killer app.

Continuing to chug-along. The week provided underwhelment - the Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise - and a burst of glee - Deployment of Municipal Wireless Network.

That glee was for the above report release and that city council supported the recommendations in the report. It added some expected leverage to our broadband over powerline discussions.

Love to you all.

[edit: wonky link]

And love from Recent Changes Camp! Sitting in a great conversation on models and structures, relationships and personal passions for change, leadership and responsibility as we grow ours together.

Greetings from Taxco Mexico

Missing you all

Forgot to mention that i'm facing Diego Rivera's and Frieda Kahlo's hideout.Leon Trotsky's place was next door to them. lovestories,ahaa (Wink, Wink...).

Good stories, Domminique! You might enjoy a read of the one about American mathematician Jean van Heijenoort among them! Have a great time together; i look forward to learning from you both.

Luke Martin said:

... the old guy's turning 40.

Not to hoot my own horn, but I'll hoot it anyway. (Sorry this isn't social enterprise-related, but what the hell.) A year ago I had an annual physical where I found out that I was showing the wears of age -- high cholesterol, mainly. So, I committed myself to some serious running over the course of the past year (ran the Carlsbad marathon a couple weeks ago), watched (at least out of the corner of my eye) what I ate, and hoped that might be enough to slow the onslaught of age. Good news! My strategy paid off:

• Weight: 186 to 169
• Blood pressure: 120/80 to 116/57
• Resting pulse: 66 to 54
• Cholesterol: 260 (180 bad, 57 good) to 200 (130 bad, 65 good, the 65 part which I guess is very good)

And, honestly, all I did different was run. I still eat pretty much the same, though if I do eat differently, it's simply because the running affects my appetite, usually in a good way. (Though the night before the marathon, for some stupid reason, I had three bowls of honey nut cheerios and two beers. Believe me, not a great last supper.)

On another, more important note, I talked to Mark this morning and put a little bug in his ear -- I think that he should consider applying for an Ashoka fellowship when he gets back from Uganda. I think that he (and Ned) would be a good fit. Maybe this is something that Christina (as a fellow) could further bug him about one late night. Anyway, it's on my to-do list...

We produced this video here at AMO with LCMedia and the USHMM's Committee on Conscience. At 12 minutes this piece is designed for classrooms, libraries and small group discussions.

TEN just signed the lease on our first retail store. Now we need to figure out a lot of things, like what to call it. I have a thread on it here: http://www.omidyar.net/group/ten/news/4/

I found this program today and thought someone here might be interested. The School for Social Entrepreneurs

Ive got another thing I need help with, creating a Community Management Plan for TENs Ambassadors. Ive got a discussion started here http://www.omidyar.net/group/ten/news/5/?e=newcomment&page=1#comment0

I think this will be a fun thing to develop as we are looking to combine the best of old fashion (pre internet) community building with the new tools available on the web.

Early Morning

Play a Game

Hi food chain! Good news! We got a call from the University of Maryland Dingman Social Venture Consulting Program with Grassroots.org -- we applied and won two MBA students for the coming semester to help us with our strategic planning.

Grassroots.org has been great to work with so far and we're producing a series of awards for them next month for NTEN conference in DC in early April. Grassroots also offered us free web hosting for Amoration.org, so we're getting out of the host shuffle loop and moving everything over to their stable servers. Hopefully this is the end of web woe for Amoration -- it's certainly a few steps in the right direction on the organizational side of things!

Very cool Evonne. Did Grassroots care about your shift to a hybrid for profit model? I never contacted them because the seemed to be all non-profit, but Id love to talk to them if they do hybrids.

I explained that what we need right now are sharp business minds for social ventures that can help us make that split effectively. Amoration will continue as a nonprofit and some portion of AMO is now forming as a corporation; we need wise advisors from every discipline to help us chart that path. I asked for specific help with financial planning from Dingman/Grassroots; there are many questions to consider that will set precedent for new media production. We have a good team of lawyers and business leaders coming around us led by Melissa Martin (business development) and Jean Russell (organizational care and cultivation) and we have great opportunities to chart together in the coming few months -- the timing on this is PERFECT. Now to figure out what stays under Amoration and what makes sense as a separate legal entity.

The split to a for profit certainly presents some challenges. The for profit will need to get a valuation for, and buy any intellectual or physical property held in the non profit. In TENs case it was easy to just buy the inventory from TEN Charities- we even added a 10% markup so it was really clear we were being fair. I would think the challenge in your case would be intellectual property. If on one hand you are creating a business pitch that shows the value of what you have create, at the same time that creates a legal conflict if any of that was created in the non-profit.

And of course there is the whole private private inurement problem which also has to be carefully dealt with.