PARAGRAPHS & BOXES

LISTS

HEADINGS

MISC ELEMENTS

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Maybe because I help bring free (as in freedom) lunch to Portland each month.

Although I know a bit about finance and business models, having been around the block a few times with startups and such and holding a degree in Economics and all, an accountant I am not. In fact, I’m sure any accountant reading this will be eye-rolling by now at the notion that an Econ guy could be confused as an accountant.

Well, I really think we need a bona fide accountant for the Open Source Bridge conference. We’re going to be taking in  monies (from sponsors, donations, registrations), spending money (natch), reimbursing, filing taxes, all that good stuff.

Did I mention that I’m not an accountant?

I want to do this right. So, please drop a comment here, tweet @jkuramot, or contact any one of the friendly, neighborhood core team if you are an accountant willing to volunteer or you know such a beneficent accountant.

It does seem a bit odd to ask an accountant to volunteer services, but I think we can all agree that the Portland tech scene gives back more than you invest. So, by that math, helping us with the conference’s books is a solid proposition.

We need a hardcore, penny-pinching accountant with a heart of gold. Can you help?

We’ll be going over our content areas, reviewing our initial call for
papers, talking about our philosophy for the conference and assigning
leads for each of the content areas.

We’re looking for people who can coordinate the activities of a few
people in review committees, can commit to 10-15 hours of reviewing
and responding time over the next two months. We figure we’ll have 3-4
in-person meetings before we finalize acceptance of presentations on
April 1!

Anything else you’re interested in chatting about? Send it to the
list, and we’ll make an agenda.

Several people may retire to a nearby bar for #afterhours hacking.

Let us know if you can make it by commenting below!

We’ve made some great progress. Our Town Halls have been well attended. And things are starting to fall into place.

Now, we want to make sure that we keep the conversation going with you. (Plus, we want to give you the opportunity to volunteer—if you’d be in to that.)

So how do you get started? By joining our online discussion groups.

We’ve divided the groups by function, but there’s a general list, as well. So there’s something for everyone. Why not take a few minutes to figure out where your skills and insight would be most appreciated and join a group or two?

We’re looking forward to getting you involved.

photo courtesy of caseorganic

The Open Source Bridge team is having a second Town Hall meeting for interested volunteers on November 6, 2008, 11:30am-1pm, at the Open Technology Business Center (OTBC). We’re gathering at its new location 12725 SW Millikan Way, Suite 101, Beaverton, OR 97005 (example MAX route from Portland, drive from Portland to OTBC). Please RSVP!

If you take public transit (which we highly recommend), just get off at the Beaverton CENTRAL stop (not the transit center), and walk about 90 feet into the building called The Round, which should be clearly marked. If you run into problems finding it, try giving OTBC a call at 971-223-4660.

This is a brown-bag affair, so please remember to bring a lunch!

Whether you can make it or not, subscribe to our mailing lists:

osbridgepdx-announce, low traffic announcement list for events like this one!

osbridgepdx-discuss, possibly high traffic list for discussing anything related to the conference!

Hope to see lots of you on Thursday! And please, invite your friends.

Update:

Here are a few more public transit tips from Steve Morris:

From downtown, take the Blue line to get to OTBC — because the Blue line goes all the way to the “Beaverton Central” stop. The Red line ends at the Beaverton Transit Center – just one stop before OTBC. (From the Beaverton Transit center to The Round is about a 5 minute walk, so someone who takes the Red line can either walk, or just switch to the Blue line at the transit center.)

Lots of people took notes and hopefully will publish blog entries. I’ll link them here as they come in. Feel free to pingback as well.

Open Source Bridge will be a completely volunteer-run, community effort to connect developers working with open source. We’re kicking things off with a town hall discussion and planning meeting on October 30th, 7:30pm at CubeSpace (located at 622 SE Grand Avenue in Portland). We’ll talk about overall goals for the conference, then break into small working groups to start tackling the event planning needs. If you can, bring an audio or video recorder to help document the discussion.

Please let us know if you can attend. If October 30 doesn’t work for you, let us know as we will be having a second meeting on the west-side. We’d very much like to have your participation in making this conference a fun, educational experience.

You can RSVP by filling in the form at
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p1ZDddPXGskYFX5NnM9FaXA&hl=en ]]> http://dev.reidab.com/2008/10/open-source-bridge-town-hall/feed/ 5