[Grants] Grant Application from Jade Ambrose for Merri-bek Tech Raspberri Pi / Wikipedia hosting course

Mon Jul 8 14:00:52 AEST 2024

Super great points Kathy. I'm the Jade who made the application, so I won't try to sell it further, but I have some answers and updates regarding your questions:

ABN
Merri-bek Tech Inc. is an incorporated association in Victoria. Association number A0122553Y. We haven't applied for an ABN net, but could easily do so in order to receive money.

Insurance
Breaking news this morning, the Neighbourhood House has just offered to cover us with their liability insurance (they initially refused). That means that's off the roadmap for now. We will likely still have issues with that going forward as we want to end up running things at multiple sites and leaving servers running at those sites. Becoming a linux australia subcommittee is one posible solution, as is getting our own insurance. For now though, we can defer that question until after this three month program, and scrap that from the proposed budget.

Business model
We are building a non-profit, not a social enterprise. It's not clear if we will charge in order to cover our break even costs, but that isn't on the road map for this year. 

Auspicing
I've had a couple of chats with linux australia about the subcommittee model, and it's interesting (particularly as we'd live our Merri-bek Tech approach to be replicable in other geographies without having to incorporate). However, I'd like to leave that as a seperate conversation that we can have throughout the year (since we are already incporporated). So, for now I'm applying for a grant from Linux Australia on the assumption that we are a seperate organisation not a subcommittee, although obviously a number of us are linux australia members and supporters of linux australia goals.

Curriculum
We'd love to see this open as well. Making something useable by others takes a lot of work, but we'd be willing to commit to at least ensuring that any materials we do produce are CC licensed as a starting point.

On Mon, Jul 8, 2024, at 1:48 PM, Kathy Reid wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> This grant request is well-structured, well-costed, and both Matt and 
> Lilly are well known to LA from the PyConAU and LCA/EverythingOpen 
> community, although I don't know Jade, Simon and Alexis personally. This 
> sounds like it has strong alignment with the purpose of the LA grants 
> program.
> 
> My questions about this request are more structural than alignment-focussed:
> 
> - There is no ABN I could find for Merri-Bek Tech, so there are 
> questions around how the grant would be executed (e.g. LA could 
> reimburse upon sighting of receipts, so it's still workable IMHO).
> 
> - If the sessions are being held at a neighbourhood house, I'm curious 
> why Merri-Bek Tech is being asked to pay insurance - because that's a 
> LOT of insurance for some volunteer tech session (or, the neighbourhood 
> house might be trying to claw back budget because of *waves at 
> economy*). From memory, LA pays less than $AUD10k per year for *all* its 
> insurance coverage.
> 
> - Regarding the comment around LA auspicing, generally this would be 
> done via the Subcommittee model [0]. However, the business model of 
> Merri-Bek Tech, from what I can gather on the website, is to generate 
> revenue by providing community and individual hosting using free software.
> 
> For clarification, is Merri-Bek Tech asking that as an _organisation_ it 
> is auspiced by Linux Australia, or that this _event_ - the Raspberry Pi 
> tutorial sessions - are auspiced by Linux Australia? Because I think 
> that changes the approach.
> 
> Ideally, if this grant were to be approved, I would like to see the 
> curriculum / materials open sourced in some way for re-use, perhaps as a 
> community-developed Carpentries module? [1]
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Kathy Reid
> 
> 
> [0] 
> https://github.com/linuxaustralia/constitution_and_policies/blob/master/subcommittee_policy_v3.md
> 
> [1] https://carpentries.org/community-lessons/
> 
> 
> On 7/7/24 12:45, Linux Australia Website wrote:
> > Your Email Address: jade at hopepunk.me
> > Project name: Merri-bek Tech Raspberri Pi / Wikipedia hosting course
> > Grant Type: Project Grant
> > Aim of the project: Merri-bek Tech Inc, a non-profit in northern Melbourne, aims to run a 3 month course for a cohort of volunteers new to technology to learn the fundamentals of running linux on the Raspberry Pi, networking and web hosting, leading to group projects centred around a simple first web hosting problem, being hosting a wikipedia mirror on Pi based infrastructure that works locally even if mains power is lost.
> > The course will run from August - October 2024, weekly on Thursday evenings at Sussex Neighbourhood House. It will consist of approximately 5 structured learning evenings, 6 project evenings with tutors assisting, and a final showcase. The course will include about 10 volunteers. The neighbourhood house has a windows desktop per student, but we aim to have a Raspberry Pi for each student for their linux work.
> > We're asking for a grant to assist with purchasing Raspberry Pi hardware. These will be re-used for future cohorts, and also for the hosting itself.
> > Further details here:
> > We have received $1,000 in funding from Merri-bek City Council for a volunteer coordinator.
> > Estimated cost breakdown of the project: Hardware:
> > $1,500 10 x Raspberry Pi 5 (plus power supply, SD card, etc) for students
> > $500 - $1,000 hosting hardware (more Pi's, network switch, low power wifi router, UPS, 3d printed enclosures)
> > Insurance:
> > $1,620 for the year (I'll reach out separately to see if auspicing by linux australia might help there)
> > Venue:
> > $360 (non-profit rate) for Sussex Neighbourhood House computer Room
> > Volunteer Coordinator:
> > $1,000 (covered by grant)
> > Total Project Cost
> > $4,980
> > Of that, $1,000 is covered by a grant. We are asking for a grant of $1,000 from Linux Australia to put towards the hardware. We will cover the rest with private donations.
> > Project team details: The program is mainly being planned by our regular committee of experienced techologists and community organisers:
> > Jade (Craig) Ambrose: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigambrose/
> > Simon Hildebrandt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonhildebrandt/
> > Lilly Ryan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lilly-ryan/
> > Matt Cengia: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattcen/
> > Alexis Hazell: https://github.com/flexibeast
> > Between us we have run many tech events and given talks at multiple open source conferences.
> > With additional advice and help from Russel Coker, Greg Bromage and others.
> > First Name: Jade
> > Last Name: Ambrose
> > Email Address: jade at hopepunk.me
> > A statement including a willingness to provide regular project updates on the project: As association secretary of Merri-bek Tech Inc, and a Linux Australia member, I'm very happy to give a report to Linux Australia at the following milestones:
> > * Purchase of the hardware with assistance from Linux Australia
> > * Filling all ten places for the course with diverse participants
> > * Start of the three month program
> > * Final showcase of the three month program.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Grants mailing list
> > Grants at lists.linux.org.au
> > http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/grants
> 
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