So, what are you up to?

Man, have i had a hectic three weeks. There has been all sorts of activity...or is it just me...

I finally finished the SERCOTEC evaluation. No, sorry, i haven't finished the whole thing, just the first part of evaluating the business ideas. Now comes the evaluation of the business plans. Like i mentioned before this was really insightful and i quite liked it, but it has been extremely time consuming. The final statistics are quite cool. I made all sorts of graphs, some of which made sense, and other which did not. I looked at the data from all different angles and finally started going in circles, etc. Now we have to present the results to the CORE, (Consejo Regional), and suggest a cut off grade.

Working with SERCOTEC has been my first experience of working with the government under contractual obligations. Its good because i feel i am getting a "behind the scenes" glimpse of how they think and how they work.

Finally finished the first draft of the Enviu Chile Business Plan. Its 26 pages......but i think it makes sense. If anyone would like to help me figure that one out please ask me for a copy and check it out...you are definitely welcome to. With this is also a first operational budget to get re started. I have to say, that there are risks involved. The problem is that there are so many variables that it just makes it difficult to stipulate this plan concretely.

We are looking to 16 volunteers in the region for 8 months of the year. Having 16 is not impossible, but having them for 8 months...well that's just a tad harder. Still, its a first step. Out of the 16 volunteers, 5, minimum have to be sponsored. Again, as this would be our first experience we have to get passed the initial positive response from possible sponsors and make the position concrete. That's what we are working on now.

For Williams i have asked for sponsorship from Lakutaia, but i am still waiting for further action by them, COMAPA, Ultramar and DAP. I think i should be able to get 1 or 2 positions sponsored. In Puerto Natales we are focusing on Chile Emprende, and AMA Torres del Paine. Also i think we should get some sponsorship from them. But lets see.

Associated to this is are the coordinators. Although we had an initial response to these positions, they have all decided to cancel. This is quite a problem, but sometimes i just don't get why people with financial aspirations apply for positions which are clearly indicated as volunteer positions. Anyway, enough of that.....basically we are working on itemising our overhead and i think we can squeeze some salary out of there for coordinators....

There s a volunteer arriving in august from Brazil. Her name is sheila and she will support us with our product development. For those of you that saw the business plan, you may have noticed that our core business section needs some work. The basics are there. For example; Technical support to/Facilitating micro enterprise development in specific themes. But I think its important that its dynamic, but also fresh......like lettuce. Its how its presented and how its taken forward. It does need a bit of polishing.

Carine is working on getting the 16 volunteers.....and up to now i think we have 2 confirmed, and 3 or 4, in the pipeline.....so that's going well. My aim to get it all going again is September/October remember...the clock is ticking, and i have to say that it would be great to compliment this with some funding.....even if its small....which of course is the next aim....

As is the final signing for the foundation, or corporation, as it will be called here in Chile. We have decided that that would be best as a foundation needs to have patrimonio, or ontroerend goed, which we don't have. A corporation on the other hand is made up of people. Like an Associacion Communitaria. So we are getting together the people that would like to sign support for us. Even though in English, a corporation is associated with companies and profit making, this legal entity in Chile is non profit.

There are some more developments of course........but that's for the next post.....

Visit to Natales

This week has had its ups and downs. On Thursday we decided to go to Puerto Natales and visit some stakeholders there. It was actually a very productive visit and we wanted to see whether the follow positions that were written were still valid.

I met up with Hugo Bahamonde of Natales Emprende to get an idea of what they were up to and tell him a little bit about what we were doing. I also asked him if it would be possible that they sponsor one student. He quite liked the idea because he felt that the work taken forward by our volunteers had been really useful and would like it to continue. He will get back to me this week.

Marnix met up with Jovito of CONAF who seems to have received money to start managing la Reserva de los Alacalufes. Although i am still not 100% sure about CONAF and whether it is really a good idea to work so closely with them, the meeting did seem to be positive and the follow up of Marions work still stands. Although good news, i think it is still important to see how this develops into a useful constructive relationship.

We also visited Cerro Castillo. We went to the municipality where we found out that the waste management project was still on hold. They had been very busy, and the project had been deprioritised, although this did not mean that they were not interested in its implementation in the future. On the other hand the municipal tourism office is interested in receiving a proposal for the development of a strategic tourism development plan. This is good, and hopefully this week we can get something on paper. They do not have the money, but based on that they would be looking for funding within the regional government. I think this is a really good opportunity, i also think it is very interesting, and above all i think we have the capacity to do it.

Meanwhile back in Punta Arenas...................

We had a meeting with the director of CORFO and they are interested in working with us within a specific framework. I wont go into details now, but it is really up our street....working on micro enterprise facilitation......, but we have to see if we have the capacity. Ill keep you informed.

This week was also peppered by business plan evaluation activities. This was quite fun until i reached number 125. Well, what i really mean is that it is actually super interesting to get an insight into the ideas that are out there. Although many are not so innovative, it is giving me an idea of what entrepreneurs are looking for, and maybe the skills that the have, or don't have, to get there. There are quite a few from williams, so keep your fingers crossed. I am not going to evaluate them though. For ethical reasons of course.....how honest is that!

We have worked with carine and she is busy taking forward the selection process for the PW coordinator, and organizing the other available positions. So basically, we all updated the available positions and have sent that to wouter so when he gets back from holiday he can get straight into it......

Alejandra is back from williams. Man, i moved 200 boxes from one place to another, and then around, and then another 15 from a third place to a fourth place. Now everything is where it should be........well almost. Patty is also in Punta Arenas and i met up with here a few times. She is trying to get the hell out of Williams, (her words), but is well. She misses all of you! Obviously we caught up with all the capucha de Puerto Williams.

Meanwhile back in NL.....its nice weather apparently......