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.....