I have brought this here from the workspace so that we all can talk a bit about it before the voting day. Being a newbie in setting up this kind of campaigns, it would really be of great help if some of you who have done it a few times chime in to make it get into better shape. Also very soon I may need help with the voting page.

Here is the criteria that I had suggested for the applicants, it might not be very final, so if someone has something else that you feel needs to be added, we would really be very grateful to see it added. Your comments and advises shall be highly appreciated.

The criteria for this small grants is as follows;

1-Existing registered CBO/NGO giving details of your operational area.

2- you should have been visited and verified a LiA Foundation official and already posted on the LIA blog.

3- at least one member actively participating online and should have at least one or two blogs from the participating member.

4- concrete plans for the grant with detailed info on how it will create an impact on the lives of the people that you are working with.

5- ready to report on line on the progress of the fund as required by the Foundation.

I am also trying to create a workspace with links to separate workspaces for the different organizations who are applying so that we may not get messed up when two different people are editing the workspaces at the same time.As soon as this is done, I will also give you the link here. Already two people have their application on the one workspace that I created earlier on.

Teams members are also advised to start a discussion about their proposals with links to the workspace as soon as possible to help their supporters advice them through these dialogs.

Here is a list of Organizations who have already been invited to apply for the small grants and links to my posts about each of them and some with links to their own posts and some activities elsewhere.Pick an NGO/CBO of your choice and give your support for them;

Child Aid Uganda (CHAU)

http://ayaaswwworld.blogspot.com /2009/02/child-aid-uganda.html

http://www.childaiduganda.com/

Amasiko

http://ayaaswwworld.blogspot.com /2009/01/amasiko.html

http://amasiko.blogspot.com/

Life in Africa Kireka (LIAK)

http://ayaaswwworld.blogspot.com /2008/11/kireka-community.html

http://ndeloswwworld.blogspot.co m/

Rock Of Ages (ROACH)

http://ayaaswwworld.blogspot.com /2009/02/rock-of-ages-center-for -hope.html

http://lucysheart.blogspot.com/

Pito Kic Tek (PIKITUP)

http://ayaaswwworld.blogspot.com /2009/02/pikitup-pito-kic-tek.ht ml

Northern Uganda Women and Children Initiative (NUWECHI)

http://ayaaswwworld.blogspot.com /2009/02/northern-uganda-women-a nd-children.html

http://nuwechi.wordpress.co/nuwe chi/

http://www.thepoint.com/campaign s/the-women-of-kireka

Kampala Junior Team(KJT)

http://ayaaswwworld.blogspot.com /2008/11/admin-home-of-kjt.html

http://ayaaswwworld.blogspot.com /2008/10/inside-tunnel.html

http://www.ned.com/group/kjt/new s/2/

Please also visit this workspace to check on the Applications of your favorite CBO/NGO LIA Small Grants General Page

Thank you so much Grace for all of your hard work on this. I will review all the information and get back to you promptly. Wow!

I have questions about a couple of the projects but I don't know where it would be most productive to ask them. In separate discussions for each one? Here? On the worksheet?

Sorry Linda a couple of things has been on my way, but anyway, for the general discussion about the Small grants, it can be done here. But for the individual organizations , I have advised them to start seperate discussions with links to their workspace and I think Peter already has , though I still do not know the link but he posted the info somewhere. i know for now it will be quite difficult for most of the new people but am sure they will learn as we go along. I will send them reminder about the same and encourage them to direct us to those discussions once they are started.

Hi Grace,

nice job so far. I've found the NUWECHI and LIAK discussions and added them to their application workspaces. I've looked for the KJT discussion but am not sure where it is, and it doesn't look like ROACH has started one yet.

I changed the title of this thread just slightly to call it a small grants competition instead of a campaign, since you're not actually raising funds with this.

I would strongly suggest that each of the orgs add some photos to their applications to make them more appealing to voters.

And speaking of voters, I've also been wondering how many voters we will need to make this a valid process... Given the reduced participation levels here at ned lately, I think could be a nice occasion to draw folks from other networks into this space. If we can get all of the orgs involved in that it would be good.

So could we propose something like... each org needs a minimum of x votes for the vote to be valid? I'm trying to avoid a situation where only 10 people vote and 7 of those are the people applying.

Thoughts anyone?

Are there some detailed project measurement criteria?

For example:

1. Project sustainability
2. Staff experience and commitment
3. Internal management procedures
4. Success measurement mechanisms and criteria

Would the voters be prioritising any specific type of activity?

For example:

1. Aid projects
2. Children's projects
3. Social enterprise

Apologies if this has been stated elsewhere, as there is quite a bit to look at here!

Hi all,

I have started a thread where we can discuss issues concerning Rock of Ages Center for Hope here; http://www.ned.com/group/lia-glo bal/news/22/

Please feel free to visit it and share your views with us.Your contribution and participation will lead to our success. See you there!

Thanks so much Ben for the great ideas , I must sincerely say that I had not looked at all that critically , but for sure these are things to be incooperated. Okay at the top of this discussion I had put in some criteria though it has not been as clear as what you have suggested here, so we definitely have to find away of including these ideas for our supporters to base their judgements on.

Meanwhile if anyone has ideas on about how many people should be able to vote for a project to qualify for the grant , you will be most welcomed to give us your views .I personally was looking at 20.

I would like to bring in this idea that we exchanged in a pm with Ceris here;

Ceris said

Let me think out loud a little - 20 seems rather a lot of votes given the small number of potential voters, even if we blitz Facebook about it the number of people who actually respond to these things is actually very small. Also people joining Ned simply to vote may well vote 'blindly' for whoever invited them, without actually reading any of the proposals. However, you could perhaps go for some kind of points based system, where each voter is asked to award 3 points to their first choice, 2 to their second choice, and 1 to their third choice (in order of preference). This would encourage a more considered approach to the voting and I think the result would be fairer. An easy way to do this would be to use the Ned feedback system, so long as each project discussion has its own thread as you have already suggested.

I think this can be very helpful if we adopt it, though i still do not know what the rest are thinking.

I also thought it would make it easier for people to find the different discussions if they are at one place, so I have consolidated them here and will continue adding them as they come.

LIA Kireka

http://www.ned.com/group/lia-glo bal/news/20/

NUWECHI:

http://www.ned.com/group/lia-glo bal/news/21/

Rock of Ages:

http://www.ned.com/group/lia-glo bal/news/22/

Kampala Junior Team:

http://www.ned.com/group/lia-glo bal/news/23/

Just had another idea :) How about an LiA Grant Discussions Group created for the purpose ? It would be easy enough to copy and paste the discussions that are already underway. And I wonder if it is possible to feature the Group on the Ned home page, in a nice eye-catching way, for the duration of the voting period ? I'm not sure who we should ask about that... Mark?

If you start the group, and main discussion thread for the group...I'm sure we can add enough points to it to make it the highlight of the main page.

If you decide to use feedback instead of a poll, then there is no anonymity and no limit on how many orgs a person could vote for. I'm also not sure if folks new to ned will understand the feedback system well enough to know how to use it. You'd need a very very clear explanation if that were to work... and don't forget that feedback stars disappear with inactivity, so the results would only be visible for a little while and then be really difficult to trace back.

If you use the polling tools here, then you can allow for more than one vote per person (which I'm thinking would encourage people new here to look at the proposals.) You can have anonymity, you will have a permanent record, and you can control the time period for voting better. Just my opinion, but from experience I think it would be easier in the end to use a poll.

Thanks Christina, I didn't know there were polling tools here! If there are or can be easily imported then yes it makes sense to use them.

Mark, the 'highlighted' Highest Rated Discussion is not so highlighted on my little monitor, it's down towards the bottom of the page, I have to scroll to see it, and really doesn't stand out very much imho. What prompted me to suggest making an eye-catching link (I'm thinking of a box in the sidebar)is that (a) Facebook in my experience does not like links in group messages, and (b) ned dot com is so easy to remember! Anyway, just a suggestion :))

Hi everyone. Sorry for interupting the discussion. Iam Lauben Tushemereirwe and I represent the interests of Child Aid Uganda (CHAU). Iam seeking assistance on how to create a discussion for Child Aid Uganda Small Grants Application and link it to the workspace. Any assistance is highly appreciated. Thank you very much Grace and Linda for your tireless efforts and technical support that has enabled us to submit Child Aid Uganda Small grants Application online. Thank you all. Iam happy to be here!

Hi Lauben!

I'll start a discussion group and associated workspace for you for CHAU.

If you don't like the way I've done it, we can always change it - I'll show you how.

Once you have joined a group here - and I see that you have already joined the Life in Africa-Global Group here that this discussion is a part of - you can start new discussions and workspaces of your own. All you need to do to start a new discussion is to click first on the "discussions tab and then on the "new topic" tab. It costs you one point.

To create a workspace, click "workspace" above. Then click on (a different) "workspace" tab (to the right and on the bar below). This gives you a dropdown menu with an option for "new page". That will allow you to start a new workspace of your own. Remember to provide links in other discussions so people will find what you have written.

These are the links to the CHAU discussion and work page that I've started for you:

Discussion

Workspace

Hello David, Thank you so much for the start up links as well as info on how it is done. Iam happy with the links. I will keep in touch!

Hope we have all had enough time to go through all the different projects that we belong to and support.We are nearing the time for voting and I would like us again to try and invite more friends in this voting process. We really need some ideas on how best this can be done. My suggestion is that we need to get the voting done by 31st of March. Your ideas are most welcomed.

Grace,

I have been following all of the projects and contributed where I could but have asked at least one question with no response.

I admit things are frustrating here right now.

Grace -

Could you summarize the criteria for the projects and post it on Life in Africa-Global: LIA Small Grants General Page? It would help to understand what the goal of the competition is so that it could be determined by the voters if the projects have met the criteria.

I've pm'd Lucy, Beatrice and Lauben and reminded them to check in on the discussions here. Grace, if you have a way to send them an sms that might be effective.

Thanks Linda and Christina, I must admit that last week has been a night mare for me with a bunch of personal problems that I had very little time on line, I am sure i will get more organized this week.

Thanks Linda for the suggestion , I am now going to get to that and with this am also inviting people who have been here that I am giving this summary at this page : Life in Africa Global:LIA Small Grants General Page

Lets meet there and share show our support to our selected Organizations. Thanks everyone for your unending support.

I have already added afew things on the LIA Small Grants General Page that may help us decide which way to go.