[Cadre-politics] public hearing / be part of our mob. THURSDAY

[Dan MacNeil]

We are applying for CDBG monies this year. CDBG is Community 
Development Block Grant. They are monies provided by the federal 
government, but awarded by the city of Lowell through a citizen 
committee.

The first step is a public hearing where people talk about 
community needs.

	5:20 PM  Thursday November 29 (THIS THURSDAY
	Lowell Senior  Center
	276 Broadway Street

Laura MacNeil or Muriel Parseghian will be speaking for us. 
However, word is bigger crowds of well known people tend to do 
better than one geeky guy in a bright orange hoody.

It would be cool if you could come lend your famous face to our 
cause. --If you can't make it, I'll tap you for a letter of 
support later. :->

We're going to ask for money to:

	-- make http://mvhub.com easier for low income people
	-- pay 2 high school age apprentices

The later depends on our Parker Foundation application.

Ease of use money would be spend on:

	usability studies, where we watch people use the software

	programmer time, making things easier to use

	marketing efforts to neighborhood associations

Apprentice money would be spent on hiring two kids from Lowell 
High's cisco academy. IF we got the big Parker Foundation grant, 
they'd follow Josh Harding around doing onsite computer support.

In a year, they should be skilled up enough to abandon us or let 
us re-sell their skills like we do Josh.