DRAFT Getting to Antarctica Part 3, Wednesday:

Even on this full day of just traversing the Drake Passage (it is 500 miles from the tip of Tierra del Fuego to the Antarctic Peninsula) they keep you busy.

We had five briefings during the day:
First, an introduction of the naturalist staff--They are a bunch of very social biology, climate, geology and ecology geeks. Most of them seem to have a fun, dry sense of humor.

Next was a briefing on Sea Birds of Antarctica: Bev loved it. It was a little too much information for me (most of the briefings are options).

Next, Digital Photograph: I thought it would be rather basic. But while it covered the basics, the staff photographer went into more detail than I expected and covered more topics than I expected (e.g. Raw/JPEG/TIFF formats, Histograms, color spread settings, filters, tripods). He really did a great job explaining things. For the first time I think I session with the staff photographers.

Last briefing of the day was mandatory Antarctic landing procedures: First, the woman in charge of the zodiacs explained how to get into and out of the zodiacs. Next, expedition leader went through IAATO (International Association Antarctica Tour Operations) and the Atlantic Treaty Nations requirements. These include:

• Preventing the introduction of non-native species,
• Protection of fresh water.
• Don’t approach wildlife closer than 5 meters (15 feet). But it is OK if you are just sitting there and a penguin comes up to check you out.
• Do not feed, touch or handle wildlife.
• Wildlife has the right of way-- if they are crossing your path, stop and wait until they pass.

Crossing 60 degrees South Latitude

Tonight we are crossing 60 degrees south latitude. I'm not sure how good the Internet access will be tomorrow, so it may be quite a while until I update the blog.

DRAFT Getting to Antarctica Part 2 Tuesday: On the National Geographic Explore

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We’ve been on five Lindblad/National Geographic ships. Our reaction to this one is wow--much fancier than their other ships. It is also much bigger--Also, the one reason we were a little hesitant of this trip is that it is a much is much larger--144 passengers maximum versus 60 to 90 passengers on other LIndblad ships.The other ships are a lot more “cozy.” However, they seem to be keeping the same naturalist to passenger ration: about 1 to 15. Will see tomorrow how efficient they are getting people to land (another of our concerns about a larger ship)

The N.G. Explorer is a lot newer than their other ships--it is a refitted Northern Norwegian Ferry--the interior was gutted and re-done about two years ago. We spent some time exploring the ship. It has a lot more space for every function

It is a little confusing figuring out where things are: they really need to have floor plans of the ship in the three stairwells.

We were upgraded to a more expensive cabin--two categories above what we paid for (They had more singles than normal so they normally do so they needed our smaller room for one of the singles.) Our room has a floor to ceiling glass sliding door and a deck. We figured the deck would be minimal--no more than two feet wide. But it is a real deck with two chairs. Because of the solid partitions, we don’t get much wind it is actually comfortable to sit in--as long as you wear warm clothes not sure how useful it will be after we cross the Antarctic Convergence--where the warm waters of the other oceans meet the cold water of the Antarctic Ocean

Meeting a lot of the other passengers. The design these cruises so you do. When we say we’re from Minnesota, the most common comment is about Garrison Keillor(Spelling?)--which is kind of disgusting. The only other common comment about MN is: “Well, you know how to dress for this weather.”

We had our first required briefing--instructions for what to do if you hear the emergency signal--Grab your warm coat, required medicine and your life preserver and meet in the lounge. Basically the same briefing as on every Lindblad ship--only modified to address specifics of this ship.

The official blog from Lindblad

You can following the official version of the trip, check the “Daily Expedition Logs at http://www.expedition.com. Search for National Geographic Explorer

Getting to Antarctic Part 1

[Note to readers: Pictures will be added when we get back. Also, updates to the blog may be intermittent--Satellite Internet connection will be very “iffy” at the high southern latitudes]

Four days to get the the ship, 36 hours on the ship leaving the Beagle Channel and crossing the Drake package.

Saturday, Getting to Miami. We did plan on an extra day in Miami--just in case the plane from from Minneapolis was late or they lost our luggage. (And to just have a day on Miami Beach.)

Sunday, Getting to Santiago de Chile. Slept sleep in then wandered Miami Beach. Got to MIA at 4 PM for an 8:30 PM flight to Santiago. This is our red-eye flight of the trip. The flight confirmed on of my theories: Sleeping on a red-eye flight is a joke.
We get to Santiago, go to the hotel and crash.

Monday, Santiago de Chile. Got to the hotel at about 8 AM. Checked in. Got to our room and slept. 2:30 to 5:00--A very quick tour of Santiago. Only got out of bus twice--At the Presidential palace, and the Pre Columbian Museum.

Chile is having their national elections this December. Political signs everywhere!. Since Pinochet’s 17 year dictatorship, Chile is back to a democracy--with presidential terms limited to one four hear term.

The Pre-Columbian museum has a great collection of native artifacts stretching over thousands of years from native civilizations stretching from Mexico to Chile. The only problem is that I really want to sleep more.

Back to the hotel, slept an hour, then the welcome dinner.

Met two researchers from Oceanites, a nonprofit research organization that specializes in counting penguins. The do a census of each kind of penguin. They will have three researchers on board for this trip. According to them, any time we land where there are penguins, they will be running through penguin rookeries counting penguins.They will offer a briefing on their research sometime during the trip.

City Planning note: The main freeway through Santiago is mainly below the surface. In many places there is a linear park on top. In some places the river is on top. (not a big river but a VERY fast river.) What a great way to minimize the impact of a six-lane freeway.

Tuesday, to Tierra del Fuego and the ship. Wake-up at 5:00, quick breakfast, then to the airport for a charter flight to Ushuaia, Argentina. Tried again to sleep on the plane.

Bus ride through to outskirts of Ushuaia. Ushuaia’s population is about 50,000. Has some manufacturing but the largest employers are government (it is the capital of the provence) and tourism.

We Drive through Tera del Fuego national park and stop at the end of the road. Literally the end of the road. Argentina Highway 3 is the Trans=American Highway. So this is the end of a highway that starts in Alaska.

While Tierra del Fuego seems to have s climate similar to SE Alaska the Flora and Fauna are very different. No large mammals, the major species seems to be the Canadian Beaver--introduced as an attempt to start a fur industry around 1950. The industry didn’t work but the Beavers love it. No conifers. But a number of varieties of “False Birch” trees that are extremely slow growing.

We board a catamaran (motorized, not sail) for lunch and a ride through the Beagle Channel and back to Ushuaia to board our ship. The channel is named for the ship Charles Darwin was on. (I think the main reason for the catamaran trip was to give the ship crew time to clean the ship and get ready for us--the passengers from the previous trip just got off the ship that morning.)

Twin Cities Media Alliance Fall Forum

Title: Networking And The New Media Landscape: Reporting News, Building Community, Making Money

Sponsor: Twin Cities Media Alliance/ Twin Cities Daily Planet

Location: Minneapolis Central Library

Attendance: about 85--from across the political/ideological landscape

Twitter tag: #TCMA09

Keynote: The Twin Cities Media Ecosystem by Matt Thompson of Knight Foundation:

Three stages of media in the Twin Cities:

• The Niche Media phase--lots of publications--from an early 20th century publication on grain milling that had correspondents in London and New York to a lot of papers written in the languages of the many new immigrants.
• The Mass Media--the multiple daily newspapers that were in the Twin Cities merge into just two--one on the East side (St. Paul) and one on the West side (Minneapolis). National news is concentrated in a few "voices" (e.g. Walter Cronkite)
• The Networked Media--Cross feeds--new curators--individuals select the sources we believe and share them, information is connected to other informations, sources connect to each other, news aggregation sites connect to each other, We have to talk about

Local media has to stop talking about the information we provide and start talking about the value we provide (this was really brought home to be during a site visit to TCMA by a local foundation last week).

First Panel (Reporting the News) Take Away:

Everyone is getting into news aggregation--from hyper local neighborhood sites to Minnesota Public Radio and WCCO TV (Local CBS). TC Daily Planet, while it was an early aggregator of community news (both ethnic and geographic communities), will be competing with more aggregators in the near future.

Keynote 2: Bruce Schneier, "Blogging, New Media and the Generation Gap"

Five key works for new media

• Be Interesting--every page, every sentence, every article
• Be Entertaining--it is no accident that many young people get their news from John Stewart. Rush Limbaugh knows he is an entertaining.
• Be Engaging--(I would say "Be Community") people want to talk to each other. Communities can be geographical, topical. Community can be more important than news
• Be available--there has to be an easy way to get to older content.
• Be agile--you don't know what the new device or new platform will be tomorrow or next week. You don't know how new generations will use the Internet How the young will use the Internet will not just be different, it will be incomprehensible.

Bruce recommends checking out book "Free" by Kris (Sp???) Anderson (I wonder if I can literally check it out since this is happening in a library.)

In response to a question: "Net Neutrality can not fail. If it fails legally, there will be enough work arounds that it will eventually succeed. It is an important fight. It if fails, we will see a major set-back with a bunch of old media companies using the law to hand on to an old model. People fighting it will have a lot of technical tools--they just won't have the law on their side."

Second Panel (Building Community) Take Aways:

• Building community is a lot of work (hey, it was actually acknowledged!)
• While a couple years ago, no one site will be the "one site" for any specific community.

Third Panel (the hardest to get speakers to fill) "Making Money" Take Aways

• www.bringmethenews.com is a for profit news site. (at least they hope to be profitable). No banner ads--rely on sponsored content. My question--Isn't sponsored content just another way to say "long form ad"
• L3C funding model for funding=Low Profit Limited Liability Corporation. Primary aim is to further a social purpose. They are designed to attract capital to benefit the community. Good source for information--Americans for Community Development.
• From the Uptake: "If anyone tells you they have funding and business models for media figured out--don't believe them."

Lunch--Nonprofit Mission and Excellence Awards

Nonprofit Excellence--large organization

Simpson Housing Services

Julie Manworren (ED of Simpson) “No man, woman or child should experience homelessness. We can end homelessness.”

Nonprofit Excellence--small organization

Dakota Woodlands (shelter for homeless families in a Twin Cities suburb).

Reyne Branchaud-Linsk (ED) “It is important to continue to help families after they find housing of their own.”

Responsive Philanthropy Nonprofit Mission Award

Carl and Eloise Pohlad Family Foundation

(The foundation actually increased their grants to nonprofits to help in the recession.)

A number of members of the family accepted the award.

Innovation Nonprofit Mission Award

CaringBridge

Advocacy Nonprofit Mission Award

National Alliance on Mental Illness of Minnesota

“Sometimes the best way to serve our clients is to teach them to advocate for themselves.”

Anti-Racism Initiative Nonprofit Mission Award

Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial

Nonprofit Standards

Charities Review Council’s New Accountability Standards (7:45 AM)

First, a conference session starting at 7:45 AM? I think this only happens at nonprofit conferences.

Minnesota has this unique organization--the Charities Review Council that sets standards for nonprofit organizations. The organization has been around since the 1940s. They have a new set of accountability standards that was presented at this session. Overall headings include: Public Disclosure, Governance, Financial Activity, and Fundraising (a total of 27 separate standards. The most interesting part of the session was the question/discussion section. Being a shameless agitator, I raised my hand first:

The public disclosure section is all about transparency. My major problem with this section (overall it is a great section) is that it doesn’t require nonprofits to be proactive about communication. It is all passive (“Make the information available to the public’). There is no discussion about working to engage the community.

The data privacy standard only addresses donor privacy. It should also address client data privacy.

My major complaints are about the "Use of Funds" section in the standards on Financial Activity. (Really, about the percent of administrative cost that is allowed.):

• First, it is better than it was. The text addresses the reality that administrative costs are important and valuable and that not all nonprofits will be the same.
• It requires an explanation if the organization claims administrative costs of under 10%. This at least re-inforces the fact that not all administrative cost is bad.
• It also allows a three year average of administrative costs. While this helps for major infrastructure projects like implementing a new database, it may not be enough. A three year average doesn't allow much for ongoing investment in non-capital infrastructure. However, it still sets percentage standards.
• My major complaint is that the percentages don't work for a lot of organizations. For example, small nonprofits that rely on volunteers to provide services and have limited staff who manage the organization and coordinate the volunteers will have a high percentage of administrative costs--simply because its program costs are low (I actually kind of did a rant on this topic) (go here for a longer rant and a link to a great article from Fast Company about this)

Thoughts from the Minnesota Nonprofit and Foundation Conference

(This is going to be a series of shorter posts)

This conference is a day and a half--jointly put on by the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and the Minnesota Council of Foundations.

Title: Transforming our Work: from Challenging Times to Hopeful Futures (The title seems to follow the standard nonprofit conference model” three words, colon, four to six words.) http://www.transformingourwork.org/

Attendance: 1800 nonprofit professionals, foundation staff persons, board members of foundations and nonprofits, and quite a few consultants (like me--looking for projects)

Facility:

St. Paul River Center convention center. Great layout, Great location. I found reasonably priced parking only a block away (RiverCenter municipal ramp across the street is OVER priced). But, no wifi on conference floor. YOu have to go downstairs to coffee shop to get wifi. What is this, 1990???

General Thoughts:

• The organizers are allowing a lot of time for networking--that’s what I come to conferences for.
• First sessions on Friday are at 7:45. AGGG. No private sector conference would start THAT early!
• There is NO resource room where participants can leave literature for other attendees to pick up (this is usually a great source of material to plagiarize from--opps, I mean learn from.
• Great networking--meeting a lot of old friends and new people. Ran out of business cards on the Thursday afternoon.
• Wish there were more people from local foundations and at least some people from national foundations so they could learn a little about the real world of running a nonprofit and dealing with their requirements.
• Really wish some government funders of nonprofits (e.g. counties that provide funding for human service nonprofits) were here to learn.

San Francisco--two short days

Day one in SF--After getting some

more sleep (after getting the LARGE van exchanged for a car); went to THE tourist destination: Fisherman’s Wharf and Ghirardelli Square. Crowds, shops, street performers, crowds, sea lions, crowds, expensive parking.

Day two in SF--Mass Transit to the California Academy of Science in Golden Gate Park. BART from the end of the line to City Center, transfer to Muni street-car (light rail) N-Judah line. This

Muni line runs under Market Street and then through another tunnel on its way to the south side of Golden Gate Park. Total travel time about 1.5 hours (it would have been faster by car but not as interesting).

California Academy of Science is in a brand new building. Inside is very industrial with a very cold/hard feel. The exhibits were great. Started with the aquarium, went through the Africa hall, the Galapagos and climate change exhibits--all great. The Rainforest was the best. Didn’t have time for the planetarium. Did get up to see the green roof--they had a docent explaining it (That is something the Minneapolis Central Library should do--maybe at least once a week tours of the green roof.) I was kind of expecting fore physics and technology. Except for the planetarium, this science museum clearly focuses on biology and does it extremely well.

On the way back, we went up to the

surface when we got off the Muni at City Center, walked around Civic Center (clearly influenced by the City Beautiful movement), walked along the Tenderloin part of Market street to Powell, had some coffee and people watched (the lines for the Powell Street Cable Car were amazing--looked like all tourists--I wonder if SF natives ever take it as transit). BART back to the hotel.

Traveling is a hassle--SFO Version,

The flight to San Francisco when fine. In fact, SunCountry seems to have more room between rows than NorthWest and pretty comfortable seats. The flight was about half full so we also had the middle seat free. Landed early--about 11 PM.

The hassle came at the rental car. Took AirTrain from SFO terminal to their rental car facility. We had pre-registered online so we should have been able to walk right up to a car and drive off. Walked into the garage as the online instructions and directed. There were NO cars. NONE. (Remember that ad about just going to the lot and picking the car you want--It doesn't work when there are NO cars.) Went back to the counter. One person was still there.

Now the fun began. The counter person had us go through the registration procedure all over and told us to go out to the National part of the garage and there would be a short wait.

Got out to the garage. the attendant said they were bringing up cars one at a time. after about 45 minutes, they directed the people were were in front of us in the line to take the last VIP car that was in the garage. After another 15 minutes, the attendant said there were no more cars. If we wanted to, we could drive one of the 10 passenger vans to our hotel and return it in the morning for a car. Since we were only about five miles way, we took it.

Got to the hotel and the key cards didn’t work--back down to the desk for new cards.

Went back to Alamo about 6 hours latter (7 AM) and complained to a manager--got about a 25% reduction on our rate (a little over $100). This was also the first time anyone at Alamo or National said “I’m sorry” or explained what happened (a big conference had come in over the weekend and they rented more cars than they should have.)

Travel plusses:

• Plane left early and got in early
• Plain seats were comfortable
• Baggage showed up at baggage claim fast
• Hotel was close
• Two people at National finally said “I’m sorry” the next morning
• Saved over $100 on the car rental

Travel minuses:

• Red-eye flight
• Trying to sleep on the plane (although this plane was more comfortable than the Egypt Air flight to Cairo)
• No car in garage
• Had to go through rental car registration twice
• No one at Alamo or National were honest when we got there (they clearly knew there were no cars available when we got their--wasted an hour of our time). No one at Alamo or National Car Rental said “I’m sorry.”
• Key card (minor)
• Had to go back to SFO at 7 AM instead of sleeping after a red-eye flight

Why you should care about broadband and Net Neutrality

NTEN asked me to write an article on why nonprofit techies and leaders should be interested in the pending decisions and debates at the local, state and federal levels regarding Internet access. The thousand word article is on NTEN's blog. (Note, they came up with the title--"Save the Internet, Save the World."