Kabissa has been steadily moving towards our new network structure led by stakeholders, run by volunteers, and supported by a dedicated online platform built in collaboration with partners.
Kabissa may be run by volunteers, but we need money to cover our core operating expenses and to fund much needed projects (see below) to upgrade and improve our online platform. Please keep Kabissa in mind when making your holiday giving choices this year.
In solidarity,
Tobias Eigen, Founder
Kabissa Gong Gong
In October, we relaunched our popular monthly member newsletter, Kabissa Gong Gong, to make sure we can remain connected with Kabissa members who do not have reliable access to the Internet or can't get to the kabissa.org site on a regular basis.
The newsletter goes out on the second Tuesday of every month and contains a summary of all content posted to kabissa.org, so remember to post your content by then to be included.
Gong Gong complements Progress Updates (periodic reports about Kabissa progress) and Special Mailings (targeted mailings with opportunities for specific subsets of the Kabissa network).
You can subscribe to receive Gong Gong, Progress Updates, and Special Mailings in your email inbox at:http://kabissa.org/subscribe
Governance Decisions
In the past, Kabissa operated as a consulting/service organization and the board of directors relied on Kabissa employees to do the day to day work to run the organization. Now, as a streamlined, low-cost network dedicated to connecting people and organizations, there are no employees and the board of directors needs to shoulder more of the work to move the organization forward. In addition, the new positioning of Kabissa as a network serving Africa calls for improved oversight and strategic leadership by Kabissa stakeholders.
To make this evolution possible, the current board (John Githongo, Neema Mgana, Peter Eigen Daniel Ritchie, Tobias Eigen) came to a decision at last week's board meeting to transition into a working board with up to 9 board members coming from the Kabissa community. In January, we will announce a nomination procedure and submission form on the Kabissa website where you will be able to nominate yourself or your colleagues to be invited to the board.
Also at the board meeting, we reviewed and approved the financial reports for 2010 as well as the 2009 Audited Statements and 990 Tax Return which are now available for public review on the Kabissa donation page. We will be deciding on our 2011 budget and strategy in January.
We are pleased to be a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in good standing and are looking forward to the opportunities that the new year brings to deepen our role in helping to connect and empower African civil society organizations using information and communication technologies.
Kabissa Organization Directory Upgrade
I'm pleased to report that WebAccess has been doing a terrific job upgrading our Organization Directory, and that we are almost ready to launch the new site.
The upgrade has cosmetic improvements, fixes numerous bugs, and improves the functioning of the Organization Directory signup form, listings and profile management. It also lays the way for starting to build Kabissa Connections (see below), a new project we are considering based on the Organization Directory.
Kabissa Connections: Building Trust in African Civil Society Organizations
Thank you everyone who voted for Kabissa Connections on Netsquared to get us into the final 15 and thank you judges who selected us to be among the 5 winning organizations to receive a $5,000 cash prize. I also would like to congratulate the other 4 winners, in particular Agricultural Marketing Information Services in Cameroon and Integrated Electonic Peace Building Project in Kenya which are both very innovative and powerful projects deserving of recognition and support.
In a nutshell, Kabissa Connections will address trust concerns by providing a platform revealing the connections that organizations have with networks, international organizations, supporters and service providers. We will do this for organizations working in Africa while collaborating with others on open source tools, standards and approaches that can be replicated in other regions.
I am very excited to receive this recognition for an idea that has been brewing for years and which it appears we will now have the opportunity to implement. We will have more news soon on next steps and opportunities to get involved.
The French American Charitable Trust (FACT) is committed to addressing the fundamental inequalities and injustices in our society by helping develop and sustain networks of community-based groups in the U.S. and France that educate, organize, and empower people to actively participate in developing public policies that directly affect their lives.
Netsquared, an initiative of Techsoup Global, works at the intersection of technology and social impact. The Netsquared platform has a Community Blog open to any registered user to contribute his/her ideas, projects, lessons learned or other information about working in technology and social change. NetSquared Local events support volunteer organizers around the world who convene local community events as consistent opportunities for gathering, sharing, learning and collaborating at a local level. NetSquared Challenges and Partner Challenges call for ideas from around the world for new technologies, applications and mashups that make social impact; and Projects submitted to the Project Gallery can be edited, updated, deleted and shared by the user, creating a rich directory of innovation project ideas.
