Original team announcement (several weeks before the big event):
Your faithful friends of free software in the Souhegan Valley (Southern New Hampshire, USA, and environs), Janet, Roseann, and Bill.
We're planning our SFD 07 to be a day at the Milford Public Library, with posters up in the town square in the weeks before, and want to try an outreach to the local newspapers (we have contacts at the library and with the local newspapers) and with the local schools (where SFD provides us with a good reason to try develop a contact).
How things actually went:
We had to make a number of changes, particularly the location. The good news: the Milford Public Library will be happy to have us for ongoing programs, and we have permission to make presentations on free sofware as part of the library's adult evening sessions. The bad news: the timing didn't permit the library to have us do SFD itself, on September 15th. (Nor did the town-square idea work out -- we'd be welcome there too, but the lead time is months. Next year is a possibility.)
The really good news: we approached a local computer-supplies vendor, "GotInk4U", run by Bill Poliquin in Nashua. Bill offered to give us a corner of his display area, and even better, to send out announcements to his mailing list. 17,000 names! (All over the country! We didn't WANT them to all show up.)
And the really, really good news: the morning of the 15th dawned gray and showery, and progressed to drenching downpour. 'Twas the day for the remnants of Hurricane Humberto to come through New Hampshire on its way back out to sea. NOT the day to put up the picnic table and hawk free CDS outdoors. So having GotInk4U's display area was more than a convenience: it saved us from a total washout.
And it also got us traffic, interested people, and a hospitable environment for what turned out to be a number of useful discussions. OpenCDs were put in people's hands, the gospel of free software was put in people's ears, and a surprising number of volunteers turned out to help. A little thing like a hurricane doesn't stop the New Hampshire SFD team!
Roseann Day, Amherst
Ben Scott, Dover
Ted Roche, Contoocook
Laura White, Contoocook
Jim Kuzdrall, Nashua
Bill Poliquin, Nashua (GotInk4U)
Mark Boyajian, Pepperell MA
Janet Levy, Lyndeborough
Bill Sconce, Lyndeborough
Pictures to follow, if I can figure out how to do the uploads. (Sorry for the funny formatting; the Wiki's editor appears to be broken, and I can't take time to reverse-engineer it. Better to plunge ahead and get something posted!)
-Bill
Other notes:
o We should have at least one attendee at our Milford library program. He drove down to Nashua *twice* to join us at SFD.
o GotInk4U was more than hospitable. They FED us. Bill Poliquin ordered pizza and colas. THANK YOU, Bill!
BTW, GotInk4U are themselves free-software enthusiasts. We discovered late in our planning that they've been supplying OpenOffice.org on all of the refurbished machines they sell.
For that, and for their remarkable support and hospitality, our heartfelt thanks. The best SFD we've done! (So far!) ('05, '06, and now '07)
