Hello All,
WDA has just finished up a great year, but that doesn’t mean we’re done with work. The successful Sadhana Clean Water Project is coming to a close, but Tim, Jessie, and Daniel are still working diligently at compiling the final report, an endeavor that will probably continue all summer. We also held an amazing WDA retreat on the first Saturday of May where we recapped WDA’s past and answered, or at least considered, a myriad of questions about the future. It was a more productive and meaningful day than any of us expected. At the end of the it, I think it’s fair to say that the group broke up feeling enthusiastic about the future, inspired, and full from all the good food.

We’ve had a few meetings since then, mainly dealing with structural issues and picking a project for next year. The board of advisors, comprised of faculty members, WDA is currently forming is one change we are super-excited about. We believe having a diverse group of mentors is going to be extremely beneficial for everyone involved and future projects alike. Tentative positions for people within the group have also been set. They are to ensure that “the ball is never dropped,” not to limit people to one or two certain jobs. Everyone is expected and expecting to play major roles in the actual project itself, as well as helping out with the dirty job of fundraising. The positions are as follows:

• WDA Co-Coordinators: Tim and Jessie
• PR/Technology Coordinator: John
• Grant Writing: Alisha and Melissa
• Budget Coordinator: Dave
• Faculty Communications Coordinator: Gauri
• External Relations: Aisha
• Fundraising Coordinator: Rotating Position
• Project Head: TBD

It should be noted that several members were unable to attend the meeting these roles were assigned.

Perhaps the biggest news to report is that WDA has tentatively decided on its latest project. I am not going to give too much information, mainly because of the uncertain nature of the project at this point in time (it doesn’t even really have a title yet), but we plan to conduct research among the Latino immigrant population in Eastern Washington about their relationships with the communities they come from in Mexico and what they believe would help fight economic stagnation there, with the ultimate goal of implementing a project to that end in a home community in Mexico. Once again, this is a very basic and preliminary project outline, but we’re all eager to immerse ourselves in this venture. Work for the summer has already been set out. Goal number one: Learn Spanish!

Before I go, I would like to mention that we have three seniors leaving us who graduated today, Jyotsna, Yukta, and Joseph. No words I could write have the ability to describe how absolutely wonderful these three are in every single way. So instead of trying, I will only say that they touched every single person in WDA’s life in so many ways and that their contributions to WDA, Whitman, and the human community will live on long after they leave this place. On behalf of the group, congratulations. You will be missed.

Peace and Love to all,
John

Hi all,
So the conference sub-committee has been hard at work the past few weeks sending out email invitations to a few less than five hundred organizations, social businesses, and trusts across India. The process has been long and tedious, and at times frustrating, but we have finally finished. As replies have been coming in slowly but steadily, the hard part of keeping everything organized and up-to-date begins. Yukta, Spenser, Alicia, and I will also be beginning to make calls next week to NGOs confirming details and urging the ones that haven’t responded yet to do so. We also have a growing number of travel scholarship applications to review, but that won’t begin until after the February 15th deadline for applications. Overall, we find people are much enthused about the conference, and we have also had a large number of groups willing to contribute to the Water Book. As the number of confirmed attendees grows, so does our excitement!

One Love,
John

One of my side projects for the past month or so has been looking into what it will take to make Whitman Direct Action into a legitimate non-profit. We currently hold our status as an organization through being an ASWC-sponsored club and, correct me if I’m wrong, a project under Joe’s synagogue, the Havurah, in Ashland, Oregon. Donations made to WDA go through the Havurah so that the donor’s generosity is tax-deductible.

This system has worked for our past projects, and is working fine for our current project, but isn’t the best long-term solution because it’s dependent on Joe’s connection to his willing and flexible synagogue. Seeing as he’s a senior this year, it might even only work for this project cycle.

There are many potential solutions, however, so it shouldn’t be too much of a hang-up. Worst-case scenario is that we have to move funds through ASWC. The best of these solutions, I would argue, is to incorporate WDA as a non-profit and do it all ourselves. Although this would require a bit more logistical effort than we’ve had to put forth previous, I believe both the process of incorporation and the organization we design will help ensure WDA’s overall longevity.

That is, if we don’t get absorbed by the college at some point in the process.

From my research, the most significant steps towards incorporating WDA as a non-profit are these:

• Recruiting a board of directors. A board of directors is a crucial component in maintaining an organization over the long-term. Members are usually elected for terms over several years and thus give informed guidance to new, potentially confused members.
• Drafting articles of incorporation. In layman’s terms, this is the application to the state for non-profit status. It is also likely the document which requires amount of legalese.
• Writing bylaws. The bylaws, in brief, outline how the organization should optimally run. They include instructions for choosing new board members, how often meetings should be, etc. Although this runs, in someways, counter to the way WDA has wanted to exist, it would probably be possible to draft these bylaws to reflect our current values.

Other steps include filing tax forms and drafting a two-year budget, but the steps above are probably the most important and time-consuming.

At this point in time, the very first step is determining whether we, as the organization we are now, think this is a worthy cause to pursue. It will require everyone’s effort, although some more than others, and more importantly everyone’s support. Sometime after that we’ll need legal assistance to write legalese, but that will happen when we know what we want to translate.

Good resources on this process:

• Whatcom Council of Nonprofits - How to Start a Nonprofit
• USDA Rural Development - 501(c)3 Fact Sheet

From an article published yesterday:

Whitman Direct Action embodies all that Whitman promises to foster: creativity, leadership, intellectual vitality, service and global awareness.

and

WDA is unparalleled by any established Whitman program in that it is run entirely by students and it merges study abroad concepts with community service ones.

Congratulations! Let’s continue spreading the word!

Utilizing the power of the internets, Whitman Direct Action is now pushing all of its content to you, the consumer, through RSS feeds and (sometimes) daily emails. Check out our subscribe page to learn more, or sign up for one of our feeds or emails!

Also launched today:

• An informational page for our current project
• A skeleton page for the open-source aspect of WDA (Don’t worry, more information is coming soon!)