On Thursday June 17, 2010 evacuteer.org raised $8,300 at its Hello Hurricane Season benefit presented by AT&T. City Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer, AT&T Regional Director Leo Marsh and evacuteer.org executive director Robert X. Fogarty spoke about the improvement in emergency preparedness and the need to invest in social innovation organizations like evacuteer.org.

On Saturday June 19, 2010 evacuteer.org hosted its first ever “Hello, Hurricane Season Summit,” which brought together all of the organization’s 25 partner organizations and independent evacuteers. The keynote panel included Deputy Mayor Colonel Jerry Sneed, Chief of Fire Charles Parent, Superintendent of Police Ronal Serpas, and special operations director for EMS, Jacob Oberman.

BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE: http://hellohurricaneseasonbenefit.eventbrite.com/

Evacuteer.org Investment Video from evacuteer.org on Vimeo.

City Council President Arnie Fielkow, Evacuteer Shawn Chollette, and former Homeland Security Director Colonel Terry Ebbert talk about the value of investing in and contributing to evacuteer.org.

BEGIN RELEASE FROM TULANE:

Thank you to all the participants of Tulane’s first NewDay Social Entrepreneurship Challenge.  It’s clear from the range of proposals that the Tulane community is developing and testing many incredibly innovative solutions to our most pressing social challenges.

After two rounds of judging, we would like to congratulate the following three teams for progressing to the final round of the 2010 NewDay Social Venture Competition.

Drop The Chalk (Jonathan Rovick, Stephen Corburn, Kurt Gerwitz, and Jen Schnidman)

Nanofex (Justin Levy, Xavier Cabo, Julio Moscoso, and Ashton Prat)

Evacuteer.org (Louise Murphy, Robert Fogarty, and Guillermo Olivos)

On Friday, April 16, 2010, these three teams will pitch their social ventures
to a panel of five judges for the chance to win $20,000.

The panel will be made up of the following accomplished professionals:

1. Flozell Daniels, Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation
2. D’Juan Hernandez, Sun Energy Group
3. Nadiyah Morris Coleman, Lt. Governors Office of Social Innovation
4. Andrea Chen, Social Entrepreneurs of New Orleans
5. Tim Williamson, Idea Village

Along with the Tulane Business Plan Competition, the final round of the NewDay Challenge will take place on Friday, April 16th in Goldring-Woldenberg II (GWII) at the Freeman School of Business.

Presentations will take place between 10:00 am and 1:00 pm.  Lunch will
be served in the Executive Dining Room of GWII from 12:00 – 1:00 pm.

Immediately following lunch, the Tulane Entrepreneurs Association will
host a panel discussion on entrepreneurship from 1:00 – 2:00 pm.
The panel of speakers will consist of our final round judges and Ben
Kleinman, a Tulane alumnus who specializes in intellectual property
rights.  The event is open to the public; however, space is limited.  To
secure your spot in the audience for the 2010 Tulane Business Plan
Competition, please follow this link to RSVP:
https://nykotai.wufoo.com/forms/rsvp-tulane-business-plan-competition/

The main questions:

1. To what extent has Thailand’s individual, private enterprise and governmental preparedness systems improved since the Asian tsunami in 2004, and what innovations can be taken as lessons learned for New Orleans?
2. How can the lessons learned and preparedness strategies in New Orleans be applicable to Phuket with its similar population and tourist-based economy and vice versa?
3. How has private enterprise, specifically hotels and resorts, improved disaster preparedness techniques in regards to tourists, who usually have little or know knowledge of local hurricane or tsunami preparedness procedures in Phuket and New Orleans?
4. Finally, if we accept the premise that we learn from experience, what are the top 10 innovations in government, individual and private enterprise preparedness to have appeared in New Orleans and Phuket since the disasters?

During the trip, Fogarty will be blogging rom www.rxfogarty.com and evacuteer.org/thailand

NEW ORLEANS–In a sign of generosity and community, 30 members of the New Orleans community came together last Saturday for CrisisCampNola. The event, billed as an “unconference” brought the New Orleans’ creative and tech class together with non-developers and 10 haitian New Orleanians.

By the end of the day, the developers built a website, www.neworleanshaiti.org, to serve as a communication tool for the 4,000 New Orleanians of Haitian descent. Also, developers worked on national scale open source technology for Haitian relief efforts.

“We can’t thank you enough for helping us through this tough time,” said Hector Louis-Jeune, a representative from the Haitian Catholic Community of New Orleans.

No one has been immune to the recent news about the devastating earthquakes that rocked Haiti.  Support in the form of money, clothes, and food have already poured out to aid the the nation.  But technologist across the country have found an unique way to support the disaster.  Under a cause called Crisis Commons programmers, developers, and everyday volunteers have united together to use their skills for good.  Crisis Commons spawned from talks that happened at Transparency Camp 09 and Government 2.0 Camp.  Several “campers” exchanged ideas about how to better connect people, utilize social networks, and disseminate information through the use of technology, especially during times and places of crisis.

Crisis Common is now a national event to develop technology tools to assist in times of crisis — particularly in support of the recent Haitian earthquakes.  So far Crisis Common techies from Atlanta to Los Angeles have helped develop such tools as Mobile Applications For Crisis Response, a Craigslist style exchange area for self-identified needs and requests by non-profits assisting in Haiti relief operations, and family reunification systems. These are just a few of the tools that people have created by pooling their skills sets and resources.

Sloane Berrent from The Causemopolitan and Robert Fogarty from Evacuteer have partnered to put on a barcamp style event on this Saturday modeled after Crisis Common called CrisisCampNOLA.  The event will get volunteers together for a day to contribute something in line with the Crisis Commons cause.  Developers (people with skills in programming, web design, application development, UI) and non developers (everyday people who are good at organizing, planning, social media, or scribing) are asked to come out this Saturday, January 23rd from 9AM until 6PM to help the group achieve its goal.  The event will be held at LaunchPad NOLA, 643 Magazine St.

If you want to help the CrisisCampNOLA cause feel free to show up at the event on Saturday and give a helping hand, tell a friend, or just get the word out.

Register: http://crisiscampnola.eventbrite.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Orleans-LA/Crisis-Camp-NOLA-crisiscampNOLA/260688229635

Twitter: http://twitter.com/crisiscampnola

Phone: 310.422.4895 (Yes, this is a local person)

Hector Jeune estimates there are 4,000-6,000 Haitian New Orleanians

NEW ORLEANS–On Thursday January 7, 2010, evacuteer.org director Robert Fogarty presented to the City Council the organization’s 2009 accomplishments and 2010 goals. In addition to the eight minute presentation, Councilmembers Jackie Clarkson, Cynthia Willard-Lewis and Arnie Fielkow gave positive feedback and asked engaged questions. Colonel Jerry Sneed director of the City’s Office of Homeland Security was scheduled to testifiy as well but had to attend to another matter. After the meeting, he sent an email to all of the council members:

“I feel it is important for you to know how well this organization is doing and how we plan to continue to use them.  I can’t emphasize enough to you how important I think this organization is…”

In 2009:

~evacuteer.org  recruited and trained 21 partner organizations and 426 “evacuteers” (evacuation + volunteers) nearly every Saturday throughout hurricane season in partnership with the Red Cross to train citizen volunteers on their roles within the City Assisted Evacuation Plan in advance of a category three or higher storm.
~evacuteer.org  developed a defined and direct training program providing information on roles of citizen volunteers in the CAEP
~evacuteer.org  received its 501c3 tax exempt status from the IRS six weeks after sending the application on model cooperative non-profit government model based much off of Parkway Partners where the City’s applicable director has a seat on the board and the non-profit’s mission is to directly enhance an initiative overseen by the government(In our case it’s Col. Sneed, in Parkway Partners, its Ann MacDonald)
~evacuteer.org  developed an extensive social media following on twitter and facebook and traditional media outlets WDSU, WGNO, WVUE, WWOZ, WWNO, WEZB, the Times Picayune, the Gambit’s “40 under 40 issue” featured evacuteer.org
~evacuteer.org founder  Robert Fogarty presented to a group of Pakistani diplomats on a trip to America studying recovery and disaster sponsored by the US Department of State
~evacuteer.org  founder Robert Fogarty presented to the World Conference on Disaster Management about utilizing branding and social media innovation to engage citizens in disaster preparedness.

2010 goals:
~Host a beginning of hurricane summit for all 426 evacuteers and partner organizations to dust off CAEP concepts and prepare for storm season as well as new possible partner organizations
~Have all 17 CAEP pick-up points “adopted” by neighborhood associations and/or faith based groups
~Increase unaffiliated volunteer involvement by 20 percent to from 100 unaffiliated volunteer to  120
~Increase partner organization involvement and commitment by 30 percent form 21 groups to 28

NEW ORLEANS- Equipped with a good idea, momentum and two  talented MBA students, evacuteer.org is writing its business plan tailored towards an upcoming entry into Tulane University’s $50,000 business plan competition.

Guillermo Olivos, a Yale MBA who interned with evacuteer.org in the summer 2009 and now holds a seat on the organization’s board of directors, and Louise Murphy, a Tulane MBA, are writing the plan. Professor Peter Ricchiuti, a business professor at Tulane, is the team’s faculty advisor.

Evacuteer.org, however, is an unlikely organization with a niche so narrow and defined that constructing a business plan in a traditional manner has its challenges.

“We fill a need that exists in New Orleans and we fill a need that could exist in several locations around the world,” founder and director Robert X. Fogarty says. “But our initial business plan is focusing on our operations in New Orleans and defining why we are a worthy organization, valuable enough to be invested in by philanthropists and the public sector.”

Evacuteer.org’s mission is to aid and enhance the operations of the City Assisted Evacuation Plan with volunteer labor in the event of mandatory evacuation of New Orleans. The City Assisted Evacuation Plan is a free evacuation option for New Orleanians with out their own transportation out of the City.

“Some say that an organization that is relevant six months of of the year isn’t a sustainable concept,” Fogarty says. “I say that if there is any place in the world that needs to be thinking, working and preparing year-round for a window that’s only open six months (hurricane season) it’s New Orleans.

In addition to the $50,000 Tulane business competition, Tulane University also is sponsoring a $20,000 “New Day” competition awarding a winner with a plan based in social entrepreneurship. Organizations are eligible to apply–and win–both competitions.

In 2009, evacuteer.org recruited 426 New Orleanians and 22 partner groups to assist should a mandatory evacuation be called by harnessing social media, powerful branding and leveraging in-kind resources. The organization received its 501c3 status charitable status in six weeks and spent less than $1,500 in 2009 to create and build an organization that was featured on WWNO, WWOZ, WDSU, WVUE, WGNO, The Huffington Post, Change.org, The Times-Picayune, and the Gambit Weekly.

Evacuteer.org has also been featured on numerous blogs and social media sites including Curious Tribe, 504ward, Humid Beings, and Launchpad TV.

Its first fundraiser, the “Bye Bye Hurricane Season” celebration, netted close to $8,000 for the organization including nearly $1,000 in post-party unsolicited donations.

For more information about the Tulane University Business Plan and New Day competitions click here:

http://www.tulanebusinessplancompetition.com/