Movember Time, Austin Style!

Some of you may remember that last year, a bunch of us Austinites teamed up against some of my former Bostonians to raise awareness and help fight prostate and testicular cancer during the month of November. The end result of our Movember campaign was a 50 person team with over $18,000 in donations. This year, we're hoping to make it bigger... five times bigger to be exact. We have big plans to incorporate corporate donations, scavenger hunts, famous sports figures and lots more.

What's fun about this fund raising effort is that not only focused on encouraging people to donate money but more importantly, it's about team building and creating awareness so that blockheads like me who at least one point in time in their lives thought they were invincible, do something about getting regular checkups. Oh yeah, we also get to grow mustaches (or if you're female, you get to Photoshop on a mustache). In fact, the pictures you see here are some of our late stage "mo's" that team Austin grew last year.

Most importantly, you're probably asking yourself how you get involved. Well, I'm happy you brought it up. First and foremost, we'd like you to sign up. Don't worry, there isn't any hazing (well, not that we can speak of anyway). We have about 30 people 56 people on the team now with another 20+ that have verbally committed. That means we have 170 more to go. So get your friends, family and colleagues to sign up too.

Note - if you want an easy way to pass colleagues along to this post, you can use shortened URLs:

• http://bit.ly/austinmo  OR
• http://budurl.com/movemberATX

The second way you can help is to donate. Now I won't lie to you, if we're going to get close to $100,000 this year, we need people to donate. But if I had my druthers, I'd rather have you sign up for the team and not donate a penny than the other way around. With that said, I know many folks are pressed for time (or don't want to grow a mustache) so if this is your thing, far be it from me to stop you.



Finally, we will be spilling the fun over to Facebook and a central touch-base site that my man, Wesley Faulkner will be running. Stay tuned for details on that front.

[NOTE: You (and others) can also now pledge $$ using tweets. Find out more details here on the Help Attack! blog. Or contact Sarah Vela and/or David Neff for details.]

I'll also be keeping a running list of new team members below. Let me know if I've missed you:

1. Joseph Jaffe
2. Aaron Bramley
3. Aaron De Lucia
4. Aaron Strout
5. Albert Morales
6. Alex Stivers
7. Amanda Adams
8. Amanda Wagner
9. Andrea Lipizzi
10. Andrea Schulle
11. Andrew Stidvent
12. Art Thompson
13. Avan Allen
14. Bacon Ator
15. Becky Parker
16. Beez "the dog" Chen (our first canine on the team)
17. Beth Gwazdosky
18. Bill Gillespie
19. Bob Dilly
20. Brandon Herrin
21. Brandon Sockwell
22. Bret Cunningham
23. Brett Agnew
24. Brian Kotlyar
25. Britt McMillan
26. Brittany Oster
27. Bryan Chaney
28. Bryan Menell
29. Bryan Person
30. Carlos Urreta
31. Charlie Browning
32. Chino Monteleon
33. Chris Bailey
34. Chris Dienna
35. Christopher Uhland
36. Colin Alsheimer
37. Corey Pudhorodsky
38. Cuyler Owens
39. D'Ann Faught
40. Dara Quackenbush
41. Darin Kirschner
42. David Breshears
43. David McCarl
44. David J. Neff
45. Dennis Hall
46. Dennis Kristensen
47. Denver Bronco
48. Doni Wilson
49. Doug Wick
50. Dustin Wyatt
51. Dylan Spurgin
52. Edgar Dapremont
53. Ehren Foss
54. Elijah May
55. Elmer Boutin
56. Emily Babb
57. Eric Weiss
58. Erik McMillan
59. Evan Sanders
60. Felicia Adams
61. Fernando Labastida
62. Gard Mayer
63. Glenn Banton
64. Greg Ackerman
65. Greg Matthews
66. Greg Verdino
67. Haley Odom
68. Hawk Mendenhall
69. Ian Greenleigh
70. J Noel Kvale
71. Jacob Burns
72. Jacqueline Hughes
73. Jake Sussman
74. James Young
75. Jared Haas
76. Jason Kapler
77. Jason Stoddard
78. Jason Vogen
79. Jeff Rousel
80. Jen Orr
81. Jennie Chen
82. Jennie Loev
83. Jeremy Brooks
84. Jill McFarland
85. Jim Bean
86. Jim Cochrun
87. Jim Keeler
88. Joanie Pechenik
89. Joe Cohen
90. Joey McGirr
91. John Cartwright
92. John Johansen
93. John Knox
94. Jon Dunn
95. Jonathan Gesinger
96. Jonathan Weldon
97. Jordan Viator
98. Justin Crandall
99. Justin Edwards
100. Caitlin Pesl
101. Karen Pascoe
102. Kate Buck
103. Kendall Schmidt
104. Kenneth Cho
105. Kevin Koym
106. Kevin O'Brien
107. Kim Hollenshead
108. Kimbria Andreassen
109. Kyle Flaherty
110. Laura Beck
111. Lee Baker
112. Lee Parker
113. Lisa Maxwell
114. Mark Couvillion
115. Mark Young
116. Martin Montero
117. Matt Curtin
118. Matt Harris
119. Matt McDougall
120. Matt McGinnis
121. Max Chirkov
122. Melissa Reiss
123. Merton Young
124. Michael Adams
125. Michael Yockey
126. Mike Hamilton
127. Mike Neumann
128. Mitch Wilson
129. Morgan Brown
130. Paul Bonser
131. Paul Walhus
132. Peter Poulin
133. Peter Bramley
134. Rachelle King
135. Ray Grill
136. Ricardo Guerrero
137. Ricardo Sanchez
138. Rick Vlaha
139. Robert Gilbreath
140. Russ Somers
141. Sam Eder
142. Sarah Vela
143. Saurabh Das
144. Scott Hanson
145. Scott Metler
146. Sean Bell
147. Sean Claes
148. Sethho Sulser
149. Shaine Mata
150. Sherry Lowry
151. Siam Saechew
152. Simon Salt
153. Sonny Johns
154. Stacy Libby
155. Sydney Owen
156. Talmadge Boyd
157. Tamar Weinberg
158. Texas Stars Hockey
159. Tim Hayden
160. Tim Walker
161. Tom Niemeyer
162. Tom Trantham
163. Tracy Trevino
164. Travis Kenney
165. Trey Swain
166. Wesley Faulkner
167. Will Staney
168. William Kelleher
169. William Mitschke
170. William Morrow
171. Yvette Leroux

Last but not least, here is our Flickr collection from THIS YEAR. I'll be swapping this out for this year's once we start to get our Mo on.




NOTE: Weekly team conference calls every Friday at 11 AM CT. Number is: 888-693-8686 / 2053266

So What's the Deal with Movember?

A number of folks have been asking me about what this Movember thing is all about. I included a brief overview in my earlier post on Three Worthy Causes/Events but promised that I would include additional details in a separate post. Consider this that "separate" post.

The essence of Movember is for gents to grow a mustache during the month of November for the purpose of raising money and increasing awareness in the name of "Changing the Face of Men's Health." The 30 second video below gives a good description...



There are five rules of the movement (although I've been told that there is flexibility since the name of the game is raising money for a great cause).

Fortunately, we've enlisted the help of both some gents AND ladies to help us with our team. And to that end, to make things more interesting we are going up against some of my former mates in Boston. I know I'm going to split some allegiances because many of my Boston peeps are going to be secretly cheering for me and Team Austin but will be guilted in sticking with their home team alliances. Sobeit!

I've set up a Flickr group so that you can see the progress of all the "Bro's" on our team as we "get our 'staches" on. The "sisters" that are participating will be getting creative in terms of how they decide to manifest their fake 'staches so keep an eye on their Twitter activity.

In the meantime, here are the three ways you can support Movember and Team Austin

1. Join our team and help us raise money.
2. Donate to our team (we'll take any amount - $1 up to whatever you feel comfortable with).
3. Pass the good word along about what we're doing via tweets, Facebook updates and blog posts.

For those keeping score at home, here are the folks that are participating on Team Austin:

• David Armano
• Anthony Haley
  
• Art Thompson
  
• Ben Kimball
• Beth Gwazdosky
• Bill Fanning
• Brian Wojcik
• Chris Carter
• Christopher Anderson
• Colin Anawaty
• Cynthia Fedor
• Damon Clinkscales
  
• David Breshears
• David Giesberg
• David Kramer
• David Neff
• Doug Wick
• Elmer Boutin
• Felicia Adams
• Fernando Labastida
  
• Heather Strout
• Ilene Haddad
• James Young
• JC Otero
• Jeane Kramer
• Jennifer Wojcik
• Joe Davis
• Kate Buck
• Kathy Mandelstein
• Kim Hollenshead
  
• Kyle Flaherty
  
• Matt Curtin
  
• Michael Adams
• Mike Neumann
• Rancid Iodine
  
• Sachin Wadhawan
• Sara Dornsife
• Saul Colt
• Simon Salt
• Sonny Johns
• Steve Odom
  
• Tim Hayden
• Tim Schmelter
• Tim Walker
  
• Wesley Faulkner
• Aaron Strout

So far we've raised $80 with a goal of exceeding $20,000 but we have a month to do so. I am 100% confident we will exceed that goal.

Three Worthy Causes/Events

As an individual, one of the things that comes with influence and reach is social responsibility. I've tried to use mine wisely although I probably could be accused of not doing enough of it. To that end, I've got a triple shot of social causes on my plate right now that I'd like you to consider supporting -- either monetarily, via your social networks/blogs or through your time.

I know, I know... we get pounded a dozen times a day to support a variety of causes. And please understand that I'm not asking you to support all of these causes (although that wouldn't suck if you did). Just to think about doing something little or big for any of the three. Here are the details:

Race for the Cure Tweetup (November 1)
This one comes courtesy of Simon Salt who will be participating in the 12th Annual Komen Austin Race for the Cure®. I hope to get down and walk with Simon but if not, you can bet that I'll be sending some cash his way (and some tweets of support. I hope that you will join me.

To get involved, please consider registering as part of Simon's team or through a donation. The money raised through the Race will fund vital education, screening and treatment programs for underserved women in Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis and Williamson counties and support the national search for the cures.

If you prefer, mail your donation today to:
Komen Austin P.O. Box 2164 Austin, TX 78768.
Please make your check payable to:
Susan G. Komen for the Cure and add "Simon Salt" in the memo

Austin Non Profit Camp (November 14)
Austin Non Profit Camp is a free, facilitated and participant driven conference that will be the place in Austin for non profits to learn and troubleshoot their technology problems in a supportive, collaborative setting. The event is being spearheaded by David J. Neff, Jon Lebkowsky, Maggie Duval and Matt Glazer. Their goal is to take the successful Bar Camp model and apply it to expand understanding and awareness of free and Open Source technology within the non-profit community in Central Texas.

How It Works
Non profits and technology folks come together to have conversations about the issues that they face in a no sales, no cost environment. They bring tech experts together with nonprofits in a context that will facilitate mutual understanding.

In addition to scheduled speakers, attendees will have the option to sign up to speak about issues and solutions they know best. [Note from Aaron - my goal is to drop by to run one of the unconference sessions]

Nonprofit attendees collaboratively problem solve issues they face with running and promoting their organizations, workshopping with local technologists about the latest and most effective technologies and methodologies. These conversations will help nonprofits filter what’s useful from what’s not and keep their organizations humming and on track.

Topics
Google Apps, Data Exchange/Salesforce, Google Grants, Social Media, Marketing, Cloud Computing, Email Marketing, Fundraising in Social Media, ZERO COST Infrastructure, ROI of The Cloud

Event Details 
Date: November 14th
Time: 10:00 a.m. - :00 p.m.
Location: ACC Eastview Campus
3401 Webberville Road

Register here

Movember (month of November)
What could be better than growing mustaches, a healthy competition and raising money for men's health (and in particular, prostate/testicular cancer). Check out the Movember home page here. There are three ways you can help us out:

1. Join our team and help us raise money.
2. Donate to our team
3. Pass the good word along about what we're doing via tweets, Facebook updates and blog posts.

More details will unfold in a separate blog post but I'll be joining forces with some of my Austin peeps Kyle Flaherty, Tim Walker, Tim Hayden, David Armano, Chris Carter, Doug Wick, Chris Anderson, David Neff, Wesley Faulkner, Tim Schmelter, Heather Strout and Simon Salt. Hopefully we'll get Bryan Person, William Hurley, Peter Kim along with some other Austin studs (and/or studettes) to battle with the boys in Boston.