2006 Jerry Award Entry for
Komputer Enthusiasts of Greater Seattle
Distribute Info:
Anyone who is interested in further / in-depth information on possibly
developing this type of symbiosis with a city government is welcome to contact
me.
Joseph M. Mraz, KEGS Vice President, 2616 171st Ave SE Bellevue, WA 98008
Phone: 425-747-2433, Email: j_m_mraz@hotmail.com
I also have a Power Point presentation addressing the concepts of this idea.
Prize Use:
For continued support of our Club & the Community.
Project Description:
In 1999 KEGS offered to Design, Build and Provide Continued Maintenance/Support
to a local city parks department in exchange for the use of their facility for
our SIG meetings. It was a unique idea at the time – I’d been a board member of
computer user groups since 1983 and never heard of anyone trying this before.
Well, they bought the idea and after six month of tweaking a contract that put
us in total control of the lab (but also made us liable to provide support
needed to accommodate their training programs) we started construction of the
new lab.
All the material was donated. The city even threw in some old PCs and our club
members had a ball working on the project. We even gave training classes on how
to terminate CAT-5 cable and setting up server based systems while we were
building the lab.
The bottom line is that, with no monetary outlay from KEGS we were able to build
a state-of-the-art computer lab that was initially valued at $95,000.00.
Since the initial opening of the lab in 1999 KEGS has done three major upgrades
to the facility in which KEGS has been the primary contact with vendors for
donations (just Microsoft Corporation’s estimated contributions to these
upgrades has been $75,000.00). We continue to be the administrators of the
facility and to enjoy the satisfaction of contributing to our community’s needs
while benefiting from the ability to use the facilities for up to sixteen SIG
meetings each month.