Welcome to Partners' San Francisco NGO Forum

Dear Companero,

The Northern California Chapter, partnered with the Distrito Federal and the States of Mexico and Morelos, an area that encompasses metropolitan Mexico City and its surrounding region, has begun a process to identify a broad spectrum of nonprofit, community serving organizations in Northern California that have a stake and interest in collaborating with counterpart organizations in Mexico.

 This process is a major component of a two year Mexico/U.S. initiative recently announced by Dr. Norman Brown, President of Partners of the Americas (see Norm's announcement).

As a first step in the process, we would like to invite you to participate in a workshop (lunch provided) on October 16, 1999 in the San Francisco Presidio. Through research and consultation  with leaders in the Bay Area nonprofit community, you have been identified as a leader of an organization that may have an interest in collaborative work with Mexican counterparts.

We decided to invite leaders of organizations that serve the Latino community in the hopes that cross-cultural appreciation may facilitate the task of identifying the possibilities and constraints for on-going collaborative efforts.

The workshop will be structured to illicit as many comments and ideas as possible and to collate the information to serve as the basis for a continuing dialog with Mexican leaders at the International NGO Forum in Mexico City on November 18, 1999.  We have invited several key Mexican leaders to participate in the San Francisco workshop to answer questions and provide information about the independent sector in Mexico.

We will ask the participants to help select a small, representative delegation to travel to Mexico to observe the NGO Forum and engage in an intensive dialog with Mexican NGO leaders to plan the next phases of this overall effort.  Leaders of Mexican NGOs with similar missions will host the members of the delegation.

On October 28, 1999, Dr. Brown will be in the Bay Area and will meet with the delegation and members of our Board of Directors to develop a organizational and fund raising strategy for subsequent phases of this process.

Following the meetings in Mexico City, the Northern California Chapter will continue to facilitate an effort on the part of participating organizations, to develop a collaborative network of nonprofit agencies.

Potential outcomes of this effort include:

1. A bilingual directory and/or guide to nonprofits in Northern California and
                counterpart organizations in Mexico.
2. Information to establish companeros.net as a directory as above.
3. A “project” model to continue collaboration of participating organizations.
4. A “consortium” or “network” model to continue collaboration.
5. An organization to continue collaboration.

We sincerely hope that you will be willing to participate in the workshop.  Please call the project office to confirm your interest and to pose any questions that you may have.  Respondents will be sent a complete agenda and background information in advance of the workshop to enhance their ability to contribute.

If you are not able to attend the workshop in person, we hope that you will take an interest in this process and contribute your comments before the workshop by telephone, email or mail and that you will be interested in staying informed as the process develops.

Thank you for your consideration,
 

Mark Switzer    mswitz@ix.netcom.com
 

 Judy Rodriguez  judy_rodriguez@yahoo.com

President, N. California Chapter  Workshop Coordinator