Another week, Another Bit of Progress – Update Oct 10 2020 The NOLA Charter School Project If we didn’t have bad luck, we wouldn’t have any at all. This project has been plagued with mishaps from the start; six hurricanes, a school scandal in New Orleans, Covid-19, a leader with a broken hip and schools that were closed until recently, all conspired against us. This week it was Hurricane Delta blowing into New Orleans from the Gulf of Mexico as a Category 4 hurricane. The project is “sheltering in place” at the moment. Nonetheless, the NOLA team has persisted. We now have contact with one very eager principal, six other NOLA charter schools. Our resolute team of a Past Rotary District Governor from Louisiana, Brian Hall, and a Past Rotary International President, Wilf Wilkinson, currently recovering well from a broken hip, remains optimistic. We will give these principals some time and space to get back on their feet before we try again. We will keep you posted because this pilot project could develop into model in which service clubs, like Rotary, could provide schools and libraries with discounted versions of our digital reading program that will help communities to reduce illiteracy. Charter Schools: Possibility, Opportunity, Choice, Community Development Andrew continues to prepare and upload lessons to the system. Nesda keeps testing and launching them. This week Andrew completed up to Lesson 40 of 60 for the first level of the digital reading project. It is slow, tedious, attention-demanding work, but it is running smoothly. Marketing Mark is organizing the marketing for the remainder of October and for the November/December magazine issues. We have had one e-blast to 30,000 homeschoolers. There will be a second one this month to 50,000 more from a different list and to 6,000 others from a third list. We expect some cross-over between lists, but that is likely to assist our efforts. On October 15, I begin a series of 6 webinars that are advertised to 50,000 behavior therapists. These webinars address the methods underlying the digital program and generated requests as a result of our last webinar. These are free webinars with continuing education credits for those who complete the lab portions. These therapists need continuing education credits to maintain their credentials. We are partnering with Behavior Development Solutions, a well respected company in our field. Finances There has been little to no change in our financial picture. Each month, we have strained to make all of our payments. So far with each month, we have been able to cover our basic costs. Michael Summers and Nesda have been getting their basic services paid, but have generously allowed us to hold onto some invoices so that we can do our marketing. We knew this was going to be difficult and so far, we have ben correct in thinking so. Fact is that we could never have come this far with our the financial support of our backers. The $100,000 plus that we raised in our Indiegogo campaign may just result in thousands of kids learning to read. Thanks for your help. Regards,  Michael
