Drumming An End To Poverty

Drumming Up - Community Economic Development

2011-10-09T22:41:00.000-07:00

A New Drumming Event IS Coming!

We are working on a new drum event! Our plan is to run it sometime in late May, or early June of next year, the fateful 2012 (can't do it in March, my birthday is the 2nd) We need to start planning now to get the most impact and attention. We are also concerned that we don't conflict with existing community events planned around that time. It will be on a Saturday so we can get families there. We're looking for volunteers to help us plan and execute the event ... it will be named "Drum Out Poverty." ... and we'll use it to focus on the need for community based jobs that bring income, commerce, and hope to those who are without work or even hope for gainful employment.

Our parent non profit www.microventuresupport.org has a program called The Family Fish Farm Network and the intention is to build a network of aquaponic urban micro farms around the inside of the beltway and in particular in the most effected wards of DC. These are wards 5, 7 and 8. You can find out about The Network by going to our Blog at: familyfishfarms.blogspot.com

I'll be checking this blog on a regular basis and will be updating it as plans become firmer and our team begins to come together.

Changing Name: to Drum Out Poverty

2011-06-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

Can We Make Drumming a Source for Self Funding Social Change?

For some time now, I''be been trying to monetize the value of drumming so that it can become a motive force for social and economic justice. I think we may have come upon a strategic solution. Our intention here is to begin to move from a purely philanthropic funding model to a commercial fee for services approach. Presently I am in the process if finalizing my research on the therapeutic and social benefits of transformative drumming as both a means to heal the mind and a way to promote social cohesion in small to large groups.

I plan to join forces with my friends in the drumming community. First, with Jeff Wolf, a teacher, drummer, facilitator, scientist and committed social activist. We will call the collaboration: " Stillwater Drums," You will see and hear more of this collaborative effort here and on our website as time moves on. Our first effort will be to work with the Veteran's Administration to support Vets with PTSD AND TBI as drumming is calming. It creates alpha wave states in the brain and participants are less hostile, excited and they usually sleep better at night.

Watch the blog as I will be posting regularly over the next few weeks. I will share copy for the papers and brochures we are to produce and our success and failures as we move forward. Anyone wanting to participate should contact me directly at: jpel@fastmail.fm ... or, call my cell at 410.227.0498

Jeff Wolf to Facilitate March for Jobs and Justice at MLK Memorial

2011-01-13T00:38:00.000-08:00

Jeff Wolf will be at the Memorial and at the National Mall with us to help make the drumming inclusive and fun. He brings his trailer, tent, and drums to the event, along with great energy and expeirence. I worked with Jeff at our Drum Out Poverty Day here in Brookland in NE Washington last Summer and it was a universal success. We'll get started playing at 10:00 AM at the Memorial site, then march over along the reflection pond to the "I have a dream" location for a one-hour rally for jobs and justice. We only have a license for the two hours so please be on time ... there's parking available along the Ohio ave for those who will be driving.

A Call to Action for Drummers NOW!

2011-01-12T04:50:00.000-08:00

We have been asked to organize a Drum Circle at the National Mall on the 17th in honor of MLK. We need everyone who reads this blog to get in touch with us and arrange to bring your drums along to the site of the new MLK memorial at 10:00 AM on Monday, January 17th 2011. This is a call to action and a chance to play your drums on National Television and be part of history.

The March for Jobs and Justice is reflective of Dr. King's original march. We will gather at the Memeorial and march to the site of the great speech on the National Mall. We have the requisite Park Service Licenses. Come play into History.

Flash Drum Jam

2010-07-19T14:18:00.000-07:00

Ever since viewing the youtube Brussels Train Station dance event, I have been thinking about how that would be applied to a drum circle. Finally, I have an idea that I want to share with you guys. It's called the Flash Drum Jam! Here's the gist of it:

The Flash Drum Jam is an exciting and inclusive means to draw attention to any business and/or cause. Drumming is infectious. The beat draws people to its source. If you watch the crowd gather, soon you will see people swaying to the beat here and there dancing will break out. Everyone loves rhythm. But, it is much more than that.

Although it is certainly drumming and rhythm, The Drum Jam creates a community of people. It does this through the inclusive nature of the event. Each Drum Jam has a professional facilitator who engages the audience and cajoles many of them into joining in the actual drumming. Rhythm is part of all of us and even the meanest of the tone deaf can be easily taught to be a productive member of a Drum Jam. This engagement quickly changes an inquisitive crowd into a participative audience that is rapidly creating its own entertainment.

The event breaks down socio economic and cultural barriers, even language barriers. It links all present into a community. They participate in a shared a transformative experience and that creates a MARKET!

It's a "flash" event because it just springs into existance in the middle of any place you can imagine. A shopping center, a mall, anyplace people gather. I'm going to try one here in DC. We have applied for and been provisionally approved for a permit to run one in LaFayette Park ... right next to the White House here in Washington, DC! We will do this in association with Food and Water Watch, an aggressive environmentally engaged non profit and The Milennium Goals Foundation in support of food security. This should make national press, that is, if we do it right!

Drum Out Poverty Day, Saturday, June, 12, 2010

2010-06-06T11:26:00.001-07:00

Drum Out Poverty Day is Coming!

This is the last week before the Drum Out Poverty event here in Washington, DC. We've done all we can to promote it and I think we're as ready as anyone can be to make this happen. The only thing we may be short is event day volunteers. It has been a learning experience for me and the rest of us. I've done events before but never with such few resources ... funds have been very limited for this kind of a public event. We have a number of sponsors, but only TD Bank and Giant Foods have actually contributed cash ... the other sponsors are "in-kind," for example Comcast gave us a 4 minute interview on their "local Newsmakers" edition but we have no idea how many people actually see it. Dominoes Pizza is providing some pazza's and soda and Col Brooks Restaraunt is giving as a few dinners to auction off, but cash needed to promote and provide payment for talent has been virtually non existent.

Developments

2010-05-13T07:11:00.000-07:00

We were recently contacted by The Millennium Goals Foundation, a UN affiliated non profit dedicated to supporting the UN Goals of eradicating poverty by 2015. It seems that the developed countries (US Included) have NOT put up the funds they promised at the original summit conference. The Foundation wants to remind these countries of their pledges and to move them to honor their obligations. That is where the Drum Circle comes in. They reached out to us because of our original effort to link drum circles in Nairobi and Washington, DC. We are visiting them in NYC at the UN today, Thursday, May 13th.

Our conceptual plan for the UN involves linked drum circles in all the recalcitrant countries at their national capitals. We wold simulcast on both internet and global video from a central locations with a celebrity host (Bono, George Cluny, etc) This will gain us global coverage by all media. We should start with Drum Out Poverty Day in DC and build from there.

Watch this space to see how our thoughts are accepted, of ... not!

May Update: Brookland Drum Circle - Drum Out Poverty Day

2010-05-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

Progress against milestones - We have produced a site plan. Most likely have one more site walk through before we finalize the plan. We also have the approved application from Parks and Recreation for the site and time slots requested. We have confirmation from Councilman Thomas's office (Neil Rodgers) that he is aware of the event but the Parks and Rec folks cannot find the application (it is DC don't forget) I emailed him a PDF of the completed and approved application immediately. We still need confirmation and assurance from the Councilman that he will contribute fees and equipment as promised.

Sponsorship: We have completed our "package" and have distributed it to a number of local businesses. We are quite optimistic as to potential outcome. In addition, we are talking to Councilman Jim Graham and plan to reach Kwami Brown as well. Councilman Gray's office will also be contacted so as to create a sense of community momentum.

Program: We intend to have a professional community drum circle facilitator from REMO. We heard from the Drum Circle Facilitator and will see if we can secure him and his drums for the event. REMO is supporting us there, but I'm not sure of a financial commitment. I need to secure that commitment. There will be two Pavilions: The Children's Pavilion and The Djiembe Pavilion with appropriate demonstrations and timed events. The principal event will be a facilitated community drum circle.

Promotion: Lack of funds and time has limited our promotion and outreach. We have been limited to personal contact and even more limited print promotion. This week we plan to print 2,500 postcards, produce several PSA's (public service announcements), and work with Dance Place along with the political structure ... councilmen and the ANC's.

Status Update: April

2010-04-06T03:19:00.000-07:00

So ... we have the completed application for the Drum Circle back from DPR (parks and recreation) along with the costs of the specific equipment necessary to make this happen, (stage, generator, sound system, etc) the cost will hopefully be born by our councilman with whom we are partnering on this event. We really can't move forward much more until we have a confirmed date from the city. Meanwhile we continue to meet every Tuesday afternoon at 5:00 pm here in Brookland to keep the communications links open and update the planning process. So far we have: me as slave driver, Martinez Bengly (Il Gato, The Messenger) as program, Carl Bruce - Logistics and planning, and Roxanne Carter as overall event manager and sponsor relations. There is, of course, Linda Yahr, CPA as chief pocketbook watcher. Rosie Dempsey, communications expert just provided us with a promotional plan outline and we are in process of adopting that to our overall program.

I plan to publish all documents relevent to this event here and on Facebook and Linkedin as well. That should begin to happen as soon as we have confirmation of our date: Saturday, June, 12, 2010. We are also about ready to reach out to REMO drums once again for short term sponsorship. I am working on the package for them along with a proposal. ...

In regards to the global drum circle and fund raising event, we are planning on waiting until after the completion of the Regional Microcredit Summit in Kenya next week before engaging in that discussion. We WILL be in attendance in Spain next year however and will begin that process shortly after completion of our trial event in June. ... watch this space.

Drum Out Poverty

2010-03-27T00:34:00.000-07:00

Surely a gallant effort, but the global drum circle proved to be just to ambitious. That, and the advent of the Haiti crisis simply overwhelmed our sponsors who are, mainly global NGO's who rushed immediately to Haiti and funding simply disappeared. Well, we've had a month to lick our wounds (and our egos) and have decided to relaunch the effort as follows: First, we will recalibrate our "Drumming An End To Poverty" event so that it runs in conjunction with the Global Microcredit Summit in Spain in 2011. That is a year way and should provided us and our prospective sponsors, supporters, and volunteers plenty of time to get organized.

In addition, we also have decided to add an innovative, unique, and exciting feature to the mix. We will run a series of "Drum Out Poverty," events right here in Washington, DC and in our own community. We will run these events in cooperation with other local drum circles, most notably the famous and long running (30 yrs) Malcolm X park circle. (I have played there every Sunday for the last few years) Working with these folks will give us the coordination and relationship building expertise necessary.

So now the question has been asked, what does drumming have to do with poverty? This is our vision ... Every year, according to the UN's leading authority on poverty, 8 Million people die simply because they cannot afford to stay alive! ... just think about that for a moment. Eight Million People - Every Year!

The heart beats within all of us. The heart is the primal drum of life. What could be more compelling than to imagine the stilling of 8 million hearts. ... those drums will never beat again! How totally appropriate that voice in our drums should speak out for those who will never speak again. How fitting it is to dedicate our "drums" to memorialize these lives How righteous is it for us to use the voice and spirit in our drums to raise the alarm, to Drum Out Poverty!

The great Ghandi once said that,"... poverty is the worst possible form of violence.".

A Page From the Obama Fund Raising Book ...

2010-02-12T06:41:00.000-08:00

Our experience over the last few years has been informative and frustrating, but it has convinced me that Sustainability is not just something for us to bring to the LDC's (lesser developed countries) and the economically disadvantaged. It is the best advice we can give ourselves. Those of us who have the light of social responsibility and mission burning within us need to take aggressive responsibility for our own development. We have to be our own funding agency. It is as simple as that. One cannot do good if one has not done well! It has always been thus, if someone gives you money for a program they will determine how and where you spend it. ... and for reasons too many to catalog here, those reasons will usually not mesh well with yours. It is an application of the golden rule of money. "He who has the gold, makes the rules."

My dear friend, Kevin Clauson, of Reach The Children, spent $10 Million of his own funds building schools, digging water wells, and making micro loans in Africa. He did it his way without anyone second guessing him, or dictating priorities. Unless, like Kevin, one has significant personal funds to dedicate to development, one must go to the philanthropic and donor sector hat in hand seeking funds. When one does this one gets told how to spend the money. We do not believe the traditional approach to funding can be successful. It has NOT worked to date. Why should it work NOW? That's where Drumming An End To Poverty comes in!

Soon, we will announce the debut of "Drum Out Poverty," day! It will be one day in the summer of 2010. On that day, I will attempt to organize all drum circles to meet in the name of 8 million people who die every year simply because they can't afford to stay alive! One day's drumming dedicated to raising funds, NOT JUST FOR CHARITY ... but for Sustainable Development ... to give people the skills, tools, and investment dollars needed to build their own business, hire others and create viable healthy families and communities.

I will reach out to dum cireles thorugh any medium, any means available to us. We now have a presence on Facebook and Linkedin under our name: Drumming An End To Poverty and on Twitter: drum2endpoverty. I will be updating this blog on a regular basis now, every few days. Here's how you can help us if you feel the spirit move within you.

Help Make Sustainable Development Work - First, social networking! Become a fan on Facebook, link to us on Linkedin, and follow us on Twitter for one thing! Then, next follow this blog. Send us the name and an electronic address for you, and or your drum circle. Our plan is to send information on how we will organize get banners, Tshirts, hats etc and our model for funding you and us a s well. Please let me hear from you. I don't care if you read this today or six months from now ... we need every drummer out there. We can do this. Finally email me at: jpeloquin@microventuresupport.org.

Reality Rushes In ...

2010-02-06T07:52:00.000-08:00

Given the significant resource requirements of the effort and the increasing escalation of the Haitian crisis, I have decided to restructure the Drumming An End To Poverty event to accommodate the new realities of the post Haitian crisis environment. It is difficult, if not impossible to focus upon poverty in Africa when we have such a devastated economy right here in our hemisphere. The Nairobi Microcredit Summit is, in fact, although important, a regional event. Next year is the Global Microcredit Summit and given the present situation, we have determined to redirect our near term efforts to Haiti! We will then readjust our sights upon the 2011 Global Summit in Spain.

Even without the terrible events surrounding the "quake," Haiti was already a disaster for those 80$ of all Haitians who live below the poverty line there. For us, the earth quake is a wake up call. Unless we can rebuild the economy from the bottom up, the existing power structure will defeat any effort to create a prosperous middle class by sucking up all funding and diverting it to their purposes. We need a plan to support the creation of new growing businesses, a plan to redistribute, not the money, but the opportunity in Haiti. We need to level the playing field.

So, very soon we shall see a new website spring up where this one once stood. It will be "Drumming An End To Poverty in Haiti! We will hold the Drum Circle here in Washington DC! We expect it to be held in mid-June. It will be on a Sunday and held at, or near The Catholic University in NE Washington. Proceeds from the event will go to establishment of a fund to support small business growth in Haiti.

Money Isn't Everything - Is it?

2010-01-12T01:39:00.000-08:00

The work goes on ... the struggle continues , perhaps a bit presumptuous of me to quote Bobby Kennedy on such a relatively mundane matter as a Drum Circle but ...

When you understand that the purpose of this "event," is to raise global awareness and Funds for a proven solution to world POVERTY! I think Bobby would have agreed! At this point we have invested in excess of $50,000 USD in the formation and creation of this exciting and potentially paradigm changing event. When we pull this off we will have raised $5 Million dollars (from the video and webcasts) and demonstrated to the world that Micro Credit and MicroUP can REALLY END POVERTY.

AND ... the money will not come from large multi national foundations. It will come in small denominations from people everywhere, just like Obama, we are reaching out to people like us..

If there ever was a chance to leverage donated dollars, this is it! As we mentioned in the beginning, we plan to use organizational sponsors for event logistics only and to use a popular direct appeal to both populate the sustainable investment Fund ... The Fund will be called: GSEI (Global Sustainable Economic Initiative) and it will be used to both lend and invest in micro enterprises and small growing businesses around the world in developing countries ... places where no one wants to invest and in businesses that will never see Forbes magazine. These are businesses that will create local jobs. Businesses that will form the basis of a merchant class and a real economy where none exists. Our intention here is NOT to redistribute the wealth. Our objective is to redistribute the OPPORTUNITY!

So, what am I asking for here! Money? Sure, if you can donate PLEASE do so, but just as important are your thoughts, suggestions, and ideas for finding socially responsible businesses who see that Corporate Social Responsibility is not just a catch phrase but a burning need to save the soul of capitalism in a time of critical global need. Do NOT think your ideas trivial. We need and seek every one of them. Just respond to this blog under "comments' I think or email me at: jpeloquuin@microventuresupport.org.

Money is NOT everything, it is, however way ahead of whatever is in second place. (well, today anyway)

Drumming: Helping Me to Help You

2010-01-08T23:15:00.000-08:00

Do you remember when Tom Cruise (as Jerry McGuire the Sports Agent) says to Cuba Gooding, "... Help me, to help you!" Well, here we go again! I think this Drumming Event: Drumming An End To Poverty, the opening of the Africa/Middle East Regional MIcro Credit Summit on April, 7th in Nairobi, Kenya will be a success in that it will focus the attention of the world on the ugliness of Poverty. This is the main objective of the event and the Summit.

But ... it will also do a few other things as well. It will be the first REAL international event ... televised on the networks and on the Internet that features the Drum as the lead voice in the music! It will also popularize the Drum Circle as a means for making meaning and community of purpose. As a long time professional musician I have to tell you a secret. If you play any instrument well enough to work with others to make music then you know this ... others, simply do not!

The strongest spiritual experience I ever, ever had was while playing in a small club in New York's Greenwich Village ... many years ago. I will never forget it, but it was not the first time it happened to me and I hope it will not be the last. That shared psychic connection ... that link of minds that happens only in church or during a linked musical community is a profound true, not chemically induced high. Non musicians simply have to find it in other ways. Music is the ultimate high and it can be a contact high ... sometimes when the groove is there, it transmits to the audience and you can both see it happen and feel it happen in concerts every once in a while. It is great to feel it in the audience but let me share this with you. There is nothing like being part of the force that creates it. Ok... back to drums.

Learning to play a tonal instrument is an arduous and (in the beginning) tedious and boring job. Only the talented, dedicated and/or those with strict parents, make the leap from pain to pleasure. From rank amateur to capable musician. This is true of Drums also ... BUT There is magic in the drum! Anyone, anyone with a very small amount of training can be lifted out of the common world and transported to that linked community of magic. The means is the Drum Circle. The linked power of the basic rhythm is a strong carrier of the soul. It is one of the best kept secrets ... the drum cricle is a transformative experience and soon it will be out of the closet. The secret will be shared with all who take the time (and not a lot of time) to just go and do it. This is why the drum is so much a part of so many religious and spiritual traditions.

When you play in a drum circle you make friends who are much more than friends ... you make community and that is one of the most powerful secrets you will learn. Trust me ... more to come on this. but I'm tired (not delusional, just ... tired) Go buy a drum, send me an email, let's talk about it.

More to come ...

Here is the Strategic Vision

2010-01-05T05:50:00.000-08:00

Now that we have launched the fundamental event: Drumming An End To Poverty in conjunction and partnership with The Global Micro Credit Campaign, we can turn some of our attention to the future because this is far too much work to be a one time effort. How do we make this and ourselves ... self-sustaining. Our argument for economic development for the poor uses the old adage, "Give one a fish and you have fed them of r a day, teach them to fish and you have fed them for life." We should be a shinning example of the that admonition. We have two market development strategies that address that general issue of organizational sustainability.

First is the extension of the "Event" Drumming An End To Poverty from the one day launch of the Regional Micro Credit Summit in Kenya, to an annual global event that can mobilize and focus the attention of the international community on this very tractable problem. Micro Credit and MicroUP can End poverty. Once and for all! I am working on a five principles article for Microfinance Focus Magazine and will post it here also. This should happen within the next five days (one hopes) ... anyway, here's the plan.

It is our intention to hold a formal "kick-off" press conference within the next 30 days to formally kick off the promotion campaign for the Regional Conference and MicroUP. At that time we want to also announce the officall launch of: Global Drum Out Poverty Day. This will be a day of world wide reflection on the large numbers of beating heats that are forever stilled by poverty. To quote Jeffrey Sachs in his now famous UN sponsored study on world poverty (and referenced in our MicroVenture Support Position Paper available for download at: www.microventuresuppor.org) "Every year 8 million perople die simply because they cannot afford to stay alive." Not to relate the two but I believe it was Stalin who said, "... one death is a tragedy, but a million is only a statistic."

There is an unmistakable metaphorical link between the heart beat and the drum beat. Eight million die from poverty and we will play drums for 8 hours each year to memorialize these needless deaths, to put a face on that statistic and to bring home the fact that we can reduce or eliminate these needless deaths. We can beat poverty. We can "...drum it out." To do this we will like to existing Drum Circles around the planet. Drum Circle participants are by definition engaged, socially and spiritually aware people. This will be a logical step for them. It will also heighten world awareness of both the problem of poverty and the sound of the drum beat to rally humanity to its cause. We will also reach out to those who are to follow us in this work. The university students of today whose historic engagement and sense of social justice has become a cornerstone of the enormous "volunteer," movement. Drum Out Poverty drum circles will become a fixture at every College and University activities department, music department and, yes, MBA program.

This then will become an Annual event. Sponsored and supported by the Drumming An End To Poverty partnership. It will be organized, planned, implemented and strategically directed from this site. You can be a part of this. You can make meaning from this. I know it has real meaning for us. Contact us and ask how you can be part of the most significant human economic development program in the history of mankind. I will quote an document written by a famous social thinker, Pope Leo XIII in his Papal Encyclical.Rerem Novarum (paraphrase) There can be no social justice without economic justice.

The First Workday of the New Year - Progress NOW!

2010-01-04T03:26:00.001-08:00

I am sending an email to our Drum Out list asking all parties to use this blog to stay updated on developments. It will be much easier and reduce the burden on me ... I will still use emails for urgent or fast response issues however, so, stay tuned!

I spent this week familiarizing myself with Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin ... Flickr is next. our name on the Facebook and Linkedin sites are simply groups and uses the normal naming convention "Drumming An End To Poverty." I'm writing to Walls and trying to get other like folks to respond and sign on to the story line and expand the Network. It's slow going since I don't really know how to navigate and stuff.

I have a video we shot at the last Malcomb X drum circle last month but I'm learning to use iMovie and still have not got the skill to make it all happen. The same is true of Garage Band. I'm trying to get a drum track we recorded up on the site as a key to various sections, but I'm still slogging along on that one.

I hooked up with Joy Chang http://unitydrum.tw/ She has lots of contacts and experience in Africa and drumming cricles there. I am asking for help from anyone I can identify as being in the drum circle arena. We should all connect on this one. I also linked up with Wayne Briggs from Atlanta, a show business and music industry executive. He is in LA and will begin to engage his network as will.

This will be a week of engagement for me. I am now ready to reach out to other drum manufacturers to see if we cannot get a consensus rolling here. We have been unable to contact most people for the last few weeks because of Christmas. I expect that to change now

Volunteers Needed with good social media ability

2010-01-01T23:40:00.000-08:00

We have two excellent public relations and social media folks at consultants but we need volunteers for all other positions or a few someones practically full time. We will convert the volunteer jobs to paid position AND we will give our volunteers first shot at them. If you know Utube, or Twitter, or Facebook, Linkedin, Flickr any of these. We need people to blog and invigorate the readership. We need you if you have youtube skills and can use iMovie to edit short video and audio sequences. This is a grass roots effort. Our intention is to actually run a global drumming event telecast on two continents with very little funding and lots of promise.

Our problem is innovation. Everyone claims they need it, but few are willing to actually support it with funding. Why, fear, I suppose. They don't want to lose their jobs in this economy. However, since we have no jobs we cannot fathom their conservatism. We will raise the funds. The Drum Manufacturers are starving for something like this and now we have it. A chance to really do well by really doing good! A CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) coup of biblical proportions, my friends.

We need help in all positions ... first come gets first dibs. Development, Marketing, Donor and Investor relations, Marketing Communications, also, we need musicians who want to keekp t heir body and soul together. These are only volunteer position for now. As soon as funds begin to roll in we will convert to paid position in order of volunteer seniority. Believe me if you cast your lot with us ... we will be loyal to you.

We plan to run this every year after the 2010 Regional Summit. We will run a Global Summit in Spain in 2011 (so speaking Spanish will definately help) This is not a short term dead end job for us, or for our volunteers. Contact Jerry Peloquin, 410-227-0498 or, Linda Yahr at: 443.570.1657 Let's do this.

An Idea For Drum Circles, Drum Makers, and Us too ...

2009-12-26T00:23:00.000-08:00

I just scared myself. I took a short nap and had a dream about how we can fund this event, save the poor of the world through MIcrofinance, provide funding for drum circles everywhere, promote drums, drumming, and drum manufacturers, and make money for everyone! ... I know, that's why I'm scared. Space aliens may have invaded my mind while I was snoring ... I've been told that happens by several wives.

So, how does this work exactly, ... well I'm not sure exactly but here's the idea. Maybe some smart person out there will have another dream and all the dots will connect. As you may recall we plan to fund the Kenya/Washington leg of the drum circle with sponsor grants from.

Target Sponsor List

Drum Manufacturers
Music Equipment Manufactures
Socially Responsible Corporations
Microfinance Funders and Investors

However, our plan for raising the $5 Million dollar Micro Enterprise fund will come from proceeds of a planned on-line, video telethon ... tied to the opening of the Africa/Middle East Regional Micro Credit Summit to he held in Nairobi, Kenya April 7-10, 2010. This is where we plan to have drummers in Nairobi actually play in real-time with drummers in Washington DC. The technical and logistical funding of the linked drum circles will come from sponsors but the actual fund development will come from people everywhere! This is a decent idea, but ... we have to prove it will actually work. We just started the day before Christmas and issued our first formal Press Release.

In addition to this Intercontinental Drum Circle our prospective plan calls for the creation of an annual day for the event. To be called: Global Drum Out Poverty Day. In association with our select sponsor (a drum manufacturer) we will solicit existing and prospective drum circles around the world. We will start with the existing groups. Remember we are doing this to raise funds AND to raise the level of Global awareness of both Micro Credit and Microfinance. We will offer them a partnership. The business details, contracts, laws, etc will have to be worked out. This assumes that it can be done on some reasonable basis (one hopes) We (our drum mfg. partner and us) will offer this deal:

This Part Came After the Dream

We sign an agreement with our prospective drum circle partners (essentially a franchise)
We send them a promotional package (hats, banners, tshirts, some drums, a how to video and Public Information spots for print and electronic local media)
We promote "The Global Drum Out Poverty Day."
The event focus is: Sponsor a Drummer for an hour, for "n" amount of local currency
Also, a donation to the drum circle is collected during the performance.

We seek an 8 hour commitment from each drum circle
1 hour for each of the 8 million who die every year because of poverty.

They pay for the promotional package (perhaps out of proceeds)
They pay a percentage of funds raised to us as franchisor
We do this every year.

This should result in a win/win/win/win/ for all parties. The drum circles will have an annual source of revenue, local visibility as a socially responsible organization, the drum manufactures will get a big promotional advantage, a self liquidating program the could actually make them money, the poor will get more opportunity for sustainable businesses, and we all will get additional revenue to operate our social mission organization.

Now, I'd like to hear from Product Marketing Managers ... Business Development Managers, NGO Executives, Microfinance Funding Organizations ... Anyone who can make suggestions and/or critique this. I don't care about my ideas, but I do care that this works ... there are far too many poor perople out there ... as Ghandi said "... poverty is the worst possible form of violence."

In another post I will explain how I see the money being handled so the distribution of funds will be fair, open, and transparent to all.

Ready, Aim, Fire!

2009-12-20T05:17:00.000-08:00

For the last few months we have been wrestling with this event. Talking to friends and bouncing the idea around in brainstorming sessions, arguing about names, funding strategies, staffing and organization schemes. We have filled in many of the blanks but am we really ready to launch this ... officially? we now (finally) have an approved press release. we have a director/producer, a financial manager, we have a funding strategy of sorts, but no fund raiser, or development officer. Most importantly at this point, we have no money. The state of the economy is worrisome and in a preliminary discussion with my targeted prime sponsor candidate, I have project enthusiasm, but little sense of economic depth! (encouraging, but not inspiring)

We really are not in such bad shape actually. We have a decent logo designed by a reputable artist, the support of long-term friends who give of their time and creativity. A complete professional website and a committed competent PR and Social Media company willing to work speculatively. We have alliance partners with excellent reputations and credentials who have linked formally with us. The Global Micro Credit Summit Campaign of Sam Daley Harris and his Results Inc. are behind the Promotion as they are the principal focus from a promotional perspective.

Now it is time to issue the Media/Press Release! After all this time and anxiety, it is time to pull the trigger. We are planning a full blown press conference here in Washington, DC. Our first priority as a site is LaFayette Park. It is right accross from the White House and we would not consider it normally, except that one of our friends knows the people in charge there. The plan is to hold a short announcement and also conduct a drum circle there in association with our prime sponsor. We would invite the Kenyan Ambassador, State Department Officials, World Bank and others to attend (and hope we might pick up some White House staffers on their lunch breaks) we will then retire to The National Press Club just up the street for a more expansive briefing and reception. It will be grand if we can pull it off. We're anticipating that we will secure a sponsor for the event itself and use it to leverage national press coverage.

Will it work? Can we actually pull this off? Stay tuned ... we'll soon know the answer to that one anyway. The Summit Conference is on April 7, 2010 ... 108 days, but ... who's counting?

So Far, So Good

2009-12-17T14:58:00.000-08:00

Actually, I got this idea as a result of trying to find funding for our project to train small businesses in developing countries like Africa, The Philippines, The Middle East, etc. Our development strategy is unique and innovative (go to: www.microventuresupport.org) so, the established funders like The World Bank and US AID, or even the Gates foundation or, the Clinton Global Initiative will not deal with us. After over one year of applying and trying for grants and working to generate interest in our strategy, we decided, or I decided to try this approach. As I've said before, I'm an organizational psychologist, I have lots of related experience, I was a director at Sylvan Learning and worked all over the world. I decided to go for it. I made the decision to raise the money for a Small Business Development fund myself.

Having been a musician and having played in hundreds of concerts, dealt with set up and the business side I have some experience. I am also a fairly knowledgeable media savy person. The drumming idea came from playing in a Jefferson Airplane reunion concert in Astoria, Oregon in 2008. I met the concert producer and he seemed a really social mission kind of person ... so as a writer, I wrote a concept paper to describe what I had in mind. I sent it to him and he liked it. That's really how we got going here.

In today's world of virtual reality one needs to have a virtual presence. Back in the day, it was the office location, the brochure, and the business cards that set you identity in commercial space. Today all that has changed. It is the Website that defines one's commercial persona. Today, virtually anyone can do a website. Just like with today's graphic tools anyone can produce graphics. Anyone can produce a power point presentation. However just because you can do it does not mean you should do it.

Professional graphics design is immediately obvious to most people. Why? Because we watch the most expensive examples of the best of the best on televison every day. We may not all be scholars, but we are all very, very, visually sophisticated. Some advice I got the hard way. Don't do a website by yourself. Get a professional. It's expensive but it is definately worth it. The website defines who you are. Who you work with and even how much you know about your business and your customers. (see our first draft website at: www.drumminganendtopoverty.org

I decided that the first thing was to get a decent web presence and to make certain I had the credibility to bring this ambitious project to the marketplace. Luck and timing then intervened. I was chatting with a friend who told me he had just left his job as a web strategy developer to take care of his infant son. This was too good to be true. Next, I contacted the most influential person I knew in the sector, Sam Daley-Harris. He's the founder of The Global Micro Credit Summit, an annual conference of the Microfinance sector and certainly the most prestigious. I did this because I knew that Sam, before he became a social activist, was a classically trained percussionist and musician. I came up with the drumming idea because of the rise in visibility of the Drum Circle and because I participate in an ongoing drum circle held in Malcomb X (formerly Meridian) park in Washington DC. That's how the Drumming An End To Poverty idea came about.

Sam was skeptical. I suspect partly because of his training as a percussionist never placed the drum in a position of prominence. I knew differently. I have seen people literally transformed by playing drums, many of them never played before. The feeling of being linked by rhthmn to every other person in that group, no matter the social status, no matter the economic gap, nothing matters execept one's humanity and the primal beat of the drum.

Timing again is everything. Sam's next conference was to be in Nairobi, Kenya in April of 2010 the conference is officially The Africa/Middle East Regional Micro Credit Summit. So, I pitched the idea to him. He was a bit less than enthusiastic, but he seemed open. He had a lot of questions, but then, so did I. I had absolutely no clue as to how I was going to pull this off. No clue and no money. I was off to a roaring start. Imagine the hubris. We spent all our money creating the program and model for investing in micro enterprises, our funders failed to deliver, we were three months from no mortgage payments, not to mention, insurance, cars etc. Here we were ready to engage in a global media event. Well we still are a ways off, but every day we get closer. Every day someone comes to us with an idea. Now if someone would only come with some money.

What This is All About ...

2009-12-16T11:25:00.000-08:00

My name is Jerry Peloquin and yes, I'm a drummer. I'm also the wack job behind this grand scheme to run simultaneous, linked, interactive drum circles in cities all around the world. The drummers in all cities will be able to play together. People at home will be able to play as well. I'm going to do this on April 7th. This blog is about who, how, and why I'm doing this. If you want to see how all this turns out ... read along but bring your sneakers as I expect the going will get rough at some points along the way.

Although it's true that most drummers today are poor (not all, just most) that's not what this blog is really about. It's about how and why I'm planning to run a trans global drum circle between Africa and Washington, DC. and maybe Bangalore, India, Japan, etc, etc .. and in as many cities as I can manage to organize. A little about who I am might inform you as to my particular brand of insanity, or hubris, or audacity, whatever!

Back in the day before the day, I was a drummer. I played with a number of rock bands in the early sixties and on to the early seventies. Someone once said that "If you remember the sixties, you weren't there." Those were the days, sex, drugs, and rock'n roll and no serious STD's either. I ended up in San Francisco in 1963. I became a founding member of the now legendary Jefferson Airplane, If you want to know more about that one, go google me. It's all there. I also played a with Nina Simone, Jose Feliciano, The Paul Winter Consort, The New York Electric String Ensemble, Wings ... ...I finally quit got married (another story for another blog) and went back to school became an Organizational Psychologist. I worked in many places around the world before landing back here In Washington, DC. I got here in the middle of the Bush Jr. Presidency and witnessed 9/11 from my home in Columbia, MD. At that time I was a consultant for The Agency for International Development (US AID) I worked for the Global Health Bureau and we ran 500 womens reproductive health centers globally.

That's where I learned what poverty really means. I'm not going to fill this blog with the horror of poverty ... we've all seen the terrible pictures of starving children. You know all about that. Let me just say that poverty really, really sucks! Two quotes and I won't really mention it again. Why? Because I'm in a position to actually DO SOMETHING about it. Quote One: Jeffrey Sachs, PhD I'm paraphrasing here .. every year 8 Million people die simply because thay cannot afford to stay alive. The second is by the great Mahatma Ghandi. "Poverty is the worst possible form of violence."

This blog will chronicle my uphill and hopefully successful effort to create a global event to drum up attention to the fact that we can now, for the first time in human history really take a crack at ending abjject structural poverty. The tools are Microfinance, Micro Credit, and Micro Venture. another blog will explain those in detail to those who want to know more. This one is about my attempt to sart with nothing! No money, no real organization, and no real knowledge of the playing field and create a team and organization that will run a global media event to raise $5 Million dollars every year. Don't believe me? Well, read this blog and we'll both find out together.