cc  >> Jeanan Yasiri: We would like  to thank our media partners,  Wisconsin Public Television  and their University Place crew  for taping today's lecture.  I'm very pleased to introduce  our guest lecturer today,  Mike Siefert.  He is CEO in residence with  Aid Matrix Foundation.  Mike is a senior level  entrepreneurial executive with  over 35 years of manufacturing  experience in high technology,  outdoor power equipment,  automotive, oil field and marine  industries.  He is a Wisconsin native.  He grew up on the shop floor in  a family manufacturing business.  He went on to become CEO of  Wisconsin corporations that  ranged in revenues  from $10 to $35 million a year.  Mike pioneered the  implementation of information  technology in those  organizations, and he worked on  a number of entrepreneur efforts  that now have grown into today's  web-based computing models for  supply chain management.  Mike brings a real diverse set  of skills to Aid Matrix  Foundation as part of their CEO  in residence program.  Being the state lead for the  implementation of the Aid Matrix  National Donations Management  Network, he works closely with  state emergency management  personnel and private industry. 

 And he's dedicated himself to  doing this important work in  support of the volunteer and  donations annex in the national  response framework.  Now I've asked Mike to come and  talk with us today specifically  about Aid Matrix Foundation,  about the work the organization  is involved in, the impact they  have on disaster relief and  other issues around the world  and the people that they serve.  It's such an innovative model of  social entrepreneurialism, I  know that you join me in  welcoming Mike Siefert.  >> Mike Siefert: Thank you.  Thank you, Jeanan.  And thank all of you for being  here in attendance today.  I really, it's nice to be back  on campus.  I came to campus in the fall of  1970 as a freshman.  And as I was parking today in  the ramp, I was reminiscing a  bit, and I was thinking, gosh,  this ramp wasn't here before, it  was a lot larger parking lot.  And when I was walking out I  looked to my left in the  kitty-corner and there used to  be a -- hut over there. 

 That's where I used to take some  what they called drafting  classes back in those days.  And I looked further to my left  and I saw soccer cages and I'm  saying that's where I used to go  to play football and practice  after classes during a day.  And then when walking here to  the auditorium, I was thinking  about the computer science  building down the street and I  was thinking, gosh, remember  those days when there used to be  an old UNIVAC mainframe computer  in there.  My course was in programming  language called FORTRAN, and we  used to key-punch cards and I  was learning the Archean  language of syntax.  It was interesting, you could  key all these cards in for your  program and then you would sort  them and then you would feed  them in and then hopefully the  big old UNIVAC would come back  and say pass.  Oftentimes, it was other the  case.  I ended up finding out did I  miss a comma, did I miss a  space, did I miss a brace versus  a bracket.  Clearly things have changed.  Even back in those days we were  wearing leisure suits.  And today I come with taking my  tie off and carry a thumb drive  around my neck. 

 So really things have changed.  And that's what I'd like to talk  about today in sharing with you  the Aid Matrix story.  How we're bringing  transformative change to the  world of humanitarian relief.  And a part of what I'd like to  talk about today is given you an  overview of who we are and who  our partners are, some partner  profiles.  And then spotlight on the  National Donations Management  Network which has been my life  for the last couple of years and  rolling that out and really help  people recover when they're hit  with disasters in this country.  Little bit about the Aid Matrix  Foundation.  We're international in scope.  We have offices in the United  States, Germany and India.  We focus on the Americas here in  the United States but we also  travel to various different  parts of the world  when required.  In Germany they cover the  Europe, as well as Africa. 

 And India really covers Asia.  We're a nonprofit organization.  And we really bring innovative  solutions to bear on some of the  challenges of humanitarian  relief.  And when we talk about solutions  even though our primary  deliverable is technology, you  really have to think about it as  three legs of a stool where  you're really bringing together  people and processes and  technology to really solve and  bring solutions to the world.  Our tagline is the right aid for  the right people at the right  time.  That's what we do and that's why  we get up every day.  And we really affect a lot of  people in terms of the  technologies and the  technologies that we help enable  our partners with in being able  to orchestrate over one and a  half billion dollars worth of  humanitarian aid each year.  Some of the partners that are on  here that I work closely with is  Accenture.  A lot of those professionals  help in some of their pro bono  work, some of the efforts and  the projects that we work on.  As well as the UPS Foundation. 

 Talking a little bit about our  work, as you know in the  nonprofit world we're driven by  mission and values more than  dollars.  And when we think about it we  try to bring, and we think that  by working together we can  triumph over some of these  crises that happen in our world.  And we bring that to bear with  supply chain technologies.  And I imagine you might be  wondering about what is supply  chain technology, what is supply  chain management.  And I'd like for you to think  about what it might be.  Supply chains have three  distinct channels.  They have a physical channel,  which is really the physical  movement of goods from point A  to point B, they have an  information channel, which is  really where you capture  information about the physical  movement of those goods, you  record that it also becomes  triggers to be able to move it  to another point.  And the other channel that's  involved with a supply chain is  financial.  In the for-profit world it's  very straightforward and pretty  uncomplicated to the extent that  somebody issues a purchase order  that triggers the goods to be  shipped.  Somebody has a packing slip, we  match it up with an invoice, and  then somebody in accounting  writes a check to somebody. 

 In the nonprofit it's a little  different because the currency  is different.  The currency in the nonprofit  world is really getting into how  we make an impact, as well as  what is in it for the people  that are a part of that.  So when you think about that,  what happens in the financial  part of the supply chain in the  nonprofit world, it really gets  into capturing information for  tax receipting and providing tax  receipts.  Our tax codes here in United  States really incentivize  businesses to make a donation.  Not only can they capture the  value of the cost of their  donation, they can also take and  claim half of the appreciated  value.  And what I mean by that is let's  say you have a typical retail  selling price of a dollar.  Or $2 I should say.  That equates back to a cost of a  dollar.  And what they are able to do  then if they donate it is they  can write off the dollar plus  they can write off 50 cents  because that's half of the  appreciated value.  So there's real reasons to be  able to provide that type of  information back to the  organizations and to the donors. 

 The other part of the  information on the financial  side as far as the currency goes  is really trying to capture  information about data and  capturing information about  impacts to people.  So we're trying to find social  impact numbers, we're trying to  find out about how many people  are served and things of that  nature.  Because that's the information  that goes back to the grantees,  if you will, that they have to  report out to the grantors to  make everything work.  So really supply chain  management is pretty  straightforward in terms of the  physical and the information  flow but the financial is a  little bit different.  So we're passionate, we're a  passionate group of people.  We really get into what we do.  We're dedicated to creating and  delivering these tools that  bring people together.  From various different walks of  life to make that happen.  And we're only as strong as our  partners.  I can't stress that enough. 

 If we didn't have partners it  would be impossible for us to  deliver on our mission.  So what we try to do is amplify  the donor contributions.  In other words, making sure it's  the right aid getting to the  right people.  We try to accelerate the results  to the nonprofits, and by doing  that we're able to get them,  make them more effective and  efficient in the delivery of  their direct services to people.  As well as working with  governments.  We believe that together we can  make a bigger impact on the  world.  What I'd like to do is share a  little video.  And I apologize in advance.  These are YouTube videos that I  downloaded that are of not the  best quality.  >> CARE has been a partner of  UPS for a long time. 

 CARE is really an emergency and  an urgent response organization.  They do other things with  poverty and so forth but they've  been a good partner of UPS for a  long time.  One of the exciting things that  we can do as a company and as a  foundation is when we can be a  convener, when we can help bring  organizations together that we  support that maybe wouldn't have  had the chance to get together.  And that's what we did in this  case.  We brought together Aid Matrix,  we brought together CARE and the  UPS Foundation to look at CARE's  network to improve the logistics  capabilities and response and  effectiveness of CARE so that  they can touch even more lives  than they do now.  >> We started with CARE back  about 18 months ago where myself  and Jim Kauffman made several  visits around the world to put  together a plan for how we can  actually assist CARE.  And what we've done over the  last 9 months is we started to  implement that plan.  We've been to Honduras.  We've been to Sudan which  ultimately led us to Darfur.  We've been to Indonesia. 

 And those were the planning  trips just in preparation of  putting together the plan, and  as part of the implementation  process was to Sri Lanka.  We have identified 24 projects  that we're working with CARE on.  One of the main ones is the  commodity tracking system.  That's a software-based  technology that is being  developed by Aid Matrix through  the UPS Foundation, and it is a  system that will allow CARE to  track all of their inventory  worldwide in real time.  >> We're continuing to build a  partnership in the area of  disaster relief, particularly  related to supply chain  management and building up our  logistic support so that we're  as effective as possible in  managing disasters and  emergencies when they strike.  >> So whenever a disaster  happens, be it an earthquake,  conflict, pandemic, a famine, we  provide them either with funds,  with staff to go overseas and  support them directly.  Both by partnering with agencies  like UPS that help us transfer  supplies from one place to the  other or by helping them engage  the global -- efforts in order  for us to be able deliver relief  in an effective manner.  >> Siefert: And right across  campus in another building  that's just going up on campus,  the Wisconsin  Discovery Institute,  they talk about the commodity  tracking that we're working on.  We're also involved with a team  over at the Discovery Institute  that's developing some new radio  frequency ID technology, some  blue chip technology, that we  think will be really helpful  once it has a chance to come out  of the lab, so to speak, and  then we can put it into future  releases.  So the university is a part of  our efforts, and it's welcoming  to be able to tell you about  that today. 

 So when you think about  Aid Matrix, really when I was a  businessperson when I first  started understanding really  what this was all about and  getting my feet on the ground,  I'm saying wow, what an  opportunity.  When you look at the statistics  here it really gets into these  waste streams that are out  there.  As a businessperson I'm saying  that's a good challenge.  There's got to be a way to get  these waste streams redirected  and refocused in such a way to  be able to make good use of  those things.  And that's really what we do.  Aid Matrix is involved in three  sectors.  We're involved with the medical  sector, the hunger sector and  the disaster sector, is the way  that we're organized.  And we're really trying to  figure out ways to get these  waste streams and convert them  into places that people really  need them to be able to support  the humanitarian relief efforts.  Our impact is really, we're not  necessarily deliverers of direct  services, we're really enablers.  We're parts of teams, that's why  it's important for us, we're  only as strong as the teams that  we work on. 

 And what I'd like to do today as  we get into the presentation a  little bit is to highlight some  of our partner profiles like  Feeding America.  All of the food banks, even here  right in Madison we have a food  bank that is working in  Wisconsin that we support.  The National Association of Free  Clinics.  Perhaps some of you are a  little familiar with them now.  They've recently with Dr. Oz and  what was going on down in  Houston and some of the free  clinic stuff and the national  health debate that's going on in  this country, and Keith  Olbermann and MSNBC they had a  big drive they actually received  over a million dollars just to  put out another free clinic like  that down in Little Rock  shortly.  And the one that I'm going to  spotlight myself because it's  the one that I've been working  on personally very much for the  last couple of years is FEMA.  We don't have time today to talk  about our international  programs.  But we are global and there are  a lot of good things going on.  International Health Partners I  think is one of our newest  relationships that I think  really has some potential to be  able to help people with medical  needs worldwide.  Part of, it's always interesting  when you talk about being a  foundation. 

 You're a foundation, you're a  nonprofit, what are you.  Well, we are a foundation to the  extent that we are grantor of  technology license.  But we also are a nonprofit  where we need grants to our  grantee to be able to build the  capacity and recover our costs  to be able to support these  types of efforts.  And part of that is obviously  having grants coming in and  awards that are made.  The one that I got involved with  it was awarded in 2006, October  of 2006, was a FEMA grant, a  cooperative grant.  And then we had our partners  with UPS and Accenture do some  matching with that grant to be  able to develop the National  Donations Management Network.  Another one that I'm  particularly proud of is in 2007  where you have the Council of  Supply Chain Management  Professionals.  That's really our peers to be  able to recognize and being  recognized by your peers to  having innovative solutions and  winning the award where there's  many people that can make that  happen.  So it's a little bit about who  we are and what we make occur.  So let's take a look at the  challenge that we sort of saw  about how big the opportunity  is. 

 Well, what is the challenge that  you're trying to solve?  When you look at traditional  humanitarian aid, it's very  difficult to get from a donor to  a field agent that is actually  delivering that direct service.  Traditionally, it's been set up  with multiple phone calls and  faxing.  Manual reporting.  Excel spreadsheets.  Microsoft Access Databases.  Very silo oriented.  Very much to each individual  person that was associated with  the supply chain.  And then what happens, as a  result of that, you end up with  stuff that gets through this  whole maze.  Sometimes it's not needed, and  on the other hand you have the  field agents who are waiting,  give me the right stuff,  I've got to help these people.  So that's really the challenge  that we're trying to solve in  the work that we're doing. 

 When we look at the next  generation of humanitarian aid,  it really gets into how do we  connect things.  And what we're doing is we're  taking a structured work flow  approach.  Remember I was talking to you  about the three legs of the  stool, about people, places and  technologies?  By identifying the people, their  contact information, their email  addresses and all of that, we  can start assigning their job  responsibilities.  Everybody comes to work and they  have to do certain things.  And by doing that since we have  everybody identified along the  way because we built this  community, we're able to  automate some of this stuff from  the way of doing texting, SMS  messaging, for notification when  goods are available.  To be able to have automated  relief of communications for the  donors and relief agencies.  And then ultimately the field  agents now, rather than having  stuff just pushed at them, they  have the ability to put their  needs into the system which is  really a pull system that we  talk about.  In other words, let's pull the  right types of things to us to  be able to make that happen.  And really that's what we're  doing with the tools and  solutions that we're building is  really to be able to make this  next generation come alive and  working with our partners like  UPS and CARE to make that a  reality.  So what I'd like to do now is  just talk a little bit about our  partner profiles on the domestic  programs. 

 And the first one I'd like to  talk about is the National  Association of Free Clinics.  We really have two projects that  we're involved with there.  We're involved with bulk  purchasing as well as donations  management.  I don't know how familiar you  are with the free clinics but in  a lot of cities they are very  small offices.  They might have a doctor.  They might have a secretary that  comes in every now and then.  They have office hours during  certain times when the doctors  are going to volunteer and  things of that nature.  And one of the things they had  to do is order and get supplies  for my clients or my patients  this evening.  So we were able to start  aggregating that where they were  paying like $45 a vial for  diabetic strips to be able to  now to get that down to $9.95.  So that's a way that they've  save a lot of money providing  funds and things that they can  do next to be able to support  the clients that they have and  the patients that they have. 

 Also donations management,  there's a lot of drugs and  pharmaceuticals that go unused.  They're approaching shelf life  or they manufacture too much.  The demand wasn't necessarily  there because they were doing  it to a forecast.  So what do we do with those  things.  So now we can be able to take  some of that through AmeriCares  and be able to take that and  move it with all the proper  licensing, because there's a lot  of regulations as it relates to  the movement of pharmaceuticals,  and be able to make that happen.  And with that our former  governor Scott McCallum who is  president and CEO of Aid Matrix,  I'd like to share a video of  him.  Again, I apologize for the video  quality.  >> Aid Matrix is a nonprofit  organization that takes state of  the art technology that is used  for any successful business and  worldwide communication and  applies it to the nonprofit  world, to the humanitarian  world, to be able to help  people.  And free clinic link is a  project where, much like many of  our other projects, we connect  surplus product, or volunteers  or services with those in need.  In this case, specifically,  there are excess medicines. 

 Over 7,000 tons of medicine goes  to waste every day in the United  States of America.  Take a portion of that and be  able to match it with those in  need.  It's a blessing to have this  opportunity in life to be able  to have an impact, and, as we  say, we're revolutionizing  humanitarian giving.  Very directly helping lives and  doing it by taking things that  would have gone to waste and  getting it to people that are in  need.  >> Siefert: Scott's a great guy.  I met Scott over 30 years ago  shortly after leaving campus.  My future wife and him worked  together in the Senate  republican caucus up here on the  square and got to know him quite  well then.  Scott's dedicated his life to  public service and is doing a  tremendous job now since he's  left the governor's office here  in the state going on to this  and being able to make an impact  on the world and doing the  service that he does.  He's a great guy.  On to hunger. 

 In hunger we are involved with  really helping the food banks  and the private sector deal with  how to get the excess goods that  they have, that they're  producing, to the food banks.  The way that we do that, we have  some very sophisticated  technology that we've integrated  actually with Kraft and ConAgra  and others where when the goal  is given that this is going to  go to donations, they can click  on their desk top and do the  things that they have to do  there and all that's integrated.  All the on-hand inventory  records get updated, and as a  part of that process then the  food banks get notified that  these goods are available so we  can start the transportation  process and getting them to the  banks.  Then the food banks then  obviously ultimately end up  taking that and distributing it  to the kitchens and the other  shelters that might be where  they go to get their supplies.  The other interesting thing  about the hunger sector that the  way it used to work in  traditional, and talking about  the poll system, I mentioned  that needs in the next  generation, a lot of the food  banks during a week, or I should  say the kitchens and the  shelters, what am I going to  have this week.  What can I make available to the  people that I have to serve, my  clients.  And you never quite knew what  they were going to get.  They would fax something into  the food bank and then  eventually it would arrive at  their kitchen and they could  start processing it.  And that was okay, but now what  they're able to do is they're  able to actually put in place  the types of things that they  need.  That gets communicated up the  chain to the food banks as well  as the partners that are  supplying those donations. 

 And as a result of that they're  able to put together more  nutritious menus for the people  that they're serving.  Rather than getting just Cheetos  or something like that and a  whole bunch of them, now they  can give them the four colors  and provide them more nutritious  meals.  So hunger is a great thing that  we do.  And that's probably our most  mature sector.  We've been at it the longest.  And with that I'd like to have  Keith Thode talk more.  >> I work for a nonprofit  organization called Aid Matrix.  What we do at Aid Matrix is we  take technology that's usually  used to get food to grocery  stores and medicine to Walgreens  and things like that and take  what's extra in this world and  get that extra food down to  homeless shelters and after  school programs and get extra  medicines out to free clinics  and others that need it.  This is a way that Aid Matrix  helps nonprofit organizations  and companies and churches and  groups take what's extra to us  to people that need it.  § §  For me, I came out of a career  in the business world, and I  learned a lot about business  technologies and how you can  actually help people and help  companies be more successful by  using technology. 

 So when I came to Aid Matrix  this was a neat chance  to use some very  specialized skills I had to  be able to serve other people  and to be on mission.  And through Aid Matrix we do  things like most of the  corporately donated food in this  country now travels over  Aid Matrix systems.  Because of the group of us with  our specialized skills there's  millions and millions of pounds  of food that now end up in the  hands of people that need it  instead of it going to waste.  It's things like this that  really make me feel blessed to  work where I do and the  opportunity to serve with the  gifts that God's given me.  § §  Cutting a little more closer to  home here, GRACE, here in  Grapevine, is actually a user of  a couple different Aid Matrix  systems.  One in particular helps them  order medical supplies and  receive medical donations all  online.  Aid Matrix provides a unique  opportunity for some of us to be  on mission in our daily lives  and our daily work lives.  Those of us who have some unique  skills in technology and  different business processes can  now take those skills and use  them to show love to people in  some unique ways.  § §  >> Siefert: Keith's a great guy.  He's a summa cum laude graduate  of Vanderbilt. 

 I've gotten to know and work  with him closely over the course  of the past couple of years.  He's a very intelligent guy and  really understands people, and  his heart's in the right place  to be able to make things  happen.  So that's what gets me motivated  to be able to work with great  people like Keith.  That's the last video and now  you've got me.  So I'd like to talk and  spotlight now on the FEMA, the  National Donations Management  Network.  We're all familiar with Katrina  and the aftermath of Katrina and  all of challenges that it  presented.  It was horrifying some of the  images that we all saw during  Katrina.  And it really created a sense of  urgency to be able to make  changes in this country in how  we go to and support disaster  relief efforts.  And part of that effort really  gets involved with the National  Donations Management Network  where we're really trying to  connect the private sector and  the general public as one leg of  the stool, the NGOs on another  leg of the school and on the  other leg of the stool really  looking at not only on the  national and federal government  as well as state level  government and local government.  How do we make this all work  together so we can become a  team. 

 And it's a really rewarding one.  One of the more interesting  projects I'm just getting  started on with the state of  Missouri and on January 1st in  the state of Kansas is something  that we're calling the Missouri  Emergency Response Registry.  It's part of the public/private  sector piece that we're working  on and building some capacity.  And really what that's going to  do is where the private sector  can start putting in place some  of the assets that they might be  able to bring to a disaster or  especially a response area.  I can recall last spring with  the ice storms in Kentucky, they  were just flat out of generators  and they had hundreds of  thousands of people looking for  generators.  Having these types of resource  registries out there that we can  share amongst the states and  amongst the regions to be able  to make that happen is really  going to be good  for our country.  So with that, I'd just like to  talk a little bit about how we  develop these solutions and how  does this all happen.  We really bring the community  together.  This was my first day on the job  it was a picture taken in  January of 2007.  I'll have to tell you a little  story before I leave this slide  about Scott. 

 What we do is we bring the  subject matter experts together.  We're trying to develop easy and  simple to use technologies for a  whole range of users in terms of  their capabilities in  understanding technology.  So in this room we had people  from state and local and federal  government represented.  We had the Business Roundtable,  the US Chamber of Commerce and  we had people from the National  Voluntary Organizations Active  in Disaster.  People like the American Red  Cross, the Salvation Army, UMCOR  and the like.  So this is really where we all  came together, and we started  the journey in January.  And in June of that year in time  for the hurricane season, which  was our deadline, we released  the first product offering that  this group had put together.  It was interesting, Scott had to  leave the conference and I was  still scratching my head, what  did I get myself into?  What is volunteering in  donations management.  And he said, Michael, by the  way, you're on deck to be able  to do the wrap-up of the  conference and pull it all  together.  And I said, thanks, Scott. 

 And he got on a plane and left.  Getting as far as the background  goes, the national response  framework, this is really the  authority for putting this whole  thing together.  Within the framework you have  what they call concepts of  operation, and in that concepts  of operation it talks about the  web-based application and since  we are federal, it's a state's  responsibility really to be able  to deliver those response  services.  So part of that process in being  able it make that happen is we  had to go around and sign MOUs,  the acronym is memorandum of  understanding, with all these  different states and that took  me on my travels and carrying my  bag and meeting with all the  various different state  emergency managers as well as  governor's offices, state VOADs  and people like that to really  try to figure out how to build  this out.  I can tell you in April of 2007  I was really scratching  my head again and saying  what are you going to do with  this because the map was blank.  And what did I get myself  involved with.  And our approach was sort of  straightforward.  Try to go where there was the  most pain and the most need.  So I started out with the state  of Alabama and developed  something that we call the rim  strategy.  So as we talked to the states  and started building up the  network, we went around the rim  of the United States, up the  coast, and being able to make  that happen. 

 That sort of took me the first  year.  The second year I got involved  in what I called then the  Mississippi River Valley  strategy.  And we started going up through  the Mississippi River and being  able to start pulling those  states into it to be able to  deal with flooding events.  And now we're just sort of  filling out the state map.  So we've gone through the early  adopters, we've had some initial  successes and we're making  progress in the build up of the  --.  To help you understand really  what this is and how this works  because it can be quite  complicated when you think about  all the different people,  there's thousands of people  engaged in this whole process.  You have to think about, and I  like to call this the chain of  giving, where you have portals,  which is just a website, where  people can come in and make  offers for products and  services, they can be  volunteering some of their time  to be able to help with the  disaster relief efforts, as well  as make financial contributions,  online donations and things of  the nature.  This all flows into a portal for  the state.  It's usually hosted like if you  went to Wisconsin Emergency  Management you'd see on their  icon to donate and volunteer and  you'd find the Aid Matrix for  Wisconsin portal.  It can be in other places as  well. 

 And that's really the entry  point.  And when you think about it what  we're trying to do with this  chain of giving is matching  offers with donors.  So the state really gets  involved in that match-making  role.  Art Story, who happens to the be  the regional for region aid, a  voluntary aid liaison, likes to  call it the eHarmony way of  doing business.  In other words, we're really  trying to get that right match  made and be able to make it  through it.  So it's really the relief  agencies and voluntary  organizations active in disaster  that are delivering those  services.  And they're on the ground so  they have to ability to capture  the needs of what they have to  do to get done.  And they can start communicating  that out so the public can see  what's needed, as well as we can  push that out or publish it out  to our industry portal partners,  people like the American  Logistics Aid Network which is  really an association of  associations of about 10,000  member companies.  US North Com has a mission to be  able to help with Homeland  Security to be able to provide  support to emergency management  if they just don't have the  resources.  RX response when drug stores go  down on the corner. 

 Where am I going to go to get my  medication?  So RX response provides that  technology and that ability to  do some GIS things and things of  that nature.  The UPS Foundation on  transportation, how do we move  things from point A to point B.  We've got a high quality item,  how are we going to get it  there?  So really it's our framework to  be able to make things happen.  And each one of these portals  has its own policies and  procedures, it's contained.  Because every culture, even  though I think we're all  Americans, and we are all  Americans when we're doing this  work, when I travel the cultures  are a little bit different.  How they go about getting their  work done and things like that,  we're similar but we're  different.  So by being able to have their  own policies and procedures in  place, part of my work is really  involved in how do we get those  things to come together.  Since everything is pretty  standard because we brought the  right subject matter together,  that gives us that 80/20 role  where we can spend that 20% of  our time and really focus on  those issues that are challenges  in their state to be able to  make it happen.  So that's our chain of giving  where things can be pushed to  you.  And we can figure out where we  want to go with them or say,  hey, thank you, very much, we  don't need it. 

 Or likewise, we can pull things  to us by being able to publish  those needs, not only to the  general public but to industry  portals to make that happen.  The challenge that we really had  when we started staring at this,  and these are actual pictures,  or at least the one on the left  is, the one on the right I sort  of did some Photoshop work on,  but this is what happened during  Katrina.  Stuff would just show up.  The parking lot is just full of  stuff.  And we're still saying that  people needed things.  Or we were made aware by  the media that these goods are  out there, why aren't they  getting to the people.  So we have all this  uncoordinated and uncontrolled  masses.  And it really frustrates the  volunteers.  It can get in the way of  disaster operations.  We call it, within the  professional trade of emergency  management, they call it the  secondary disaster. 

 Not only do I have to deal with  what I have to deal with to be  able to get my citizenry back to  shape, now I got to deal with  all of these other people that  are trying to come, good  intended, but they're coming in  to be able to help and we can't  deal with it.  So really what we're trying to  do and what I like to do, they  always say a picture's worth a  thousand words, is give you some  snap shots of what it was like  before the MDMN and share some  of our initial successes that  we're doing.  We're early on in this process.  We're only at it for a couple of  years.  And as these things more mature  and they become  institutionalized and stuff like  that I'm sure there's a lot of  more great things that will  happen five years from now and  ten years from now.  So here we had a survivor.  She certainly has needs or she  wouldn't be taking the time to  go and look for some clothes in  this pile.  Certainly not the way that we  want to have it happen, but it  does happen that way, it did  happen that way.  The other thing that happens is  all of the sudden these people  do these drives.  They're gathering up, they're  doing collections, they're doing  whatever and, you know, let's  make it go. 

 Well, all at the same time they  don't know where it's going to  go.  So they collect all this stuff.  Somebody finds a truck driver,  they put them on the road and  the next thing they know they're  showing up close to disaster  area.  You open up the trailer and you  find out what's in here.  We sort of snicker at plastic  bags but they're a pain.  You got to take them out.  You got to put them in gaylords.  We have good things in there or  bad things in there.  How do we process this stuff?  So that's really the reality of  what's happened in disasters in  the past in this country.  So what I'd like to do is just  talk a little bit about some of  our initial successes that we've  got going on over the course of  the last couple of years and  using some of these new  technologies. 

 And it's not so much the  technology, it's really spending  time together, whether it be at  conferences or webinar  trainings, pulling together core  teams, leadership teams, around  in various different states and  then being able to convene those  nationally at various different  conferences to be able to make a  difference.  So here's an example.  Last year during hurricane Ike,  which I think everybody's  familiar with, it hit Galveston,  we have Gustav right before  that.  Because we were able to get  needs identified in Texas, a  radio station in Albuquerque,  New Mexico, picked up on that.  And because part of the process  that we go through is  identification of the contact  information and phone numbers  and email addresses, as well as  being able to share, hey, we  want to be able to make these  offers, we were able to get the  right people connected with each  other.  In this case it happened to be  they had community services.  So what they did then, they said  have you ever done this?  And they said no.  When you think about radio  personalities they're just  chargers out there, they're  trying to make things happen.  And we were able then to be able  to help educate them as to how  to go about this process as a  result of that.  So on Wednesday afternoon they  put a truck out in the parking  lot. 

 They started promoting it, the  collection.  People started showing up.  But this time we had it  organized.  We had some volunteers on-site.  We were starting to have people  coming.  We were filling up the boxes  with the right stuff that was  needed.  At this time we're trying to be  able to help support some of the  evacuees who were gone from  Galveston up to San Antonio.  And we're able to collect all  this stuff.  On Saturday, the semi arrived at  a multi-agency warehouse that  was set up in San Antonio, and  it was all palletized.  We knew what was in there  because we had been notified in  advance to it shipping as to  what was going to happen. 

 We were able to pull this off  the trailers, break down the  pallets, put them on trucks for  mobile distribution to the  survivors where they were  located and where they were  being sheltered.  Just a great way of how we did  things.  Here's another example.  This just happens to be a screen  shot.  This happens to be for the North  Dakota portal and the sandbox  that we have, but the idea here  is do you need transportation.  It's one of the other challenges  that nonprofits have.  They've got the ability to  deliver direct services and  they've got people on the ground  but they don't have a lot of  cash.  I'm aware of this very high  quality item that's sitting some  place in the country and how am  I going to get it there.  So the question is do you need  transportation?  By clicking on that little truck  icon that you see up there  because they capture the donor's  information and the details in  saying will they provide  transportation or do we have to  arrange for it and they know  they had to arrange for it.  They're able, then and our  partners, American Logistics Aid  Network as well as UPS, are  monitoring these types of clicks  on the icon, if you will. 

 And as a result of that, they're  able to move a high quality, a  donation of Staff Attack to be  able to help start dealing with  the sanitation and the cleaning  process that was required.  This happened to be located in  Little Rock, and they were able  to move it down to Galveston as  a result of that.  And there's a way where you see  cleanup buckets that are being  put together and you saw we put  Staff Attack on top of those and  being able to offer them out.  So it's a real great way of here  we had an example of Staff  Attack being in another state, a  company willing to donate it but  no way to get it where it really  needed to be.  And how the transportation  network, the UPS Foundation  sponsored and made that happen.  So really when you look at  hurricane Ike we had much better  managed warehouses.  You'll notice up there on the  shelves Lands' End, a Wisconsin  company, was supporting that  probably with some new clothing  and other things that were going  into the warehouse.  We were able to move those  things and have those goods  organized in such a way that we  can better serve the survivors  in making it all happen.  Another impact that we have is  building awareness.  During hurricane Ike there was a  lot going on. 

 Clearly we had the presidential  election going on.  We were able, with our financial  support systems, to provide  links for the McCain and Obama  websites to click into to be  able to make financial support  offers.  We were also able to, with  Michael Chertoff talking about  it with Matt Lauer on TV to  really help educate the public  that there's a whole new way  that we can give and that we can  work together.  All of these things help build  awareness and as a result of  that our impact on the  communities and survivors is a  lot greater.  When you look at this, and I got  my first real deployment, and we  have just put the tools in place  in June of 2007, was the October  2007 California wildfires.  That had what we call a CNN  event.  There were wildfires raging all  over.  And as a result of that whenever  you have a CNN event creating  that national awareness that  really gets people trying to  want to donate because they  really want to help and we as  people have a need to feel  needed.  So that really generates a lot  of awareness, it creates a lot  of giving and things of that  nature.  It was really fun for me to be  there because this was really my  first time involved in a real  action adventure, if you will. 

 I was deployed to Sacramento,  what they call their emergency  operating center, working with  them and part of their  situation, bringing the tools up  and bringing them online.  Emergency operating centers are  very similar to this except you  have emergency support functions  sitting on each of the desks  where all come together and  start working different issues.  Eventually I transferred down to  Pasadena to what they call a  joint field office, and that's  really where FEMA comes in, if  it's a presidentially declared  disaster, to be able to support  people.  We're able to see an increase in  donations as a result of that.  What I'd really like to do on  this slide though is really talk  about my very close friend and  colleague, Susan Jenson.  About how a person buried inside  the FEMA bureaucracy was able to  make a difference.  Susan is a regional --.  She's headquartered out of  Chicago.  During Katrina she was deployed  to headquarters and to be able  to deal with donations  management.  During Katrina there were over  75,000 donated offers that were  coming in, let alone all the  other offers that were coming in  around the country to be able to  deal with it. 

 This is being put into a  database that was behind the  fire walls at FEMA, and there  was no way to get it out.  And she was just really  frustrated.  She said, God, we've got all  these goods, we've got all these  people that need stuff and we  can't do anything about it.  As part of her vision and her  leadership she went on a  crusade, if you will, to saying  what can we do to make this  happen.  Along the way because we have  been down in Katrina supporting  some of our partners with some  of the warehouse technology,  they became aware of us and  Susan and had to go through a  selection process, I'd like to  think that FEMA made a smart  decision because they went to  the community rather than giving  this to a contractor inside the  Beltway to be able to just crank  out some software.  Because we're already in the  community.  It's really Susan's leadership,  and I worked with her as we  rolled this out across the  country, to be able to make this  happen.  I wish she was with us here  today to be able to tell you  some of the story of some of the  things we've done as we've  traveled along with way around  the country.  And really, why are we in this?  Our role and what we come into  work to do is to really be able  to help those people.  And this little girl was  evacuated out of Galveston to  San Antonio. 

 She didn't have very much for  clothes.  We had the warehouses set up.  You saw that we had Lands' End  type clothing.  We were able to get her good  used, I don't know if those were  new or used clothing, but she  had clean clothing that she'd be  able to use to be able to help  support her efforts.  And that's really what we're all  about.  Is how do we get those needs  met, how do we get the right aid  to the right people at the right  time and being able to make that  happen.  And with that I'll open it up to  questions, and I thank you for  your time.  >> Yasiri: It's a really  inspiring story, Mike.  And as I mentioned before, I  walk around and look for the  student's hands.  As they have questions I'll hand  the mic off to them. 

 And I see one in the back there  so I'll just hand it off right  away.  >> Siefert: Thank you.  >> Hi, I'm Jessica.  >> Siefert: Hi, Jessica.  >> What role does the UN play  with Aid Matrix  when prioritizing  humanitarian efforts overseas?  >> Siefert: If I understand  the question, are you talking  about the United Nations?  >> Yes, the United Nations.  >> Siefert: Yeah, we're involved  with the United Nations,  it's one of our international  programs for  the World Food Program.  So we really get involved with  them in being able to help get  food drives and get certain  surplus goods to be able to get  to the various different places.  Darfur, there's a lot of  activity and obviously where  there's some very chronic  humanitarian relief efforts  going on.  And the United Nations helps  facilitate that process in being  able to get these partners  together.  They act as a convener, if you  will. 

 Similar to what UPS did with us  with CARE.  >> Yasiri: One of the things,  Mike, that I think we see  with a lot of nonprofits  is several organizations  that have similar missions  and as a result,  especially in this economy,  they have a hard time being  effective, staying afloat.  Do you have competition?  Is there anybody who's in this  business or are you really that  cutting-edge in terms of what  you're doing?  >> Siefert: Well, clearly  there's a lot of tools  out there.  There's a lot of technology.  I mean, even if you look on the  financial support side we do  some virtual aid drives but  there's others out there that do  that better, like the Network  for Good and people like that.  But because of the way we're  trying to bring a solution set  to that, we want to have the  ability to be able to have some  of these tools.  And I think it's because we have  these solution sets in the way  that we approach it, we're a lot  stronger than just a technology  provider.  Yes, there are a lot of  technology providers out there.  They're more focused on  different sectors as opposed to  disaster like Volunteer  Solutions which is owned by --,  it's sort of a United Way  volunteer module.  They do very good at day-to-day  volunteering, but they don't do  very good on how do we deal with  all these volunteers if they  happen. 

 And I think the other thing is  that while there is some cross  over as far as technology goes,  you get concerned about that a  little because you've got people  in the country developing  similar tools on occasion, it's  sort of a waste, but really when  you take a look at what we're  trying to accomplish from a  people and processing  prospective we really don't have  anybody else that we compete  against.  >> Yasiri: I think you alluded  to this, but I had the pleasure  of chatting with Scott McCallum  several weeks ago about  Aid Matrix, can you give us a  little bit of background about  when it started, who initiated  it, how it all started.  Certainly Katrina had a piece of  that but...  >> Siefert: Sure, I'd  be happy to.  The founder before Scott, all  nonprofits have a founder and a  founder story.  Really when you're looking at  that film or that picture where  we had of that room where we're  doing the community break out,  that was located at i2  Technologies which is where our  headquarters was.  I2 Technologies is what I would  call a boutique supply chain  management.  They just announced they were  bought out by JD Edwards here, I  think it was JD Edwards,  recently to be able to  incorporate that.  But their leadership wanted to  start a foundation because they  had these very powerful supply  chain technologies and what can  we do to be able to help make a  difference.  Because they saw the opportunity  back in 2000. 

 And 2004 it was incorporated  into the Aid Matrix Foundation  and I believe Scott came on  board shortly after, he was  doing some think tank stuff and  some other stuff after he lost  the governor's race here in the  state in 2005.  >> It seems like you're very  heavily dependent on like when  you're donating food like the  waste from ConAgra or Nestle or  whatever, are you concerned that  as they become more efficient  they won't, like Tyson won't  waste a million pounds of  chicken next year?  Or do they have some sort of  incentive to donate that waste  to you guys?  >> Siefert: Well, clearly  I talked about  earlier in the presentation  about they are incentivized  through our tax codes to be able  to claim half  of their appreciated value.  It's a little bit more difficult  for a manufacturer because they  can't really state that they're  a retailer, that they have that  appreciated value already.  But they are incentivized to do  that.  And I think they're always going  to get more efficient, and I  think that that's a great thing.  I think that the waste streams  will become less because they  will become more efficient and  more effective.  Some of the food banks are  struggling right now just  because of that.  The economy's down.  There's not as much stuff going  into these plants.  There aren't as many animals and  things of that nature. 

 So that's a little bit of a  challenge.  But I think there's always going  to be a need.  There's always going to be gaps.  A system is never going to 100%  efficient.  And as a result of that, we'll  continue to have these  opportunities.  Or figure out different ways or  different currencies to be able  to make these things still  happen, make sure the  humanitarian relief is dealt  with.  >> Hi, I'm Tori.  So you talked a lot about how  when there is a disaster  everyone wants to donate and  everything like that and how  sometimes the intentions are  good but it kind of creates a  little bit of a mess, what are  ways that us as people sitting  here can help out when these  sort of things happen,  especially in volunteering  opportunities that you guys  supply.  >> Siefert: Well, clearly,  and as far as Aid Matrix we do  have interns that come on board.  Most of the interns are  headquartered out of Dallas. 

 We're talking about maybe here  at the university especially  when we start getting to the  RFID technologies and some of  the other initiatives that are  involved with here on campus.  We're involved with developing a  philanthropic drug delivery  system.  There's a symposium that I'm on  a committee on through WARF and  others.  I think that we're going to be  creating some local  opportunities here to be  volunteering with Aid Matrix.  I certainly always need some  help.  We work virtual.  I tell you, it's amazing what  technology can do today.  Just yesterday afternoon I was  working with American Samoa,  they had the recent tsunamis and  stuff like that, and working  with a warehouse manager over  there in bringing up his  warehouse.  And we could do that using  Microsoft Live Meeting.  I could look at his desktop; he  could look at my desktop. 

 We were talking over the  computer.  So there's all sorts of ways to  collaborate today and work  together even though we might  not be sitting next to each  other in an office.  So those might be some  opportunities.  Keep us in mind.  >> Hello, I'm Martin.  Actually you talked a lot  about the technologies, the RFID  chips and basically state of the  art technology.  This is not cheap technology, as  far as I know.  I think I heard numbers that up  there from 1- to 3-cents per  unit of RFID unit which is  actually creating a huge amount  of excess costs, and also you  have to take into consideration  at least the basic idea that you  have to have receivers and all  that stuff especially in places  where the infrastructure is not  yet built.  So how do you manage that?  >> Siefert: Well, you raise  some good points.  And clearly when I talked about  the RFID technology that we're  developing over here at the  Discovery Institute it's really  for a future generation. 

 It's still cost prohibitive.  But one thing about technology  is it always gets cheaper,  right?  There used to be a time where  you bought a very clunky PC for  $2,000.  Today the price-point is down to  $200 or $300.  We believe that that same  technology curve will occur.  And these types of technologies,  and actually believe it or not  when you start moving out into  the world, especially third  world countries and stuff like  that, because they never had the  infrastructure to begin with,  some of the 3G wireless networks  and things of that nature are  being put into these countries  so when they do come on board,  they have pretty much state of  the art so we have internet  connectivity.  I was surprised that we had as  good internet connectivity with  American Samoa.  They're struggling a little bit  with the relief efforts, and  they're throwing in some DSL  lines to the -- office and stuff  like that.  But it's out there these days.  Even on my trips to China  recently, part of my private  sector world, their  infrastructure's pretty good.  I was wireless. 

 I could be typing messages off  my computer while traveling from  one factory to the other in  China.  They have sort of an interesting  way they manufacture things.  Every plant just does one thing  and one thing alone.  So are these technologies  expensive?  Yes.  But that's our mission at  Aid Matrix is to be able to take  these very expensive  technologies, build capacity  with grants and other things and  granting technologies licenses  from our partners to be able to  make that affordable for the  nonprofit world.  >> Hi, my name is Kailee.  I don't have a specific question  but in 2005 there was a tornado  that hit the Stoughton area and  I just want to commend you  because the Red Cross and FEMA  were at our house the next day  helping us move everything away,  and I just think the help that  they gave us was really  beneficial to us and it wasn't  getting in the way.  It just was really great.  So I just, personally I know  that what you're doing is really  helping out on an individual  basis.  >> Siefert: Well, thank you  for sharing that, and  thank you for the compliment. 

 I appreciate that.  >> Yasiri: Do we have any final  questions for Mike?  It is an inspiring story without  question.  And as I mentioned, I did have  the opportunity to connect with  Scott several weeks ago, and one  of the reasons I was doing that  was to talk about how our  students could participate in  internships, even based in  Texas.  And so stay tuned on that.  And the philanthropic drug  discovery conference that's  being hosted by the Morgridge  Institute for Research in WARF  is scheduled I think going to be  in March.  And students who are interested  in continuing to stay connected  to that certainly if you stay  connected to me next semester,  even outside of this class, I'll  be able to learn with Mike and  others through that because I'm  involved in that as well.  Thank you so much.  >> Siefert: Thank you.  >> Yasiri: The students and I  wanted to give you something.  As a Badger it's a historic  picture but not from the  engineering campus. 

 Please join me in thanking Mike  Siefert.  >> Siefert: Thank you.  Thank you everyone.  (applause)