Friends of Mali
Board Meeting
Sunday,
February 23, 2003
3:00
p.m.
Agenda
I. Old Business
A. National Happy Hour
A definite success! San Francisco, NY, Boston and DC had good turnout. Tahoe and Austin didn’t have anyone show up but this was probably due to communication timing.
In April, instead of a national happy hour we’ll have a potluck at a designated location. The theme of the gathering is to talk up the Smithsonian Folk life Festival. Allison will get informational brochures from the Smithsonian and send them to the hosts of the potlucks.
B. Updating bylaws and mission statement
Delete who is eligible for funds but leave consensus part
Structure of the Executive Committee – Sec 6.2. The Newsletter Editor, Webmaster and Membership Secretary are appointed by the president. The wording is not clear whether they are immediate members of the Executive committee. Matt will try to make the wording clear that they are. He will e-mail a revision for board approval then submit the forms for tax exempt status.
Denise and Jumana met with Sakiatu Halatine Minister of Culture last Wednesday. Mme. Halatine reported that the Government of Mali has a strained budget right now due their participation in the unrest in the Ivory Coast. Therefore they have met only 40% of their participation fee stipulated by the Smithsonian. They have requested that one of the ways FOM can participate in the FLF is to assist them in meeting their participation fee.
Another option is to support Malian artists. Food and lodging comes to a fixed amount of $240 per participant per day over a roughly 10 day that we can contribute to.
The meeting ended with a commitment by Friends of Mali to the following:
1. Support the quantity and quality of volunteers available for the folk life festival and the reception at the Malian Embassy on June 6, 2003.
2. Publicize the festival and request volunteers on our website. Also use any contacts or communication networks to get the word out about the festival.
So, given the information from the meeting the board must decide:
Should we raise funds?
Yes. How will be decided after conferring
with Sean Davis, who agreed to spearhead the fundraising
effort. Jumana will send an e-mail
to Sean requesting a fundraising
proposal from him.
What do we do with the funds?
After Sean sends out this proposal the board will vote on how we will spend the funds.
D. Old action items
1. Postcards send 2 weeks ago.
2. Newsletter went to the career office in Arlington
3. Malian community was invited to the festival
4. TeachNet - don’t know who the head of it is. Sabrina will look for info
5. Membership dues – Board members should pay them ASAP if they haven’t
E. July Reunion
1. Hotel discount – cannot give a definite discount price because we don’t know how many people will be coming. The best thing to do is advertise a list of participating hotels around the Smithsonian and encourage people to book with those hotels. Jumana will research and put a list of hotels together to send to Jeff who will put it on the website.
2. The Picnic will be on Friday, July 4, 2003 on the mall or around it. We’ll supply hamburgers and hotdogs then stay for fireworks.
3. Saturday night July 5, 2003 we’ll host a happy hour somewhere in the city. Jumana will secure a place and time.
F. U.S. Regional Reps – No longer being considered at this time
II. New Business
A. April Newsletter
1. Include stuff about the folk life festival, potluck and reunion festivities
2. Deadline for submissions to the Newsletter is March 28, 2003
3. Sabrina has had some technology problems in producing the newsletter. She will get quotes for purchasing PageMaker software.
4. Matt will write something about raising membership numbers to the point where the group is self-sufficient, as a priority for FOM.
5. Jeff will write a paragraph about our progress in becoming an official organization (filing tax-exempt status etc.)
6. Sabrina will ask Perry Sutton to write an article about her experience working in Mali as a professional.
7. Sabrina is working with Janet Hale in writing an article about (R)PCV’s experience being married to Malians. She will collect stories from various RPCV’s
B. Multi-year FOM membership purchases
Should we offer a 3 year membership for $40? Yes. It is cheaper than purchasing a membership in 3 individual years.
C. Paying for NPCA Membership via Friends of Mali
1. We can sell NPCA memberships but we have to pay pay pal a % to do it. So, we’re not going to.
2. Outreach to PCV parents
Parents of current Peace Corps volunteers came to the Boston happy hour with
LOTS of questions about Peace Corps. We could make the website more parent-friendly through posting the stories of volunteers in the field on it.
Sabrina will send contact info for a volunteer in Yelemane, a town North of Kayes who has submitted such articles before. Hopefully this will encourage other volunteers to do the same.
III. Other
A. Annual Youth Retreat in Mali
The group is applying
for Peace Corps Partnership funds.
If they get funded Jeff will
post the project on the website for members to support financially if they want.
1. Current balance is $3,466.18. Jumana deposited $120 ($60 from NPCA and $60 from members) this morning and has $75 from NPCA yet to be deposited.
Expenses were:
UPS – $180 for postage
Staples – $25.07
P.O. Box renewal – $100 for 6 months
ModWest – $13.95 (website software)
Minute Man – $65.97 for printing 800 postcards
2. Jeff has sent a website budget to Jumana
C. NPCA’s link to FOM is empty. Jeff will check it out.
Next Meeting: March 29, 2003 at 2:00 pm