Friends of Mali

Board Meeting Minutes

Sunday, January 18, 2004

2:00 p.m.

Minutes

I. Old Business

A. Nalgene bottles –

We believe Heather McCurdy is spearheading this. Jumana will call Heather this afternoon to verify this and see how FOM can help.

Supporting new volunteers heading to Mali – Sabrina’s proposals

1. Give free membership to PCV’s as sort of a welcome packet. Include a Nalgene bottle. The stage group leaves from DC so we can go to the hotel or contact a member in Philly to meet the stage and talk up the FOM. A way to keep people in the loop about us and have access to them as future members of FOM. Jumana will talk to Heather about spearheading this welcome packet.

B. Calabash music

On the website but no info on who has accessed Calabash through us. Jeff will follow up to see if Calabash has received any new members through us.

II. New Business

A. Closing the Loop on Membership Orders – Andrew

Andrew has received paypal orders for membership renewals but is not sure if they have been recorded. There may be some of these checks in the FOM P.O. box but since Jumana has been out of the country, the box has not been checked. She will do this on Tuesday.

B. Feedback on the Networking Database – Andrew

Sabrina sent feedback. The rest of the board should take a look at it and get feedback to Andrew by next Friday.

III. Other

A. Revitalizing the group –

We need to get revitalized, we need to refocus on our original goals. These are suggestions from Sabrina and Jumana:

1. Build membership through website

Jumana will approach Tom Bruns about translating the website into French.

2. Survey all of our members asking what kinds of activities they would like us to do. We will also ask it what ways they would be willing to actively participate on a monthly basis. Sabrina will put together a draft of this survey and send it to the board by this Friday.

3. We should do more with PCV’s since they could be an important source of information on PCV projects as well as Mali’s progress as a country. Plus, we want to invite these PCV’s to be members of FOM after their service.

Jumana will approach Heather McCurdy about spearheading welcome packets from FOM. Although Peace Corps already sends out a welcome packet to new volunteers but FOM could add some important information, tips, advice and feedback

4. Friends of Ethiopia and Eritrea’s website has a great feature that is called “Out of the Home Town”. It is includes a map of the country with the towns that RPCV’s served in since the 60’s. People can put up pictures and stories of their service their. Click on the town and it will highlight stats and info on the town plus the volunteers who lived there. This would be a nice feature to add to our website. Jeff in particular will check this out to investigate feasibility. Access: www.friendsofguinea.org and www.RPCV.org.

5. Be more aggressive about contacting COSing volunteers – this is an energetic group that could help us continue to build FOM.

6. We should make joining FOM a separate button so people coming to our website to join can do so easily and quickly.

7. We should share each other’s contact information as an alternate means of communication. Jeff will send an e-mail with board member’s contact information.

B. Activities

We’d like to find a regional rep to organize 3-4 events per year in their area. These events will be coordinated nationally as well as locally.

Jumana will send out an e-mail to request a regional representative. Andrew will determine the regions, Jeff will put Jumana’s request on the website and Sabrina in the Newsletter. Andrew will be the point person for the regional groups.

C. Allison will send Jumana a check for t-shirts and an e-mail listing reimbursements.

Next Meeting: Saturday, March 13, 2004 10:00 am