Friends of Mali
Board Meeting Minutes
April 4, 2004 2:00 pm
1. What things need to be in place to get more membership involvement into the website
§ Discussion Board/Announcement pages already open to the membership to make posts
§ Only way to get other members more involved with website design and maintenance is if they had web design experience and access to Dreamweaver. Otherwise, Jeff would have to make all structural changes.
2. Jeff will put an ad on the website requesting maintenance help from people experienced with Dreamweaver.
3. Board members will also look out for members with web design experience
4. Tap into regional representatives
§ Regional reps will also request help from people at the next FOM event. Andrew will send regional reps all pertinent information.
1. Jumana spoke with Peace Corps Mali. They agreed to incorporate FOM (Did I get this right?) information into staging/orientation. We’ll ask regional reps to help with outreach.
2. Peace Corps also agreed to give PCTs our welcome packet/toolkit, including the nalgene bottles, as long as we bring a sample for Peace Corps Mali folks to see ahead of time. They want to see it well before the next staging so we will shoot for the end of June.
3. We’ll need a FOM logo to go on the nalgene bottles (what’s wrong with our old logo? Did I miss something?) Kathy Fox is designing a new logo for Friends of Mali. Sabrina will follow up with her to see if she can finish it by the end of April.
4. Heather McCurdy is working on the PCT toolkit.
Jeff will email Calabash within the next two weeks to see if the FOM/Calabash link has been used.
1. Andrew has received a couple of Pay Pal memberships since last meeting
2. Jumana has been checking the mailbox but has not received any checks. Because our post office box is very close to the White House, security around mail coming into that post office is very high and mail deliveries are very slow.
§ Jumana will check the box at the end of the week.
§ Sabrina will post an announcement about the mail situation on the FOM announcement board.
1. Get regional reps operational
§ Jumana will send a list of members who have expressed interest in being regional reps and email it out to the board by Wednesday.
§ People from the following cities have volunteered: Texas, California, Tahoe, Baltimore, NYC and Chicago.
§ Jeff will personally “lean on” people in cities not represented, to become regional reps. (and that could be really scary if Jeff’s been eating all that French cheese!) J Board members should also recommend people to contact to be regional reps of cities not represented. Please send ideas to Andrew (that’s what we said, right?) by the end of the week.
2. First Regional Rep Activity
§ We’ll advertise May 15 – Regional reps will coordinate their own activity
§ Agenda items for the event:
Encourage folks to sign up for the networking database – have a sign up sheet or cards to fill out.
Solicit people with design experience to help with website maintenance.
3. Newsletter
§ Andrew will send “hot points” or headlines of information from the newsletter to all who have given us their email addresses. Members will receive the actual newsletter.
4. NPCA
§ Andrew will contact NPCA regarding most recent membership information of people that served in Mali
5. COS
§ Sabrina will compile an information packet marketing FOM to COSing volunteers. The packet will include a one-page fact sheet about FOM, membership information and copies of the most recent newsletter. This will be sent to Cheryl Turner in Bamako for the August COS Conference. (Is this correct?)
1. Tom Bruns has agreed to translate the FOM Website into French (I presume). He will send the text translation to Jeff who will then format it and place it on the website.
2. Member Survey
Has been completed. The results are on the last page of the spring 2004 newsletter
3. Adding map of Mali where RPCVs served on our website
§ Jeff will add a page to the website that lists membership by region of service and year of COS.
§ The people we solicit for help the website can also help with the map creation project. This is a long-term project.
Jeff Spivack – 011-33-682280603
Jumana Qamruddin – (202) 251-5633
Sabrina Washington – (212) 932-1212
Andrew Mitchell – (857) 225-0440
Allison Williams – (202) 364-1301
1. The Board has decided to put the treasurer/secretary/vice president positions up for election
§ We agreed that it would be best for the treasurer to be geographically located in DC.
§ Jenna has already given up the Vice president position for personal reasons
§ Allison willing to take on role of treasurer and giving up role of secretary.
§ Jumana will talk to Mark Nilles about taking on a more active role in FOM. She will also talk to Tom Bruns about the vice president position. Tom is interested in being liaison between the DC Malian community/embassy and FOM.
2. Timeline
§ Ballots will be mailed (what about a downloadable ballot to save postage?) to members by the first week in June
§ To vote in the election memberships have to be paid or renewed by June 30
§ Elections held on June 30
§ Results announced July 4
III. Other
2004 Newsletter Submission Deadlines
June 1 for the July publication
September 1 for October publication
December 1 for late December/January 2005 publication
Next Meeting: Saturday, May 8, 2004 @ 10:00am