* Present
—Session 1: Jonathan Jeong, Aya Okada, Alla Khadka, Khurram Butt, Fangzhi Ye
-Session 2: all of the above (except Fanzhi) and Kevin Cheong, Yifeng Yu, Dennis Parra, Takayuki Noda, Jungho Park, Jungwon Yeo
*Minutes written by Alla Khadka
* December 18, 2009
Minutes:
I. Updates
a. We are officially registered as a University of Pittsburgh organization
b. By registering PP gets a bank account, and a privilege to reserve a room at the university for holding an event
- We can reserve a room at the William Pitt Union – for bigger events – such as fundraising functions
- We can also reserve a room at the Posvar Hall to hold our regular meetings
Two ways to do the meetings:
1. Have a all-members meeting one day and a separate meeting of the office-bearers on separate day or
2. Office-bearers can meet earlier and then others will come in and join us
c. University has a special requirement – you have to be a student of the University of Pittsburgh to have voting rights at the university organization
- Since we want Pitt or GSPIA alumni to be part of the executive committee a special position was created:
o Special Rapporteur position - allows one to be in the executive committee, without being able to vote
d. Our Current Faculty Advisor – Dr. Kevin Kearns
e. Depending on a project, we might want to have other faculty advisors – for instance Dr. Pickard
II. Progress Up to Date
a. Collected $165.12 (As of September 19)
b. Collected additional $130.32 from the last count until now (Total about $300)
c. Jonathan: This progress is very encouraging – we are on the right track!
d. Aya will enter everything into the system and post it
III. Organizations We Considering to Work With
a. Initially we wanted to work with Kakenya and/or Duquesne public school district – Kakenya did not respond; Jonathan got the reply from the Pitt food-bank person who was supposed to put us in touch with a school, but they were taking a very a long time– decided not to peruse either of these options
b. Two new options:
c. First option: is the Lubuto Library Project
• Last year Jonathan went to the forum organized by Jane Meyers (the representative of the Lubuto Library Project) –GSPIA library was helping them to promote their project in Pittsburgh – promoting and building libraries in Zambia and extending project to the other countries in Africa – allow orphans to study in libraries – collect the books – either collecting cash or actually collecting books
• Jonathan received an e-mail from Jane Meyers -- she heard of PP via google alert system – Jane said that she would love work with us
d. Second option: Bright Kids Uganda Project– Suggestion from Dr. Pickard – he would be happy to work with us and support us – the project is aimed at helping child refugees of war etc – there are several things that they are doing , one of them has to do with education – they have a face-book page – can connect with them via face-book
• A point to consider: Dr. Pickard will be helpful to PP on a long run – he can help to develop our organization etc.
• Bright Kids Uganda needs our money more - other organization has other donors – but we can consider to work with them in the future
• With other organization – maybe we can help in other way
IV. Discussion on how do we get engaged with other organizations
a. Khurram –initially we planed that it would be just one project – we raise a 1000 dollars and once we collected it – then we move on – we can work with a couple of organizations simultaneously, but if we are looking into a possibility of having a continuous relationship then we have to chose either or.
b. Aya – like the original idea – working with several organizations will allow us to shape our own identity
c. Khurram – another suggestion – let’s decide on a dollar amount – if $500 per year for organization – we can do it – then the issue is a matter of order – which one will we work with first?
d. Jonathan – need to be careful – want to focus all of our efforts on one organization at a time
e. So we don’t fix a dollar amount – we fix the time period (in our case it will be one year) – the goal is how much beyond $1,000 can we go?
f. Khurram: what exactly is our goal? Being able to work with one organization and then with the other will give us more room to shape our identity
g. goal is not to have a significant impact on one organization, but have some impact on different projects
h. Can work with the same organization, but not in a consecutive year – do it one year, next two years don’t come back to it, then can come back
i. Adding organizations to your portfolio – builds up your credibility
j. Impact that we can make is limited in the offset
k. Yifeng – from the donor point of view–want to know: are we committing ourselves to one organization– or would we be involved in several projects
l. Need to work on our mission statement - need to know what is the objective of our organization
m. Jonathan: we are a student organization, but professional student organization – should distinguish ourselves from other organizations and initiatives – we can be flexible
n. Core members needs to share an overarching goal-and overall understanding of what the organization is set to do
o. Think about the name of the organization – penny – can change the world – coins when combined with commitment are powerful
p. Why are we helping, to whom, why kids in Africa
q. Agreement that we are committing to the Bright Kids of Uganda - for one year – we will say to them that we are committed – among ourselves we will decide (all present members voted)
V. Bright Kids of Uganda
a. Once we chose working with them there are several things to consider
b. Dennis: suggestion - Getting feedback from real kids and posting it the website - will help us to stay connected with the children we are helping – talk to Dr. Picard about it
c. Right now the feeling is that we could raise about 1,000 per year US
VI. Collecting Coins
a. Collecting cans for our donors – using coffee cups with our logo on it
b. Event: getting donors all together and distributing the collecting cans to them
c. Need more secure cans for places like the student lounge
VII. Action Plan
a. Need to have an action plan
b. Jonathan: need to be flexible
VIII. Logo
a. Jonathan will scan the logo (he has several samples) – and will post it on line (PP google site) – we will have to vote on it
b. Will vote on-line
c. Kevin’s friend will create a professional logo for us – based on the Jonathan’s drawings
IX. Fundraising Event
a. Success of our project next year depend on the success of our fundraising event
b. Multi-purposeful ceremony – advertizing organization – advocating our cause etc.
c. To be hold sometime in March
d. Preparation and planning - starting at least two months in advance
X. Training Members Event
a. Will talk about in detail at our next meeting
b. Khurram and Aya will be in charge
XI. Website
a. Who is going to work on the website - goal is to have it up by the end of January
b. Alla and Yifeng – in charge of developing the interface of the website
c. Dennis will help putting it together
d. Another suggestion: Translating our mission statement etc. into different languages
e. Need to come up with the plan – Dennis will help us with putting it together
XII. Miscellaneous
a. Business card – for the office bearers – Aya will get the template for the cards
b. Yifeng agreed to be our Co-secretary – warm welcome!!!
c. Dennis agreed to be our Webmaster – warm welcome!!!
Next Meeting: Sometime in January, Jonathan will follow up on that
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