[FOG news] Highlights from the May '07 quarterly board meeting

Friends of Guinea's board held their quarterly meeting on May 20, 2007. Some highlights from the meeting (that have not been superceded by subsequent events) include:

Financial Summary (balance)
$12,819 as of April 30, 2007.


New address
All FOG mail should now be sent to:

Friends of Guinea
626 Mooney St
Independence OR 9735


Projects' report
-In the past projects would be funded through PCPP site. Funding came from a variety of sources. FOG donated to these projects in the past, and the officers would take a vote. Working with PCPP is complicated. Few projects in Guinea and sometimes fully funded before FOGs check made it. Last year we decided there needed to be a credit or debit card, so eliminated check delay.

-we have $3,700 from girls conference that can be refunded to FOG

-Projects director Claire Lea wants to see us expand beyond funding PCPP projects (especially since there is no Peace Corps in Guinea right now) and look into funding NGOs and other on-the-ground projects.

-Possibilities of funding Aprofig which has all girls private school. Need money to fund teachers, and general running of school. Or El Hadj’s Thiam son started a NGO – 40 members from high school graduating class from Guinea. Raise scholarships so kids can go to private lycee in Conakry.

-We discussed the need to create some sort of funding form so non-PCVs can apply for funding, and also the possibility of having an on the ground FOG liaison who can evaluate organizations and causes. Perhaps language trainers or Mackenzie?

-When think about funding we need to make sure money goes where we need it to and that it can be tracked and linked to results

-As an example - Friends of Burkina Faso funds school and pays to send someone to evaluate projects on the ground. We can look to move in this direction (realizing it will take some time!)

-if we step up our giving to projects we will need to look into non-profit registration. This is not immediate, but needs to be kept in mind

-Claire will try to contact Friends of Sierra Leone and Liberia since they have similar situation to Guinea with no PCVs



Thanks to FOG secretary Annie Kneedler for the minutes.

Note: The full meeting notes are available upon request.