Minutes:
TRUSTS FOR AFRICAN
SCHOOLS
MINUTES OF MEETING OF
TRUSTEES ON 19 MAY 2014 AT 6 KINGLEY STREET LONDON
Present: : Guy
Cowley, Norma Empringham, Ben Howland, Gill
Marshall-Andrews, Johnnie Morris,
Apologies: Lissa
Campbell, Tim Flower, Steve James, Will
Jones, Tom Marshall-Andrews, Luke Morris,
Ben Taylor.
Norma Empringham in the Chair. Everyone asked for good wishes to be conveyed
to Luke who has been ill.
1. Minutes of
meeting on 13 February 2014 were agreed.
2. New Secretaries
Peter Barton the current Head of Aga Khan Education in
Nairobi has agreed to take over as secretary of Boka Primary School Trust from
Kimberlee Elder. She has a new and demanding job and feels she cannot give the
trust the time it deserves. The handover
will take place early June.
Sarah Wright has also said she needs to hand over the
secretary role for Asako Primary School due to ill health and having to return
to US. We are looking for someone to
take on this role.
Harriet Matsaert the secretary of Mivukoni Secondary School
Trust has also indicated she wants to stand down as she has a full time job and
feels that after 6 years the trust needs to be more self sustaining and locally
orientated. Trustees agreed that this
would be an appropriate time to start winding down TAS’ funding support for
Mivukoni and look for another secondary school.
There will be another meeting in September when this will be discussed
with the school and the governing body.
3.
School Partnerships
Kimphe
Langano Primary School (Ethiopia) / Heathfield Junior School
Vince
Cable has agreed to write to the Home Secretary about the refusal of visas for
the Ethiopian teachers and will write a letter of support to accompany the next
application. A new date for the exchange
visit will be sought.
Post
meeting note: The planned visit of 3 teachers from Norbury
Manor Business and Entreprise College to Usueni Girls School has been cancelled
by the British Council after recent bombing attacks in Nairobi and
Mombasa. This is deeply frustrating for
all concerned but Norbury are in the process of re-booking the visit.
4.
TAS / KWS partnership
KWS
is undergoing serious re-structuring and changes of personnel. It seems that all the Assistant Directors
have left the organisation and no-one is making any decisions. This has meant that we still have not had
confirmation of the shared budget arrangements for Stephen Kameti and the funds for his salary have not been
sent. Every effort will be made in the
coming weeks to get this sorted out.
5.
Peter Barton role
Peter
has agreed to become the Boka secretary and also to take on a general
curriculum support role. This will start
with identifying £200 worth of resources from Kenya Institute of Curriculum
Development for each school. His post at
Aga Khan finishes end June and he will then be able to go round the schools
with Stephen.
6.
Finance, accounts and Gift Aid
We
have £45.5k in the bank to spend on projects today. Funds expected in the next 12 months are
around £45k.
7. Proposals for funding
A schedule of projects was presented and funding of
£45,380 was agreed in principle. In 4
projects funding will be delayed until further details are submitted but may be
sent out before the next meeting.
Projects to the value of £50k were identified with funding decisions
deferred until the next meeting.
8. Just a Drop
Lissa has submitted a short questionnaire about water for
the schools in order to help her get a picture of what the needs are in TAS
supported schools. Stephen has this and
will complete it in due course.
9. Loldia School request
We have been approached by the trustees of Loldia School
Fund (a UK charity) for help. Over the
years LSF has raised substantial funds for Loldia Primary School in Naivasha
which has now become a very large school with over 2000 children. LSF now wishes to close down its operation by
the end of 2014, transfer remaining funds to TAS and bring Loldia under the TAS
umbrella. It was agreed that a trustee
of LSF would be invited to attend the next TAS meeting and that the matter
should be progressed by email in the meantime.
10. Next meeting was agreed for 6pm 8 or 9
September 2014. Many thanks to
Ben H for hosting today’s meeting at short notice.
It is hoped that the next meeting might be at Locke Lord
subject to Luke being fully recovered.
