Minutes:
TRUSTS FOR AFRICAN
SCHOOLS
MINUTES OF MEETING OF
TRUSTEES ON THURSDAY 9 JANUARY 2020
Present: Norma Empringham, Guy Cowley, Will Jones, Luke Morris,
Ben Taylor, Tom Marshall-Andrews, Gill Marshall-Andrews
Apologies: Lissa Campbell, Johnnie Morris, Douglas Pinto
1. Minutes
of meeting on 7 October 2019 were
agreed.
2. Schools update:
The schools have been on their Christmas break since just
after our last meeting but several
important things have happened in schools since then.
Firstly there have
been huge rains for most of that period – the Positive Indian Ocean Dipole is
apparently the cause – which have washed away roads, tree seedlings and even
houses. The Forest Schools pilot project
at Kaseluni has been set back but as the rain recedes a new ‘tree caretaker’ is
about to be appointed who will oversee the re-planting and care of new tree
seedlings.
Secondly the
receipt of significant funds from the Property Race Day has brought
about renewed activity at Mitamysi. Contractors’ trucks have managed to get
through and building on the boys dormitory and staff houses has begun.
Loldia and Mitamysi have new headteachers this term. We hope they prove enthusiastic partners with
TAS.
Guy is preparing an analysis of 2019 exam results. Preliminary figures indicate a healthy trend
albeit not uniform progress. This will
be uploaded onto the website when all the schools have submitted results.
3. Karui Limited
It was agreed that bank balances for all Karui accounts
will be run down and no further funds transferred into them for the time
being. Funding will be sent direct to
the contractors by Guy from the UK TAS account.
This is because there is a possibility that a rule change
in Kenya may mean Karui must pay tax on its income rather than profit. Bowman Coulson and Harney, the law firm who
set up the existing structure of Charitable Trust and Charitable Company
specifically in order to provide a vehicle for the receipt of TAS funds for
projects in schools, have been contacted.
Discussions with them are ongoing and in the meantime GMA will ask
secretaries of the school trusts to transfer remaining balances into the main
account which will then be used for a single project.
4. Funding
The funds from the Property Race Day have now been received. A total of £68k . We expected £41k for the first year’s
projects at Mitamysi. They would like us
to spend the additional funds on Year two projects. There has been no progress with the
application to St James Place. Ben will
pursue.
Fritha Dickie is going to run the London Marathon for
us. GMA will pursue the usual sources.
The mechanism for direct funding of contractors from UK
was discussed and it was agreed that bank details will be emailed by Stephen Kameti and confirmed by WhatsApp.
5. Proposals for funding
Projects for immediate funding to the value of around
£24k (£22,240 of this is for first stage Mitamysi projects) will be sent. A further £24,600 will be sent later in the
year for selected second stage projects.
Projects in the pipeline total a further £66k for
Mitamysi and £83k for other schools.
6. Resignation of Trustees
Steve James has resigned from the Board on the basis that
he cannot attend enough meetings. Tim
Flower has also formally resigned as he has been out of the country for some
years.
7. Meetings and thanks
Very many thanks to Ben for hosting this meeting at
E&Y, and for delicious dinner after.
Next meeting will be on Thursday 7 May, venue to be agreed.
