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Minutes from Trustees Meeting
01/03/2007

Present:



Minutes:

TRUSTS  FOR AFRICAN SCHOOLS

MEETING OF TRUSTEES ON  THURSDAY 1 MARCH 2007

6.30 PM AT PORTCULLIS HOUSE ROOM ‘T’  

Present:  Norma Empringham, Johnnie Morris,  Luke Morris, Will Jones, Heather Flint,  Tom Marshall-Andrews,  Gill Marshall-Andrews.

Apologies:  Tim Flower, Ben Howland

1.  Minutes of meeting on 23 November 2006  were agreed.

2.  Update on local trusts.

i)  Eburru Secondary School Trust

The very large tank is almost complete and the whole rainwater collection project is expected to be completed by Easter.  This will make a material difference to the lives of the school community particularly as it should be ready in time for the main rains in April and May.

The staff undertook some excellent inservice training provided by Jennie Stoker a writing skills consultant trainer from UK.  This was  very popular and the staff are keen for more  inservice training.

The school is now wired for electricity and it remains only to connect up to the newly arrived grid in the village.

The school has recruited 2 additional teachers for the start for of the school year in January.  TAS sent money for 3 teachers but the government have sent another so the local Trust have requested permission to vire £1200 into the bursary scheme fund.  This was agreed by the Chair and has taken effect.

The Eburru Trust is due to meet soon and further updates and project proposals for funding are expected in due course.

ii)  Green Park School Trust

The blocks for the new building are being made.  Further details of the building programme will be sent with the minutes of the  recent meeting of Trustees.  They will be posted on the website.

The books and Christmas presents arrived before Christmas but sadly not before the school had broken up.  The presents have now been distributed and were much appreciated.  The books remain in storage awaiting the new building which will have appropriate library  and display space.

iii)  Asako Primary School Trust

The desks have arrived but we have no pictures or response from the school yet. 

The local trust has raised $12000 from an international water charity, Just a Drop, for transport and piping for the new windpump which is funded by another conservation charity George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust.  This means that the school will have access to piped water in the not too distant future.

The 2 new female teachers have taken up post in January.  More details after 14 March when the local trust has its next meeting.  We expect there to be more project proposals after that.

iv)  Bishangari

Several different avenues are now being explored in the effort to set up a trust to support the school and clinic in Bishangari.  Will and Gill are hoping to meet the Ethiopian Ambassador soon and get his support and advice. 

Journeys by Design has about £8k waiting to transfer to TAS for Bishangari and there is a further £3k in an account in Addis Ababa. JbD have in mind a young man Tariku Gebre whose university education they funded to lead the local trust when it is established.  He has a first class degree and an email address,  and they would pay him a small salary for his work on the project. There is a feeling that things are moving here.  

3.  School Partnerships

Langley Park Girls School in Bromley is applying to DfID to participate in the Global Schools Partnership with Eburru Secondary School.  If successful, funding is made available

 for regular information and teacher exchange, and possibly student exchange later on.  Both schools are excited about this prospect.

The Queens School (Primary) in Kew sent out Christmas presents to the children of Green Park School and we hope to continue this link.  Money for Green Park has also been raised by Windham Nursery and Kew Riverside Primary Schools, both in Richmond.  These links will also be kept going if possible. 

4.  Website

Tom continues to make improvements to the site.  We need to get more links to the site from other websites and he asks that everyone should try to get links established wherever possible.  This should mean that Google will give our site a higher rating.  At present when someone Googles Trusts for African Schools our site doesn’t come up.  With a higher rating it will.

Johnnie and Gill will amend the project management system to allow for project completion reports to be included.

5.  Finance

Tim sent a brief finance report.  We have around £3,000 in the bank and can expect around £3500 in Gift Aid.  So we can allocate up to £6500  but not all can be sent yet.

Total funds distributed in 2006 were £16,447.

Tim will prepare the annual return for 2006 in the next 2 months.

6.  Fund raising

Will outlined a very hopeful connection with a hedge fund brokers the Mann Group.  He will pursue this next week.  There is also a JbD client who is interested in TAS who he will speak to soon.    Heather offered to bring to the next meeting details of a VSO fund raising scheme. 

Norma will continue to pursue Fujitsu.  Luke will arrange a submission to MacFarlanes in July.

7.  Disbursements to local trusts

It was agreed that we would send out £1600 to Green Park School Trust to pay for the clearance and fencing of a playground and games area for the new school.  The money will not be sent till the Trust has acquired tenders for the work.

It was further agreed that £2400 would be sent out to Eburru for the second year of salary for 2 teachers for 07. 

Outstanding project proposals require £2600 over 3 more years for bursaries for Eburru.

More project proposals are expected to be received shortly from Asako - around £20k for staff accommodation and £2000 for lockable storage.

8.  Newsletter

Gill will write and send out a newsletter by the end of March.

9. Next meeting

The next meeting was arranged for Monday 14 May 6.30pm in Portcullis House.