Thanks,
Nate
Everyone,
Here are the photos that Nate took on his trip to Zambia:
http://picasaweb.google.co
Just to summarize what we decided in tonight’s meeting:
1) We will do the site assessment trip when the funds are available. The purpose of this visit will be to perform surveying, soils analysis, and identify the location where the dam should be built. On this trip we will also outline for the villagers what their responsibilities are (e.g., get the land legally classified as community land and not individually owned; obtain government permission to build the dam, etc.), do the community health assessment reports required by EWB, and help them plan on how to make the best use of the new resource.
Once the villagers have achieved their tasks – and once we have raised enough money to pay for the earth work – we will travel back to Zambia to oversee the construction of the dam we have designed.
2) If we haven’t raised enough money to travel (~$2500 x 6) by July 13th , then we won’t travel for the site assessment trip in August. In this case, we would shoot for site assessment in December (provided, of course, that travel funds were available then).
3) Nate and Mike are going to get together on July 4th to make a rough draft of the fundraising presentation. They’ll email everyone a copy of it when they’re done for comments and input. (Or load it onto Google Documents, as described below.)
(For the talk, we’ll be shooting for 30 – 45 minutes… should talk about: what is EWB overall, EWB at Marshall, the target community and their problems / needs, Nate’s assessment trip and what he learned, the basic idea of what we hope to accomplish and how it will improve the people’s lives, maybe something about how a donation of “X” can help… ‘a donation of $100 will buy 20 bags of cement to help reinforce the overflow weir’. The presentation should include a direct and specific request for financial support.)
4) Everyone is going to email contact info to Mike for him to make phone calls and/or send letters requesting the opportunity to give the presentation. Email him with the names and info of people who have told you we can give the presentation, church groups that would let us speak, civic organizations, service groups, etc.
Mike: maybe you can keep the list up to date and online using something like Google Documents, so that everyone can see which groups you’ve already contacted, and what they said. That way to don’t keep suggesting people you already know about, and we see what the response was for the organizations we suggested.
And also you could keep an online appointment calendar for everyone to view (Google Calendar) for when the actual talks are scheduled for.
These online documents will make it much easier for all of us to work collaboratively and know in real-time where we stand.
5) To help build up the EWB Marshall membership beyond the club officers, we will find and conduct some local activities (e.g., Habitat for Humanity) that can help get our name out there and involve some of the lower-classmen. Also, we will look at attending additional EWB national meetings and bringing lower classmen along to help groom them for future leadership positions so that the club doesn’t die when the current leadership graduates.
Thanks,
Nate
