Engineers Without Borders

Kenya Meeting Minutes 8-11-09

August 14, 2009 at 1:46 pm | In Meeting Minutes | Comments Off

EWB-Kenya Notes

Wednesday August 11^th, 2009

Attending: Courtney, Aparna, Justin, Mikkel, Kendra, Daniel

Mission statement:

Announcements/updates:

· Bike ride

o Contacts

§ Kiawanas club

· Albany

o Haven’t emailed yet will though

§ Tim bike leader works at HP

· Will email

o EWB shirts

§ Grabbed a lot of attention

· Was a great conversation

o End up money wise

§ Justin: $125 waiting on $320 =450

§ Aparna $275, maybe 50

§ Courtney: $400, waiting on dad

§ Kate: $150

§ Kendra: $490, maybe more

§ Daniel: $0, email Rob to see if money has popped up into his account

§ Total $1765! Nice job guys!

§ Are we even with buying tickets and insurance?

· Owe Andy 535 for tickets

· Owe Aparna 400 for travel insurance

§ Travelers may take EWB money to spend instead EWB repaying them

§ Money goes to Rob

· Talk to Rob if one of Kenya people can have a key to mailbox

o Kendra will do

o Advice for future plans like these

§ Booth didn’t get a lot of traffic

· Maybe at a different race will be better

· Maybe station at a feed station

o Or work one of feed stations

· Maybe organizing own ride for OSU students now that we have know what goes on with a ride

o Thanks you’s

§ Aparna will draft up a thank you card

· Include printed picture

· Part of note include how much money we raised

o Also add that because of you that we can have a great assessment trip

· Aparna will send thank you’s out to donator list she has unless told otherwise

· Community call

o Phone call from Wilson

§ Son of Charles, works in Nairobi

· Emailing back and forth helping with linguistics to travel from Nairobi to Migori, offered to travel to Lela with us

§ Willing to pick us up from airport

§ Community asked whether if we needed a ride from the airport, shows that they are making sure we have a safe trip

· Any word from Andy

o Haven’t heard anything about job yet

· Beaver community fair, October 2^nd

o Mikkel will sign us up for that

· Other updates

o Polos

§ Come in Women’s and Men’s

· Price around $21-26

o Put in order by the end of this week

o Takes about a week to get them

o Get them so Adam can have one for when we travel

o Email Kendra if you want one with size

o Can send picture if you want to see it

o Adam wants a large

Assignments/personal updates:

Everyone:

- Send Aparna donation contacts

o People are great job!

o Needed for tax purposes

§ Know where our money is coming from

Aparna:

- Update on professor in Nairobi

o Gotten back to us

§ if they were to help with hydro geological surveying someone from department would travel with us to do it,

· On consulting basis

o Wwould have to pay

§ Haven’t said how much they want

§ Would sign an MOU, wait until September to pursue

· They want to make it official

§ If we don’t need to be there for the survey then we will have them do it when we are not there

- Grants from world bank

o Will be looking into

- Letter of inquiry

o Got a draft back, super marked up

§ Mikkel will work on it until next week

Daniel: (2 minutes)

- School supplies donating to community

o Concerns

§ Consider not taking anything

· Children left with impression that white people give them stuff and that’s all they know white people for

o East Africa has a major problem with this

o Supplies easily available in country

§ Don’t want to take away business from local community

· Aparna already received donations

o From:

§ OSU friends

§ Co-workers

o Have around 50 notebooks

§ Give to the teachers in the community so they can hand them out

§ Something to think about: different countries use different paper

o Good amount of supplies

· Aparna has heard opposite things from people that have worked in Kenya

· Tanzania doesn’t use loose leaf paper, use legal paper, only used on exams

o Kids will want to write on little notebooks

§ Little stapled ones, little blue ones

· Will there be school supplies in Lela? In Magori?

o Probably

o Compromise: bring what we have donated, then buy anything else there

o Planning to meet with elders, after spending a few days roaming so have decent structure of community and know what the best decision will be

Kate:

- Bag fundraiser

o Kate sent out the logo for the bags

o Nationals is a fan of the bag fundraiser

Kendra:

- Obtain water filter from friend

o Will get whenever they get in touch

o Aparna may be able to get it from her easier

- List for what we will be needing to test for with water testing kit

o Going through water kit inventory

o Need a long list

· Like vials, gloves, pipettes, batteries, bleach, distilled water

· Can get some things like bleach in Migori but want to make sure we have everything

· Consider taking bleach tablets for travelers water

o Filters won’t get rid of virus, or hepatitis

o Boiling for 5 minutes should kill it all

§ Aparna will take her jet boil

· Are there certain supplies that we can get for free from EWB west coast?

o Don’t know

o Aparna will give Kendra contact of Portland person who had it before hand

§ For El Salvador trip had duffel bag with wheels for water testing kit, that broke on the return trip

· Probably want wheels for water testing kit so it’s easier to move

§ Courtney has another manual for the water testing kit, will send to Kendra

o Meeting with gentleman from city of Corvallis, Thursday 2 pm – 4 pm

§ Mikkel interested in going

§ Adam should be free Thursday and can go

- Rotary contacts

o No huge updates

Mikkel:

- COE sundae event during connect week, September 24^th, Thursday

o Who will be here during connect week and able to help?

§ Aparna will be there

§ Courtney will be there

§ Remember to email list serv to ask for help beginning of September

- Office space

o In contact with Paul from Kelley engineering center to get office space

§ Will need space for

· Posters, flyers, filter, walkey talkies, cell phones, table, chairs, canopy

§ May want something secure first, then otherwise get anything we can get

§ Will email to make request more official and get answer

- Kenya listserv needs to be added to the website

o Justin needs the link for this

§ Aparna will send this to Justin

- Brochure

o Aparna has friend that may help with marketing and such

Justin:

- NGWA grant

o Found the right one

o Will come back to it in the fall

o Add to list of what we need to come back to

- Timeline for what we need to get done for Coca cola grant

o Justin made chart of stuff that needs to get done

§ Involves a list of things that we need, people can now sign up for things they want to do

· No timeline, can turn it in any time

- Western Union needs to be done by the August, 28^th

o Not sure how well they fit us

o Need to get letter of inquiry out by end of next week

Courtney:

- Entertainment, have asked people if they want to be a part of it

- Grant; pure water group, blue planet water

o Waiting until we have something professional

o Have to be recommended for these grants

o Send out letter of inquiry

§ Send out at the same time as the Western union letter of inquiry

Banquet/Run: (45 minutes)

· Banquet

o Venue

§ Birdie’s findings

· Justin received a message, has had food poisoning

o Trying to keep in contact with caterer friends

§ How appropriate are they for us?

· Would like to discuss what they need cooking wise

· Make sure they can handle the volume

§ Multnomah art center (Aparna)

· Visited them last Friday

o Really nice for what we are looking for

o Has stage, projector, lights, projector screen

o ½ size of ballroom but wider

§ If have 160 people for dinner then auction items may have to be in other rooms

· Otherwise tables can be on the parameter

o $900 about total to rent auditorium from 2 or 3, rent kitchen earlier, then tear down at 10, event 6-9 pm

o February 13^th available now, may be booked soon

§ When sign up pay $300

o No alcohol, complicates things

o When first drive up doesn’t look amazing, there is a lot of parking behind building

o Lighting; tube lighting, 5 rows of 3 lights, no dimming

§ Will want something to spruce this up

· Luke will probably be able to help

o Can only visit it on a weekday

· Ecotrust wants to know either way

· Pretty comfortable with art center

o Will come down to how we decorate

o Can’t tape anything on the walls

o No confetti, no glitter

o Has a nice stage for performers

o Sound equipment = $20 flat

· Want travelers to bring back compelling items to auction off

o Special lighting for each auction item

· World forestry center

o A lot more expensive

§ $2000, set up and take down, provide tables and chairs

§ Caterer list

· Exclusive?

§ Have chosen Multnomah art center as venue for February 13^th

· Banquet venue payment 2-3 months in advance

o Logo for banquet

§ Travelers are busy!

§ Courtney will work on it with brother, he is graphic design students

· Done within next week?

§ Decided on Kenya love phrase

o Save the dates

§ Send next week

§ Aparna has started on wording

· Will have template by next week

o Dishes price and options (Mikkel)

§ Looked at OSU catering didn’t find anything for renting dishware

· Will call OSU catering and ask about dishes

§ Special occasions

· About $3 a person

§ Ikea

· Look into again

· Dinner set for 6 people: $25, about same price as rentals

o Talk to El Salvador about sharing dinner ware

§ Brad and Katie Bruce are in charge of El Salvador’s banquet

· Want more information about banquet and other El Salvador events for website

o Ikea, 365+ 19.99 6 big plates, 6 side plates, 6 bowls

§ Catalog page 317, item number: 801.342.70

o Entertainment

§ Courtney

· One guy drumming

· Mostly has found music

· WOU good African dance program

· African music players, no one from Africa does dancing

o Problem that African’s not doing entertainment?

§ No don’t think so

§ Kendra: found someone, Chika marimba, currently contacting

· Very lively, just music, dancing behind marimbas

o Music found on their website

§ Others?

§ What style of entertainment?

· Would dancers be appropriate?

· Ideas for entertainment

o Maybe have a slow dance, that the chosen entertainment helps with

o Dancers at end teach others lessons

o Give the entertainers focus so they could help us with

§ Ask any groups that we ask if we they have any future events that we can see

§ Courtney: no tape on walls, then can we project things on walls? Projector wall paper?

· High ceilings, projectors available from library

· This will work!

· Run

o Pulling water from river and where we can pump it (Justin)

§ Gave parks and rec a call

· The person that he contacted saw no problem with this, only need to reserve space

o If we take money, we have to pay $250, can we get around that?

o Got another person’s number to make sure pulling water won’t be an issue

o Setting a date so we can start advertising

§ October 25^th? So not so cold, maybe not enough help from general membership

· This may be a good time so we can get new members helping out right away

· Need to talk to El Salvador

o There banquet November 7^th

o They may prefer to have after banquet

§ Maybe November 15^th

o Will talk to Michelle more about date wise

o Started making list of what we need to do

§ We will need group of event people

§ Kendra knows of website where you can sign up for events, service for signing up people

· Sportability has similar thing

§ Organize all paper work, shirts and much more

o Talk to some people about getting involved with it

§ Courtney will help with getting things together

· Grants

o World bank grants à Luke, send it!

§ Try to figure out what application process look like, when deadline is?

§ Justin will also send Luke some specific things with the Coca Cola grant that he can help with

· Birdie has been getting everything together for football parking

o Should bring in some money

· Luke has a friend who is from Kenya

o We are interested in talking to them

Daniel:

- Formal meeting à perdiem, daily allotment for being there (money)

o University, teachers, community meeting

o Need to ask

o Travel to be part of part of formal meeting then pay

§ If organized by leaders then perdiem

§ 700 kenya shillings, $10 per person

§ Leaders, maybe elected leader

§ How do we approach that

§ Asked Mark for all inclusive prices he didn’t include this

§ Deals more with government official

§ Professor

· Worked with different NGO’s

o Ask NGO’s if worked with them and seeing if the gave the professor a perdiem

o Ask for templet of what have done with other people

· Would be included in MOU

· Good person to ask about that

Next week at 7:30

We will be having meetings while travelers are in country

Things we need to come back to:

- NGWA grant

To do list:

- Everyone

o Send donations to Rob

o Tell Aparna if you are going to write a thank you to donators on your own, and don’t want her to send out the one she makes

o Let Kendra know if you want a polo and tell her what size

- Aparna

o Email Albany’s Kiawanas club

o Draft up a thank you card for the bike ride donations

o Give Kendra the contact for the Portland professional who had water kit before us

o Reserve Multnomah art center for February 13^th

o Save the date templet

o Figure out some more information about perdiems

- Justin

o Add link for Kenya listserv to the website

o Call the contact you got from parks and rec to make sure pulling water will be fine

o Talk to El Salv folk to figure out date for the run/walk

- Mikkel

o Email Tim, thank him for booth and ask for any contact information for HP

o Sign us up for Beaver community fair

o Work on editing Letter of inquiry

o Graphic design help for brochure

§ Aparna’s friend?

o Call OSU catering see if they rent dishware

o Ikea look at buying dishware again

o Talk to El Salv folks to see if they would be willing to share in cost of dishware for their upcoming banquet

- Courtney

o Send Kendra the water testing kit manual

o Continue to ask about entertainment

o Work on banquet logo with brother

o Help Justin get together the run/walk

- Kate

o Send bag logo to company so they can put into correct format

- Luke

o Think of how we can spruce up the venue (lighting especially)

o Take a look at the world bank grant

o Ask Kenyan friend if we can meet him for coffee or if we can get into contact with him

- Kendra

o Ask Rob to see if we can get access to the mailbox

o Get the different things for the water testing kit

o Get more information from Chika marimba