Accounting and Program Audit Team
Log # 8
By Anthony Caruana
John and I met with Dr. Brenton last week to discuss how we can
implement poverty maps for the enterprise development portion of
the Accounting team. The meeting went very well in my opinion
because Dr. Brenton suggested we come up with a rapid response
survey to help us obtain data so it can eventually be compared to
data future GLOBE classes can obtain. Dr. Brenton’s idea of a rapid
response survey is ideal because it is meant to be a short survey
that will provide us with a lot of information that we don’t have
(that will also be useful for the finance team) but it can also be
used as a “base” that can be compared down the road. This will
accurately capture GLOBE’s impact on the areas GLOBE has given
loans to. This data could be used for many things including
possibly helping the finance team decide if they want to expand
where they want to give loans to. Even though the survey may seem
short it is designed to be easy for the Daughters of Charity to
answer so we do not put an extra burden on them.
We also finalized a borrower repayment form (with the help of the
finance team). This is designed to help easily track the loans;
when the loans are given, the loan amount, the date of repayment,
the amount and interest paid. This information is very important
and will be very useful because currently we do not have complete
information that this form will provide. These two forms may seem
like we are giving the sisters a lot to do but we tried to simplify
it as much as possible and both documents are very important and
will be vital to future GLOBE classes.
Today’s event ‘Entrepreneurship in a Global World’ was a huge
success! Nakita did an amazing job!! Ingrid Fray was also a great
speaker. Every question she answered resulted in amazing advice and
insight. Dress for Success was an amazing program; I like how she
went above and beyond similar programs. She not only gave a suit
for an interview to women on welfare but she gave a second suit for
a second interview. She did not stop there; if the women were hired
Ingrid gave them a week’s worth of clothing and followed them for
months. She did this because most of them were homeless and were
not used to the corporate world so if they needed help Ingrid was
there to help them. She also spoke about her work at Philip Morris,
which was very interesting. Her job was to help domestic violence
victims and let people know that Philip Morris was this doing this
without it looking like Philip Morris was doing it for good
publicity. This was a great idea that she came up with in terms of
helping the victims (who felt they were stuck because of money).
Her idea was to hide money in their lipstick containers; she got
the idea from a former boss of hers. Overall all of the speakers
were great and the event was a huge success!!
Finance and Risk Assessment Team
Log # 8
By Saachel Parker
This week in GLOBE was entitled Managing Risk in Microfinance:
Lessons Learned from the Field. This lecture was led by panelist
Deborah Drake, Karla Brom, Christian Ruehmer, and Janice Abraham.
As risk management experts they individually spoke about their
experiences within the Microfinance industry in regards to risk
management mistakes Microfinance Institutions most frequently make.
They also stated the techniques needed to keep your microfinance
institution from not being successful.
Lessons learned from the lecture: From This lecture I learned that
microfinance institutions have been steadily increasing over a
twenty year period. They are now able to assist impoverished people
worldwide, while providing a wide variety of services. With
their new found success also comes hardships. Some of the
microfinance institutions did not effectively manage their
institutions and now are in jeopardy of failure. They then spoke
about how these institutions need to identify, assess, implement
and monitor their risks. These steps will immediately lead to
improvement in their company’s success. This lecture was very
interesting to me, specifically beacuse I am a part of the risk and
finance team and learning these techniques are essential for our
group to succeed.
Internally in GLOBE the finance and risk team has been preparing
for our final presentation. We also have been researching Vietnam
and the process it will take for us to branch out and help the
people of Vietnam bring themselves out of poverty. We also are
still exploring probable interest rates and attempting to get in
touch with the Daughter of Charity to see how everything is going
with the previous loans that were distributed.
Finally, the GLOBE class has also been preparing for our big
fundraising event that going to be launched on November 15, 201l.
The risk and finance team donated a basket of goodies that will be
perfect for two to enjoy a day at the theater. I am extremely
excited and can’t wait to see the outcome of our event.
Marketing and Fundraising Team
Log # 8
By Adam Kotowski
This week the marketing team had our main event. We spent all
week planning the event trying to get tables, trying to staff the
tables, come up with raffle ideas and ways to sell our promotional
items. One of the marketing members, Doug, ended up making flyers
and posters for the promo item and the event. They all came out
great! Another member of the marketing team, Nakita, did a great
job of organizing the whole event. We were able to raise a hundred
dollars and we are still selling raffle tickets until December 6th
at our final presentation. This gives us plenty of time to raise
more money to be able to give out more loans to people struggling
with poverty. We also hope to have one more bake sale and our final
presentation event. Besides raising money, I think our main event
really gave the GLOBE brand awareness around campus. Our table was
decorated in GLOBE colors with GLOBE flyers, promotional items and
there were students standing around the table in their GLOBE tees.
Everyone seemed to be really interested in what GLOBE was when they
walked over because of our table. They all wanted to know what
GLOBE was before they even asked about the raffle or the
promotional items. This is really important because living in
America one of the richest countries in the world I think we all
forget there are people starving every night and programs like
GLOBE not only help these starving people, but also remind other
people that not everyone is as well off as we are.
As the semester comes to a close I hope we continue to promote
GLOBE. This week I was in New York City, one the richest cities in
the world if not the richest, and even here there are people right
in front of you starving begging for money. Many of these people
have disabilities and their sole job has become begging for money
so they could buy food. At this point it occurred to me that if
poverty exist right here in the richest city in the world imagine
what it is like in one of the poorest continents in the world,
where not just a few people are starving, but whole towns, cities
and countries. I think people forget how lucky we are to live in
the United States. We take it for granted. Even us, in GLOBE, do we
really understand what it is like to live in poverty in African
countries? Do we really understand who we are actually helping? Do
we know what it is like to starve or have children that are
starving that you can’t feed? In America a person that is
considered to be in poverty could still be living in a house with
cable TV and food on the table every night. In Africa, they would
be considered rich. That is why it is so important to explain to
people what GLOBE is and the people we are helping.
Technology and Communications Team
Log # 8
By Xavier Mogollon
Filming the video logs over the past few days has been a very
good learning experience. At first, we had not expected such a
large turnout of volunteers for the video logs and didn’t realize
how eager everyone was to sacrifice their time to help us. To keep
up with all the different times and dates, we had to make a small
schedule for the Vlogs and keep special attention to the amount of
volunteers we had each day. Sometimes a conflict had to be settled
with the scheduling of the volunteers especially if they were on
the same team. We came up with a solution to the problem by filming
team members together, which would reduce the time spent on filming
one person. Taking down phone numbers was a very helpful task that
kept the volunteers updated on their roles in the videos. Coming up
with good, interesting questions was also a good learning
experience. We really wanted fun and thought-provoking questions
that gave the audience a small taste of GLOBE. We also decided that
asking five questions per person would be manageable and make each
video much more organized.
The actual filming sessions were slightly more painstaking than the
preparation. Even though we kept a precise schedule of volunteers
and their times, we did not expect how long each session would take
until we received the perfect footage. While we were interviewing
one volunteer, another volunteer’s time would pass and we would
have to reschedule them for another time and date. We had to pay
particular attention to everyone’s class schedule and see who had a
legitimate excuse for leaving early (just so we can prioritize
volunteers and filming schedules). On another note, trying to find
a quiet area or room to film was also time-consuming.
Time management was a large portion of this experience, paying
particular attention to the time of day and the energy (enthusiasm)
of our volunteers. We found that as the day dwindled, many of our
volunteers had lost most of their energy and seemed out-of-focus
during filming. It was our duty to pep up our volunteers and
reassure them that this process would go smoothly if they
cooperate. Luckily, our volunteers were understanding and made
quite an impact in our video logs – their answers were lively and
their interest was strong.
We are just about done with the video logs and are scrambling for
time; it will take a few hours to fully edit the videos and compile
them into four video logs. Luckily, my team has become highly
motivated and considers this part of our project a fun experience.
I would like to do this again!