Technology and Communications
Team
Log # 4
By Bria Spease
This week has been kind of intensive. It seems backwards since we
had less reading this week, but organizing the next couple of weeks
for GLOBE, in respect to IT, has filled my week. Coming up on the
midterm made me realize that there is so much that we want to get
done as a team and personally for GLOBE. Time is starting to run
out. As we put together our midterm reports, we created a timeline
for projects and events that are coming up. Luci was a major help
in this because she gave us some amazing ideas about how to bring
awareness to GLOBE, both internally and externally. We are extra
excited about the “Capture the Storm” video contest. Although, it’s
a very small amount of time to get it done in, we think it’s
possible. Hopefully, the whole class will be excited about this
contest, especially since we can raise $1000 for GLOBE.
Reading the microfinance handbook reminded me of Management
Information Systems. This is important to microfinance because it’s
a way to keep track of everything that goes on. This was especially
interesting because we are working on corruption for research
topic. Management information systems can help to create a system
of checks and balances. The Youtube video we watched last week in
class really put poverty in perspective and placed it in real life.
To see how people live everyday in this section of the Philippines
made me grateful of all the opportunities I have. It especially
made me realize that everything I call a necessity, these people
barely have and they survive without it. It kills me that people
are still living in poverty in 21th century. I am just so glad that
there are a whole group of people (GLOBE) dedicating their time to
the plight of poverty.
Marketing and Fundraising Team
Log # 4
By Connor Cherry
It’s hard to believe a month has flown by. Looking back on what the
marketing team has accomplished in a matter of weeks explains why I
have not had a moment to realize where the time has gone.
As a team, we have managed to create many new marketing tools for
not only the current GLOBE class but GLOBE classes to come. One
obstacle we encountered as a team is the lack of communication
between GLOBE members each semester. As many people know,
communication is an essential component to the success of any
organization, which is why the marketing team is working diligently
to improve communication. Not until being accepted to GLOBE did I
realize the amount of time and effort it takes to create a stable
skeleton for a new organization. The marketing team and I have
taken the initiative to create standardized documents that can be
passed on from class to class. These documents are the framework
for the marketing team and can be utilized by future classes to
improve communication within GLOBE community. There never seems to
be enough hours in a day to complete everything that the marketing
team hopes to accomplish, however if we can help future classes by
creating these documents their time can be dedicated to new
exciting projects. I can enthusiastically say that we are currently
standardizing three types of donation letters, a press kit,
pamphlets and newsletters.
When we are not working on the documents, we are designing new
merchandise items and planning a GLOBE fair that will take place
April 20th. We have chosen to focus our marketing this semester on
the St. John’s community, which includes all three New York
campuses. The GLOBE fair will provide an opportunity to expose,
enlighten and inspire the St. John’s community to the great works
of GLOBE. I am proud of the marketing team and what we have
undertaken in such little time and look forward to what will be
accomplished with another month under our belt!
Finance and Risk Assessment
Team
Log # 4
By Rahel Solomon
Can microfinance be considered unethical? Is microfinance always
ethical? As it appears there are valid arguments against
microfinance, as well as a plethora of supporting arguments
for microfinance. We discussed in class, the ethical issues
regarding Microfinance. We realized that although on the surface
microfinance appears to be only for the benefit of recipients and
their communities, microfinance could also cause harm. Cash
infusions into communities that hitherto didn’t possess capital but
rather bartered for their livelihood could cause dangerous
competition within the community and the finance gangs and other
underground groups. While the arguments against microfinance are
valid, I still believe that the advantages of microfinance far
outweigh the negatives. Included in the plethora of benefits of the
microfinance program include women gaining better knowledge of
community social issues, and aiding women in social / political
mobility within their community.
When the actual impact of microfinance is examined, we realize that
microfinance has helped more than 100 million people out of
poverty. In the context of the larger picture, 100 million is a
very small percentage of the world’s population. In addition, we
recognize that microfinance tends to help those people who are not
the poorest of the poor; in fact those that benefit from such loans
are better off financially than the poorest of the poor because
they have better access to landlines, the internet, and may possess
some knowledge of English- all of which facilitate the process of
making the microfinance loan.
We watched a short film about the effect that the Homeless People
Federation of the Philippines is having on the Philippine people.
The film underscores the importance of saving not only in developed
nations like ours (though we’ve also started to appreciate the
importance of saving due to recent financial events) but, also for
the poor. What we’ve come to understand is that though
individually, the saved amounts may not add up to something great-
collectively within the community, the amount is substantial and
this amount enables the purchasing of land. With this purchase of
land, the people of the Philippines are taught to handle the
community’s needs, how to properly handle their own finances, the
best strategies for securing land, and even how to bargain
effectively for land. They are also taught the legal and technical
considerations accompanied with owning land through various
training programs offered. The funds saved are not only used for
acquiring land but also as an emergency fund for the savers;
community leaders are very important in encouraging the community
and unifying the community.
Another active organization in the Philippines area is the Urban
Poor Development Fund which has acquired more than 30M Pesos worth
of land and has used 11M Pesos for site development. The poor in
these communities are empowered to improve their own community
rather than rely heavily on the government or corporate sector
which is often more expensive.
The poor are leaning valuable lessons in saving, bargaining power,
basic money management and though the skeptics argue against the
success of microfinance, we choose to believe that we are
making progress in the right direction and the future of
microfinance has never looked more bright.
Accounting and Program Audit
Team
Log # 4
By Jennifer
Specht
It’s hard to believe, but we are already half way through the
semester!
The Accounting Team is working hard as usual. Although we have
accomplished one of our most important goals that we have set for
ourselves we still have much to do. During the last class, we were
able to finalize our ideas about different ways we could measure
our success as a program, as well as helping our lenders. We will
be presenting these ideas to the class during our midterm progress
report during the next class session. The Accounting Team also had
a set back from last class where we determined that we should not
purchase QuickBooks like previously thought, but make our own
accounting and records files in Excel. It will be a little more
difficult and tedious to do it this way, but we feel it is the best
way to go about keeping our records at this point in time due to
the fact that we do not have a central computer to keep all our
data and information stored on. By using Excel, all the members of
the Accounting Team can access the files when needed and we can all
send the file to each other over e-mail rather than referring to
one computer or having just one person be in charge. Creating and
improving upon these files will be a big goal for the rest of the
semester.
The (Chapter 7) reading by Joanna Ledgerwood in the Microfinance
Handbook stated many points about creating accounting files that my
other teammates and I discussed last class about the importance of
accuracy, creating reports, making the files user friendly, and
security issues. Ledgerwood also stressed the importance of giving
accurate, up-to-date information as well as keeping track of
historical information that may be useful in years to come.
Although we have a rough template to improve upon for making our
own files, the MF Handbook suggested many ideas about keeping the
accounting software/files easy to access and understand, while
still keeping the files secure from those who may use the
information for wrong doings. It was a good feeling to read the
handbook and see that many of the ideas we had discussed about
creating accounting software had also appeared in the handbook as
being important. The Handbook gave many suggestions for running a
MFI, but to be able to run this as a smaller “business,” we are not
able to use all the suggestions due to limitations on ability to
buy certain software. But, where there is a will, there is a way
and we will definitely be able to create something comparable and
run it successfully!
I look forward to hearing the midterm reports from the other teams
and hope they will be as excited as I am to see what we all the
groups have accomplished so far for what we hope to accomplish by
the end of the semester.