FORIM Meeting Minutes — 3 February 2001

1. Introduction
   1. The officers of FORIM called the meeting to order.
   2. The meeting was attended by Kyung Endres, Sadina Dedah, Abderrahmane from Peace Corps Mauritania, Dawn Sealey, Kelly, and Julei Kim
2. Administrative
   1. Election of new officers.

      It is evident that FORIM is in serious need of greater support from its members, or others with a special interest in Mauritania. The current officers would like to remain active members of FORIM, however, they would like to pass the administrative responsibilities to others. An email (sent Jan. 22, 2001) announced the available officer positions. Unfortunately, no application requests for these positions have been received.

      The meeting group noted a general lack of interest in FORIM and a decline in participation in meetings and other functions. Without sufficient interest and support from FORIM members, the minimal management and general running of FORIM activities cannot be sustained. The future of FORIM is in jeopardy because of this reduced support from old and new members. The meeting participants decided that the month of February would be a crucial period when the board will intensify activity, both to gain a sense of what interest can be mustered to keep FORIM alive and running, and to appropriately finish up old business. An email announcing the solicitation of interest in FORIM officer positions will be sent each week, in the month of February. If there continues to be a lack of true interest in FORIM, then the organization will have to end business and work on administrative close-out of its support to certain activities. If there appears to be a viable option to this with regard to volunteers who step forward to accept the administrative responsibilities for the organization, there will then likely be the usual transfer of responsibilities, and FORIM will remain active. The deadline for the final determination on the active status of FORIM is March 3, 2001. FORIM will hold a meeting on Saturday, March 3rd to discuss the outcome of the month's outreach and activities.

      The meeting group would also like to emphasize that the administrative activities under the responsibilities of FORIM officers may be successfully upheld regardless of the geographic location. We believe that there is sufficient basic capacity for officers to communicate and maintain the business of FORIM, regardless of where one will be working from.

   2. Tax season is coming. The secretary will send the treasurer all of the tax forms to be filed by April.
3. Old Business
   1. Only 2 RPCVs of Wisconsin Madison calendars are left for sale. They are $10/ea. We would be happy to mail these out to buyers.
   2. Membership. Julei will contact Dan Riley at Peace Corps headquarters to try to obtain a list of the new RPCVs. FORIM will target greater support from RPCVs, and others who have thusfar shown a true interest in FORIM. Dawn and Julei will also brainstorm on how FORIM may strategically target other interested persons.
   3. Problems with the website. Kyung will contact Bridget about improving the timely posting of agendas and meeting minutes. There is major break in the process for how things are posted on the FORIM website.
   4. Development Committee. Three requests have been received.
      1. CSB Project from Peace Corps Mauritania. PCV Andrea Buchard has submitted a construction sans bois project. She will manage the monitoring and evaluation of the construction project. The total budget is $11,000 for 30 houses. The target population is 47 families in the Goral region, outside of Aleg. While FORIM is interested in supporting this project, there are some question about it that Julei will follow up on with Andrea and Aw. For instance, how will the villages determine the most needy; if a PCV will report and evaluate the status of the project during the entire period of the project; and the background and qualifications of the technical experts guiding the project. The budget is a little high for FORIM, however, there may be other smaller areas of the project that FORIM may possibly co-fund.
      2. Molly Lipscomb has requested that FORIM assist with the establishment of a bank account to transfer contributions to the Amenons Nos Filles A L'Ecole Program. All checks to this program would be accepted by FORIM with tax exemption on the contribution. The funds would then be deposited in a Citibank account that Molly in Nouakchott would have access to through the Commercial Industry Bank or BCI. Establishment of the account would also reduce administrative costs involved in the transfer of money to Nouakchott. Julei will ask Ann if this can be something that she can establish for Amenons and maintain.
      3. PCVs in Mauritania have requested that FORIM host their website. They have submitted a diskette and hard copy of examples of some of the pages they have created. Their website is full of photos and description about their service in Mauritania, and would be a helpful source of information to perspective volunteers. The Volunteers page is a description of the current Americans and Mauritanians in the Peace Corps Program. The Agriculture and Forestry Refugee Project page provides a general synopsis of what agriculture and forestry activities goals they are supporting. The Contact Us page lists the current volunteers in each prefecture. In general, FORIM sees no issues with hosting the website. It would be a matter for the webmaster to determine if this would be possible.
4. New Business
   1. Kyung will contact Bridget about the status of re-starting the essay contest at the University in Nouakchott for 2001.
   2. Announcement of Lauren Goodsmith's photo exhibit at Xando café/ bar in Baltimore. Her photos will be exhibited there in the month of February. All proceeds from sales will go toward the International Refugee Committee that is supporting emergency relief work in Gujarat, India. An email about this event will be sent later in the week to remind everyone in that area.
5. News from Mauritania
   1. Welcome to Abderrahmane from Peace Corps Mauritania. He will be in DC for a Peace Corps training, until February 22nd.

Next Meeting: 3 March 2001, 4pm