Transition External Affairs 2009

Transition Report: Director of External Affairs May 2009

End Poverty Now: Director of External TRANSITION REPORT Contents: A. Topic 1: Director of External Affairs Overview The Director of External Affairs is responsible for a large multi-faceted part of EPN. As you may know, EPN’s mandate is that of a tri-pillar for Grassroots Projects, InReach (or volunteerism/ways to reach into the organization), and Education. The External position compromises a very substantial portion of both Education and InReach in that External is how EPN interacts with the public to encourage participation in the organization by way of accessing educational materials, participating in campaigns, and others. We, at EPN, believe that Education is an integral step in any plan to address poverty. Having people aware of issues and providing them with access to a platform for discussion is what your position entails. Granted, a large portion of this includes overseeing Officers to do the knitty-gritty, you implement new ideas, and connect the vision of Education to the rest of the organization. For you to know, we are at a turning point in the organization where a lot of things need to be implemented anew (as there is a high staff-turnover and many of the below initiatives are new concepts). This will present further challenges and I apologize for any frustrations this will and has already caused. Your help in defining your position and EPN’s Education/External programming is vital for the growth and success of EPN. Thank you in advance for your hard work. Writing as the Director of EPN, I feel that your position is one of the most exciting and important within the entire organization. You are our face and image. You are our content and message. Make the message strong and meaningful; use the great support you have; take advantage of the flexibility and openness of the position; and enjoy it. You make this position based on what you put in and I hope, with all of our help and collaboration, we are able to reach current and new audiences on a very profound and real level. Are you excited? The different areas of External currently compromise of: Publications (Newsletter, Journal, Podcasts)

1) “EPN Monthly” – the monthly newsletter that is sent out of the listserve (to currently over 2000) that goes out of the first of each month. Laura Nhem is the officer for this and can be contacted at [email protected]. 2) “Means to an End” – the annual academic journal that is sent out to universities, libraries and other educational sources across Canada. We are contemplating making this a theme-based journal although it has been all-encompassing on the different areas of poverty in the past. This is a new initiative (the second journal this 2009 year). Neesha Hussain is overseeing the Journal this year in New York and can be reached at [email protected]. 3) Podcasts – This is a very new initiative to EPN (Rosie could use some help in figuring out how to logistically create these) and a lot needs to be added in terms of the framework. Ie: how often do we want to release a new podcast? Where do we want to show these? What kind of topics do we want to cover? The idea is that these podcasts will be short radio shows available on our website and highlighted on several public radio shows depending on our feedback. Rose Burns is the Officer and can be reached at [email protected]. Other Education Projects: 4) Poverty in the News – This is a newsfeed that will be hosted on EPN’s website. This will include articles around the world on poverty and current events. We are trying to think of ways to expand Valerie Bello’s position (Poverty in the News officer [email protected]) for ways to include Poverty in the News into the rest of the programming within the organization. She is also writing a monthly article for the newsletter. Also, for every initiative, she will be the resource for current events and news. Valerie is also currently working on ways to expand our name through online sources (facebook, twitter, and so forth). This will, however, be passed on to our Public Relations Officer once hired. Other InReach Projects (will be dually overseen by you and the Alternative Media Officer). This is where a lot of your work will be needed. 5) My Poverty Plan – a. This 30second – 1 minute long videos will be highlighted on our website as an initiative for individuals to share their ideas on how we (in a global sense) can address poverty. b. The staff will be recording their plans in September. Until then, the alternative media officer (with volunteers) and yourself if you see it fit, will go on to the streets and to different location to interview individuals. The question here is “what is your plan to end poverty?” This can range from

an individual “I will recycle, donate, etc” to a more global “we need to focus on education/projects/microgrants/etc”. c. Hopefully, once these are started, the campaign will grow to the point where individuals can submit their plans from home. We will need to think of ways to market this campaign. 6) “Step by Step”/”A Day in the Life” (working name – any ideas?) a. Is a written blog that we are collecting to highlight individuals experiences endeavouring poverty alleviation. Currently, this consists of a number of international intern blogs. We would like to expand this so that individuals feel welcome to submit their blogs or stories on what they have done to address poverty, challenges they have faced, lessons learned, and how they feel it can be done. 7) “In Our Backyard” a. Is another website section for photoblogs. We currently have a feature taken by EPN staff a couple of years ago in Montreal. It would be great to get individuals to submit their photos. We will of course make sure they are appropriate, them add them with recognition. There are also many other options for this. What ideas do you have? 8) Once the above is stable and implemented, what else can we add?

B. Topic 2: Accessing the email account and website pages 1) Receiving and answering emails i. We have a 24-hour reply policy for replying to emails from the Board or Staff, and a 48-hour policy for replying to general emails – of course we are understanding, but consistency in this is something we should aim for. Please be courteous of this and make sure to check your email daily. ii. To check your email, first go to www.gmail.com, then type in your user name and password: [email protected]. iii. The official email for this account is [email protected]. The webmail account auto-forwards all messages to your gmail account. Also, the gmail account automatically sends all messages from the professional default [email protected]. 2) Updating and monitoring pages on the website

i. The Director of External Affairs is responsible for overseeing the following sections of the website: Poverty in the News, Newsletter, Journal, Alternative Media (Podcasts, Written and Photo blogs) and any other External initiatives. Please feel free to add/change/update pages as you see fit. ii. To change webpages, email EPN’s webmaster at [email protected] with specifics. They are responsible for changing the site. Cc in Jen at [email protected] to ensure these changes are made! iii. If you can pdf files, please do this for any attachments before sending them to the webmaster. If no, that is okay. Also, for website text, this is preferred in a word text document. Please include any specifications in your email/(s)! C. Topic 2: Weekly Duties and Updates 1) Committee Meetings, Minutes, and Attendance i. For your position, in part, you are responsible for overseeing the Officer positions beneath you. I would suggest having weekly/biweekly meetings with all of them together. You may include others as well. (Individual phone meetings until September may be most practical. From then on, when we are all in the same city, it would be best to have a once a week meeting.) You can use the EPN office for this based on your discretion. ii. Keep an attendance list for all meetings and encourage the Officers to do the same. (This is to keep track of EPN members, which is based on a system of attendance). iii. Send the minutes and attendance to the Director of Communications promptly following each meeting. Encourage the Officers to do the same. iv. For attendance, in accordance with EPN bylaws, an active member is one that has attended at least two Committee or General Meetings in three months, or can be named an active member at the discretion of a Board member on account of sufficient contribution to the organisation. Members who do not attend these meetings may pay an annual fee of $15 to remain an inactive member 2) Duties [specific to the position and essential in its maintenance]

i. Weekly Board meetings (starting in September). Until then, please send in weekly updates each Monday by 8pm to [email protected]. Come prepared with weekly updates and topics to be discussed by Board when applicable. ii. Weekly meetings with the Poverty in the News, Newsletter, Alternative Media, and Journal Officers of EPN (all at once or separate check-ins based on your discretion). Having meetings all at once is suggested to improve areas of overlap and collaboration. iii. Oversee the above 4 Officer positions in the ways of: 1. Collecting and compiling Officer updates 2. Create a timeline with each Officer and ensure that the deadlines are met. (ie: Journal submissions, EPN monthly newsletters, podcasts, etc). 3. Formulate a plan of action coordinating and synchronizing all Officers for each month. Example: the theme this month is Child Labour – do features in all areas about the topic. Also, when one Officer is doing an initiative that can use support from other areas, make sure they know and are working together on several initiatives. For example: My Poverty Plan. 4. Act as support in areas that are required of you when appropriate. 5. Oversee the coordinated implementation of campaign advertisment. The newsletter goes out to the listserve. Is there anywhere else we can send this? Where do we want to collect the podcasts from? Where should we air them? Work with the different Officers and share ideas among them. Think outside of the box. 6. Is there something you think EPN should add to its education programming? Share the idea with the Board and implement it. When it comes time, you are responsible for hiring a new position under External when necessary, or coordinating with all parties to create and oversee campaigns. iv. Communicate the External portfolio with the rest of the Board and oversee areas of overlap. These may include:

1. Facilitating promotions to schools (to start chapter groups and fundraising campaigns) with the Director of Internal Affairs, Japneet. 2. Creating promotional material with the Public Relations Officer (soon to be hired). 3. Incorporating the different areas of the organization into the publications (for example: Grassroots Projects updates to be incorporated into the Newsletter) 4. And so forth... v. EPN Chapter groups are responsible for the majority of EPN funding through fundraisers and other small initiatives. The Director of Internal Affairs organizes these Chapters. There is room, however, for campaigns to spread across these Chapters. For Example, we will be recruiting for Chapters to fundraise for a grassroots project EPN is doing in Nicaragua (a school that needs educational materials). Developing a campaign for this (with the Director of Grassroots Projects and the Director of Internal Affairs) is an excellent idea and a strong possibility (through designing materials, special webpage or etc). These are just ideas. Make them happen if you are interested. vi. Similar to v, you are responsible for the larger Outreach Events/Campaigns of the organization. Should the national Office of EPN hold a Concert? Small-scale initiatives are often left to the chapters and the educational materials and inreach campaigns that are listed above your first priorities, but if you would like to head a large initiative for the organization, we will work it into our programming. We should discuss this point more. What are your thoughts? vii. Organize the timelines and plans of action for the above different areas. D. Topic 3: Lessons, Improvements, and Growth 1) Lessons Learnt – You need to be a good leader for your position. Be creative and innovative. This is where facilitating weekly meetings between the different Officers would be a great idea. 2) Essentials for the Job – Perseverance, motivation, creativity, communications. 3) Improvements -- The main challenge coming into this position will undoubtably be establishing a framework for organizing the different facets

of your position. Last year, the majority of these things were not implemented. There was no Director of External Affairs for a time and things greatly suffered. It will be tough to start all of these from square one and run with them, but it can and will be done. Use us and your team as support. 4) Extending Above and Beyond – always think to what else we can do. Your job is very independent and, with this, there is a lot of room based on your (and your team’s) interests and passions. Use these. I.

Appendix A: List of Board Members and Staff with Contact Information – can be found online under the google documents with your email account. *’d members lead committees. i.

Board of Directors Raïsa Mirza, Director of Communications. [email protected] *Aaron Fernandes, Director of Finance. [email protected] Japneet Kaur, Director of Internal. [email protected] *Alysha Kassam, Director of Grassroots Projects. [email protected] (*?)Carina Bleuer, Director of External. [email protected] Jennifer Sault, Executive Director. [email protected]

ii.

Officers

Rose Burns, Alternative Media Officer (External). [email protected] Jan Nato, Bilingualism Officer (Communciations). [email protected] *Neesha Hussain, Journal Officer (External). [email protected] *Laura Nhem, Newsletter Officer (External). [email protected] Valerie Bello, Poverty in the News Officer (External). [email protected] Public Relations Officer (Communications)

*Molly McKeon, Research Officer (Director).

[email protected]

*Michael Solda, Sponsorship Officer (Finance). [email protected] Aalia Surani & Andreas Mertens , School Outreach (Internal). [email protected], [email protected] Webmaster (Communications) II. Appendix B: Usernames and Passwords for Databases i.

Email Account – [email protected]. Sign in through www.gmail.com with the username [email protected]. Contact Jen for the password.

ii.

With the gmail account, the following organizational tools are available: 1. Calendar – add your deadlines/timelines and etc so that we all know what you are up to. You should have every staff members calendar added to yours so you can see what else is occurring within the organization. Also, you should have managing abilities over your 4 Officer positions’ accounts. 2. Documents – Currently, there are a couple files there including staff information. Use this space for any documents you want the rest of the Board or Staff or select individuals to see and be able to edit.

iii.

Our database/file archiving system is online. 1. Go to http://sites.google.com/site/epncommunicationssite/?pli=1. 2. This is new and we have tried to upload all important documents. Please add any under your portfolio as we go along. This is where all staff can find important documents. 3. Important documents will also be provided on our website.

iv.

Also, please print communications, important guides and other documents to be filed at the EPN office. Hold onto these documents until September. We are moving the office in September and will start off by organizing the space and archiving documents.

III. Appendix C: List of Important Documents i.

Attendance 2008-09

ii.

Committee Meeting Minutes 2008-09

iii.

Board Meeting Minutes 2008-09

iv.

General Meeting Minutes 2008-09

v.

End Poverty Now Bylaws [I will send you the final updated version]

vi.

Introductory Package [I will send you this]

vii.

Sponsorship and Donations Package [I will send you this]

viii.

Important documents [that you will copy to a compact disc (please copy ALL documents on this disc) and pass on to the incoming member that they will need to refer to during the course of their work]