Orientation for Virtual Board Retreat

Welcome to your Virtual Board Retreat! We are sad we can’t gather this year, but we hope this virtual option will generate some of the same benefits as our annual retreat. This Virtual Board Retreat is designed to take you one hour or less to complete — assuming you read the posts and resources and watch the videos. There will also be a few additional resources that are more for reference and aren’t included in the one hour timeframe.

You can also comment on any blog post if you want to share your thoughts or input! Please do this to make the retreat a little more fun for everyone and to achieve goal 3.

Goals of this retreat:

1) Board members improve their general understanding of board responsibilities and how to be an awesome board member.

2) Board members develop a better understanding of our programs and our students.

3) Board members feel more connected to each other and to the staff, and so part of a team.

Let's Start With Why We Do This Work

The most important way for you to say passionate and engaged as a board member is to stay connected with our “why.” Why does Mali Rising exist? Well, our mission is “to empower the children of Mali, West Africa by expanding and improving educational opportunities for them within their own villages. We see this education empowering children to go on to futures that improve their own lives, but also the fate of their villages and of Mali as a whole.”

Okay, that’s pretty good but I think the real “why” is best articulated in stories from our alumni and students. Please read these two example stories and think about if/how the stories illustrate your personal “why” for the work you do with Mali Rising:

• Djènèba Traoré: A great story of a Mali Rising alumnae now in University, studying to be a teacher to pass on the gift of education.

• Enriette Coulibaly: Learn how $10 and our Girls Project changed Enriette’s future for the better.

Thanks to you and Mali Rising, Enriette is back in school & learning!

Djènèba illustrates exactly why we do this work — education empowers young people to decide their own futures and change the future of Mali for the better!

What's New and Exciting Right Now?

As a board member it can be tough to keep up with what is new and exciting at Mali Rising. In this section of your Virtual Board Retreat, I link short features on three new pieces of work we are piloting. Other new efforts are underway, but these three are particularly relevant right now. Check these out and share your questions on this post or in the next board meeting:

1) Speech Up! Video Contest: Launching November 1 for U.S.-based high school students. This contest is designed to engage young people in our work and international issues generally by asking them to respond to a prompt in a short, videoed speech. Winners will be announced in 2021. This campaign will help Mali Rising: 1) recruit more youth volunteers, 2) raise our profile publicly, and 3) engage all supporters on social media.

2) Take-Home Workbooks for Kids: First piloted during the COVID-19 school closures, we are continuing this campaign for the first six months of 2021. The idea is to provide short, simple workbooks children can do at home to keep their language skills fresh when school closures occur…but we also think they may be useful when school is open. We are piloting this in five villages. Testing of both ideas is on-going, and initial results have been positive.

3) School Health Clubs: This idea was actually started pre-COVID, but is more relevant than ever! Clubs were halted when school closed in March, but this fall we have geared them back up with a big focus on COVID prevention. We are piloting this currently in four villages.

Get to Know the Mali Rising Staff

A few of you have been to Mali and met the staff, but most have not. I wanted you to have a chance to hear from them directly about themselves as people…not just names on a report! Check out each of this short videos to get to know the people doing the day-to-day work:

Meet Alou, Construction & Administrative Manager

Meet Hindaty, Girls Project Manager

Get to know Adama, Teacher Project Coordinator (also coordinates Health Project)

The Basics of Being a Board Member

At Mali Rising one of the most important things a board member can do is to act as an ambassador for our work — we are small and we really rely on board members to be proud enough to share stories and engagement opportunities with friends and family. This is truly how our network of friends, volunteers, and ultimately donors will grow.

However, all board members also have multiple responsibilities. These responsibilities are true for any board member at any organization — including Mali Rising. So, please take 5 short minutes to watch this short video to refresh your understanding of the core duties you perform during your service. And thank you for doing them!

Want to know more specifics about board duties? Review this article (although reading it is extra credit - it may put you over the promised 1 hour of board retreat work!).

Achievements in 2020 -- Celebrate!

It has been a strange year, but I wanted to remind you all of the great work you achieved despite the obstacles. This list includes achievements directly accomplished by the board, as well as those achieved by the larger organization as a result of your work. In no particular order, here are some things to feel good about and proud of:

• Expanded the Girls Project from 3 villages to 8 villages, helping a total of 362 girls stay in school and thrive.

• Constructed a brand new school for the kids of Banko (completion 2 weeks away) and, before the end of 2020, we will do the same for the kids of N’Goko!

• Selected the site for our next school construction, which will hopefully relieve crowding at Pete Harman Middle School.

• Launched Health Clubs at four schools and delivered 6 handwashing stations with training.

• Completed the board self-evaluation, identifying key areas for improvement (thanks Governance Committee!).

• Welcomed Cole Smith to the board.

• Established COVID-19 safety protocols for village visits and construction (thanks Internal Affairs Committee!).

• Delivered nearly 700 textbooks to schools (with more to come before the end of the year).

• Hosted three teacher Peer-to-Peer meetings as well as our first ever WhatsApp teacher Peer-to-Peer Meeting.

• Trained five teachers to be trainers of other teachers in the use of our new Virtual Library.

• Welcomed 17 new Youth Ambassadors to our volunteer ranks!

• Launched a review of our branding and materials (thanks External Affairs Committee!).

• Delivered dozens of radio lessons reaching hundreds of children and parents with messages about protecting oneself from COVID-19 and about the value of keeping girls in school.

• Added monthly study sessions to our Girls Project work to help girls with homework.

• Piloted take-home workbooks to keep kids connected with education during school closures for strikes or other issues.

• And so much more! Thanks for making all of this possible!

A new school is rising in Banko because of YOUR work as a board member!