The supporters team is for anyone who would love to be involved in the project but can't commit to either the core group or the build team. We would love people to get involved in helping out with the fundraising, media and procurement focus groups. The hope for this team is that people with either real experience or time to commit will be able to be a part of this project at their own level. You will be expected to tell us what you can commit to doing.
Find out more about the supporters team.

The build team will be those getting the opportunity to go and work with local people to actually build the school. We'll be on site for a month, from mid august to mid september. The time will be broken down into two build sessions. People interested will be able to join for the whole time or just one of these two week sessions. The whole trip will be arranged centrally so nothing to worry about their. We estimate the trip costing something like £1000.00 GBP per person and you will be expected to pay a deposit before june. If you are part of this group then you will also be expected to join in with either the fundraising media or procurement focus groups. There will be limited spaces In the media and procurement teams so sign up fast if you are interested in those. To see further information on the roles of each focus group. 
Find out more about being on the build team.

Giving toward the set up costs of the school is the simplest way to be involved with this project. We are also looking for people to join the UK team that will work together with our partners in Kenya to achieve the dream of the Mothers Union in kenya to bring education to those in need. There are three ways to be involved beyond being a financial supporter of the project the Core-group, build team, or the supporters team.

The Core Group is the most pressing need is for people to join. Each member of this group will have a specific role and responsibility. We need an administrator, a budget manager, a fundraising co-ordinator, a media team leader, a procurement person and someone to be in charge of travel arrangements for the team. The core group will help each other in all these things and will manage the project together up until the first phase is completed in september 2014. 
Find out more about the core team.

Being involved with this project will be an great privilege. We will be working as equal partners on a local initiative that will by team effort achieve its goals. The task is no small one and anyone involved will have real responsibilities. The commitment needed is big but the value of being involved in such a project is beyond measure. For those in the core group especially this project will be an excellent experience, adding weight to any Job applications. You will learn to work in a high stakes collaborative environment; a crucial skill for all kinds of jobs. Not only this but the joy and gratification experienced when you see the results of such a project are brilliant; as British politician Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)  said “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”[1] Thus it is a project where being involved can do anything from enable you to give back using skills you have developed  or to trampoline your career path. Either way we would love to welcome you into the team.

THe core group

The Core Group will be running the UK side of the project and working most closely with the Kenyan team to ensure that between us we deliver a really high quality facility for people to learn in. Each member of the team will have a specific role to play shown bellow and will be expected to attend or if unavailable Skype into a short fortnightly meeting for us to keep up with each-others progress and share the more difficult tasks and decisions. Being part of this team is a wonderful opportunity but a big responsibility so we've put together a little list of fun and serious pro's and con's to help you think about if its for you.

Pro's 

• Learning from other members of the core group
• Higher level of engagement with the Kenyan team
• More chance to steer the project so that it reaches its best possible fulfilment
• Project T-shirt with the highly prestigious words "core group" on
• Great experience of large projects
• Find out about news from the project first.
• Get the opportunity to lead a team.
• Improve your career prospects.
• Opportunity to give more of yourself to helping kids without an education.
• Have a say on important decisions like what food we'll eat while building the school.
• Opportunity to learn how to work cross cultures.

Con's

• There are none
• No seriously
• I came up with nothing
• .....
• Well maybe one or two
• The commitment is a bit bigger than build or supporters team. About 2 hours work a week and a short fortnightly meeting.
• You are gonna have to be dedicated to the project.
• You'll have very real responsibility.
• You'll experience with greater acuteness the difficulties sometimes posed by working across cultures.
• You might be responsible for leading a team which I love but others might not.

roles

The fundraising Co-ordinator will be responsible for keeping the fundraising effort going.

More on this role.

You will have a large team which you can structure as you see fit. You will be responsible for encouraging the build team and supporters team to set up their own fundraising initiatives as well as ensuring that there are people working on bringing in funding from sources such as the UK government, bigger charities, large and small businesses and others. Each member of the build team will be expected to raise £800.00 and you are to encourage and ensure that they do this. You will be responsible for feeding back information to the core group as to how fundraising is going. I would suggest that you delegate the generic fundraising enabling to another person (if you'd be interested in this secondary role please contact us) and gather a smaller team to contact the larger potential donors. Malcolm Macnaughton will be involved in this and has experience of large scale fundraising.

The Media Manager will be responsible for organising the media team to maintain the website and produce promotional materials for the fundraising team.

More on this role.

You and your team will be responsible for regularly updating the website with blog posts and any other additions suggested (only slightly more complicated than Microsoft Word). You will be responsible for collecting and passing on any contact received through the website. You will also be responsible for setting up and maintaining social media pages for this project that should be updated fortnightly. Finally you're team will need to work closely with the fundraising team to meet the needs for well designed promotional material. You will have a team to help you and we will expect you to make use of them. You will also be expected to feed back to the core group.

The Procurement manager will be responsible for getting all the equipment and materials needed in place.

More on this role.

With his/her focus group the procurement manager will liaise with the team in Kenya to ensure that when we arrive in august the required materials, tools and labourers will be on site for us to start straight away. You will also be responsible for trying to attain equipment for the school and for the build from UK sources. For instance asking major tools suppliers to donate tools to the project to be taken out. The focus group will be responsible for ensuring that the furnishings and other essentials will be provided for the school. There are many potential sources including local supply in Kenya for these things. You will also need to discuss with the Peter Cowley Africa Trust and the Budget keeper to create a process for allocation of funds to needs.

Administrator will be responsible for keeping everyone organised.

More on this role.

This role is one of the most important there is. You will be responsible for minuting and arranging fortnightly Core Group meetings. The minutes will need to be typed up and distributed quickly so that everyone is reminded of their personal/ focus group tasks and of any decisions made. On the weeks the Core Group does not meet you will be asked to check up on each member to see how they are progressing with any action points from the core group meetings. You will be responsible for keeping the Kenyan team in the loop as to our progress here. With the Project Manager you will create and distribute the agenda for the fortnightly meetings. You're top priority is keeping the whole team informed with any information or decisions made and feeding back an questions that arise from the team to the Core Group.

The Travel Co-ordinator will be responsible for the practicalities of the build team's trip.

More on this role.

You will work alone/ with a small team to arrange flights, insurance, local transport, food and accommodation for the trip. Working with the Budgeter you will create a payment system for the trip. You will need to produce an information pack for the build team about what preparations need to be made by them before the trip and what they will need to be aware of while in Kenya. The build team will include about 30 people at a time and will be split into two week sessions of building of which there will be two immediately after each other. You will need to be able to either pass on all information to a member of the build team or join the trip yourself. You will also need to feed back how planning is going to the core group.

The Budget Manager will be responsible for keeping the build on budget.

More on this role.

You will be expected to decide with the Peter Cowley Africa Trust how the finances for the project will be kept and distributed. You will be responsible for setting up a just giving team account for the project and ensuring that each member of the build team has one set up for their personal fundraising commitment of £700.00. You will be responsible for deciding with the design team what is feasible for the first phase. You will also need to book keep the fundraising effort, including costing out time and items given towards the project so that they can be used to gain further match funding.

the uk team so far

Samantha Worrall. Lead Designer

Malcolm Macnaughton. Supporter

Peter Macnaughton. Project manager