The GFF Board met at 6:00 pm at the office of Lee Jennings. Present were Dr. Sylvia Washington, Drs. Cindy and Paul Shumpert, Dr. Willie Ree Howell, Dr. David Kearnes, Dr. George Faile, Laurie Douglas, Vickie Barnes, Jarratt Bryan, Lee Jennings, Martha Cates, and Bill and Phyllis Casey. Paul opened the meeting with prayer.

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Bill Casey and Rodney Dockter are with Global Health Administration Partners, and will be going to Baptist Medical Centre in October to work with the administrative staff. Rodney joined us at the meeting by speaker phone. Bill talked with us about some of his objectives and asked us about areas of concern. He stressed his intention to go in as a partner, being mindful of cultural situations such as calling on the chief. He wants to work with the staff rather than taking over. This first visit will be a fact-finding and relationship-building visit. There may be other areas that could be aided, not necessarily just accounting and financial areas. The hope of the Board is that with this help the hospital can become self-sufficient and self-supporting. Training and follow-up are very important. Rodney will be able to provide some help remotely. There will be future visits if all goes well with this first one. Concerns expressed by the Board include help with tracking inventory, accounting for donated supplies, updated lists of bills/debts, and in general bring modern accounting standards to BMC.

 

Lee Jennings moved and David Kearnes seconded the motion to give Paul permission to sign the MOU with GHAP when it is finalized. Motion passed.

 

From George and Paul after their trip to BMC in June: Two Ghanaian doctors, Drs. Victoria and Emmanuel, seem willing to stay full time. They are paid by the government but BMC needs need to supplement that income. We will consider extra funding up to $1000 each per month, plus sending them every other year to a continuing education/Christian conference. The Board will consider this after hearing back from GHAP. The Ebola scare has faded, so volunteers have picked up again. Francis is doing a good job managing the guest house at BMC. Other good news is that Heidi Hahn had a baby, and they are both doing well!

 

Paul reported a balance of approximately $1,470,000. Lee said that we need to keep most of our assets in cash at this time, but can possibly look at some bond funds that would be safe.

 

Financially, the housing at BMC is stable since the volunteer numbers have increased. Houses 7 & 8 should be torn down and rebuilt. We will not do this until we have a written housing agreement with the Ghana Baptist Convention.

 

Jarratt has updated the website. We discussed a Facebook presence for GFF. Vickie and Jarratt will work on this. Sylvia pointed out that the doctors at BMC have blogs.

 

Cindy and Paul will be on a leave of absence from March to September in 2016. Lee Jennings will help them by screening the students/residents who apply for money from us. He will be able to send the checks to them.

 

The Board will meet when the team from GHAP returns with a report.

 

The meeting was adjourned.