Accounting and Program Audit Team
Log # 8
By: Sally Ren
GLOBE is a class that continues to challenge me every day. The
luncheon is this Wednesday, many things still need to be done and
like human nature we like to wait until the last minute. Old habits
die-hard. This class and especially this past week after Hurricane
Sandy really made me reflect on what this class means to me.
It made me realize that time is super precious and that meetings
and communication are absolutely necessary. These are all life
lessons, which I can take away with me and use it in the real
world. These lessons are bigger than GLOBE. Group work is a
challenge in general but it helps if everyone is on the same page.
I realize as the days draw closers that this might not be the case
because people are busy. Understandable, but I also believe that
there is enough time, because you make time for it. However, these
are opportunities for those who want to make a lasting impact. This
is unique to any class. I took the initiative to create a program,
which after many difficulties it is still rewarding. I hope that
the original template can be used somehow in the future; I do not
want to see it go to waste.
Claire and I also worked on the GLOBE Jeopardy game, which I am
really excited to see it in action. Our objective with the game is
to get the donors involved, they will see what we are doing and in
the end be more likely to donate. Also the vibe of the luncheon
will be a little more casual and relaxed. Overall I am very excited
to see the events unfold! I know it will be a success. After all
the obstacles in our way, GLOBE will be able to bring it all
together and execute it well.
After this big event, we have to prepare for the final
presentation. This semester is flying and I am a little nervous
about it ending, I feel like there is more I can contribute at this
time. I want to be able to pass onto the next class the idea that
this class is more than just helping those in poverty. It’s a class
that will challenge a person to do more, take on more. Through this
class it will reveal to a person, traits and habits, areas that
they are fantastic in and areas that they need work in. This class
will really help an individual grow.
Finance and Risk Assessment Team
Log # 8
By: Daniel O’Boyle
Recently, Hurricane Sandy ravaged my home state of New York.
I have lived in New York for all 21 years of my life, and I have
seen quite a few storms. However, I have never witnessed
firsthand any other storm that caused as much destruction as
Sandy. Sandy left a great deal of devastation and
destruction in her wake. This hurricane was a natural
disaster in the truest sense of the word and caused numerous
tragedies.
I was living at the lovely St. John’s University Manhattan Campus
at the time. I was forced to evacuate and sought refuge at my
Long Island home. Luckily, my family managed to avoid
encountering one of the many tragedies of the hurricane. We
were just plagued with a lack of power for about two weeks. I
am in no way insinuating that our lack of power was anywhere close
to an equivalent to some of the horrific things that others
experienced. However, it was a major inconvenience, and did
make our lives more difficult than the standard we are used
to. Along with a lack of basic electricity, a lack of power
also includes a lack of heat and hot water. These are all
things that we take for granted every day.
While I was living without power, I became more upset because GLOBE
had to be cancelled that week. During my time off, I was
still in contact with my team. I began to reflect on our
borrowers and some of the other people who live in poverty.
Many of whom are always living without power. I hated it
after a few days; I couldn’t imagine what it would be like for my
entire life. I began to have a stronger appreciation for the
work that we do in GLOBE. I felt proud and lucky that I have
the opportunity to spend my class time helping to combat
poverty.
I also spent a great deal of my time during the week off in
Rockaway. I have some family who live there so I went to help
them pump water out of their basements. I also spent part of
this weekend down there helping gut other residents’ apartments
that had been completely destroyed. The people down there
still do not have power and there is no sign of when they can
expect it back. One thing that I did notice is that many of
the people now have small solar panels that they use to charge
objects such as cell phones during the day. This immediately
led me to think of my group’s social business plan, which is to
provide borrowers with solar powered chargers so that they can
charge their cell phones. It was inspiring to see that this
product could be quite valuable in areas where electricity is not
provided.
This week off was a reminder of sorts to the value and importance
of the work that we are doing in GLOBE. I am now more focused
than ever, and want to use this program to help those in need in
any way that I can. I am constantly reminded that I am so
thankful for the opportunity to be a part of this class.
Marketing and Fundraising Team
Log # 8
By: Xixi Liu
GLOBE will be officially holding their second appreciation luncheon
tomorrow. We are all very excited and looking forward to this
event. It is one of our most important events and the last time the
class held the appreciation luncheon was in 2009. It is extremely
important to acknowledge and thank all of those that have supported
and helped us through the years. If it weren’t for all our donors
and volunteers, GLOBE would not exist.
We would like to make this luncheon an annual event. With
everybody’s busy work schedule this would also be a perfect
opportunity for everyone to gather together and learn what GLOBE
has achieved throughout the year. We have numerous donors, but not
all of them know where their money is going. It’s important to keep
them informed.
This is also the first time for many of us to actually host such a
big event, with nearly 70 to 80 people. It was a great experience
for us to know how to host and create such an event. It’s at
times like these when we realize how important teamwork actually
is. Without everybody’s input this event would not have been able
to take place. We have four different teams; finance, marketing,
information technology, and accounting; but for this event we all
had to collaborate and work together. There were no separate teams,
we were a single team.
Just like how all the different donors and volunteers are also a
part of our team; we can’t make things happen when there is just
one of us, it takes everyone’s effort. We are all taking part in
something that is benefitting society. May it be donating money,
offering help, or just supporting and spreading the word, we are
all making a contribution to save a family and making a
difference.
Technology and Communications Team
Log # 8
By: Moneifa Nance
Tonight I was able to reflect on the topic of microfinance using my
areas of interest and expertise in financing and risk. The lecture
of the evening involved risk management, a subject that I became
interested in my sophomore year. Some of the first things
that come to mind upon thoughts of risk in microfinance would be
the risk of loan defaulting. While bad loans seem to be more
probable due to the kinds of loans issued (uncollateralized), Dr.
Sama taught us this evening that management is actually the
greatest risk to a microfinance institution. Management is a risk
for a variety of reasons such as the desire to increase profit, the
existence of the principal- agent problem, the inability to
effectively measure the activity, and the offering of incentives
for issuing loans.
In my opinion, optimizing profit and offering incentives for
increased loan volume are two of the most dangerous dilemmas
management of microfinance institutions can face. To my
understanding, it was the increased approval of subprime loans that
caused the great financial crisis of 2008. Microloans can obviously
be compared to these subprime loans but there are ways to prevent
the microloans from spiraling out of control. The way to do this is
by of course controlling management and making sure they are
issuing loan according to quality (as good as they can be) not
volume. You may think there is no such thing as quality
microloans because they are issued to the very poor but it is
definitely possible. It can be done if Microfinance
institution models return to carefully assessing every single
applicant to ensure the loan will be used to purchase ‘money making
tools’.
The reading assigned to the IT team this week is on the topic of
micro insurance. Insurance is another topic that I am very
interested in. I cannot wait to read the theories explaining
how insurance can work on a micro level. From what I know about
insurance, micro insurance may not work because the premiums will
be too little, the risk of loss to large, and the payouts even
larger. To further explain my position; let’s say that an
institution decided to write property insurance to a poor village
prone to flooding. The insured people of the village will not
be able to pay the amount in premiums needed to pay all clients in
the event of a flood.