The New MBHS Old Boys TRUST presents Frequently Asked Questions or FAQ (PART-TWO) Dear Shumbas! Thank you for your continued support for these ongoing MBHS Old Boys Trust efforts! Lets keep it up Shumbas! Weve recently been receiving some well articulated ideas, comments and suggestions from a number of Old Boys from around the world and today we wanted to feature a sampling....to inspire more Shumbas to come forth with their ideas! We sincerely commend the brothers who are taking the time to express their ideas openly and as mentioned weve made the decision to share them here as FAQ in order to inspire a broader discussion on the critical matters that are on the minds of our fellow Old Boys. So dont just view or like this post...we seriously want to hear from you! Your input, voice and feedback is very important to us... Thanks in advance for all your supportive feedback...especially the three featured Old Boys....Thank you. However we also wanted to respond in some detail to all these ideas and hopefully shed some light as to where we are in the process because their questions and suggestions touched on some important common themes that weve been hearing from fellow Shumbas...its wonderful to see guys starting to see beyond the current state of things and into the future! Lets start sharing these constructive ideas as we will soon be entering into some serious internal discussions on the immediate steps to take now that the word is starting to get around about the Trusts existence and vision. We will then come before you and outline our action-plans and strategy! Please stay engaged and spread the word about the new efforts underway at MBHS through the MBHS Old Boys Trust efforts: Together we are an invincible pride of Shumbas! Lets go Shumbas! Questions, Answers & Detailed update. 1) Brother Mudiwa Charamba Commented and asked: Well done guys. Thats a great show of leadership and I hope we all take a cue from this. How can we ex-Shumbas become involved in this? Theres many of us all over the world who can donate in cash and kind. Is there a bank account and whats the trusts mission statement? Having been away from home for a while it broke my heart when I visited the school and found it in an appalling state. All the heritage the school had appeared to have been lost and even rugby was on the brink of being banned......We can donate books, sports kit, computers, stationery and other goods through various organisations we liaise with professionally and its good that there is a trust that can be used to channel all these donations. Notwithstanding that I believe we cant go it alone as we also have to engage the authorities to ensure that the school is maintained to a reasonable standard and to see where we can assist. Ex montibus robur! **Our quick answer is yes, we will welcome your donations through you or your professional organization in cash and in kind and all of the above-mentioned items, on behalf of Mutare Boys High School. We will announce the detailed plans for those efforts at a later time. Our main goal is to begin 2015 with a strong fundraising push. So please use this time to get ready for action. Currently our efforts have been aimed at spreading the word about the formation and existence of the TRUST to as many old boys as possible before we launch any major fundraising appeals. Please note that some old boys are not as active on Facebook and so well need your help in trying to reach out to these fellow old boys. Please inform them about the formation of the TRUST and our upcoming fundraising initiatives .The long answer will address the rest of your question. Thank you** 2). Brother Munyaradzi Govha suggested: I have a suggestion to make..I think the only way the old students trust can be a viable entity is only if it can be financially stable cause we all have to admit money is what brings success to everything . Some of the ways i thought of was opening a web site for the trust of which advertising space can be sold to some of our old boys running businesses. membership can also be charged a fee which entitles a person to a years worth of membership. This would allow one to have access to printed or embroidered golf/polo shirts with the Shumba logo, regalia, yearbooks etc. I am willing to donate XXX into a prize pool to the person who will come up with the best possible innovative way which will allow the old boys trust to operate across borders and be viable: subject to the trusts approval. **Our quick answer is Yes! We welcome your great suggestions and ideas brother. We are currently discussing the formation of a robust, well rounded and informative website. Your ideas will be incorporated into that discussion. In fact your ideas are similar to those 4 other Old boys in RSA, U.K. USA & Zim. It is very encouraging to see a global meeting of the minds! Please keep these ideas flowing. More details on the website will be released at the beginning of the year** 3). Brother Joel Moodley offered: Thank you for posting updates on the MBHS speech day and launch of the old boys trust. As an Old Boy myself it is very encouraging to see this. My name is Joel M and I have launched a site called..,,. The site is all about publicity and I would like to post a front page feature on this historic moment.....We will credit it all to you. Please take a look at our site and let me know if this is possible. **Our quick answer was YES, When can we do it? And as they say, the rest is history as you have PUBLISHED the story in its entirety on the Front Page of your dynamic publicity website MutareLive We Thank you for not only showing your team spirit but also for showing us your amazing leadership! This is truly what our school needs...problem solvers who will step to the plate and champion the cause!! We also thank you for reaching out to the school on the creation of the schools own official website. It is very encouraging to see all these exciting chain of events happening on behalf of Mutare Boys High School. Let us stay in touch. Thank you!** Details: Background, where we are and a way forward: Dear brothers, Thank so much for putting forth your great ideas and for inspiring others to come forward. As far back as January...when we started this initiative similar ideas/suggestions were immediately put forward by a number of well wishers ..about the need of embarking on donation/fundraising drives and so on. Those grand plans/ideas although great in principle were not realistic at the time because our team had not yet conducted a thorough due-diligence inquiry on the current issues or state of affairs at MBHS. Our initial findings in meetings with various concerned Old Boys and advisers made it very clear to us that what was more important at the time was the need to create a solid and respectable organization first and foremost. And when we got onto that subject we had to honestly face up to the fact that others had attempted and come-up short of building a viable organization for Old boys at MBHS for a number of reasons, which we wont get into here. Needlessly to say, we took an incremental or slow but sure approach of looking closely at the real needs of MBHS (both current & future needs), And based on our findings, we decided to create a modern and flexible entity instead of an organization modeled along the lines of a traditional/classic Old Boys Association with chapters and sub-chapters...etc etc scattered along geographical lines; **The Headmaster actually pointed-out in our first meeting that such attempts had failed to take-off**...so long story short: our group felt very strongly about creating centralized approach based on a TRUST entity or Notarial Trust deed which we felt would be the ideal entity even though it was much more time-consuming and potentially more expensive structure to form. Trusts, generally speaking, must have clear and well-defined objectives from the onset in-order to comply with the strict guidelines that govern their registration. In addition Trusts can only be registered by licensed professionals such as Lawyers. Nonetheless this is the route that we chose to take because we believed that once properly formed , registered and fully operational; a Trust, in our opinion, was the best structure to adopt in the current global and fast moving web-centric world that we now live in. Also looking at the countrys current macro-economic state and the state of things at MBHS as a whole...we felt the need to create an viable organization that could do things on behalf of MBHS both locally as well as internationally. The Trust entity that we formed is completely independent from the MBHS Administration and yet it is designed to work in a formal partnership with the school...All of the above points were achieved and are clearly spelled-out and enshrined in the Trusts mission statement and charter. ********************************************** The Key Objectives of the TRUST: a) To identify areas that critically require investment and refurbishment at the school, including school infrastructure, grounds, sporting facilities, equipment and furniture and find ways of maintaining the same. b) To work with the schools authorities and other relevant stakeholders in establishing traditional standards of discipline, good studentship and values among the students and staff of MBHS. c) To provide mentorship support to the students of MBHS so as to enable them to realize and reach their capacity, including running interpersonal mentorship programs, providing opportunities for internship, facilitating scholarships for deserving students and providing career guidance. Also MBHS used to rank high in terms of SPORT, ACADEMICS and CULTURE of discipline and integrity. The TRUST intents to assist in the restoration of all this. *********************************************** Nonetheless we are very confident that the Trusts formation and document seeks to address all the major issues that are prevalent at MBHS. As Old Boys please take the time to familiarize yourselves with this TRUST document in its entirety as it will guide our future conversations as we work together to put our house in order through fundraising efforts that will be effective and transparent..We have to work together both professionally, domestically, Internationally and as brothers, colleagues and MBHS Old boys. The TRUST document is currently uploaded on one Facebook page called MUTARE BOYS HIGH SCHOOL OLD BOYS. It has been on display since August 25th, 2014. So now that the Trust has been created and a founding Board of Trustees has been introduced (and has launched these outreach efforts), we are now putting in place specific action plans for 2015 to help us start off the year on a strong footing. We also feel that the time has come for us to return to the table of ideas that many have been raising or are starting to raise. This initiative has already gotten off to a great start thanks largely to the unyielding faith that many of you have placed in us your fellow brothers. Throughout the year weve largely met behind-the-scenes and in small specialized groups which have enabled us to meet a number of prominent Old Boys and trusted advisers who guided and helped us refine this initiative. As mentioned before , our vision is to not only restore things to the way we found them when we attended MBHS but to help propel things forward in this digital age. Its is also very encouraging to receive the type of overwhelmingly positive response and feedback from the entire MBHS Old Boys community both at home and abroad. Its also important to us to retain/maintain a close, official and cordial relationship with all the schools stakeholders in order to be effective and impactful. We have diligently done so from the very beginning and we intend to continue doing so in the immediate and distant future. It is worth repeating that we are very delighted that this Old Boys initiative has been well received with full honours, at all levels by the entire MBHS community from past, present and hopefully the future! Thank you all of you for your steadfast support. So we will soon be returning to all these great ideas that we have been hearing like building a robust and modern website to serve as a one stop-shop that will operate and coordinate things like our global outreach and command center for information, donations drives in cash and in kind. We also want the Trust to be able to handle donations via ACH wire transfers/deposits from Old Boys who are scattered around the global map...and so careful planning and due diligence consultations have been key to our success thus far. We therefore plan to continue with that internal process and we will make an announcement when we are ready to proceed to launch a campaign on that level. This Trust is structured as a corporate non-profit entity that is perfectly suited to handle all these great ideas that have been articulated. We have plans to form a series of Task force panels in key areas that weve identified or are being identified through these thoughtful exchanges ..We will be happy to nominate productive individuals to such panels to help us keep this process going forward. We want to emphasize this point: A trust is a corporate entity...not a bloated bureaucracy. So great ideas will be entertained, researched, approved and executed. Poor and outdated ideas will tossed out as that is the only way we can accomplish our stated goals of not only restoring the rich cultural, sporting and scholastic heritage that we once knew at MBHS, but to also propel things forward at MBHS. Its quite an ambitious stance considering where things are at the moment. It doesnt bother us! Weve already stated our objectives very clearly and weve enshrined them in the Trust deed document. So as brother Richard Chiwandire has accurately characterized this initiative as the MBHS Bugle clarion call thats now echoing from around the world back to MBHS as we all begin partnering with each other in order to give something back to MBHS in a meaningful, tangible and sincere way. So please study the Trust deed and lets all begin to prepare ourselves to respond to the call of duty as the founding group has done all year long. Please note that there is so much strength and leverage in numbers! Once again please keep your great ideas and comments flowing my brothers...we are listening!!! Sorry for this long answer...but your ideas and offers for assistance are exactly what were looking for and we will be updating you in the near future on the timeline when upcoming campaigns such as donations drives or Mentorship programs are to commence. We are open to both modern ideas and traditional ideas that will ultimately help our school function efficiently and enable our students compete effectively. Your ideas and approaches that make practical sense and are feasible are very welcome. Please stay tuned and note that well be reaching-out to all the Shumbas for their official participation in the near future on behalf of our dear school, Mutare Boys High School. In the meantime lets hear from you and spread the word to fellow Shumbas that are not on Facebook! Thank you fellow Old Boys and dear brothers. Lets do it Shumbas!!!
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 10:14:15 +0000
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