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Legacy Project
5 Plays2 years ago
We are joined by the president of OAA 99 , Akwete Bortei -Doku on this maiden episode . He talks about the year groups 25th anniversary and the legacy project to be undertaken .
Enjoy.
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Transcript
Collective Effort for Legacy Project
00:00:00
Speaker
Many hands make for lighter work. If we leave this to just a few people to complete, it is going to be very burdensome. Our 20th anniversary, which was our teacher's appreciation, was put together by just a few people. And if you like this, our legacy project is maybe easily 10 times the amount of work required.
00:00:25
Speaker
So we want to encourage everybody to contribute a little. If it's an idea, if you want to sit on one of the communities, please by all means come out and assist. We will need as many people helping with newsletters and brochures and t-shirts and brown fire planning and a whole host of other things. Please don't sit back and just watch a few people get this book done.
Introduction of Podcast and Guest
00:00:50
Speaker
Welcome, fellow Aquaras, to The Road to Our 25th, a monthly podcast giving you all the information you need about everything leading up to our 25th anniversary of leaving Ashimoto School.
00:01:06
Speaker
Welcome to the Road to Our 25th, a monthly podcast where we discuss everything there is to know about our 25th anniversary. I'm your host, Kofi Annemedee. Today, we'll be talking about our legacy project with Akwetey Pote Dooku, president of the OA 99 year group. Let's get started.
Importance of 25th Legacy Project
00:01:26
Speaker
Welcome to our show, Akwetey.
00:01:27
Speaker
Hey, hello Kofi, good to be on here. So with our 25th anniversary looming, what is expected of us as a year group? So many of us may not know this or some people may, but in 2010, that was 10 years after we had, a little over 10 years after we had left school.
00:01:45
Speaker
And we actually put some money together. We raised some funds, which was about 1,500 CDs. And we bought some furniture for the OAA Clubhouse. So that was our very first project, if you like. And then after 20 years, we did a TAD, which I believe most of us knew about. And for that one, we did a very big and a very beautiful event. And just like that, it's been 25 years already. It's already caught up with us.
00:02:15
Speaker
And in 2024, we will be celebrating Founders Day and a host of other programs. And along with that, we also have to deliver a legacy project. So that's a traditional thing that all the year groups after 25 years have to deliver to the school. Wow. Legacy project. Can you explain what that is?
00:02:38
Speaker
OK, so Legacy Project is basically simply put our way of giving back to our Alma Mater. And basically, we went to Atimoto, some people seven years, but for our year group, it was three years and a lot was put into us. So this gives us the opportunity to give back. And so we have a number of projects that we go to the school. They give us a list of potential projects and we pick and choose
00:03:08
Speaker
and decide amongst ourselves which one we want to embark on. So that's pretty much how it goes. Okay, okay, okay. So let me ask this question. So why are we now starting? Why are we now starting our project?
00:03:24
Speaker
So in an ideal world, we should have already put plans together. Things should have been in motion. But as we know, COVID played a very major role. In the last two years, a lot of things were not able to happen. And we, as a year group, used to have quarterly meetings. We would get together and we would plan things. But a lot of that was stifled and made impossible due to COVID.
Impact of COVID-19 on Planning
00:03:49
Speaker
All is not lost. We are still trying to put resources and efforts together so that in the little time we have left, we will be able to still achieve something that is still able to leave a mark. Okay, so you talked about the legacy project and our plans to implement that. So what projects have made a short list? What project are we considering for our legacy project?
Potential Legacy Projects Discussion
00:04:16
Speaker
Okay, so when we went to the school, we were presented with a number of things and things like the construction of a house mistress, Bangalore, construction of a new staff common room, refurbishing of the old science block, buying a school bus, maintenance of a swimming pool,
00:04:32
Speaker
It was quite a list. We came up with two, which are the Clubhouse Renovation and then the Atchamata School Endowment Fund. Those are actually top ticket items for the OAA Secretariat itself when the AGM was done last year. These are two projects that were mentioned that
00:04:51
Speaker
idea to the Secretariat that they would like to be able to accomplish. And so those actually are, amongst all the projects that were presented with those last two I mentioned, are the ones that we are looking at keenly and considering. And we will pick one of them and go forth with that project. Okay. Can you tell us a bit more about the Endowment Fund?
00:05:14
Speaker
Okay, so the Endowment Fund is quite dear to us. It has a number of very great advantages to it. If you think about all the top institutions around the world, Harvard University, all these great institutions, they have Endowment Funds, which are
00:05:31
Speaker
which is like an investment of money that all students have put together.
Advantages of Endowment Fund
00:05:36
Speaker
And basically these monies are invested and they don't spend the principal, they just use the interest that's generated from these investments. And they use those interests to then build buildings and do capital projects and do maintenance and things like that. So like I mentioned, the OAA is very keenly looking at
00:05:57
Speaker
being able to raise monies like that because as you know, all the different year groups have to deliver a legacy project at a point and it is quite capital intensive. The aim here is that if this endowment fund is able to get on its feet, then the subsequent year groups that come after us will not even need to do capital projects anymore because the school will have a way of paying for these projects.
00:06:21
Speaker
And the other important advantage of this particular legacy project is that we don't have very much time to raise money and then to build a structure or any of those things. But we believe that we will be able to raise funds, enough funds to leave a mark. So what's next for us? What are our plans? How do we go about choosing the legacy project?
00:06:47
Speaker
You've highlighted two projects, so what's the plan for AYEGU? Okay, so I spoke a little bit about the Endowment Fund. I should also speak about the other project that we are considering, which is the OAA Staff Fund.
00:07:01
Speaker
Okay.
Appeal of Clubhouse Renovation
00:07:02
Speaker
And what it is is that most people, when they see the two endowment fund and OAA clubhouse, they just pick the clubhouse, I guess for a good number of reasons, because for us OA 99 in particular, we like to have a lot of our programs there. And so it's easy for people to give back and say, why don't we do a renovation rather of that building? You know, it's something we can point to. We can tell our kids, Hey, this, my year group renovated this building, you know, it's,
00:07:31
Speaker
and we can extend it, we can put like a meeting area around the outside, make it look beautiful and who knows, it can even raise and generate money for the school.
00:07:40
Speaker
So it is a top contender as well. It is not discounted at all. It just doesn't have the same appeal in terms of timelines that Let It Endowment Fund has, but it is still very much updated. So to answer your question, what's next?
Voting Process for Project Selection
00:07:58
Speaker
We are actually going to put it to a vote now that we've had the opportunity through this podcast to
00:08:04
Speaker
give people a little bit more information about the two top contender projects. We are going to put it to a vote at the end of this month, this month of May, and let our people decide. And that way, once we are able to decide on a project, we will then put all our energies into making it a reality. The decision-making process itself will be put to a vote, so it will be either Google Forms or
00:08:30
Speaker
but more information will be communicated about that, but it will be at the end of this month. Okay, so I encourage our listeners to actively participate in this particular process. Before we sign off, what will be your last words to our listeners?
Call for Participation and Ideas
00:08:46
Speaker
Okay, so my last words will be the fact that so many hands make for lighter work. If we leave this to just a few people to complete,
00:08:57
Speaker
it is going to be very burdensome. Our 20th anniversary, which was our teacher's appreciation, was put together by just a few people. And if you like this, our legacy project is maybe easily 10 times the amount of work required.
00:09:15
Speaker
So we want to encourage everybody to contribute to a little. If it's an idea, if you want to sit on one of the committees, please by all means come out and assist. We will need as many people helping with newsletters and like brochures and t-shirts and brown fire planning and a whole host of other things. Please don't sit back and just watch a few people get this work done. Thank you in advance for your help.
00:09:41
Speaker
Thank you very much, Appetit. Thank you very much, Appetit. And we need all hands on deck. Thank you, everyone, for listening to The Road to Our 25th Podcast. Stay tuned for another exciting episode next month. I'm your host, Kufi Anmidu. Do take good care of yourselves. Bye.
00:10:20
Speaker
She's the head of all the whole, She's the school of whom we both, She's the glory of the good that she brought us.
00:10:37
Speaker
We remember when the festival began.