WUGN/Events/2024 Staff and Leaders retreat/Day 4

2024 Staff & Leaders Retreat WUGN staff and leaders retreat is a retreat to mark the beginning of a new fiscal year and provides the staff and leaders the opportunity to align goals, brainstorm new initiatives, and foster teamwork.

2024 Fiscal year Date: April 30th-5th May 2024 City: Lagos Venue: Wikimedia UG Nigeria office and De Santos Hotel, Lagos

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Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Date: May 4, 2024.
Venues: Wikimedia User Group Nigeria Office, Dopemu, Lagos. Lekki Conservation Centre.

• Attendees

1. Olusola Olaniyan
2. Kayode Yusuf
3. Ayokanmi Oyeyemi
4. Ashioma Medi
5. Omolayo Ogunsiji
6. Adenike Bakare
7. Barakat Adegboye
8. Rhoda James
9. Adetola Elegbeje
10. Ramatu Haliru
11. Jakkari Abdulsomad
12. Micheal Diala
13. Aminat Adepoju
14. Emmanuel Obiaju
15. Ngozi
16. Caroline Seaman
17. David Adeleke
18. Timileyin Oni
19. Shobowale Lekan
20. Adamu Usman Garko
21. Oluwaseyifunmi Adebayo
22. Ismail Atiba

• Recap of yesterday’s programs. 9:00AM - 9:30AM WAT
  Kayode Yussuf asks attendees to share their key takeaways from yesterday:
  Caroline Seaman said she was inspired by the highlights of some of the networks.
  Aminat said she learnt about the WUGN membership.
  Dr. Ngozi asks about how to pay for the membership.
  Kayode showed the participants how to register as members and share with their communities.
  Kayode suggested partnerships and collaboration between networks.

• Kayode introduces the first external consultant of the day, Tosin Imhogiemhe. 9:30 AM - 9:34 AM WAT
  Presentation by Tosin Imhogiemhe. 9:35AM - 11:00AM WAT

1. Asks the attendees to introduce themselves and share an interesting fact about themselves.
2. He started his presentation on Emotional Intelligence and Mental Health, which covered:
   - Meaning of emotional intelligence
   - The relationship between emotional intelligence and mental health.
   - The power of the mind.
   - Emotions and your health.
   - Steps to emotional management:
   1. Feed your mind
   2. Guard your mind
   3. Stop worrying
   4. Unburden yourself
   5. Tame your tongue
   6. Review the situation
   7. Focus on what you can control
   8. Focus on the positive
   9. Listen to music
   10. Be flexible and adapt
   11. Trade expectation for appreciation
   12. Serve others
   13. Take comedy seriously
   14. Create time to unwind
   15. Remember your why.

• Questions and discussions. 11:00AM - 11:50AM WAT

• Group photos and something that describes your experience from yesterday. 11:50 AM - 12:00 PM WAT

• Excursion to Lekki Conservation Centre (LCC)

1. Boarding of bus 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM WAT
2. On the way to the LCC, there was a session, where some of the community leaders were able to share some of their challenges.

• Adetola Aborisade, WUGN’s learning and evaluation officer, briefly gave some observations from the L&E team, which include:

1. Communities’ meta pages are not well documented. Names and usernames of every member of the exco should be documented on the meta page, along with their roles.
2. Some communities do not submit their reports on time, and sometimes not at all.
3. Kayode Yussuf, WUGN’s community director, explained that at the end of the month, every community is expected to submit a community report to him, where all of their community activities for the month are documented. Also, for months where the community organised a project with grants from the Community Support Funds, the community is expected to submit a grant report to the grant officer, Ashioma Medi, and also a community report to the community director. In summary, grant reports are to be submitted only for months when the community has been giving grants, while community reports are for every month.

• Adetola and Kayode asked the leaders to share their challenges, especially in regards to reports, one after the other.

1. Aminat from the University of Ibadan Fan Club says that sometimes, she forgets.
   To respond to this, Kayode suggested that she should start setting reminders on her calendar or delegate.
2. What if assistants are not responsive? Ramatu from the Kaduna Network and Caroline from the Abuja Network.
   Olusola, WUGN’s president, suggests delegation to other members of the excos that are responsive.

• Key Suggestions:

1. Community Director to create a Google calendar that includes all community leaders for monthly reminders for community reports. - Sola
2. Leaders should note and document the details of each activity or event immediately so as not to forget or omit any important points and make it easier to collate for reporting. - Ayokanmi
3. WUGN should consider creating a folder for every important document that might be needed by the communities, e.g., constitutions for fanclubs and networks. They should also consider creating training slides and uploading them on commons for networks and fanclubs to adopt. - Caroline.

• Lagos by day 01:25 PM - 2:20 PM WAT

• Arrival, registration, Family/Canopy walk, and lunch at LCC. 2:25 PM - 3:40 PM WAT

• Presentation by the second external consultant of the day, Leye Ogunfowokan. 3:45 PM - 5:00 PM WAT
  He started his presentation on Project Financing and Accounting, which covered:

1. Meaning of accounting.
2. Importance of accounting.
3. Types of disbursement for projects.
4. Cash inflow and cash outlay.
5. How to account for project.
6. Importance of accounting for projects, some of which are:
   - It enhances decision making
   - It provides a platform for stewardship

• Questions and Answers:

1. How do we get to the status of being tax exempt as a non-profit and what does tax exempt mean? Kayode
   Answer: You'll be exempt from Company Income Tax (CIT) because you're not a trading organization, and you will pay for VAT but can't charge. Everybody that is meant to charge tax or withhold must be registered as a trading organization. - Leye
2. Is there a tax we need to account for on the grants we receive? - Ngozi
   Answer: A grant is not taxable. - Olusola
3. What to do with unspent money from projects? - Ngozi.
   Answer: You can return it to the foundation, or it can be deducted from your next grant.

• Photo session, relaxation time, and departure from LCC. 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM WAT

• Lagos by night - 6:00 PM - 6:22 PM WAT

• Continuation of the discussion of challenges experienced by communities 6:25 PM - 7:05 PM WAT

1. Issues of membership retention
   Ngozi from the Anambra network mentioned that to retain her members, she ensures that they are well taken care of during physical meetups, develops individual relationships with them, joins monthly meetings with the program director to discuss challenges, attends individual projects by her community members, and celebrates the personalized achievements of members.
2. Issues of receipts requested by the grant officer
   It is important to clearly recognize receipted and unreceipted transactions. If you do a lot of unreceipted transactions, you can print a form or have a sheet of paper for all vendors to sign after transacting with them. - Sola
   Receipts for hall rentals must be provided. - Medi
   Communities can create a payment voucher to help with documenting unreceipted transactions. - Caroline
3. Issues of transportation
   Recognized networks with high performance can be provided with what they need and be watched for their outcomes. - Sola

• Arrival at the hotel at 7:05 PM

• Key suggestions and actions

1. Sola suggests that community leaders develop skillsets to engage with and train community members.
2. Ramatu suggests weekly activities for engaging community members in their various groups.
3. L&E officer to share a Google form with leaders to know each community's challenges.

• Grant Charter to be shared with community leaders and feedback to be received from them on May 11, 2024 (a week’s time).

• Vote of thanks by WUGN’s Executive Director

• Closing speech by WUGN’s President

• End of retreat discussions by 8:00 PM WAT