The Sentinel Project for Genocide Prevention is now in its fourth year and it’s time to step up our organizational development efforts. We’ve spent our first three years focusing on technology and research, which drive our Early Warning System and help identify communities at risk of genocide. Our ICT Team and Research Analysts are well into their initial development stages. Our newly established Support Team is starting to come together as well, and along with a fully functioning Board of Directors, the Sentinel Project can reach its full potential.
The present focus is governance. Up to this point all governance has been handled by the Sentinel Project’s founders, Christopher Tuckwood and Taneem Talukdar, along with Staff Representative and Board Secretary Sivan Vaisman. This system is not unusual for a start-up organization but a more formal and professional Board of Director’s is now required. A fully established Board of Directors, which is external to the everyday operations of the Sentinel Project, will focus on big picture governance issues such as strategic planning driven by the project’s mission and vision, financial oversight, human resources and resource development, accountability and risk management. The Board will also collaborate with the Executive Director to further the goal of genocide prevention.
To help attract committed board members with valuable skill-sets and expertise, we’ve brought Anushia Mohan on board to head up Board Governance and Recruitment. Anushia has a great deal of experience in non-profit governance and will be a real asset as she helps develop a governing body in time for The Sentinel Project’s board meeting in February 2012. The ideal Sentinel Project board member is a professional with specific skills in one or more of the following areas:
- Fundraising – experience in development and implementation of fundraising campaigns, donor relations, identification of public and private funding sources
- Public Relations
- Marketing
- Financial Oversight
Successful candidates will act as ambassadors of the Sentinel Project. They are also expected to advise the strategic direction of the project and fulfill high-level oversight of the organization’s financial and operational administration.
The Support Team has been working hard on volunteer coordination over the past six months in an effort to bring in (and keep) an enthusiastic and diligent team of individuals. We’ve been extremely fortunate that so many talented people have felt compelled by the opportunity to help develop a real mechanism for predicting and preventing genocide. We will continue to focus on our volunteer program, as it is the time and talent of our volunteers that built the Sentinel Project and keep it moving forward in innovative, progressive and effective ways.
Our highly trained and experienced team members donate thousands of hours each year to the cause of genocide prevention. Because technology plays a key role in what the Sentinel Project does, in particular our Early Warning System, most of these volunteer hours have been used to build the content and technical structure of our organization. We are excited by the addition of so many hard working volunteers to the Support Team. This team is currently being coordinated by Heidi Krieger and is comprised of three active groups: Resource Development, Volunteer Coordination and Business. As the Sentinel Project becomes a fully functioning non-profit organization we look forward to having an equally talented and devoted set of volunteers join our Board of Directors.
If you’re interest in joining our Board of Directors please submit your resume and statement of interest to Anushia Mohan anushia@thesentinelproject.org by 30 November, 2011.