Mark's work  
 

Mark has been the Office Manager for the Cameroon Branch of SIL since he first arrived in September 1993.  His responsibilities have shifted slightly over the years, but he has been primarily responsible for the following tasks:

Registering new members with the government of Cameroon - This is necessary to allow members to live and work in Cameroon after their entry visas expire.  It involves collecting passports and photos from newly-arrived members and passing them off to Siprone, one of my employee staff workers, who prepares documentation for the Ministry of External Relations (MINREX), the arm of the government that grants us residency privileges.  Siprone brings the passports and applications to MINREX and follows the process to make certain that things aren't sitting on various desks for too long.  At the end of process, the member has what's called a "carte organismes" (an organization card granted to members of NGO's with a special relationship with the government).  These cartes need to be renewed every two years, and I maintain a database to make sure that nobody's carte expires before they've turned it back to me for renewal.

Obtaining/renewing driver's licenses - This involves the filling out of several documents and much downtown legwork by my employee, Pascal.  Fortunately, we can normally receive a driver's license in about a week, and the standard B category is good for ten years.

Coordinating all purchasing and shipping for the Branch - This involves the assignment of Purchase Request numbers to all goods being ordered by or forwarded to Branch members or departments.  I maintain a huge database that includes shipping information provided by JAARS, the logistics arm of Wycliffe and SIL, based in Waxhaw, North Carolina.  For goods that are light weight, high priority, or perishable, I look for hand carriers (members and guests traveling from the U.S.) to bring 50-lb cartons with them on their flight to Cameroon.  All other goods, including aviation fuel for our fleet of planes and our new helicopter, come by sea shipment.  I prepare all of the shipping paperwork so that we can apply for customs exoneration, and I also prepare the distribution paperwork so that, when the goods arrive, they are distributed to the right people and departments.  My wife helps me on sea shipment distributions as these come in 20-ft or 40-ft containers.  With her valuable assistance, and the cooperation of the membership, we can clear a shipment in less than four hours.  Finally, I bill out every shipment.  This responsibility takes up roughly one quarter of my work for the Cameroon Branch.

Arranging member travel - I was much more involved with this in the 90's when individual members were not yet hooked up to the Internet.  All travel requests, both within Africa and overseas, went through me.  Now, people use email to make their travel arrangements themselves, and e-tickets have eliminated the need to receive tickets by DHL and distribute them.  My employee, Pascal, handles all intra-Africa travel for the membership.  I am still there to help members obtain visas and to give advice.  I also arrange travel for departments when requested.

Obtaining/renewing car insurance for group vehicles and individual members - I am the liaison between the membership and the agency that provides us with liability insurance as mandated by law.  I choose our insurer towards the end of the year, and then I receive all of the insurance cards for distribution to the membership.  (This can be a challenge for members working in the Far North of Cameroon, so it is necessary to make sure that the insurance cards are available several weeks before the old cards expire.)  When there is an accident, I help prepare the paperwork and make sure that our insurer is notified.  Praise the Lord, we don't have too many of these!  I also make sure that new vehicles (imported or purchased locally) are covered and that insurance is turned off for vehicles that are sold and the member subsequently reimbursed for the balance of the unused insurance.

Drafting invitation letters for people coming to Cameroon on SIL business - This is a very simple matter involving standard forms that I fill out, submit to the local police station for certification, and then scan and email to the traveler wishing to obtain a visa for Cameroon.  Although it is possible to obtain a visa without a letter, most Cameroonian embassies expect them.  I often do one or two letters a day.

Arranging all aspects of member housing - I was given this responsibility in the summer of 2006, and it now takes up at least one quarter of my time.  It involves arranging housing for members on the way to Cameroon (an ever changing "puzzle" as my former boss liked to say); making sure that apartments are clean, stocked, and ready for occupancy; overseeing the maintenance requirements of occupied apartments; maintaining a stock of supplies for use in apartments; ordering new furniture and appliances when the old stuff wears out; moving furniture (including refrigerators) on occasion; and seeing that members are properly charged for apartment and furniture rental.  When there are enough people to staff all positions, I supervise three Housing "Ladies" who welcome newcomers, arrange for cleaning and pay the cleaner, stock apartments, read electric meters, etc.  When I am missing a lady for a particular group of apartments, I cover for her.  Bonnie has been a wonderful help as the "Container Lady" - the person in charge of the container where we maintain our supply of towels, sheets, curtains, utensils, water filters, and whatever else apartments require to be fully furnished.  She has also helped me move furniture on several occasions.  (NB - after being out of this role for over a year, it was handed back to me last November when the former coordinator had to leave Cameroon abruptly over family issues.)

Drafting and renewing Support Quota Worksheets (SQW's) for members – An SQW is a four-page spreadsheet that Wycliffe uses to determine what level of financial support is required for a member to live and work comfortably in their country of assignment or while home on furlough.  I input certain figures relevant to the location or the member such as rent, utilities, retirement, life insurance, health insurance, SSA tax, various ministry expenses, a flat rate for living expenses, and the 10% that Wycliffe retains for administrative overhead.  Once the spreadsheet is complete, the member knows how much monthly support they need to raise for their assignment.  An SQW normally expires after one year, so I’m doing several of these every week.  (NB - Wycliffe retired the SQW for overseas members in March 2011 and is now using what they call a "Foreign Based Ministry Budget" which is simple enough for the member to fill out himself.  I still give advice, review the forms, and pass them on to the Personnel Director for Cameroon Branch approval, but my work load here has been seriously reduced.)

Making sure that the phone, electric, and water bills are paid – When the bills are received, my employee, Siprone, brings them downtown and stands in long lines to pay them – a thankless job.  I review his expenditures and make certain that all is in order.  I am also back on the job creating the Electric/Water Journal for the Finance Office so that individuals and departments are properly billed for utility usage.  The procedure is so complex that I am currently the only person in the entire branch who knows how to do this. (Power!  Bwa-ha-ha!!)

Answering emails - All of my responsibilities involve the reading and answering of email messages, up to 40 a day.  When Branch members have questions about anything, their emails are often directed to me.

Creating certain journals for the Finance Office – I create a journal for invoices from JAARS for items that departments order through them.  I also create the Electric/Water Journal (see above) and a journal itemizing shipping charges for members and departments.  All of these journals take several hours, once a month.  In addition, with the return of my Housing Coordinator responsibilities, I'm back submitting the Group Housing journal.

Ordering and stocking office supplies – Don’t need to go into details here J

Helping members send faxes and clear photocopier paper jams – Interestingly, with the advent of the scanner, I don't do photocopying any more.  I scan all official documents (in fact, anything that isn't nailed down), and keep it forever on my computer.  If I ever need a copy of anything, I just dig up the scan and hit "print".  Also, scanning and emailing has made the fax machine obsolete, which is good because it's out of ink.  I can send faxed, but I can't receive them.

Sorting the mail – Pascal brings the mail up from downtown about twice a week in a big bag and leaves it in the mailroom.  Whoever wanders in is free to sort it, but it often falls to Simon and me.  Sorting the mail is a nice break from my other responsibilities, and it’s the quickest way to discover if a letter came for me!

Supervising four employees – In addition to Pascal and Siprone, I supervise another admin assistant, Simon, who often runs errands downtown when Pascal and Siprone are swamped with work, and I supervise Marie, our current receptionist.  All four employees have been working for the Cameroon Branch longer than I have, and I couldn’t have a finer team of people to accomplish all of the administrative work that needs to get done.

In addition to the above responsibilities, I do whatever my boss, the Director of Administration and Finance, asks me to do.  I have been the secretary for both the Crisis Management Committee and the Contingency Planning Committee, and I was the Conference Manager for both our 2003 and 2006 Branch Conferences.  This may seem like a lot, but I have always enjoyed my work for the Cameroon Branch and am happy to be back here for three more years.