Marine Basic Aidman Course (MBAC) #20: Post project reportThis report is divided into the following sections
- Objectives
- Donation items
- Participation
- About MBAC
- Lessons learned
Note
See also Opportunities to help the AFP
ObjectivesTimawa.net participation in the Marine Basic Aidman's Course (MBAC) was an experiment which had the following objectives:
- Validate the Timawa community as a vehicle for direct action in helping the AFP
- Test the viability of direct-to-unit donations
- Develop confidence-building procedures (e.g., privacy management, receipt acknowledgement procedures, etc.)
- Evaluate procedures for collecting funds, purchasing donation items, and sending these items to the Philippines
Donation itemsThe project consisted of three donation packages:
- Package one: Corpsman pins
- Package two: Medical kit
- Package three: Moulage kit
The cost these items can be broken down as follows:
Total cost of items US$782.52
Total cost of shipping & fees US$118.07
Total US$900.59Package one: Corpsman pinsThis was considered an "easy" item, designed to give donors who were still sitting-on-the-fence an easy avenue for participation. Previously, corpsmen were left to purchase their own pins, and the only pins available were of poor-quality and made of plastic. The pins chosen for the donation were made of brass.
Package two: Medical kitThis was the donation idea that started everything. Corpsmen are usually sent to the field without equipment -- and are expected to use initiative to obtain the necessary supplies. Timawa acquired three medical kits, including medical supplies, that were given to the top three trainees as prizes.
Package three: Moulage kitThis is a training aid designed to simulate injuries (e.g, fake wounds, blood, etc.). This was the most expensive component of the donation package, and is now in the custody of the Office of the Marine Surgeon.
ParticipationIn addition to the Timawa mods, six Timawa members participated in this project. Distribution of these participants were as follows:
North America - 3
Australia - 1
Europe - 1
Philippines -1
Philippine-based participants played a crucial role in weaving through layers of red tape to ensure that all donation items found their way to intended recipients. Happily all items were accounted for. See the "Lessons learned" section below for what we could have done to avoid entanglements.
Overseas participants were primarily involved in acquiring the items, and sending them to a collection point in California.
Special mention must be given to non-forum members who helped individual Timawans fulfill their commitments to the project. To them, we give our sincerest gratitude.
Fund flowFor this project, all purchases were made in the United States, and then sent to the Philippine through a variety of means. For items that could be purchased individually (med kits and pins), these were purchased online, then sent to a central collection point in California.
For the moulage kit, Timawa started by collecting pledges to determine if enough funds had been raised for the purchase -- money was not collected immediately. Once the required funds had been reached, the donors sent their pledged donations to the collection point via check, PMO, or Western Union.
Note: Since the Timawa is not yet a registered charity, donors were made to understand that their donation would not be tax deductable.Future projects will attempt to leverage more local resources.
About MBACMBAC Batch 20 began in October 2006, and culminated in a graduation ceremony in March 2007. The mods chose to delay providing details until after the course was completed -- hence the absence of input on this thread for so long. The decision to participate in MBAC was reached in September 2006 -- after several false starts in other projects.
The top notchers for this batch came from MBLT9 (a pre-nursing course graduate), Force Recon Bn, and MBLT1 respectively. All in all 33 marines, ranging in rank from Private First Class to Sergeant, graduated as members of MBAC 20.
Training consisted of didactic instruction and practical exams at the Bonifacio Naval Station, and a Field Training Exercise in Marine Base Ternate. Here are videos of the indicated training sessions:
Bonifacio Naval Station
Marine Base Ternate
Graduation and awarding of bags
Lessons learnedAs with any first-time endeavors, mistakes were inevitable. Quite a number were made with this one. These mistakes are hereby classified as follows:
- Role of the Philippine embassy in donations
- Freight cost estimates
- Taxes
Role of the Philippine embassy in donationsThe Philippine embassy facilitates donations by overseas Filipinos to the Philippines. They provide supporting papers that prove that the items being sent to the Philippines are indeed donations. Timawa did not explore this route -- and was a major mis-step.
Although the pins and medical kits, which were sent first, arrived without incident, this omission resulted in hefty -- unexpected -- fines when the Moulage kit arrived.
The speed at which the items had to be sent to the Philippines ruled out the use of door-to-door services.
Freight cost estimatesDue to lack of freight handling experience on the part of the collection-point assignee, shipping related expenses were not accurately anticipated. This resulted in unexpected costs that had to be covered in a rather hasty fashion.
TaxesInterstate and international taxation schedules were a mystery at the time of the project. This, again, resulted in unexpected expenses.
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