Executive Committee Emergency Meeting

 Sunday, May 2, 2010 at 6am US Eastern Time

Attendees: Yoro Sanyang, Pa Joof, Cherno B. Jallow (Che), Bakary Jallow, Alh. Sellou Jallow, Ousainou Krubally and Momodou B. Krubally (MB)

Chairperson: Alh. Sellou Jallow

Secretary: Momodou Krubally and Bakary Jallow

Agenda:

1. The mosque project:
   1. Discuss the communication breakdown and misunderstanding on the ground in Basse.
2. Discuss the way forward
3. A.O.B

Opening:  

Mr. Yoro Sanyang opened the meeting at about 6:10am and welcomed all the attendees. He prayed for Allah to help guide us to success and passed on the meeting to Mr. Pa Joof. Pa Joof yielded to Alh. Sellou to host the meeting. 

• Alh. Sellou started chairing the meeting by welcoming all and thanking Mr. Joof. He mentioned that as the emails from Che and MB showed, we are to discuss the current developments on the ground and he urged all to listen to each other and minimize comments to keep the meeting to no more than one-hour. He invited either Che or MB to jump in. 
• Che commented that per his email and during his discussions with Michael Secka earlier in the day, Michael had expressed that there was poor communication on the ground. He continued that Michael did mention that Abdurrahman never informed neither him nor Dawda when he received the project money sent by BA. Che also mentioned that Michael had commented that there appears to be internal crises among the mosque committee. He further expressed that Mike however thinks all they had to do was for the three of them, He, Dawda and Abdurrahman to return to the mosque committee and hand over the cash and express our desire on how we like to move forward. Che stated that there was too much rumors in town regarding the money sent and there appears to be some fear that the funds will be embezzled should it be handed over to the mosque committee. 
• At this point, Sellou reached out to MB for comments. MB expressed that the miscommunication on the ground appears to have resulted from too many of us communication with different folks on the ground. He recommended that we establish one communication channel to avoid the confusion and get back on track. MB continued that we needed to also look into helping Dawda succeed by helping cover his communication cost as the internet does not come free or cheap back home. Also to open a Skype account to help ease communication cost.
• Che expressed that the communication required is too much for one person to handle and that is why he cannot commit to take on those responsibilities as he had previously agreed to do when asked by MB.  
• Ous Krubally was invited to comment and he express that he was happy that none of the problems came from anyone of us. He commented that we needed to communicate what Abdourahman’s role is as the account holder. Ous thinks that Abdourahman’s does not seem to know what his role is as he seems to take over the role of the project coordinator too. Some of the meeting attendees agreed to this notion. Ous also mentioned that per Dawda’s email, Dawda wants out which means we have “double problem” on hand since Abdourahman had also expressed handing over the cash sent to him. 
• Mr Yorro Sanyang seconded Ous Krubally’s comment and added that we needed to define each person’s role. Mr. Sanyang seems to think that we did a poor job in communicating each person’s responsibilities and the procedure on how to move forward. He added that we needed to put things on hold until we clearly communicate how the project should run, define each person’s responsibility and communicate with the elders on the way forward.   
• At this point Bakary came in to express that he had earlier spoken with Abdourahman, and he Abdourahman wants out. He wants to hand over the money as there seems to be a lot of rumors that he did in fact received $52,000 rather than the D52, 000 sent. Bakary emphasized that Abdourahman wants out and he wants us to get the money from him. Bakary reminded us that he hopes that we will not make the mistake to hand over the cash to the mosque committee as this would be contrary to our constitution.
• Pa Joof also communicated that Abdourahman had also expressed to him the desire to hand over the cash and stay out of the confusion. He reminded us that he Pa was the one that convince Abdou to take on the task after his initial hesitation.   Pa agreed with Bakary that our constitution language does not allow us to hand over the cash to the mosque committee. 
• MB asked if there was anyone among the group that can save the cash for us should we take it back from Abdourahman. Sellou expressed that he can assist until a final decision is taken. 
• Yorro jumped in and caution us to not take the cash back from Abdourahman but rather plea with him to reconsider continuing his account holder role. Yorro added that the same problem could surface if we hand it to another person. He reasoned that we should try and work with Abdourahman by communicating clearly to the mosque committee how much was sent. He commented again that we needed to now reach out to Samba Johm to help resolve our challenges on the ground. He thinks as the PRO, Samba is the best person to take on such task since he will be in Basse in the next few days. 
• Regarding the cash issue at hand, Alh. Sellou suggested that we reach out to the Governor of Basse Mr. Abou Khan as Michael had suggested. He thinks that the Governor can help us communicate to the mosque community why we cannot just simply hand over the cash. Alh. Sellou thinks that the community respects the Governor and they would listen to him. 
• After almost forty-five minutes of discussions, it was agreed that we needed to have one person communicate with the folks on the ground to help us resolve our current challenges. MB asked Yoro if he was able to take on that task. Yorro agreed but asked that we communicate clearly what we wanted him to do for us. He likes to know his limits. 
• MB communicated that the task involved is to help address the confusion on the ground, work with Pa Samba to communicate with the elders and move forward with the project. Yorro agreed to such and also welcomed the idea to open a Skype account for BA to help ease communication cost. This was agreed upon and it was at this time that Pa Joof expressed how expensive it can be to communicate with folks back home as he had spent almost $100.00 this week alone on phone calls to discuss BA issues. 
• Yorro will reach out to some of us should he needs help. But for now everyone is asked to keep away from communicating with folks on the ground regarding the mosque project. Yorro will take up the task and report back to us his progress. 

The following tasks were assigned to the following:

1. Freecall Account – Alh. Sellou Jallow will open an account in the name of BA and purchase some credits
2. Skype Account – Mr. Pa Joof will help open an account in the name of BA and also purchase credits. 
3. Phone numbers: Che will help furnish numbers to Yoro
4. Ous Krubally and Alh. Sellou will reach out to Dawda to stay on as the project manager
5. Bakary, Alh. Sellou and Mr. Joof will reach out to Abdourahaman to stay on as the account holder.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:22am