Steering Committee Meeting - December 6th, 2009

Teleconference (Steering Committee and invitees) 

Date: December 6, 2009.

Participants
Yorro Wuyeh Sanyang
Pa Joof
Ousainou Krubally
Pa Samba Johm
Ousman Kamara
Cherno Baba Jallow

Chairman: Pa Joof
Secretary: Cherno Baba Jallow

Agenda
1. Status on the Mosque's roofing/quote
2. Nominations/Elections
3. A.O.B.

Details

Mosque Matters

Wuyeh Sanyang opened the meeting thanking all for coming. He also thanked those who had wanted to join the conference but couldn't for obvious reasons. He said it was a good initiative to ask for the meeting in order to address some important issues and keep things moving.

Cherno Baba Jallow and Pa Samba Johm, who were tasked to find out from the Basse representative Dawda Sankareh, on cost assessment involving repair work on the roof of the Basse mosque, reported that they couldn't get anything definite from the Basse end. They said they had contacted Dawda Sankareh on two occasions. Dawda, initially, had said that the Basse mosque committee had told him it was going to have a professional surveyor to assess the damage on the roof and make necessary recommendations. Dawda was reported sick; he couldn't talk to Pa Samba Johm when he was contacted yesterday for an update on the mosque.

Ousainou Krubally reported that the mosque committee had asked the Physical Planning Unit to check on the mosque, but the PPU had asked to be some time (two weeks) before it could get to work.

Filly Sabally was in Basse briefly but couldn't meet with Dave Sankareh in order to collect membership fees amounting to D1,500, which was now said to be in the possession of Alhaji Nyang in Basse.

Recommendations

1) Pa Joof:  Dawda Sankareh to transfer the money from, say, the Trust or any other bank in Basse and Filly would just receive it from its affiliate in Banjul. If Filly doesn't have an account with any of the Basse-based banks, he could seek the help of someone, say, a friend, who does. (The Basse Association is doing business with the Access Bank in Banjul.)

2) Wuyeh Sanyang: Find somebody else pair up with Dawda Sankareh to take up matters of the mosque or any others pertaining to Basse.

3) Cherno B. Jallow: Wuyeh Sanyang to talk to the Basse mosque deputy Imam Alh. Kaw Yero Cham directly to get a better picture of the matter.

4) Ousainou Krubally to call Dawda Sankareh immediately to get some feeback.

Nominations

Wuyeh said efforts were being made by the polling committee to reach out to all BA members to sensitize them on the nomination and voting processes. He said he needed the email addresses and phone numbers of the BA members. He announced that the bios and pictures of all contesting candidates will be posted on the website for examination by the voters.

Wuyeh explained the nomination process (please read his article on the website). Pa Joof suggested runners up for any position be made deputies automatically in order not to duplicate nominations for positions. Wuyeh replied that he and his colleagues had a similar thought but concluded that, as per the constitution, all the positions had to be filled.

The participants debated on who would be eligible to vote and be voted for. The elections take place next year February 2010. And new membership dues are due next year starting January. The issue was, who would be eligible to take part in the elections: Those current with 2010 contributions or those who had been current within the previous year. Cherno Baba thought that if 2010 was going to be the litmus test, we might not have enough eligible people to take part in the elections. He said the time frame was too limited to allow enough people pay up their dues and make them eligible to vote and be voted for.

The meeting concluded that this issue be either resolved with an amendment to the constitution or deference be paid to the 2010 requirement. It was suggested that Haruna Farage's counsel be sought on this constitutional issue.

An email was to be sent to Haruna and the Steering Committee for deliberations on this matter.