Steering Committee Meeting - November 8th, 2009

Date: 11/8/2009
Medium: Teleconference
Duration: Two hours plus
chairman: M.B Krubally
Secretary: Cherno B. Jallow

Participants:
M.B. Krubally
Yorro Wuyeh Sanyang
Ousainou Krubally
Pa Samba Johm
Assan Jaiteh
Bakary Jallow
Pa Joof
Cherno Baba Jallow
Mamadou Sellou Jallow (joined at closing time)

Agenda
A) Addressing Ahmad Tijan Jallow's concern about future sponsorship of the Roman Catholic Church in Basse.

Details
As usual, Yorro Wuyeh Sanyang opened the meeting with words of encouragement and praise for the collective efforts regarding the finalization and ratification of the BA's constitution. He said it was time to "tighten the bolts". He prayed that God give us the strength to "keep us rolling."

M.B. Krubally thanked both Bakary M. Jallow and Cherno B. Jallow for their collaborative  article on the constitutional ratification. He exhorted the general membership to continue engaging other Basserians who are yet to come on board. He revealed having in his possession multiple pictures of Basse that were recently taken by Mr. Hassan Touray. He promised to submit them to the My Basse editorial team for possible publication on the website.

Funding the Basse Church
Pa Joof thought we shouldn't deviate from taking up Basse issues from a community standpoint. He thought the BA should be for all irrespective of religion. Wuyeh agreed with him. He said the constitution should be the guiding principle governing the activities of the organization. "It is not an Islamic organization," he said.

Pa Samba Johm thought the church doesn't need our help. He said if it was a matter of displaying solidarity with the christian faith, we could sponsor the catholic schools especially when some of us directly benefited from them. Bakary Jallow thought the issue was complex; he said it was good to be open-minded about every aspect of the Basse community, but he also thought it was wise to look at the weaknesses of the BA, what it can do and where should its priorities be.

Cherno Baba Jallow said the idea of church sponsorship should be dropped from the project menu. He said his liberal beliefs would urge him to support the idea, but practically he couldn't. He expressed worries about losing members or having this issue prevent others from joining the BA. He advised against biting the fingers that feed us. He thought we should see that there were only Muslim members in the organization; that if we wanted to show inclusiveness, we could still could undertake projects that would benefit the christian schools in Basse.

It was the consensus of the meeting for the BA to come up with a brief official response to Ahmad Tijan Jallow's concerns as expressed on the forum some weeks back. It was also concluded that the incoming executive body be the final arbiter of this sensitive matter.

AOB

Ousainou Krubally's Basse Report
Ousainou reported that the renovation works, financed by other parties, on the Basse central mosque, had reached completion. The mosque now has new carpets; has been painted anew. He told the meeting that the elders had sought assistance from the BA to repair some leakage of the upper roof of the mosque building. Cherno Baba Jallow and Pa Samba Johm were tasked with finding the cost of such work.

Ousainou said the elders had expressed great delight at the plans and efforts of the BA to contribute to the welfare of Basse.

He revealed that he had taken part in soccer programs in Basse. A team had been selected to represent Basse in a country-wide tournament. He said the youths were hungry for help in the sporting area, and were counting heavily on any assistance from the BA.

On a final note, Pa Joof asked Ousainou if he had talked to the BA representative in Basse Dawda Sankareh about his failure to pay up his membership dues. Ousainou replied that he had done so; that Dawda had said his dues were in place; and that he was just waiting to collect more dues from interested members and then he would trek up to Banjul and deposit the collected monies into the BA's bank account. (The BA is dealing with the Access Bank in The Gambia.)