BA General Meeting Minutes, June 5, 2011

Agenda Items

Follow-up

Welcome

The meeting was called to order at 12:30pm Eastern Time by Momodou Krubally. Wuyeh Sanyang took over and chaired the meeting. He welcomed and thanked members for taking the time to call into the meeting.

Ablution Center Project Update

Since Alh. Sellou had not joined the meeting yet, Ous Krubally led the discussion on this topic. He mentioned that the ablution center had been finished but not to satisfactory levels. He said the water taps have been installed but there was minimal usage of the facility. He commented that Dawda could not do much because he had not overseen the project from the start.

Ous also mentioned that the tiling of the central mosque’s rooftop had been completed about a week ago. He added that last Friday was supposed to be the opening ceremony but it had to be postponed due to Kekuta Dampha’s death. Ous commented that the Basse community, especially the elders, were very pleased with the project and had been praying for the continuous success of the Basse Association. They encourage us to continue the good work.

Pa asked if there was any balance left from the mosque tiling project funds. He suggested that any balance remaining should be used towards completing the ablution center project to standard/satisfactory levels.

Ous Krubally came in and notified the group that Alh. Sellou will send updated pictures of the mosque project with a detailed breakdown of the project expenses.

Bakary Jallow commented that we should complete the ablution center by tiling the floor and walls using the same contractor that worked on the central mosque rooftop project. Pa Joof cautioned that we should not tile the whole area; rather, he suggested, we should go with the broken tiles style to avoid folks from slipping and hurting themselves.

The meeting attendees agreed and gave Alh. Sellou the mandate to use the remaining funds to complete the ablution center.

Alh. Sellou Jallow will send pictures and expense report of the Central Mosque rooftop tiling project.

Scholarship Program Update

Pa Joof took up this topic’s discussion. He commented that we had previously agreed to continue the scholarship program but on an annual basis to begin at the start of the academic year.

He added that we had sponsored 150 students from the three primary schools in Basse. Pa also spoke about the discussed idea of sponsoring a library at Koba Kunda Primary school. Members discussed Michael Secka’s idea of looking into extending the scholarship program to include the library project which they thought would be more beneficial to the entire Basse community rather than just Koba Kunda Primary school. Some attendees agreed with this idea and others commented that the library project would show BA's impact a lot quicker than the scholarship project.

Continuous discussions about the library yielded an agreement to have the Education committee move forward and send the donated text books to Basse as soon as possible.

Ousman Kamara suggested that we assign someone to head the education sector. He questioned if Koba Kunda Primary school was a good location for a library meant to serve the entire Basse community. Members continued to discuss the library project with information showing that Basse does have a national library located on the Mansajang Kunda highway across the old GUC, now a military barracks. Other commented that one of the reasons Koba Kunda Primary school was chosen was the fact that they had already identified a building we could use and that finding a central location in town would be very challenging. Suggestions were made to discuss Ousman's questions at the next executive meeting. But an agreement was reached to have the education committee send the donated book via the container leaving Detroit next week.

Samba Johm will send the donated books via a container leaving Detroit and at no cost to BA.

Sports & Culture Update

Ousainou Krubally commented that this year’s Naweetan tournament had not started yet as the Memorial trophy tournament finals has still not been replayed. He commented that the two teams were having trouble coming to an agreement on the way forward to replay the game. Ous added that he did not want to interfere or give directions. He wanted the folks on the ground to work out an agreement.

Members discussed what they thought was the best way to move forward with comments varying from replaying the finals, following FIFA rules, replaying the game from the point it ended (with players and goal scores) before the match was suspended for crowd violence. At the end, it was agreed that we should stay with the FIFA guidelines and Alh. Sellou was going to look into this matter and work with Ous to help resolve the issue.

Alh. Sellou and Ous will refer to the FIFA guidelines and work with the locals on the ground to hopefully resolve this matter by following the soccer guidelines.

Basse Health Center Update

Alh. Sellou reported that some of the Health Center funds were used towards the central mosque tiling project. He added that the mosque project donations collected by Wuyeh will be used towards the health center project.

Future Projects

As for the future projects, members commented on completing the health center and library project before taking up another major project. Bakary Jallow suggested that we take up a green project to plant trees in and around Basse to counter deforestation.

Alh. Sellou will speak with the local associations on the ground to see if they are interested in working with us on such a project. Member comments and suggestions ranged from the idea of planting fruit bearing trees, planting trees around the soccer stadium, planting a tree on each street in town and have the locals care for them. The discussion was concluded that the idea is now out there and we will continue to discuss it before the completion of the projects in the pipeline.

Alh. Sellou Jallow will follow up with the local association to see if they are interested in partnering with us on the “Green Project”.

Finances

Since none of the Financial controllers were around, this topic was adjourned till the next executive meeting.

Membership Dues

Alhaji Saibo commented that he was still working with local Basserians in his area to renew their membership. Wuyeh mentioned the names of a few folks to be contacted. Others suggested on the idea of reaching out to the Basse elderly community to seek their support in communicating to the locals to encourage their kids to join. Another suggestion was for Dawda Sankareh to organize a general meeting in Basse and also look into creating a sub committee on the ground to work with.

AOB

Wuyeh suggested that we look into beginning and ending our meetings with a prayer. Members agreed to his suggestion and Cherno Baba Jallow was nominated to take up this responsibility. Che agreed and closed the meeting with a prayer.

This will be part of our meeting norms moving forward.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned and the next executive meeting has been set for June 19, 2011. More information to follow.