Liberian Community General meeting
1240 Park Street, Syracuse NY 1320
January 9, 2010
The meeting was called to order by the Vice president at 7:40 pm. 18 people were present in the meeting. The agenda was read by the vice president and accepted by the body to be discussed as read. Items on agenda were; reading of December 19 meeting minutes, welcoming of new members/visitors/ and friends, Committees reports.
The Secretary read the minutes of the previous meeting. Corrections were made on the minutes and they were accepted to form part of the community’s permanent records.
New members: Teta Roberts invited her brother Hosea Bardawlu to the meeting. Hosea introduced himself and the presiding officer welcome and encouraged him to keep coming to the meeting.
Committees’ Reports: The planning committee was the only committee that made a report in the meeting. Sarah Dossen who is the planning committee chairperson reported on the past Christmas dinner activities. Sarah reported that her committee received the amount of $270.00 as contribution from the community’s men in support of the Christmas dinner program. Of the $270.00, Sarah informed the community that her committee spent $169.66 in planning the dinner. She gave a break down of how her committee spent the money but she did not present any receipt to that effect. Sarah promised that her committee will make all receipts available to the community in the next general meeting which is scheduled to be held on16th of January 2010. Sarah also informed the community that William Fannoh who acted as Secretary for her committee has the balanced $100.34 from the $270.00 they received.
In conclusion of her report, Sarah commended the entire community for rallying around her in making the past Christmas dinner successful. She asked that the community continues to support her committee in carrying on their duties.
After Sarah concluded her report, Ruth Dweh who was part of the planning committee expressed disappointment with the committee because she stated that the chairperson who is Sarah did not include her in the planning process of the Christmas dinner. Sarah replied that she tried unsuccessfully many times to get Ruth each time she called but she (Sarah) acknowledged that it was unfortunate that Ruth was not involved in the planning. Sarah promised that her committee will improve on the mistakes made during the planning of the program including the point that Ruth made in order to make her committee effective in executing their duties in the future.
AOB: The vice informed the community about the bereavement of the Gbarjolo’s family and questioned how the community could reach out to the them. Emmanuel suggested that the community have the next general meeting at the residence of the bereave family’s and use the time to sympathize with them. The community accepted Emmanuel’s suggestion. But due to the fact that one of the Gbarjolo’s will be out of town during the next general meeting which is scheduled to be held on the 16th of January, the community decided to host the February 6 2010 general meeting at the Gbarjolo family’s residence.
Emmanuel verbally proposed to the Chair person of the sports department to create two soccer/kick ball teams for the community. Emmanuel suggested that having two teams in the community will allow the community to plan summer activities among themselves and not rely on outside community’s. The Chairperson stated that he will take Emmanuel’s proposal to his department for discussion. The chairperson stated that he will informed the community about his departments decision on this issue by the Spring of this year.
During the meeting, Mr. Jacob Saywon paid his pledge of $50.00 regarding the community registration to ACTS. The money was Paid to the Treasurer Victoria Glotto.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Emmanuel N. Tambah
General Secretary
