Executive Meeting Minutes - Sunday, February 17, 2013

Participants via Skype:  

Mamadou Salieu Jallow

Alh. Saibo Drammeh

Mutarr Jallow

Haruna Farage

Alh. Sellou Jallow

MB Krubally

Date & Time: 02/17/13 @ 16:00 GMT

Agenda:

Welcome and opening prayers

·         Opening FOB Update

·         Financial Update

·         Election Update

·         Membership dues – How are we doing and what are we doing to get more on board?

·         Board of Advisory Committee – Is it time we set this up and they should be part of the executive?

·         Handing over to the new executives

·         Basse Marathon – Filly Sabally and Hassan Touray

·         General Meeting. 

Opening:
The meeting was opened with a prayer lead by Alh. Saibo Drammeh and chaired by MB Krubally. 

After the prayers, Alh. Saibo thanked the attendees and spoke about the current pace of new and renew membership, adding that we might be seeing a record high in membership for the year 2013. 

Members commented that it seems like folks are gradually getting the message and starting to get confidence in FoB.  Mr. Farage added that the current momentum is a sign of progress.  He urged the executive to continue pushing to get more people on board.   

Elections Update:

Members agreed that the elections went really well and everyone felt that it was fair and transparent.  Suggestions were made to do a special write up to be published on the website congratulating the Polling officers for a job well done.    

For the future, members again suggested that we get profiles of candidates with a short bio to be published prior to elections.  This way, the general membership will have a better understanding of who the candidates are, why they choose to run and what their plans are to move FoB forward.   

Now that the elections are done, members briefly discussed the possibility of setting up an advisory board consisting of the former executives and leaders on the ground.

Regarding the new executive, suggestions were made to do a short write up formally introducing the new executive no later than February 18, 2013, thus inaugurate them into office.   

Financial Update:
 

·         FOB Account, (Gambia Account) – Mr. Filly Sabally was not in attendance but will update us at the next meeting.

·         In FOB Account (US Account) – Alhagie Sey was not in attendance to give us an accurate update.  He will update the committee at the next meeting.

·         In FOB Account (UK) - £140.00.  Ous Krubally will forward this amount to the FoB account.  Alh. Saibo Drammeh will follow up with him.

Mamadou Salieu Jallow requested to have access to the on-line FoB account to better update us on a regular basis.  He also requested for the auditor to have access to the account to better keep track and make the auditing process easier. 

Attendees further discussed the importance of keeping the Europe account open despite the original agreement to close the account due to monthly maintenance fee.  Moving forward, the Europe account will be maintained and members will be directed to deposit their dues in this account.  Alh. Saibo Drammeh will reach out to Ous Krubally to transfer the funds thus far paid into his account.  Members agreed that despite the monthly charges, it is more beneficial to have an independent FoB account rather than using a personal account. 

Suggestions were also made to train the financial officers on how to add member’s names on the website.    

Basse Marathon: 

Continued discussion on the Basse marathon.  Members agreed that this has to be coordinated by the members on the ground.  This opportunity will be discussed further at the next meeting.  The hope is that a marathon will increase awareness and at the same time help raise some funds to finance larger projects.  Surrounding town, villages can be invited to attend.    

Open Forum: 

Once the new executive is introduced, a transitions meeting will take place including the old and new executive members.  After this meeting, a general meeting will be schedule to hear from the members. 

Suggestions were made to ask members for input on project they feel FoB should take on for the coming year. 

Different suggestions were made on how to effectively use the former executive to continue moving us forward.

The meeting ended at about 15:30 GMT with a prayer by Alh. Saibo Drammeh.