Friday May 23rd, 2008
Opening Reception was held by the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) at the Hilton Newark Airport to welcome the participants to the OMSU North America 7th Annual Congress.
Saturday May 26th, 2007
Morning Business Meeting
At 10.00am, the President, Evans Afenya (‘76), called the general meeting to order and introduced “standing orders” for the conduct of the meeting. All members in attendance to the general meeting took turns to briefly introduce themselves. The Secretary, Divine Amoah (‘79), read minutes from the May 2007 meeting. Kobla Glakpe motioned for the minutes to be accepted and was seconded by Kobla Kpeglo; it was approved and accepted unanimously.
Reports & Messages
- Messages from the OMSU-Ghana National President, Ruby Avotri (’70) was read by Edna Agbelie (’79)
- Message from the Headmaster, Mr. David Afudego (’74) was read by Omsu-NA Vice President Selete Avoke (’78).
- OMSU-NA Financial Reports for the 2006/07 and 2007/08 Fiscal years were presented by both the Treasurer Doreen Dedume Williams (‘78) and the Financial Secretary Rowland Atiase (’68). The financial reports can be found at the end of this report.
- State of the Union and OMSU-NA activities update was presented by OMSU-NA President Evans Afenya (’76) in which he stated that he was honored to be chair for last OMSU-Ghana congress last November held at Accra. The president indicated that starting from an active membership pool of 27 Mawulians we now have about 135 active members. He stressed the need for more Mawulians to become active members since this will have an impact on increased funds to support OMSU-NA projects at Mawuli School. He gave a slide presentation of the current OMSU-NA project at the school, i.e., the repair and renovation of Aku House turned classrooms. The entire slide presentation will be put on the OMSU Website (www.omsu.org) in due course. The president went further to discuss various topics that basically spoke to ways to overcome the falling academic standards at Mawuli School through; 1) intervention programs designed to aid low-achieving students, 2) programs designed to support high-achieving students, 3) support of prizes in the re-introduction of inter-house discipline and sporting competitions, 4) introduction of inter-house academics competitions, and 4) teacher incentive award programs (here, he described current modalities being crafted by a select group of Mawuli School teachers in which OMSU-NA would support awards for teachers excelling in 10 chosen subject areas that are Math, English Language, Integrated Science, Social Studies, Financial Accounting, Economics, Elective Math, Biology, Physics, and Chemistry).
Year Group/Interest Group Reports
- 1979-year group: Elliott Rennison announced the membership drive of the year group to institute an award program annually for teacher motivation. Modalities for the awards are being crafted by a committee already setup with input from the OMSU-NA Board.
- 1990–Year group: worked on refurbishing the senior chemistry lab; the work is almost completed.
- 1967-Year group: donated some books to the school last year.
- 1960/61-Year group: Janet Borkpe (Mrs. Agudu) spoke on behalf of the group promising to take on a project soon.
- Mawuli Fund (MF): Yao Ababio representing MF stated that the Fund was founded 12 years ago with the idea of raising $1m for investment. He stated that the last major contribution was from the Trost Estate - $7,000.00; currently the funds balance more or less is at $20,000.00 in a bank in Delaware. He distributed info for Mawulians to donate to MF.
- Visitors from UK: George Dzotepe (’89) spoke on behalf of OMSU-UK and promised to go back and re-organize the folks back in the UK. On her part, Doris Davidson (Mrs. Koomson) (’74) spoke of the dormancy of the current OMSU-UK and promised to help revive it.
Business Presentations
- Ms. Mavis Dzadey (’79) donated OMSU-NA congress memorabilia namely T-shirts (ladies’ & men’s), tote bags, and baseball caps. All proceeds from the sale of items were to be given to OMSU-NA.
Discussion of Issues:
There was a lively discussion on matters arising out of minutes/reports and several topics ranging from the master plan of Mawuli School, fundraising, and dues increase/collection ideas to merging of various listservs/websites in the Mawuli communities into one site:
- Mawuli School Master Plan: In discussions on the arbitrary location of new administration/library building, it was apparent that OMSU input was totally ignored in the sitting of this building. After further discussions, it was agreed that the most effective way to make any impact on decisions of the school is to form an architectural design committee on the campus with a mandate to effect and implement changes.
- Website committee update: It was reported that MF objected to merge the various listservs and websites as the last congress had tasked the Website committee to address. In the interest of time, it was agreed that the committee go back to discuss and sort out all website issues again. Progress reports are to be provided to the OMSU-NA Board of Directors from time to time and a final report given by December 31, 2008. The members are as follows: Divine Amoah (chair), Yao Ababio, Phil Acolatse, Henry Afenya, Divine Adika and Kofi Glover.
- Mawuli water supply problems: The OMSU-NA Executive Council was charged to follow up with the problems related to Mawuli School’s water supply system as implied in the message to congress from OMSU-Ghana president.
- Fundraising Ideas: Selete Avoke made a booklet containing information on federal charitable funding sources to the president and indicated that he could not pursue funding personally since being a federal worker it would be regarded as conflict of interest. The president indicated that the Executive would investigate the funding sources.
- Suggestion for dues increase: a lengthy discussion ensued on a proposal to increase the current dues from $120 annually to $200; a motion by Kobla Glakpe to this effect that was seconded by Rowland Atiase was defeated by 15 votes to 11.
ACTION ITEMS
A) OMSU-NA resolves to find ways to work with and strengthen OMSU-Ghana and to follow-up on issues outlined in message to congress.
B) Website Committee to reconvene to find ways to implement merger of all Mawuli interest group listservs and websites.
C) The OMSU-NA Board of Directors to discuss and implement modalities on Teacher Incentive Awards.
D) OMSU-NA will continue working on projects and programs at Mawuli School that directly impact student learning, performance, and achievement with the aim of making the school regain its glory as one of the topmost in the entire country.
Elections: After brief discussion, Rowland Atiase motioned the following: That President Evans Afenya (’76), Vice President Selete Avoke (’78), Secretary Divine Amoah (’79), Assistant Secretary Emma Acquah (’79), Treasurer Doreen Williams-Dedume (’78), and Organizing Secretary Philip Dowetin (’90) retain their positions on the Executive Council of OMSU-NA. This motion was seconded by Kobla Glakpe (’67) and Olivia Kessey-Bruce (’79) and was carried by majority decision. For the remaining Board of Directors for next two years, Kobla Glakpe was recommended by the president and this unanimously accepted. Kobla Agbanyo (’62), Joseph Amanfu (’67) and Addison Agbemadzo (’77) were retained as directors.
Atlanta, Georgia was re-confirmed as the venue of 2009 OMSU-NA general meeting/congress Memorial Day week-end.
Kobla Glakpe motioned for the meeting to be adjourned at 4pm and was seconded by Philip Dowetin.
Saturday Evening Fundraising Dinner-Dance
1. Opening prayer by Solomon Avotri (’59), the President welcomed everybody and Elliot Rennison (’79) introduced the MC’s for the evening: Gertrude Osei (’90), and Divine Adikah (‘81).
2. The Keynote address was delivered by Dr. Yao Kaledzi (‘66).
3. A fundraiser was launched, amounts to appear in the Treasurer’s/Financial Secretary’s report on the 2008 Congress.
4. Recognition plaques were awarded to members of the LOC.
- An impressively attended cook-out was held on Sunday, May 25, 2008 at the residence of Pamela & Philip Acolatse to close out the congress.
Recorded by Divine E. Amoah, ‘79
Secretary, OMSU-NA
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