MINUTES OF CROSS RIVER STATE CIVIL SOCIETY INTERIM LEADERSHIP COUNCIL MEETING HELD AT NGOCE OFFICE – 65 NDIDEM USANG ISO ROAD CALABAR ON 25TH SEPTEMBER 2013 COMMENCEMENT: The meeting commenced with a call to order of the house by the Acting President and Chairman of the Interim Leadership Council, Mr. Ben Usang, who presided over the meeting by 1.00pm. OPENING PRAYER: The opening prayer was offered by Mr. Gabriel Eteng. APOLOGIES: The following persons sent in apologies for their inability to attend the meeting: Messrs Cletus Bassey, Patrick Okon, Okon Enemi, Apo Honesty, Theodore Ebuta, Felix Edoki and Emerald Ojong. ATTENDANCE: Not less than eighteen persons participated in the meeting. Details in the attendance register. INTRODUCTION: Each participant present introduced themselves and the organizations that they represented at the meeting. WELCOME/OPENING ADDRESS: On an opening note, the Acting- President remarked that the meeting was still open for more people and those present should b e free to air their views even if they were attending for the first time. He then reminded members that the Network was in a transition that would terminate in the election of a President in May 2014. In the month of October 2013, the Acting President continued, issues bordering on the Network’s draft constitution would take front burner so that there would be a constitution by December 2013. He then reminded members that starting from the last meeting, there would be a special presentation in the course of the meeting. According to him, one new committee and a Technical/Project Working Group has recently been constituted. They the Working Group on Human Health Emergencies and the Committee on Finance and Fund Raising having Mr. Donatus Etim and Francis Ogar as chairmen respectively. He went on to formally declare the meeting open for deliberation while promising to do his best to ensure that the meeting does not exceed two hours. SPECIAL PRESENTATION ON DEVELOPMENT: Mr. Francis Ogar of Centre for Prevention of Infectious and Non communicable Diseases made the day’s presentation. Introducing his organization as a health based institution dealing with health related issues; Mr. Ogar informed members that his organization is currently handling a Hepatitis Prevention Project. He continued by saying that other issues they undertake include advocacy using mass and print media to propagate health issues, community outreaches, screening and indoor/ outdoor vaccination. Included in the Cross River program, he said, are health related research, diabetes, prostate cancer and typhoid whose management is done by a team of doctors. According to him, consultants on the Project are also drawn from the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital. He however said that the focus of the program is on hepatitis because people are ignorant that this disease is more dangerous than HIV. Early screening would prevent liver damage. The Director of the Organisation, Dr. Kenneth Inaku, in his contribution, on the Presentation, said that primary health care is all about prevention. He continued by stating that incidence of hepatitis A-E is about 2 billion globally and that hepatitis C being a viral infection is worse than Aids having no vaccine or treatment. He emphasized early detection to prevent occurrence. He also said that classification of patients is carried out in the centre to ascertain their degree of infection to know what treatment would be administered. A fall out of the presentation was questions by members, some of whom wanted to know what is hepatitis. The answer given was that it is an inflammation of the liver which can be caused by many things and that the type prevalent in Africa was the mother-to-child transmission. Mr. Ogar in answering also informed members that the same thing that causes HIV inflammation can cause hepatitis. He re-emphasized early screening and said that a potent vaccine can prevent it. The answer given to the cause of Hepatitis A was that it is found more in temperate regions. The existing vaccine available was said to be meant for children. Mr. Ogar then intimated the members that his organization would like to carry out a free screening/vaccine for the Network’s Members subject to the approval of the council chairman and the Host organisation. After the presentation, the Acting President enjoined more members to be involved in the Human Health Emergencies Working Group to strengthen the group to effectively champion action on emergency diseases especially hepatitis. He thanked Centre for Prevention of Infectious and Non communicable Diseases for the presentation. He used the opportunity to intimate members that there would also be a Child Development Working Group in the nearest future for the Network. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING: The minutes were read by the stand-in secretary Eme Effanga. Corrections/suggestions made included that: • The minute should not be called a draft; • The reference of where the organization was registered should have been captured in full. Other points were that the “last” should have been “previous” and that the names of attendees should be included in the minute. Officers were also to sign the minute after it had been adopted. At this point, it was agreed that in subsequent meetings, there would be provision of a sheet of paper where people’s names and signatures would be written. After corrections were made, Mr. Francis Ogar moved for adoption of the minute and was seconded by Mrs. Atim Edet and thereafter the Minutes were adopted in the absence of any counter motion. MATTERS ARISING: Mr. Usang stated that for now, the only financial commitment required of members would be purchase of the expression of interest for membership form. He mentioned that the funds realized would be set aside for the renewal of the Network’s certificate, irrespective of other financial expenses he was incurring personal on behalf of the Network. At this stage, he went on to request that more individuals and organizations were being invited to be a part of getting the form. Dr. Otu Ibor was of the opinion that people should be asked to register and pay through a bank, in this regard, the Acting- President replied that effort was on going to open a Bank Account for the Network but that all payments made to himself or any other appropriate official were being documented and the information publicly available to all. He further explained that since there was a time line for many critical actions that the Network must undertake in the Transition, that the process that would make this authentic shall be the amended constitution of the Network soon to be passed. Dr. Ibor remarked that we should rather appeal for funds to get the renewal done instead of issuing out expression of interest forms. FINANCE/FUND-RAISING: On the Finance/Fundraising committee, Mr. Francis Ogar, Chairman of the Committee, asked that there should be terms of reference to enable them work effectively without any hindrance or misconceptions. He went on to say that when a member stressed the need to open an account, he could not mention his plans and ideas in that regard as he wanted to be cleared of the Terms of Reference of the Committee before commencement of their activity to avoid misunderstanding with members. The Acting President said that the account would be as soon as possible to ensure that funds of the Network are securely kept as has been suggested. On the need to immediately have a Secretary for the Committee, The Acting President asked that Mr. Thomas Agida be allowed to continue as the secretary of the Finance/Fund raising committee since he said he had earlier accepted to hold the position in earlier meetings of the Council. He then enjoined that both the Secretary and/or the chairman of the committee should be present in all meetings of the Council to ensure that the functions of the Committee is carried out or adequately reported on. On having a clearly spelt out terms of Reference for the Finance and Fundraising Committee before the commencement of their activities, The Acting President appealed to the Committee not to wait for a written terms of reference as the Network’ s Administration was not yet perfect and to insist on perfection would not be very easy at this time due to the several demands of re-visioning the Network. He went on to explain that a Finance/Fundraising Committee would have the conventional functions of a Financial Secretary in most organization while the other part would be to bring proposals for fundraising subject to approval of the Council and to embark on the actual fundraising. He stated that Fundraising to the public would only commence when there is a bank account for the Network and that the Committee would be expected to produce an official receipt as soon as possible to official receipt all payments to the Network. MOVEMENT TO THE SECRETARIAT/HEADQUATERS OF THE NETWORK: On the issue of a meeting venue at the Secretariat/Headquarters of the Network, the Acting President said that the alternative venue was not yet ready and that in the meantime the goodwill of NGO Coalition for Environment to offer a meeting venue to the Network was still adequate though it might not be for so long. THE CONSTITUTION OF NETWORK: On being asked by Mr. Ogar if the plan for the constitution coming into effect in December 2013 was still on, the Acting President said that there would be a Special meeting that would discuss the draft document extensively. Mr. Ogar then gave a reminder that December was only two months away. AN INTERNAL AUDITOR FOR THE NETWORK: On this matter, The Acting President stated that this would serve as a check for the finance/fundraising committee, the disbursement and use of money of the Network as transparency and Accountability is one of the values of the Network. Having sought clarifications from members on the earlier appointment of an Interim Internal Auditor, he confirmed that the auditor remains Mr. Donatus Etim until the time when he would be a conflict of interest or when there is sufficient reasons for his replacement. ANY OTHER BUSINESS: (i) The Acting President informed members of the Publication of a second edition of the official Editorial of the Network known as the Civil Society Voice, he stated that the publication has brought the Network to limelight and afforded an opportunity for us to engage on public policies or issues. (ii) The correspondence from the Department of Civil Society and NGOs on funding opportunities for Organisations was circulated to the members for consideration. (iii) Documents of a Civil Society research Network – The International Society for Third Sector Research – was also circulated to members in readiness for the Annual General Meeting(A.G.M) and conference of the Network next year. In reminding members on the importance of the Annual General Meeting (AGM), the Acting President asked members to research on things that would take us a step further to having a good AGM. He then asked that proposals be brought up on the issue, including the themes for the Conference. Mr. Ogar requested that a committee be constituted to that effect to start working on it. Still in the issue of the conference, Mr. Donatus Etim requested that it be stepped up to the next meeting and be dealt with before reading of the minutes. He then suggested that members should indicate interest while Mr. Ogar was of the opinion that since it was time bound, members from other committees be co-opted. (iv) The Acting President again informed members, that the network was included as one of the 41 accredited Organisations to monitored the Cross River State Local Government Election and that he carried out the task in selected polling units Wards 7 and 8 of Calabar Municipality. (v) Chief Edwin Usang’s wedding was announced and members were invited to attend and contribute at least #300 towards purchase of a gift on behalf of the Network. ADJOURNMENT AND CLOSING:Mr. Solomon Agbor moved for adjournment of the meeting and was seconded by Mr. Francis Ogar. Closing prayer was said by Mr. Victor Nnah and the meeting was brought to a close at 4:10pm.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Oct 2013 16:42:10 +0000
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