Members Present
Ayebare Lawrence Vice chairman
Jad Tabule Johnsons General Secretary
Jaffer Fajallah Treasure
Kisumbi Madinah Deputy Treasure
Icila Lino Criel Member
Okecha Festo Member
Shadadi Kintu Member
Katarikawe Hannington Member
Muramura Frank. Member
Members absent with Apology
1. Omar Kassim
2. Nabitalo Zam.
Agenda.
1. Prayer
2. Communication from the chairman
3. Reorganization of the Board
4. A.O.B
MIN 01/06/07.
The opening prayer was led by Okecha Festo.
MIN 02/06/07
The chair welcomed all the members for the meeting. He said that a number of issues had taken place which included UCIFA day organized by the Entebbe branch. UCIFA won URA in football match. However, the Entebbe branch was not happy with the main branch’s attendance. He said that next time the board members should fully participate.
He said that the board should equally feel concerned about the issue of suspensions. There is a need to call an emergency meeting with the commissioner customs to sort out that issue.
He noted that the main issue of convening this meeting was to discuss performance of board members in respect of expectations of the Board.
MIN 03/06/07
The General Secretary requested the board to ignore the issue of suspensions which should be handled by the technical committee He proposed that each member be given two minutes to give an over view of what UCIFA is said to be and what it should be.
Hannington said that the main issue of discussion was reorganization of the board and that it should take a step to see if it can go an extra mile.
However he was put to task by the chair (Ayebare) to present a document which would act as guild line for the overview of UCIFA.
Hannington’s Overview
Hannington noted that UCIFA has offices and committees but do not function properly. Members are not aware of what UCIFA is doing. He noted that the chairman should delegate some of his duties because he is very busy to execute them.
The vice chairman is not empowered to carry out those duties in the absence of the chairman thus rendering the administration backward. Other members should also be co-opted to perform those duties were need arises most especially in terms of emergencies. He further said that the Members should forget their personal issues because they break up the Association.
The General Secretary’s office is the fulcrum of the Association thus information basket to both the board members and members. However the board receives the information late. It should at least be conveyed a week in advance e.g. two weeks ago he received a call from the chairman about the T.O.T meeting just hours to the meeting.
He recommended that the General Secretary’s office should be efficient and coordinate all the activities in time. However the Deputy General Secretary has been inactive.
He further noticed that the Branch offices are more active than the main branch. There was a need to link up with the chairmen of branch committees immediately after assuming their posts failure of which has caused them to assume false autonomy e.g. issuing of identity cards by the Malaba branch without the involvement of the main branch. There is a need to show them direction because problems which affect them affect the main board too.
He said that the finance department is the blood line of the Association. He was meant to understand that books of accounts had been audited which the board was supposed to look at and approve. This was not done. The finance committee should have drawn a budget which should haven been followed to know the Association’s inflows and out flows. He suggested that all balances of annual subscription be collected and encourage members to pay annual subscription fee of 2007.
REACTION TO THE ABOVE.
The board unanimously agreed that there should be door to door collection of annual subscription fee plus balances of the previous year starting with the board members. The board members had to pay by the 30th of June and the finance department was to come up with a budget for the board to know its expenditures.
The Vice chairman asked Hannington whether it should be the entire board to collect annual subscription.
In reply, Hannington said that when the vice chairman was a treasurer, he personally came to his office. So the finance department should perform its duties.
Lino said that committees are not operating. His committee had had a meeting once ever since it was appointed. Measures should be put in place to reactivate the committees by co-opting some of the members to the committees. The chairmen to these committees should always call meetings.
In reply to the above, the General Secretary said that members should be co-opted but a board member should always be the chairman of the committee.
Hannington agreed that they should reorganize the committees, a
board member should chair the committee and co-opt members on the committee.
In reaction to the above, Frank said that the timing is not appropriate though it’s a good idea. There is a need to first sort ourselves out financially because these members would need allowances for meetings attended. It would not be good to wash our dirty linen in public.
Okecha said that there is lack of coordination. Members are not updated on the Association’s activities. If we do not meet the members they will not know how we spend their subscriptions.
He further said that the general secretary should always issue instructions to his staff.
On the issue of identity cards, it should be only the main branch to issue them and when the Malaba branch committee is issuing to its members, they should charge them 3000/= as registration fee.
In reply, the General Secretary said that members were skeptical about the Malaba branch committee. They wanted to succeed and become autonomous. In the previous meeting it was agreed that the Malaba committee should not issue identity cards. He further noted that it would be very hard to control the issue of those identity cards if the Malaba branch is allowed to issue Identity cards.
In addition to Okecha’s idea, the vice chairman said that the board might create a lot of friction because this was a resolution passed by all their members that Shs 18,000/=should be paid for identity cards. The printing point should also be centralized.
Lino said that the board should write to all boarder stations requiring them not to issue identity cards.
In response to the above, the treasurer said that those people have already collected money. We should go ahead and find out whether they have printed the identity cards. He suggested that the board reorganizes itself, find some money and call a quarterly general meeting to update the members about what has been achieved and that the Malaba branch should charge at least 3000/=as registration fee.
It was agreed that Malaba branch committee should be stopped from issuing identity cards and the money which had been collected be retained as welfare.
Lino said that communication between the chairman and his vice should be improved. . The administrative area should be handled by the vice chairman. He further said that the board should leave by principles. Chairman should not always change what the board has resolved. He should respect the board members. He also acts emotionally most especially when he has been out of the country. Actions are taken in good faith and when he comes back he rubbishes them.
The Board resolved that since the chairman is very busy, the vice chairman should be empowered to carry out certain duties whether in the presence of chairman or not. However he should always inform him about what is about to be done and what has been done.
At what point should the chairman be briefed? Send him a message or email but should always report his coming back to the General Secretary.
The General Secretary apologized for mistakes made, that he is over burdened. Some times the situation cannot allow him to expend his duties diligently.
He defended himself by saying that on several occasions the secretariat has not been receiving information directly because the headed paper has private phone numbers, Box number and email address which mislead the public.
It was agreed that the next print of any stationary should be purely UCIFA. No private phone numbers and email address reason being that if someone resigned or died, there would be no access to private information and the Association wouldn’t be able to move on with its activities.
There should also be means of accessing the email every week.
He asked the board to give him another deputy who is vibrant.
Okecha said that the deputy secretary should be given a chance to defend herself.
The treasurer felt that she should be given notice of the Board’s intended action.
Hannington said that she should be given an opportunity to be heard. It should be the chairman’s office to write to her. If she does not take up the challenge then the board should find another person.
It was agreed that the chairman’s office writes a letter to Zam.
On the issue of the Books of accounts, the treasurer said that he was given re audited accounts of 15million shillings but at a time of his appointment it was 25 million shillings. He asked for receipts of expenditure and they were not availed to him because there was no specific office. He paid his own Auditor to audit the accounts because he could not find the Association Auditor.
Franck asked why refunding the people who contributed towards the running of the secretariat was secretly done.
The treasurer who had asked the same question some time back was told that he was not qualified to ask that question.
MIN 04/06/07
On the issue of Jupitor Forwarders, Panok International, the board said that it was a private arrangement between Panok International and Crested Crane Tours and Travel. However, as a matter of disciplinary action, the two parties should be called for mediation by the finance committee.
That Dorcas Kitonsa is still recognized as the Public Relations Officer and has to be given appointment letter with terms of reference.
Meeting adjourned
