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| Author: Prince Foday |
It is my utmost pleasure to start the ascription by praying to God for the guidance of all alumni association management Committees in Sierra Leone and abroad for their relentless services to our national schools/colleges/universities. |
Membership Inertia
There is a need to create the impetus for membership and this depends on sound management. Sound management can be achieved through the dispensation of skills like leadership, organising ability and general management know how. There should be no restrictions to membership. Membership should be open to interested individuals and partners in the development agenda of the association. Increasing membership means more income to implement the objectives of the association. It is incumbent upon the management committee to reconcile the association’s objectives with the personal objectives of the members. Members are inspired when given the opportunity to provide their views, and it is imperative on the management committee to widely open their window to development-oriented issues. The management committee should be used as a trash can for disposing all rubbles without emotions. A true management committee is one that is motherly in nature and treats their members as a family not a foe. It is only the scenario of a family alumnus that objectives can be met. No entity can survive in a haphazard management manner. Members are motivated where there are democratic procedures in the general decision making. The way that the management committee behave towards their members and the people that they manage can have a significant impact on the way they feel about the management committee. Having a great relationship with your members and tapping their talents can create sustainable membership.
Accountability
The reporting culture of the association can build the confidence of members. This confidence would enable existing members to serve as indirect agents in attracting the sceptics. Accountability requires professionalism and there is a standard reporting culture for organisations. The alumni are required to appoint a professional accountant in exhibiting the standard reporting culture. Accountability should be of comprehensive nature and this involves income and expenditure statements (for non-profit making entities like old students’ association), balance sheet, publishing newsletters and all needed for stakeholders to know. From experience, most Sierra Leoneans had killed the spirit of trust for organisations (both private and public). This trust can be revamped through honest accountability and transparency. Accountability is not about showing the current account or savings account to members at meetings, but making sure the standard reporting culture is maintained. The comprehensive reports should be made available to members, the operating nation, partners, financiers, and all that are linked with the enterprise. An organisation with weak reporting culture would not become sustainable. The absence of transparency and accountability will breed contempt and this would lead to the dissolution of the lattice structure meant for the general benefit.
Arbitration
Conflicts are natural and the alumni may realise such with stakeholders as long it is existing. The association, since it is a family affair, needs to put a peace stick behind its door in case such an anomaly occurs. It is relevant for the institution to establish a committee to arbitrate potential differences. If I could make an observation, there are many separations or divorce cases among the families of members of the old students’ association abroad and even at national level. There are cases of time bombs waiting to explode. I implore the associations to take the challenge in order to mitigate this awful situation amongst our community. One thing that is noticed from among our brothers and sisters is that they are lost and need a direction to streamline the deviation. The arbitration committee needs to embrace the rudiments involved in resolving conflicts. The resolution process needs to be fair and ensure that parties are satisfied for sustainable peace. One possible source of this conflict, for the family of members in foreign nations, is the absence of cultural assimilation. Cultural assimilation is where an individual does synchronise the culture of his/her country with the culture of the foreign nation. Other conflicts may exist with those linked with the association. Whatever conflict that may arise with stakeholders, there is the need to resolve it so as to maintain permanent peace and the family chain.
Networking
The alumni can become a better entity if it enhances a family web norm. The group emailing network is a step in the right direction. However, there are other sectors of the family web that need to be satisfied in order to complete the circle. The creation of partnership with other development-oriented institutions so as to benefit from the pool of skills desires to be tapped. There are organisations within and overseas that are sharing the same objectives. It is necessary to link with these institutions having such convergence targets. I suggest that the association register with the United Nations On-line Volunteering body. This body or other institutions can provide the needed technical assistance that would enable the organisation to achieve its objectives. The author would avail himself for any assistance pertaining to the networking (any interested entity can contact me on zopsianechoes@gmail.com). The print media like creating a blog, website, newsletters, magazine and other sources of networking are suitable outlets. It is relevant to allow members to have their say or contribute to relevant issues relating to the development agenda of the institution.
Enterprise
The association should imbibe the culture of business and job creation. I would recommend the organisation to operate as a Community Interest Company (CIC). Community interest companies can make profit, though this may not be the case as a result of the booms and slumps in the business cycle. For CIC, whatever profit acquired needs to be partly used to meet social obligations to the community and partly for expansion. The enterprising nature of an entity can be achieved through the ignition of a product portfolio or diversification of activities. Creating a product portfolio can raise income to sustain the operations of the entity, and this can create employment for members and beneficiaries. Such product/project diversification can lead to a loss leader situation, where viable projects can compensate for non-viable projects. The association can involve in a pool of activities such as agriculture (farming and animal rearing), open a cooperative shop, establish a vocational institute or professional college, and embark on other productive outlets. The action of establishing enterprises can relieve the nation of its unemployment pressure. It can provide a ready job for students in the schools and the community as a whole. People are motivating when assured of a ready employment on completion of school. The Author of this article started such an initiative as head of the department of commercial studies in Gambia Senior Secondary School. He started a business club as a departmental project. The club was meant to augment the entrepreneur skills and to provide a ready employment for students in the department. The project was operating and still continues to operate a canteen, stationery shop, conducting research for interested institutions, launching a yearly trade fair and organise holiday jobs. This enterprising flair could even be instituted in our old schools/colleges/universities. There was a thought process of organising our students into partnership, upon completion of school, with the intent of promoting "the ready job syndrome". The partnership was intended to engage the students simultaneously in business and their academic desire.
Research
Research is an important element of an organisation and it is one of determinants of success. The association is required to conduct surveys on membership satisfaction, organisational performance and other relevant issues. The questionnaire to be designed needs to be enshrined with questions that are dichotomous, multiple choice and open-ended. Dichotomous questionnaire is one that requires the respondent to say either yes or no. Multiple choice questionnaires enable the respondent to be faced with a set of answers to select one. Open-ended questionnaire allows the respondent to provide his/her opinion on a range of issues. The information collected from the survey sheet may be qualitative or quantitative. The qualitative information is simple to analyse, as it is expressed in words. For the quantitative data, I would suggest that a statistician or econometrician intervenes to provide the desired result. It is incumbent upon the association to act on recommendations from the research. Apart from internal research, I would recommend the organisation to conduct external Independent surveys for interested institutions. The Gambia Senior Secondary School Business Club was conducting surveys, on request, for GAMBEGA (a beverage company in the Gambia) and other organisations. Although the research culture in Sierra Leone is very weak, I would suggest the body to play a unique role in the challenge. The funny but disheartening thing about the country is that, most of the recommendations from researches are thrown in the dust bin, and not responded to. Research is the bed-rock of any organisation or nation. Developed nations are developed and still maintain this stance because research is taken very seriously. I could remember when Sierra Leone had their investment forum in 2006 and Journalists were cautioned to provide nice and flattering reports about the country.
Social Obligations
The old students’ association, like any organisation, is bound to respond to its obligations to society. The entity has its internal responsibilities (members) and external responsibilities (government, pressure groups, community, and so on). Internally, members are expecting the entity to provide a comprehensive report on its activities, as they would want to put their money in a transparent and accountable scenario. Externally, the government would be interested to know what is happening within the institution. The state would want to know whether your body is operating within the perimeters of the nature of your registration. Pressure groups are groups like environmentalists, police, and unions. The environmentalists would be concerned about the negative externalities or social costs of your operations (example, noise and pollution). The police are available to maintain peace, in case conflicts could not be contained by your institution. Unions, if any, are established to protect their members from unfair treatment by the institutions they are employed. The community in which the association or any institution operates are expected to benefit from your activities. The community may have children that are interested in education, but hailing from poor backgrounds. It is the responsibility of the institution to identify these children and sponsor them. The community may have weak social amenities and it is the obligation of the enterprise to supplement government efforts in the provision of these amenities. Looking at the case of Sierra Leone, the satisfaction of the obligations to society is at its lowest ebb. Educational sponsorship goes to those that do not deserve it. Sponsorships are based on political connections not merits. The level of corruption has made pressure groups to be docile, as long as their pockets are filling. I could remember, as a child in Tongo, when the streams created by the dredging of National Diamond Mining Company (NDMC) were poured with acid to deprive illicit miners. The streams were not transformed into something beneficial to the community. Instead, the streams were meant to kill us the indigenous, and as a child, we were using it for swimming. I could remember as a child when this acid stream had a knock-on effect on me when swimming with comrades.
Conclusion
Membership inertia depends on the management style. Democratic style of management is suitable for attracting members. I would suggest the management committee to serve for one year or a reasonable period and election held at the end of the term. It has been proven that a management committee that maintains themselves for long term are prone to become dictators. This has been and still continues to be the case for Sierra Leone and other parts of the world. Such dictatorial emblems will divert the organisation from the achievement of its objectives to the hammering of sceptics. Defective management style can stifle membership inertia and this would result in potential members establishing their own independent contributing networks to the target group (that is to the school/college/university). The constitution needs to be drafted by an appointed body and the final constitution to be prepared after deliberations or review by the general membership. An issue to be enforced desires voting and the majority carries the decision. Where there is equilibrium of votes, the chair should then intervene to make the last vote for the final decision. The association needs to establish the norm of transparency and accountability. The accounts and all pertinent details of the institution need to be open to members and other interest groups. An arbitration body has to be set up to manage conflicts between members, their families and other stakeholders. The body is very necessary for all alumni associations abroad where there are high cases of divorce rate among wedded members and Sierra Leoneans in general. The conflict resolution strategy is appropriate for stabilising the minds of members and this will surely have a spill-over effect on the success of the association. Sound network can build stronger development relationships. Network can be based on communication and partnership with organisations that share your vision. The spirit of the family networking has to be permanent and not fragile. The association should be a business monger by spreading its wings towards viable ventures. The enterprises to be created would be a source of employment to members and beneficiaries. The not-for- profit business can be one of the sources of income to meet recurrent and capital expenditures. Undertaking research can assist in strategic decision making in the organisation. Research can identify problems and corrective actions provided to streamline the situation. The association should open its research unit, as part of its enterprise scheme, to interested institutions. It is incumbent on the institution to ensure that its responsibilities to stakeholders are reasonably satisfied. All interest groups linked with the activities of the Alumni association have their expectations. These expectations should be of high concern to the alumni. A better future means those who are not egoistic, but those motivated to create better lives for their target group and humanity.
Author:
Prince Foday
Reporter, Human Rights
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