July 2006 EVI Executive Monthly Meetings Held on August 5, 2006

July 2006 EVI Executive Monthly Meeting Minutes
Meeting Held on August 5, 2006


Attendees::

Mr. Usman Anibasa, Mr. Bello Abdullahi, Mr.Abdulkabir Ismail (Founder, Ebiraview), Dr. Yakubu Ochetengwu, Dr. Joseph Akomodi and Dr. Sunday Abraham

President’s Opening Speech:

The president thanked all participants for making it thus far with the association. He prays that God rewards us accordingly.

Highlights of the June 2006 meeting minutes:

Three key items discussed in previous monthly meeting were:
1) Financial assistance to victims of crisis in Ihima
2) EVI scholarship Aids to Secondary School Students Pursuing University Education
3) Collecting Dues and Donations

Financial Aid to Victims of Ihima Crisis:

Mr. Anibasa informed the participants that there are 100 houses/families affected in this crisis. These families belong to two clannish heads. He advised that we should reach the victims through the clannish heads.
He also suggested that since “OHI” is for all clans that we can reach the victims and their clannish heads through OHI.

Decision: the victims are to be reached through OHI:

Mr. Ismail raised a concern that providing money to the victims might not serve its intended purpose and advised that material help will be the best option as many victims are still displaced all over Ebiraland. The President asked the participants to discuss on this issue.
Decision: EVI will provide money (about 250000 Naira) to the representatives at home to buy food for the victims.

The General Secretary raised a concern on how to ensure that EVI help is not misused:

Decision: The help will be channeled through OHI to the victims but OHI will be asked to assemble the victims so that EVI representatives can directly speak to them, delivering EVI message. This help will be given a media coverage – Mr. Ismail will look into how to get this done.

EVI Scholarship Aids:

The home-based members are also expected to be the core of the committee in selecting the successful recipients of these aids. On the criteria for the selection, the President and Mr. Isamail indicated that we cannot base our selection on WAEC as some students achieve excellent results through dubious means. Mr. Abdullahi and Dr. Ochetengwu agreed and stated that in this case, EVI will have to create its own criteria.

Decision:

the criteria for the selection of recipients of the aids will be based on mathematics and essay. EVI will design the questions for mathematics and essay. This will be coupled with information from the school administration on student performance track records. The scholarship aids will be commenced next year targeting students starting university education in the fall of 2007. We will project to provide aids to 2 or 3 students yearly sharing yearly scholarship amount of $1000.

Collecting Dues and Donations:

No significant development on dues and donations. Dr. Ochetengwu indicated that it has not been possible to collect dues or donation from the home-based members. The President has also made calls to members in North America but none of those called have provided their dues or donations. Mr. Mathews, the representative for Europe, was not present at this meeting to comment on this issue.

Decision:

Collecting dues and donations is a major priority. The General Secretary will be calling the coordinators of the home-based members and European members to discuss the best approach to collecting dues and donations.

Visits to Secondary and Primary Schools by Alumni:

Mr. Anibasa has left the meeting at this time, due to network problem, and hence no information was provided on his recent visit to the secondary school that he attended. However, the President urged all members to ensure that when they go home they visit schools as part of EVI effort to ensure unity across Ebiraland. The President will e-mail everyone the message that should be delivered to the students.


Advertising EVI Through Home-Based News Media:

As indicated above, Mr. Ismail will look into how to provide media coverage of the help victims of Ihima crisis will receive from EVI. Creation of Ebira Nyene Program was viewed as a task to be accomplished in the future.

Other:

Mr. Abdullahi suggested conducting the monthly meeting using internet chat headset so that we can directly speak to and hear each other. The use of this headset will mean we will have to chat on ‘Yahoo” site. It was decided that all should endeavor to purchase this inexpensive headset toward the next meeting. Those who are unable to purchase can still participate by typing their comments. We will make this topic as part of the agenda in our next meeting.

As agreed during this meeting, a reply to the Chairman’s request should be written to reiterate that EVI is not a political organization and hence, EVI does not have the mandate to endorse Chief Momoh Obaro for the Governorship seat in Kogi State in the 2007 election. However, a letter should be sent to Chief Momoh Obaro, wishing him success in the 2007 election.

Next Monthly Meeting:

The General Secretary indicated that our next monthly meeting would be end of August and thanked everyone for finding time to attend the June meeting.

Meeting Adjourned:

The president adjourned the meeting and thanked everyone for finding time to attend the meeting.