The State of the association address
The State of the Association by Dr. Nya K. Taryor, Sr
August 7-8, 2020
The State of the Association. delivered at the 16th Annual Reunion conducted by Zoom because of the Corona Virus, distancing regulation.
1st Vice President, Mr. Prince Toweh,
2nd Vice President, Mrs. Kau, Lukekay, Dolopei Alpha
Members of the Board of Directors
Officers, Old members, and New members of our great Association, GUMMSAA.
I take this time to greet you warmly this afternoon in the name of our Redeemer and friend, Jesus the Christ. I am exceeding pleased to welcome you to the 16th Annual Reunion Conference of GUMMSAA which is being conducted on Zoom electronically today.
Last night, in my extemporaneous remark during the Meet and Greet session, I hinted on a few of the concerns we will be discussing today. But first, allow me to remark on the state of the Union as of today, August 8, 2020.
Our Association is better now today than it was when we took office a year and a half ago shortly after the death of Mr. Allen Blegay. May God bless his soul.
One of my favorite Principals at Ganta Mission was Teacher J.J. Wrotto. I am sorry that some of you did not sit under this man’s tutorage. He did not have a Masters degree nor a Doctorate degree, but to me he was one of the best self-educated man I have ever known. He was a school principal with a living principle. From a humble beginning, he made something out of himself as no body would. He became a prinncipal of Ganta Mission School and later studied law and was assigned as a Justice of the Peace in Ganta. He shared his wisdom with us freely. One of his many living principles can be identified with his sayings and teaching. He always told us to apply this statement in our lives:
"Good, better best,
Never let it rest
Until your good is better and
our better is best.”
Two and a half years ago, we adopted that slogan or principle when we took over the helm of leadership for this organization. The organization was good, but we have made it a little better than we met it. The effort to make the organization better was not one person’s doing, all of us played some role, no matter how meager or great. Membership was dwindling, but since then, we are growing incrementally, but it could be better than that. However, that is still a forward move from good to better. We will not relinquish until our good is better and our better is best.
If you recall, last year in Philadelphia during our conference, we outlined or identified several strategic plans: Thee plans were well articulated by the General Secretary, Gertrude this morning in her report.
a. Obtaining our 501(C)3 is our number one priority. We have been working on it. Mr. Frank Mellish will give us some report on the progress he has made thus far this afternoon. I have been announcing that all the officers should give their information to Mr. Mellish but we have not received the information he needs. This strategic plan is moving forward.
b. Construction of our Website to help us promote our Association. That strategic plan has been accomplished. We now have our website and some of our information are already posted on the site.
c. Setting a budget so that we can acquire a responsible financial management. We were not able to set a budget because of the complication we have had with the financial issue of transferring from the old administration to the new administration. According to our constitution, we should have only one Treasurer. We have elected Teewon to be our treasurer, but Uluma, the treasurer still has her name on our account. She is the only signatory on the account and we cannot transact any business without her signature on our check. We need her name off our account so the Treasurer, Financial Secretary and the President can have their signature on the account. As soon as that matter is settled, we will have our budget set.
d. Grant Proposal Writing will begin after we acquire our 501(c)3. I have already written a tentative grant proposal but we are waiting for the 501[c] 3 to be completed.
e. We should report yearly to the IRS our Income & Expenses for Tax purposes. Because of the difficulties we are going through about the organization’s bank account still in Limbo, we cannot do tax form.
f. Internal and External Auditing yearly when possible
This too is not possible when we do not have access to our account.
g. Membership Increase, we are experiencing some growth. The Virus is still our impediment, but gradually we will overcome. We are pleased to see a few alumni join the fold, noticeably,
Mr. Sam Wuo
Yah Emma Gray King
Mrs. Yei Wuor
Dr. Richardson Paye
Mr. Milton Toweh
Sister Lynda Gardner
Mr. Saye Tukpuie
h. Our principle guidelines ,and standards are: Transparency, Accountability, Responsibility, Dependability, and Stewardship.
AS I indicated earlier, the Association is better now than it was when we took over as interim leaders one and a half years ago, and you saw our potential for good and faithful service, that you wisely awarded us again for a full term of office, we have been obedient to your call. While we are trying to make good on our promises to advance this association, we have noticed 3 major impediments to our progress.
1. The Corona Virus has prohibited us from congregating like we used to do for fellowship, study, worship and reflection together face to face. Due to the Virus, even local groups cannot congregate to worship, attend funeral services when we experience death in our chapters. Hopefully, this too will pass away.
2. Our second impediment is the 501 [c]3 we have hoped for to enable us to raise fund for our Association. Mr. Mellish is working acidulously to make this possible for us.
3. The third impediment is the difficulties we continue to go through in order to have access to the organization’s fund from the past administration. We were depending on the accessibility of the account in order to set our budget, and file in our tax for the year. We will need access to the account so that the new treasurer and financial secretary and the president can be signatory to the account as counter check and balance. This has nothing to do with trust or no trust in our officers. In dealing with organization’s fund, we need more than one signatory on the check for check and balance. It is bad business practice to have only one person's signature to an organization's account.
Finally, let me assure you that the Organization is in good hands. We will do our very best to follow J.J. Wrotto’s advice. “Good better best, never let it rest until your good is better and your better is best."
By Dr. Nya Kwiawon Taryor, Sr.
President of GUMMSAA
Speech by Prince M. Toweh
Introductory Statement
GUMMSAA- Reunion, 2020
August 8, 2020
By
Prince M. Toweh
SALUTATION:
Member of the board of directors, the president, officers and Members of GUMMSAA, distinguished visitors, ladies and gentlemen.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
This convention is possible due to the tenacity and hard-work of members of the planning committee, which includes VP2, Kau Alpha, Mrs. Marie Barr- Davies (Board Member), Samuel Wuo, Alpha Lalugba (Board Member), Ellen K. Miller(Board Member), Abraham Wrotto (Financial Secretary), and Dr. Richardson N. Paye (Board Member). Many thanks to the president and his executive committee members for conducting the official business of the organization. Members of the board of directors have and will continue to provide oversight for our organization. Mrs. Marian Webba (Board member) provided the list of songs that we sang last night and will continue to sing during this conference. We thank all GUMMSAA members because there can be no conference without an audience.
THE CORONA/ GLEMONTOR STORY:
Please permit me to narrate an important and relevant story to you
The current Corona pandemic is indeed challenging the world, but countries are continuously trying to conquer it. The corona situation is analogous to a difficult situation that engulfed the Mah (Mano) people who live in Nimba County, Liberia. When this situation happened, the county was still part of Central Province of Liberia, and the late George Dumbar was the district commissioner.
The commissioner wanted to build the road between Ganta and Senniquellie. The road crew did not have earthmoving equipment. The crew had hoes, wheel- barrows, pix shovels and buckets. Every able-body man was compelled by the Force Labor Law of Liberia to render free services. As the road workers were laboring on the road, their foreman, Mr. Wright, beat and illtreated them. The workers would say, let Wright beat and bite you to signal that he is finished with you for the day. Within time, the people decided to get rid of Mr. Wright.
The people invited the most famous magician in the region- Glehmontor. Glehmontor was a resident of Gboah, a clan in upper Nimba County. On this day Glehmontor was walking from Dingamon Town towards the public school where Mr. Wright resided. Mr. Wright spotted Glehmontor and questioned why he was not working on the road like his peers. Glehmontor did not respond. Mr. Wright became annoyed by this blatant act of defiance. He grasped Glehmontor’s arm. Glehmontor disengaged his arm from its socket. His arm remained in Mr. Wright’s hand. His blood was dripping like a river. Mr. Wright panicked, fled and abandoned the road work forever. The people became victorious.
The morale of this story Is, when challenging situations occur, people will discover other ways to perform their duties, or to normalize their lives. In our case, we traditionally converged in cities to attend conferences, but today we are zooming. Corona may challenge the Lions, but it cannot stop the mighty Lions. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this reunion. Thank you. Please clap for the Lions
