|
FSLB 3rd General
Meeting
Sunday, April 19, 2009 - 8:00PM
ATTENDEES:
Anthony Fannoh
Dawn Tolbert
T. Momolue Massaquoi
Steven Koffa
Isabel Cooper
Alston Wolo
Mitch Itoka
James Nathan
D. Wilson
Mona Browne
James Davis
Emmanuel Wilson
Gratis DeBong
James Davis
Scholastica Bailey
Agenda Item 1 -
Roll call was held, the agenda
was accepted and Lynnette
Roberts opened the meeting with
a prayer. We had a visitor on
the call (Ms. Mona Browne,
Alexandria, VA).
Agenda Item 2
– The Secretary was not prepared
to review the minutes at the
time of the meeting. Fannoh made
it known that the minutes were
necessary and asked that a copy
be sent to him to be finalized.
Agenda Item 3 A
– Scholarship Initiative
Fannoh – Since
the establishment of our
organization, we have been
fortunate to be in contact with
various group interested in
aiding Liberians in ways, which
are in line with the goals of
FSLB. We were contacted by Dawn
Barnes re: a school in New York
that might have a scholarship
opportunity for a young Liberian
and Dawn provided the following
up-date:
Dawn – The
scholarship initiative came
about through contact with Dawn
Barnes, wife of Ambassador Nat
Barnes. Her organization,
Liberian Renaissance Foundation,
is interested in helping to
secure a basketball scholarship
for at least one Liberian male
and asked if we could assist in
identifying such an individual.
This request was consistent with
our goals and we immediately
contacted our folks in Liberia
to identify students that were
strong academically,
athletically and could represent
us positively. The group came up
with three (3) finalists to be
presented to the school and we
are hoping that at least one
will qualify however, there are
still tests that need to be
taken. Dawn Tolbert took a tour
of the school. A letter was
sent our to our membership at
the last general meeting to
find out if kids of our
supporters may be interested in
the scholarship because there is
a possibility that Liberians
kids here in the US could be
afforded the opportunity to go
to the school. We will send
final notification to members in
within a week or two to see if
there are any responses, but
there are definitely three kids
out of Liberia that are being
strongly considered. If one
child can make a positive
impact, the school will be open
to extending the offer to a
young female in the future. The
school also intends to offer the
scholarship on an annual basis.
Isabel wanted to
know the name of the school and
if they were known for
basketball. Dawn thought they
came first place in their region
or county, but wasn’t sure. The
school is called “The Masters
School” in Dobbs Ferry, NY (www.themastersschool.org).
The school has a great athletic
program with Lacrosse, Soccer,
and basketball. The school is
looking for a student in the 9th
or 10th grade because they
intend to invest a lot into the
kid.
Agenda Item 3B –
Sports Power (Dawn Tolbert)
One of the
biggest things we wanted to do
as an organization was to create
and develop workshops/ clinics
for kids in Liberia, like in the
seventies when NBA players used
to go to Liberia in the likes of
David Thompson and Quinn
Buckner. Nat Barnes got us in
contact with Bill Alexson who is
the founder of Sports Power, a
Christian-based organization
comprised of former NBA and
professional players. Bill is
also the former Chaplain of the
Boston Celtics. The group has
traveled to various countries in
the world, providing
inspirational talks and clinics
for the youth and was thinking
about visiting Liberia since
they are affiliated with the
Greater Grace World outreach
church in Liberia. Marbue
Richards, Deputy Minister of
Youth and Sports, and Fred
Pratt, Secy General, LBF, were
contacted by FSLB to help
coordinate the logistics for
food, transportation, schedule
events clinics for the youth and
games. SportsPower played four
games and won all four; Uhuru
Kings, Pythons, Oilers and the
Nat’l team. They had a wonderful
time and expressed their
gratitude about how well they
were treated by the Liberian
people. They plan to go back to
Liberia and would like us to
continue to be involved and
probably have one or two of our
members travel with their
organization. FSLB extended an
invitation to Sports Power to
come to the convention in July
and they are committed to come
with a team. We can use this
information to publicize our
event and encourage more people
to come.
Fannoh wanted the
callers to know that we have a
signed Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU), which was
an obstacle in obtaining our
501c status. Kojo Anderson, is
serving as the FSLB
representative in Liberia and he
will distribute the donated
items from the NBA, which Sports
Power was kind enough to take to
Liberia for us.
Agenda Item 4 –
T. Mom, Chairman
of the convention, had a brief
update. We have secured a
convention date, but was still
waiting to finalize the gym and
the Hall. David Browne is
heading the gym initiative, but
was not available for the call.
Our first option was Blair,
which is not available due to a
soccer tournament being held
there on the same day of our
event. Northwest (same location
as last year) and Briggs Chaney
Middle school are our second
options. David is in touch with
the school district in
Montgomery County.
Yvette Lomax is
working on the Hall for the
Honoring program. As soon as the
locations are secured, the
information will be passed on to
the body.
Various
committees are in place, but we
need volunteers to help. If
anyone is interested they need
to send their names and the
committee they are interesting
in working with and they will be
invited to a meeting. An
election committee has been set
up and consists of the following
members:
Charles
Warsword Pittman Kennedy Eric
Daniels
Elsie
Badio Lionel Brown Gratis De
Bong
Toyuwa Harris and
Gratis De Bong will take full
responsibility of running the
website. Members should be on
the look out for new things and
updated information.
Dawn - Sports
Power invited us to use their
gym in Baltimore. At the
appropriate time, we need to
make a decision on which gym we
would like to use.
Dawn (for Yvette,
chair of Awards Program) – The
Masonic temple we used last year
is available but we will only
allowed to use to serve liquor
up to 2am. The hall issue should
be firmed up by the end of this
week so that letters of
invitation can go out. We will
try to extend the time to
approximately 3 am.
Emmanuel Wilson
(Minnesota) had a comment and
questions. He thanked the
committee for working so hard
and was impressed with the work
the group was doing. Minnesota
initially heard that the 2009
convention was being held in
Atlanta, GA. The Minnesota group
was not happy about the decision
to hold the convention in
Maryland because they felt the
convention should be held in
various states and wanted Fannoh
to comment on why the convention
was being held in Maryland
instead of Georgia.
Fannoh – At no
time did FSLB decide to change
the location of the convention
and there was no official
discussion on the topic. The
Steering committee was put into
place to get the organization on
its feet and has been working
toward that. At election this
year, it will be decided on
whether or not the location will
be changed. The changes will
depend on the constitution and
By-laws that have been
established and fully
incorporated. The Steering
Committee (SC) and Board of
Directors (BOD) are putting in
place guidelines that will be
added to the By-laws on the
criteria on how the convention
will be held and where. The
bottom line is that there was
never an official notice sent
from the organization that the
convention was being held in GA.
James Nathan -
Reiterated what Mr. Wilson said
with regards to their position
in Minnesota. He too was greatly
disappointed that the convention
was being held in MD. He felt
that in order for the
organization to be successful,
we need to be decentralized and
if not then Minnesota did not
have a shot of hosting the
event.
Fannoh commented
that the point was well taken
and will be looked at seriously
and at the appropriate time and
with proper authority.
T-mom discussed
the valid points on why the
convention was being held in
Maryland. The organization needs
active participation. The
convention guidelines being
established encourage
membership, At the July
convention, the membership
participation and guidelines
will be in place. We will also
have procedures and structure in
place for the people to follow.
The information will be put on
the website prior to the July
convention.
Dawn made a point
that the folks in Atlanta
expressed an interest in wanting
to host the next election at the
closing meeting last year but
nothing was agreed upon. It was
discussed at the meeting that
other states may want to host so
guidelines would need to be
developed to determine how the
decision would be made. From
July to present, no one from
Atlanta ever formally requested
to host the event and it was
never brought up again to the
leadership of the organization.
For the most part, the Atlanta
group has not been involved in
the organization over the past
year (have been absent at
meetings and have not
participated on any of the
committees established) and she
was baffled about how a group in
one state can expect to plan a
convention for a nationwide
organization for which they are
not actively involved in. She
stressed the importance of
active participation of all
members, in particular those
wishing to host the conventions
because we need to be able to
ensure that we are all on the
same page, sending a consistent
message and working towards the
same goals. We encourage
everyone to participate and want
to everyone to be involved, so
there is no objection to hosting
the event in any given state
however, the members from that
state need to be engaged in the
organization.
James Davis,
Chairman of the Atlanta Chapter
joined in late, but also had a
comment. As far as hosting the
convention in Atlanta, he had
heard there was a discussion and
a request was made however, made
it clear that they have no
intention of hosting it this
year (2009). They are looking
forward to hosting it next year
and he was actually glad that
guidelines will be in place
regarding what is needed to be
done. |
