{UAH} Fallacy of Separate but Equal

UNAA's constitution talks of "equal but separate organs" i.e Executive, Council and Board of Trustees (BoT)...but then the same constitution provides that the President is a member of the Council and also a member of the BoT. Obviously, the organs can not be truly independent of each other if the President is also members of the other organs!  

UNAA's constitution was based on the US constitution that has 3 separate but equal bodies...and those 3 bodies actually have separate work (largely) and they are busy all the time.

At the moment, UNAA's main activity is the convention. It makes little sense to have so many bodies to organize a 3 day event. The idea of a Council and a BoT would be ideal if there were other activities for the to do...but as we all know, if UNAA lets the local organizers help with convention preparations, there is little work left for all the leaders of UNAA. What will the BoT do for 3 years if they are not involved in the convention preparations? Do we honestly expect a certain member of the BoT (or 2 members of the BoT) to sit on their hands and wait for occasional updates from the President? What will the Council be doing?

Will the President let Mr Awichu run the show in San Diego (chair Local Organizing Committee meetings) such that the UNAA leadership just calls into the conference calls like Francis did in Dallas? i.e though Francis was the President, he was not involved in the day-today-preparations for the convention and was calling-in like the BoT and Council members.

Will the BoT function well with the knowledge that the Executive will soon have to kick 2 or 3 of them off the BoT to create room for new BoT members (may be a certain former Secretary, an astute campaign strategist and a former Director)?

Since there is obviously so little work for the folks with fancy titles, people are again going to be reduced to fighting over the little work left. This leads to inefficiency.That is why I have always said that there was NO good reason to separate the Council from the Executive. 

thanks

 

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From: "y.kibwika@gmail.com" <y.kibwika@gmail.com>
To: joseph.musoke@ymail.com
Sent: Sunday, September 22, 2013 11:42 AM
Subject: UNAALIST UNAA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OVERREACH IN COUNCIL

The UNAA Council 8

It appears that you are making several assumptions and calling your fellow members "watchdogs".

You are CHOOSING "not participate in any official UNAA Council meetings/Votes pertaining to new legislation or approve any UNAA budgetary expenditures" based on your assumption that we have a leadership team in the Council that is handpicked. With what facts do you show that Nicholas Wakou,  Stephen Katende, and myself are supposedly handpicked ? "UNAA Council 8" you are making very strong assumptions without any validity. In life you have choices. Choosing to continue to serve our members after finishing my term as Miss UNAA was my priority. What was yours ? I did not run to be a watchdog. Council members are not representatives for the Executive Committee but for our UNAA members.

The UNAA Council is an "Equal but separate" organ and will continue to operate that way. I think we need to have a pow-wow or one of those retreats so we can all get to know each other.

Yvette Kibwika

Southeast Region Representative

y.kibwika@gmail.com

(954) 536-7187

Let us not forget....   Ugandan Independence Day October 9

 

On Sun, Sep 22, 2013 at 11:23 AM, Busuulwa Kawuma <busuu001@gmail.com> wrote:

Distinguished UNAA members,
Thank you for the faith and honor you granted us to serve on the Council. It is a responsibility we do not take lightly since we represent members with diverse views, beliefs and opinions.  The decision to release this public statement is to remain directly accountable to our constituents and establish higher standards for ethical and transparent behavior.

The duties of the Council as stipulated by the UNAA Constitution require the utmost independence from the Executive Committee and other organs.  As Article 1 (1.2: b) of the UNAA Constitution stipulates, "Equal but separate leadership organs, namely the UNAA Council, UNAA Board of Trustees and UNAA Executive Committee."

As Council representatives, we have been gravely concerned about the seeds of interference being sown and starting to bear fruit with multiple cases of Executive Committee overreach threatening the integrity of the UNAA Constitution and independence of the Council. In addition to that, there unanswered questions surrounding the credentials and documents submitted to the Electoral Commission for the young adults (Canada) candidate for Council. The failure to properly verify credentials prior to releasing the official candidate list highlights a break down in the system already demonstrated by a former Council member for Mid-Atlantic Region 1 who hadn't submitted credentials prematurely declared a candidate.

We are also denouncing the notion that the Executive Committee can determine the leadership of the UNAA Council. Considering the fact that the Council is entrusted with the heavy burden of providing checks and balances and the power to impeach any member of the Executive Committee as stated in Article 7 (7.2), it is a breach of trust and conflict of interest for the Executive to handpick their watch dogs. The Constitution grants the Vice President power to cast a decisive vote in case of a tie-breaker during official Council meetings as illustrated in Article 7(7.10) of the UNAA Constitution. However, authority/mandate to participate in Council elections/proceedings that were conducted outside the UNAA Constitutional framework, without a quorum or official roll call is neither granted nor guaranteed to the Vice President in the UNAA Constitution.

The Executive Committee further ignored the deadlines that were set forth by UNAA Council representatives prior to the election by publicly declaring unofficial election results of Council Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Secretary while a petition concerning election irregularities was pending before the Board of Trustees. The BoT decision on this case will set a precedent if future candidates can be elected in absentia without the Electoral Commission physically verifying their credentials. The President further ignored requests by members of the Council to allow internal deliberations and consensus to resolve the stalemate and elect leadership that is representative of the Council.

These concerns have been raised and seconded by 8 members of the Council representing a large segment of UNAA Constituents that are systematically being excluded from representation by the Executive Committee. As a result, we have decided to take a stand-- not to undermine the UNAA Executive Committee or hold UNAA programs hostage but to defend the integrity of the UNAA Constitution, UNAA elections and independence of the Council. The time to act is now, we were elected to lead and won't be silenced or allow the can to be kicked down the road.

As a result:
(1)   We shall not participate in any official UNAA Council meetings/Votes pertaining to new legislation or approve any UNAA budgetary expenditures until we have a leadership team in the Council that is not handpicked by the UNAA Executive Committee.

(2) We request that the Electoral Commission and BoT address the petitions and questions that have been submitted by the 8 Council representatives in a timely manner.

(3)   We shall continue to conduct our duties and responsibilities as stated in UNAA Constitution Article 7 (7.2:B) that includes outreach, support and mobilization of UNAA members and/or member organizations in our respective regions, including attendance of a minimum number of local events, established from time to time by the UNAA Council.

UNAA is an organization we all love and as representatives of the people, we intend to set a high bar and nurture an organization that bleeds excellence and reflects the will of the people. There is no room for incompetence and we shall continue to serve with integrity in accordance with the UNAA Constitution.

Sincerely,

The UNAA Council 8

This statement is agreed upon by the following signatories:

Awichu Akwanya (South Pacific Region 2)
Ken Ddamba (New England Region)
Dr. Daniel Kawuma (Mid-Atlantic Region 2)
Edriss Kironde (Rocky Mountains Region)
Victor Lukandwa (Great Lakes Region)
Haira Nalugemwa (Female Youth Representative Canada)
Andrew Ssembuusi (Mountain Region for Canada)
Becky WamalaBrown (South Pacific Region 1)

Ugandan North America Association . 1337 Massachusetts Avenue . Suite 153 . Arlington. MA . 02476

Email: info@unaa.org