{UAH} FW: UNAALIST Email Meetings

Benon,

On yesterday's town hall conference call, individuals sympathetic to the president never said that he was right.

David Muwanga.

Folks, sometimes I wonder how our UNAA leadership would behave if UNAA was a government with "real" power, a national treasury and a security apparatus. I guess we would have the BOT, EC and 8 council members in jail or dead. It gives me pause to condemn the actions of Museveni, Mugabe, Assad etc.

Indeed their actions seem tame compared to what is going on in UNAA, where the executive is bent on "absolute power" by demanding a subordinate EC, BOT and Council  By the way all the mentioned leaders claim to be defending their individual constitutions too.

Benon.

Brian,

Does this explanation offer some degree of understanding of what the real issues are??Hopefully you see the light. It's never too late to come back home. Just get off the high horse and i ensure you all will be well. 

Good day.

On Sunday, November 3, 2013, Ronald Kabaale wrote:

Members,

For a while now, like many of you I have been reading the discussions that have been going on from time to time. I would like to say that I have learned a lot about some issues and some individual members from the kind of material that is written on this forum.

Having said that, I would like to point out that I do agree with my former Deputy Speaker of the council Mr. Kwesiga that there are votes that were cast online. 

However,  while it is true that on a number of issues the 2011-2013 UNAA council voted online, there was a constitutional process that was strictly adhered to. 

For instance, the council at all times had to have a 2/3 quorum before any official UNAA business was deliberated via phone conference. It was only after the issues were discussed via phone conference that the members decided to cast their votes online. This was due to time concerns as the council meeting were mostly held after 8:00pm central time and lasted at least 1-2hours sometimes longer than that.

In fact on a number of occasions, I as Speaker of the council had to make calls to members of the council who were traveling out of the country and linking them onto the phone conference in order to have a 2/3 quorum for official UNAA council meetings to move forward. 

Whenever, a 2/3 quorum was not met as Speaker of the council, I postponed the business meeting until such a time when members were  present to constitute a 2/3 quorum.

Therefore, my appeal to the current UNAA council 2013-2015, is that you as members look at UNAA and ask yourselves, whose interests are you serving? 

At the end of it all, if UNAA is not in a better place than it was the day you were entrusted with it, it will not matter who convinced you to act in a particular manner. You will have no one but your conscience to grapple with.

Ronnie Kabaale 

Speaker UNAA council 2011-2013

Dear UNAA Members,

As the Deputy Speaker of the UNAA Council, 2011-2013, I can authoritatively state the following.

1) Numerous deliberations and discussions and votes took place via email in the last two years including the following.

a) All votes to confirm the current members of the UNAA BOT.

b) The vote to confirm Mrs. Brenda Kiberu-Kalema as interim Treasurer after Mr. Bukenya resigned.

c) The vote to choose Adolphus and Hilton Anatole as overflow Hotels.

2) Over the last two years, votes and deliberations within the UNAA Executive and UNAA BOT have occurred via email.

3) In fact even the vote to choose the current UNAA Council leaders was conducted by email, after which the returning officer Mr. Ken Ddamba (Now one of the UNAA Council 8) proclaimed, "We've a tie"

So members, you be the judge, in the deliberations and the excel sheet, Mr. Kabagambe was recognized as a legitimate Council member, his vote counted, but after one side realized he didn't vote with them, all over a sudden "We've never recognized him as a council member"?

We are moving forward, with the full backing of the constitution. We continue to ask the council members to come from their hiatus and join us, or if they choose they can continue the hiatus, and surely as day follows night, this organization will move on.

<image.png>

Brian M. Kwesiga

President & CEO,

Ugandan North American Association - UNAA

972.415.6372 | www.unaa.org | "United We Stand"

Brian M. Kwesiga

President & CEO,

Ugandan North American Association - UNAA

972.415.6372 | www.unaa.org | "United We Stand"

On Nov 3, 2013, at 9:52 AM, Ronnie Mayanja <ronnie.mayanja@gmail.com> wrote:

Tim,

For established organizations I would appreciate how that works. But in UNAA's case apart from emailing their votes what other UNAA business did the council of 7 discuss or even debate??

Great Sunday.

On Sunday, November 3, 2013, Timothy Gaburungyi wrote:

Ronnie, Joseph,

The world has been conducting meetings by email for several years now. The email meetings I have conducted and attended have successfully executed projects far more complex with far many more people in far more time zones and with much more at stake (millions of Dollars) than the UNAA council will ever need to. There are buildings and hotels which stand and operate across North America as true testament. 

We learn every day and that is what UNAA helps us with.

Gaburungyi

Sent from my iPad

On Nov 3, 2013, at 12:27 AM, Ronnie Mayanja <ronnie.mayanja@gmail.com> wrote:

Ms Kibwika,

How do you conduct council meetings via email and how are minutes recorded. Is there room for debate and feedback under this arrangement??

Finally when will the previous minutes of your deliberations be made public for members.

I thank you for your indulgence in advance.

Great weekend.

On Nov 2, 2013 11:57 PM, "Joseph Musoke" <joseph.musoke@ymail.com> wrote:

Ms Kibwika,
Thanks for yr response. I still don't understand how you record that you have quorum. You also just mentioned that can meet via email. I've never heard if a meeting via email. How do you do that?
Thanks again
Joseph
p.s I sent my email twice. The first was originally blocked on unaalist. So i decided to send a second one and cc unaanet in case the unaalist moderator blocked it again.


--- Original Message ---

From: y.kibwika@gmail.com
Sent: November 2, 2013 7:10 PM
To: joseph.musoke@ymail.com
Subject: UNAALIST Questions for UNAA Council Secretary


Hi Joseph,
I have received all three of your messages sent at 6:46PM,  6:50PM and 8:56PM EST 


The number required for quorum, per UNAA's constitution is 2/3. This is determined by the the person chairing the meeting (typically the Speaker) or the Secretary of the council by confirming that the appropriate number of members are present in a meeting. A meeting can take place in several different formats, conference call, in-person, email.. etc. If at any time a meeting is announced, members can send or voice an objection and even make a recommendation to the Speaker and Secretary of the Council.


I apologize for not being able to make the call. I have a standing appointment on Saturday evenings that I could not cancel.















On Sat, Nov 2, 2013 at 8:56 PM, Joseph Musoke <joseph.musoke@ymail.com> wrote:
Ms Kibwika,
During today's conference call or via reply to this email, I'd like you to answer my question below.
Thanks

--- Original Message ---

From: "Joseph Musoke" <joseph.musoke@ymail.com>
Sent: November 1, 2013 9:48 AM
To: joseph.musoke@ymail.com
Subject: UNAALIST Questions for UNAA Speaker and Secretary




I have to confess that I don't know "Robert's Rules" as described by Mr Wakou below and I don't who that Robert is.  However, I do know the following provisions of UNAA's constitution:

7.10: Quorum: The presence of two-thirds (2/3) of the Members of the UNAA Council shall constitute a quorum for purposes of conducting business. Where there is an even number of Council Members at a meeting, the Vice President shall cast the tie-breaker.
 7.12: Action by the UNAA Council without a Meeting: Any action required or permitted to be taken, at any meeting of the UNAA Council, may be taken without a meeting if a written consent thereto shall have been signed by a number constituting the quorum of the UNAA Council. Such written consent shall be filed with the Secretary of the UNAA Council, along with minutes of the proceedings of the meetings of the Council. Such consent shall have the same force and effect as the regular vote of the UNAA Council.


My understanding of the above provisions is that the Council needs a quorum before they can take valid action without a meeting.  Mr Wakou doesn't tell us how the Council agrees to take these various actions if there is no quorum. He describes how he sends emails to all Council members. But he doesn't tell us that 2/3 of the members respond to his emails so that the Secretary can file the written consent of Council members constituting a quorum! 
 Giving Council members notice of a meeting is NOT the same as getting the written consent of those members. May be the Secretary to the Council should tell us how she ensures that there is quorum to conduct business of the Council.
 thanks

From: Nicholas Wakou <wakoun@gmail.com>
To: joseph.musoke@ymail.com 
Sent: Friday, November 1, 2013 9:10 AM
Subject: UNAALIST Statement from the Speaker of the UNAA Council


Fellow UNAA Members,

Greetings!

There have been several legitimate questions on this forum regarding how the UNAA Council conducts its business. All these discussions bode well for the organization and its constitution and should be encouraged.

I wish to reassure the UNAA members that the UNAA council leadership adheres to both the spirit and letter of the UNAA constitution in all its dealings.
    
Membership of the UNAA Council:

Under the current constitution, members of the UNAA Council immediately took office upon announcement by the UNAA Electoral Commission. As such the elected members of the UNAA Council were and remain sixteen (16) members.  The power to remove a member of the UNAA Council is not a unilateral decision by an individual, or groups of individuals; not the UNAA BOT by itself or the UNAA EC by itself, but rather a system of checks and balances that involves the UNAA BOT, UNAA Council, the Region that the Council represents and the UNAA Annual General Meeting (AGM) as outlined in the articles, 7.11 and 7.15 of the UNAA Constitution below.
      
    7.11: Vote Required For Action: Except for a motion to impeach or remove an Officer, Trustee or Member of the UNAA Council, the act of a simple majority of the UNAA council present at a meeting at which a quorum is present shall be the act of the full Council.

    A motion to impeach or remove an Officer, Trustee or Member of the UNAA Council shall require the consent of at least two-thirds (2/3) of the full Council.

    7.15: Removal: The UNAA Board of Trustees shall have the power to recommend to the UNAA Council the suspension or impeachment with cause any member of the Council and to present the Council's decision to a meeting of the full members of the Region that is represented by the impeached Member prior to presenting the decision to the next Annual General Meeting of the Association for review and final disposition.
      
So, until the above steps are taken and the required votes gathered, the UNAA Council will remain composed as announced by the UNAA Electoral Commission.

UNAA Council approval process:

Now, with regards to the approval process, for example confirming the Directors nominated by the UNAA Executive Committee; a notice of a meeting is circulated to all the 16 UNAA Council Members well in advance by the Council Secretary Ms. Yvette Kibwika. This is often followed up with a text message reminder on the day of the meeting.

Where the UNAA Council has been unable to raise the constitutionally required two thirds (2/3) quorum, in this case eleven members out of the sixteen, at any of our conference calls, in strict adherence to the Robert's Rules of order, no decision has or can take place in such a gathering that is binding to the whole UNAA Council or considered a decision of the UNAA Council.

For the council to arrive at a decision we conduct discussions and a vote via an online meeting called by email – which all the sixteen UNAA Council members have access to, and hence quorum is present in line with the Robert's Rules of order which the UNAA Constitution obligates us to follow. All councilors are informed of an impending vote and are given sufficient notice; usually at least 48 hours and at times more than a week, to discuss the issue via conference calls and for those not able to attend the conference calls, by email. At some point, the Speaker calls and tallies the vote.

This is the process we followed to approve the Hyatt La Jolla Hotel contract and have followed the same process to confirm the Director nominees.

UNAA's membership should rest assured that the UNAA Council and its leadership will always strictly adhere to the letter and spirit of the UNAA Constitution as we conduct UNAA Council business.

     

 Eng. Nicholas Wakou
 Speaker, UNAA Council



Ugandan North America Association
6257 N Mccormick Rd #118 Chicago, Il 60659
Email: info@unaa.org







Ugandan North America Association

6257 N Mccormick Rd #118 Chicago, Il 60659

Email: info@unaa.org





Ugandan North America Association

6257 N Mccormick Rd #118 Chicago, Il 60659

Email: info@unaa.org

Ugandan North America Association

6257 N Mccormick Rd #118 Chicago, Il 60659

Email: info@unaa.org

Ugandan North America Association

6257 N Mccormick Rd #118 Chicago, Il 60659

Email: info@unaa.org

--

Ronnie Mayanja 

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http://www.linkedin.com/in/ronniemayanja

Ugandan North America Association

6257 N Mccormick Rd #118 Chicago, Il 60659

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