Folcroft, PA – From churches, community organizations, to family reunion events, one thing is becoming obvious, membership, events or meeting attendance con
tinue to go in one direction, on the decline. The Catholic Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had closed some parishes and merged others because attendance had dropped sharply.
On Sunday, October 28, 2018, at their regular monthly meeting, RIGCAA PA Chapter members expressed serious concern over declining meeting attendance and discuss way on how to address the situation. Mrs. Fatu Kear, who hosted the meeting, raised the issue when, Mr. Peeco Conway told members that RIGCAA PA president Mr. Aloysius Benjamin is considering appointing members of the Board of Director to help him design strategies and identify projects for implementation. Mrs. Kear says she thinks that the organization must first focus on increasing meeting attendance before appointing people to the board, since, according to Mrs. Kear, there are very few members available to serve in those positions.
Former presidents Hon. George Nagbe and Peeco Conway agreed with Mr. Kear but think that the days when RIGCAA PA had 50 or 60 people at their meetings are over. The two former leaders suggested that the organization should not wait to have that number of people back before appointing people to the board. The two presidents also indicated that one of the requirements in appointing people to position should be meeting attendance. They indicated the in the past, people were elected or appointed to positions but these people hardly show up to meeting, thereby placing a lot of responsibilities on the shoulders of very few people.
Mrs. Kear further indicated that she thinks that organizations within the Liberian Community are undercutting themselves by forming a lot of organizations or breaking away from the main organizations to form new organizations. She says that there are too many organizations out there and are all appealing to the same people, stressing that these people cannot become member of many organization because that come with paying monthly dues which can up.
For Ms. Macie Jacob, people are not attending meeting or do not want to be part of not just RIGCAA PA but most Liberian Based Community Organizations because, leaders have trouble managing the little money members paid in meeting dues. Ms. Jacob stressed that her children always asked her what happen to money she has paid in dues over the past years.
To address Ms. Jacob’s concerns, Hon. Nagbe, Mrs. Kear and Ms. Elizabeth Pah, explain that the money is used to help members in time of sickness or bereavement and to pay for the chapter’s sitting fees during RIGCAA National Conventions. This money is then used by the national to undertake projects like the current library project in Fishtown, River Gee County, Republic of Liberia. Hon. Nagbe also explained to Ms. Jacob that, before, during and after his term as National president, the organization gave scholarships to students from the county to attend nursing institutions in Liberia and when those students graduated, they then returned to the county to assist the people of River Gee provide quality healthcare services. With the clarifications, Ms. Jacob said she was pleased that her meeting dues had been used to impact the lives of people back home.
Former RIGCAA PA president; Mr. Klayee Tienpay, says Hon. Nagbe and Mr. Chelle Norring had exhibited unruly behaviors in the past and that has drove some members away. Most members agree but indicated that such behavior has not occurred in the meeting for more than four years.
Mr. Peeco Conway, who is the current secretary General of the Liberian Association of Pennsylvania, says declining meeting attendance is not unique to RIGCAA PA. Mr. Conway says attendance at LAP October 2018 meeting was very low and those who were there expressed disappointed over the situation. Mr. Conway says that he thinks that community leaders need to come together and design strategies to address this situation. He says that one way that they should go is to look at how meeting dues are paid. Why he recognizes that it was a discussion for another day, Mr. Conway says if one of the reasons people are not attending meeting is because they are member of many organizations and had to pay meeting dues and attend all those meetings, then every Liberian could be encouraged to pay $20 a month, $10 goes to his based organization (based organization is the organization attends regular meetings), the balance $10 could then be distributed among other organizations that members is part of which must include their state Liberian organization and their county organization, provided that nor of these is that member based organization.
Members also discussed changing a provision in the constitution that requires anyone seeking national position must first resign their local positions. Mr. Boko Collin suggests that anyone contesting national position should resign three months ahead, transfers power to the next in line, but should be allowed to return to their position were not successful to the national level. According Mr. Collins, this way the person will be allowed to end their term and the organization could audit them before they leave office. Mr. Collins also indicates that this will avoid any hard feelings and avoid driving people away because they lost elections.
Ms. Tanya Purnell and Hon. Nagbe had a different view, stressing, RIGCAA constitution is cleared on the issue, that anyone seeking position on the national level must resign and when that person does win or loss, cannot return to position held. They disagree that people leave the organization because they lost the election but stress that those who contest for national position have love for the organization and usually stay, help the victors accomplish their agenda, and contest again when the opportunity presents itself.
Mr. Peeco Conway, who chaired the meeting because president Aloysius Benjamin was out to attend a family emergency, told members that he believes that leaders must be able to explain to people the importance of becoming member of RIGCAA. He says one way to go about that is to tell them about what the organization has or is currently doing. He tells members that the national organization is building a library in the county capital Fishtown, Liberia, to serve everyone in the county. Mr. Conway says, when a member calls a citizen from the county, they can tell the person about this project, encourage them to pay their meeting dues and ensure them that their meeting dues will be used to help the national completes the library, the first even public library in the county.
At the end of the meeting, members were very impressed with their discussions, stressing they have gotten more discussed and solutions designed on how to get more members back attending meetings or paying membership dues. $70.00 was raised in meeting dues, refreshment was served, jokes were shared, they laughed, promised to attend November’s meeting hosted by Mr. Tienpay, and departed for their various destinations.