I Predict We Will Submit This Constitution in the Year 2011, Basically Unaltered

Today there was another board meeting for the nascent Rivoningo NGO Forum. It’s worth noting that the meeting started ten minutes early, which is practically unheard of in South Africa. On the other hand, this is probably undermined by the fact that there wasn’t a quorum, as three people had send their apologies, so technically it wasn’t a meeting. I think they are supposed to have another tomorrow, but it’s unclear that attendance will be any better.

The ostensible agenda for this meeting was to make alterations to the constitution, fill out the NPO application form to register with the government, and set up a time to get a bank account. We accomplished exactly zero of these. Here is an approximation of how the two hours were spent, instead:

10 minutes: writing agenda, passing around apology note, debating whether or not we can have the meeting without a quorum. I point out that technically, they haven’t ratified the rules about what a quorum is yet, so…

10 minutes: rapid discussion of all the different issues encountered so far with setting up the bank account. Numerous phone calls to people who might have more information are made, but no one picks up.

10 minutes: someone receives a phone call and the meeting stops while he takes it

20 minutes: discussion of whether there is money to buy bread for this meeting. Search for money. Everyone talks about how hungry they are. No one goes to buy bread.

10 minutes: gossip

40 minutes: look for receipt book. Look for cash belonging to the Forum. Total receipts of money received by hand on some scrap paper. Figure out how much money is missing. Scramble around for receipts of money spent. Find them. Total them. Make phone calls to confirm they are correct. Double check all numbers. (In other words, balance the bank book.)

20 minutes: I’m not sure. I had zoned out by then. They were talking about individual centres in serious tones of voice, so I think it was actual business, but it definitely wasn’t related to the constitution or their application for an NPO number.

Another productive day goes by…