Attendance:
Anthea Obeng, Dr Belinda Agoe, Vyda Mensah, Kojo Gyamera, Charlotte Lamptey (Ansah), John Kwao, Cynthia Asare, Teresa Ashitey-Amarh, Veronica Amarquaye (Wilson), Dorothy Dompreh, Charles Acquah, Samuel Aboagye, Fred Laryea, Daniel Dodoo, Rebecca Quartey, Cynthia Nartey, Michael Crabbe, James Tawiah, Vivian Tawiah, Audrey Hornsby-Odoi, Sammy Quao, Ben Boateng and friends/partners from other secondary schools in Ghana.

The meeting was opened with a prayer by Fred Laryea.

Kojo Gyamera welcomed everybody and explained that the purpose of the evening was to revamp TOSA UK as well as meeting old mates.

Dr Agoe gave a brief presentation from a recent visit to the school in 2007 by herself, Vyda Mensah, Kojo Gyamera and Ben Nyarko. From the presentation sanitation in the school was seen as an issue that requires immediate attention.
Ideas were tossed around on how to raise funds to meet this need.

Ideas as to how other Ghanaian old students associations operate were shared:
Accra Academy:
- The main association organises yearly fundraising dinner dance charging about 50 per head, (20 spent on the event and 30 going towards a project).
- A year group undertakes smaller projects through levy. E.g. repaired all street lights and setting up endowment fund for scholarships. The meeting for a particular year group is through teleconference with a host and a secretary who will email everybody on their list with minutes of the meeting.
- -Suggested that if possible to have an old student as the headmaster due to their attachment to the school as well as it is easier to have a rapport with the PTA, new and old students.
- To my knowledge year groups also host speech days and yearly membership fee is 20.

Wesley Girls High School:
-Yearly membership fee is currently 15 (due for a review).
-Speech and Prize giving day is hosted by year groups. That year group will take a project based on the current need of the school. (it was not made clear that the project is financed through a levy spread over a period).
-AGM is held every two years which include election of officers, i.e. president, secretary, public Relation Officer etc. It was made clear that part of their success is through personal contact, respecting each other and seeing every member as valuable.
- Funds for the association should not be mixed with other contributions. At funerals, wedding etc. contributions are made personally and not from the associations coffers.

Based on these ideas the question was "Where do TOSA go from here"?
It was explained that for some years it has been the efforts of some few members who had kept TOSA alive, hence it will be nice to have fresh people with new ideas to carry it on.

Suggestions made:
-To elect new committee members at the next meeting.
-Hold quarterly meetings to be alternated between the north and the south or members in the north and south could hold their meetings at separate venues then both groups meet six monthly.
-Volunteers are needed to help to organize meetings and events.
- Create TOSA bulletin to keep members informed.
-Update Website with current TOSA Uk information (Charles Acquah was held accountable for not being proactive). Also to use the site to access other old students.

Suggestions for fundraising:
-Have a dinner dance every other year around September or October.
-Organize events during summer in the park which could involve our children e.g. selling raffle tickets to friends.
-To discuss sanitation project with TOSA USA and if possible team up with them.
-To discuss our intentions with the headmaster, PTA and TOSA GH. However we can also enquire from the headmaster the urgent need of the school.

Membership forms were given out to be completed in order to update our records. Some members found the yearly dues of 60 to high hence a reasonable fee would be discussed at the next meeting. This is because we need to clarify the use of the fees. Kojo Gyamera gave a brief update on the group's finances with Lloyds bank. A fund raised on the spot was 260.

On behalf of the group Vero Amarquaye thanked Rebecca Quartey for hosting us and opening up her place to be used for any future meetings.

Year group co-ordinators were selected to draw more people to join the association and also to create easy links for their peers. This is based on members who attended and therefore open to all year groups.
Below are the volunteers who will co-ordinate the different year group:

1976 VYDA MENSAH
1977 FRED LARYEA
1978 THERESA ASHITEY-AMARH
1979 ANTHEA OBENG
1980
1081 AKOSUA DOMPREH
1082 CYNTHIA NARTEY
1083 MICHAEL CRABBE
1084 JAMES TAWIAH

AOB: The group was informed about a fundraising dinner dance organised by Ghana-Greenwich Association on 21st March2009 in aid of a sports academy on Tema-Kpone road for all schools within Tema, (for more information you can contact naavero@yahoo.co.uk).

The next meeting of the TOSA, UK branch is scheduled for February 1st, 2009 @2p.m. The location for the meeting will be at Manjaro Bar & Restaurant, 148 Holloway Road, London, N7 8DD
All are welcome to revive the momentum of the group. Please RSVP to
020 7700 6427/07956296062

Taken by Cynthia Asare/Veronica Amarquaye
 

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