Dear fellow Nigerians, ANCD Members, Friends and Families:
I am greatly delighted and honored to present to you the ANCD President’s Annual Report for the year ending 2017. I am presenting this report by following the pattern of 2016 report–in the form of a quick review of our performance during the year 2017. At the beginning of my presentation last year which was dated January 15th, I proudly proclaimed that, although ANCD was not a state or principality, the outlook of ANCD, as an organization, was quite bright. Well, I am going to modify this year’s proclamation by stating that the current atmosphere of ANCD is relatively bright—with some sheds and clouds. To fully understand what I mean by this “sheds and clouds” declaration, you must listen carefully to this presentation or you can read up for more details on the ANCD Website. Again, my pronouncements are based on my careful observation and analysis of all visible indicators across our operations throughout the entire year 2017. Would these indicators necessarily be carried over from 2017 to 2018—for better and for worst? The answer is time will tell. It will all depend on the effort and determination of individual members and the executives.
In my 2016 report, I briefly revisited the guiding principles that I laid out to guide members actions and behaviors. I wanted to be sure that members were reminded of the importance of cooperation, respect, and constructive criticisms, when dealing with each other in all aspects of ANCD activities. At the risk of unnecessarily repeating myself, here are the key points of those guiding principle: As your president, I want to see “ANCD moving forward, growing from strength to strength, organizing and shaping itself in more positive shapes and forms, united and grouping for the better, full of energy, inspiration, and growth.” I also declared that “… I want to see this Association working together for good and leading the way in progress, honesty, faith and community development. Instead of tearing apart each other, I want to see all our members inculcate more positive criticisms of each other with the aim of making us stronger and more triumphant in all our endeavors.” In the latter part of that presentation, I outlined more practical approaches to helping ANCD achieve these objectives by having members work on different forms of organizational activities, including serving in various committees, such as Membership Committee, Good and Welfare Committee, Picnic Committee, the October Event Committee, the Christmas Party Committee, the Building Foundation Committee, and the Festival of Nations Committee.
As the second year of our administration has come to the end, I want to take a critical look at the things that have transpired and positively inspired us and then I will attempt to highlight areas where, in my opinion, we attained the best outcomes in 2017, and by pinpointing areas of serious challenges that require stronger actions to be taken to meet the challenges.
Membership Activities
Regarding membership activities, I am sure most ANCD members would agree with me that, when it comes to membership interactive activities, it has been one area that we have had a great success. However, I want to also quickly state that membership recruitment was not too successful. To clarify this point, we have had a very good time with most Nigerians involved in our social events; but we failed woefully in registering these Nigerians as ANCD committed members. Of course, I am using membership activities and retention quotients to describe all forms of relationships, including members hosting meetings, members getting involved in ANCD important events, such as the Annual Picnic, the October Event {Annual Gala), the Christmas Party, and other individual members’ events, such as birthdays and graduations. Let me now move on to identify individual program areas that we covered over the year that I think truly stand as an indicator of our achievement:
ANCD Annual Picnic-A Great Success!
As you can recall, we celebrated the best–ever Annual ANCD Picnic on July 16, 2016, at the River Road Park in Niskayuna, New York. By a great coincidence, the 2017 picnic also took place on July 16, 2017. In both cases, many members had commented that they would like and wished to see the October Event Gala be as good or better than the Picnics were. It was, however, my opinion that other ANCD events could not measure up to the standards and outcomes of the Picnic standards, unless members would rally round those events to make them a success. Because our 2017 Picnic also occurred on July 16th at the same location, it is difficult for me to distinguish between the 2016 outcome and that of 2017. All I can say is that our annual picnics can only get much better if only members join hands to work together in getting things done. Finally, I think we can utilize the occasions of Annual Picnics to bring in more visitors and friends and use that occasion to kick-off our main gala events by distributing program tickets and assigning tasks to members. The Annual Picnic day could also be used to register new members. Again, we can only do well if we prepare and be more forward-looking.
The October Event—Another Success Story
The October Event will continue to be the mother of all ANCD Annual events. In 2016, our event took place on the first of October, which coincided with the actual date of Nigeria’s 56TH Independence Day in 1960. However, we could conduct the 2017 Gala on September 30, 2017, since the first day of October was a Sunday and the following Saturday was October 7th, a day set aside for a member’s wedding celebration in the State of New Hampshire. Having to witness our ANCD Annual Gala occurring side by side with an important family member event that commanded the attention of a good number of ANCD members, including the President, was a thing of joy and pride for me personally—and I hope for many other members. Indeed, our October Event celebrations and fundraising remains the single most important one among ANCD cluster of events that normally offer us the opportunity to show our prides and stardom back- to-back. For this report, I want to highlight October Event as the number one event of our history in record. Those members who attended the November General Meeting at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church facility were given the final report by the Chair of the Event Committee on behalf members of the Committee. I strongly urge those who did not receive copies of that report to please ask for them. However, for this President’s Annual Report, I can mention that the event was attended by about 247 people, including children. We also realized close to $8,206 of net income, after subtracting about $7,786 of expenditures. There were no significant differences between 2016 and 2017 cash figures.
The 2017 Christmas Party—A Family Affair
It was only one or two weeks ago that I sent out my Christmas (2017) message to all ANCD members and their families and friends. That message was to wish you all a very merry Christmas 2017 and a happy new year, 2018. By simple comparison or competition, the 2017 Christmas Party and the 2017 Annual Picnic were very similar, in terms of the number of people in attendance and the outcome. The family atmosphere in these events was very relaxing and peaceful. The Food was super-delicious as well. One could find no better and befitting words to describe the events than “successful” and “friendly.” I continue to be grateful to all those who were involved in the planning and execution of those events. It should be noted that the two events took place in the Schenectady County Town of Niskayuna—one on River Road and the other on Rosa Road. Thanks to Niskayuna Town.
I like to extend more special congratulations to our graduates and other young people who received various special recognitions and other awards. We particularly thank our children for making the dance floor of the Christmas Party look so reach and lively. We thank the parents of these children for helping them grow and acquire all the knowledge they need to enrich their cognitive and motor skills. We continue to hope for more and better future performances by our young people in all categories—including dancing, singing, writing, music composition, fashion show and modeling. Thank you again for making us proud, not just as a family but as an organization of Nigerians.
Festival of Nations and other Activities
ANCD continued to serve as a member of the Festival of Nations. ANCD Performance at the 46th Annual Festival of Nations ended in a very high note, as our beauty Pageant contestant, Ms. Tola Osipitan, scored a runner-up victory for Nigeria. Again, another African girl from Ethiopia, Ms. Maraki Kebbede, won the Miss Festival of Nations 2017. However, we at ANCD need a coordinator to take over from me and allow me to concentrate on running the organization. Please refer to a separate final report for the 2016 season. is no doubt that 2016 was a year of challenges to me as ANCD President. However, I believe that, with the continued support of my able executive members and other members, we will continue to do what will be needed to confront the challenges and move ANCD forward. I will continue to solicit for and relish these and other supports from you all in the year 2017. I hereby call upon all those who have good and practical ideas for getting things done to continue to forward those ideas to me or through any member of the executive. Happy New Year!
—Dr. Bassey E. Essien, ANCD President
(Author of Voice from the Mangrove Swamps, a Memoir)