August 2007: Ned Uganda Planning Discussions

A thread to share where things are and where things are going over the next couple weeks. Feel free to jump right in and share...and we can start a September thread when the time comes. Feel free to start any other focused planning or action based threads if desired as well of course.

Last comment added: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 23:36:28 PDT

Comment 1 on August 2007: Ned Uganda Planning Discussions

Thanks Mark,

We have set up committies to see in all this and we have over four doing the planning and where an how we will be tommorow ;

Microfinance

Production and marketing

Children's programme

Internet4change

and there secretaries are to report repectively.

Comment 2 on August 2007: Ned Uganda Planning Discussions

Thanks munu,Mark i hope we are moving on well with the planning as munu has put it,we also have the steering commitee for the transition,thanks alot for the guild.

Comment 3 on August 2007: Ned Uganda Planning Discussions

I believe if the following questions are answered it will be very useful for the lia transition for the two years planning.

1- what does as Ned want Ned uganda to put in account to be included in the two years plans by the committee down here? or what needs to be included from the Ned side?

2- What does Ned Uganda expects of other Ned communities like Ned thailand Portland Lesotho ?

Is there any resources put a side by Ned as we are moving to the Ned community to help in the two years planning?

Comment 4 on August 2007: Ned Uganda Planning Discussions

Great questions Munnu. I'd be curious to see what others (from Uganda and elsewhere) have to say and will give more thought to the questions myself over the next couple days. (I'm out of town the rest of today thru Friday)

Comment 5 on August 2007: Ned Uganda Planning Discussions

HI Munnu,

Can you be more specific in your questions. I am not sure that I understand them so I am hesitating to comment.

Comment 6 on August 2007: Ned Uganda Planning Discussions

Evvy, I think I will try and put together the first two questions for him , because I almost have the same in mind. It does sounds like he would like to know if there are some common goals that all the Ned communities have to work towards wherever they may be. Are there some rules set that all the different communities have to go by in order to become a Ned community ? We still feel a bit stuck in deciding what excactly we in Uganda should be , though the majority member's opinion say we should be registered as a Cooperative society, are we sure though, if this fits into the Ned objectives the world over ? So with all this in mind , it will really be very helpful to know what is expected of us as Ned Uganda, before we put down our final draft of the two years plan.

Comment 7 on August 2007: Ned Uganda Planning Discussions

Yes, I understand what you are saying. I know that Mark is out of town until Friday. But when he returns I do think that we need to get clarification of exactly what being a "NeD" organization requires. Perhaps then we will know exactly how to organize the community so that we can meet all the requirements and keep moving ahead on track.

Comment 8 on August 2007: Ned Uganda Planning Discussions

Good question Munno and Grace thank you so much for polishing his quesition. Like EVVY Said mark is out town then on his return we shall get clarification on how it operates so that we know where we stand as ned

Thanks to all the contributors: Ndelo

Comment 9 on August 2007: Ned Uganda Planning Discussions

I certainly can say that a cooperative organization is what we are talking about here in Thailand.

Comment 10 on August 2007: Ned Uganda Planning Discussions

Linda I think it would really be nice to learn more how the coop org works in Thailand, here we have some common by-laws that governs the whole country and when i looked closer at it, it looked like it may have some limitations to our plans as we have designed them for the two years and more especially it has kind of left out some of our programs like the children', which really has become very active in the past few months, maybe we can be enlightened a bit on how a coop can integrate activities like the one i have just described.

I will soon be posting here the overview of how our two years plan may look like , we had some discussions with a volunteer from Kiva ( Robert) and he had some very good ideas that he has imparted to us , so watch out for it on this page and your input on how we can improve on it will be highly welcomed.

Comment 11 on August 2007: Ned Uganda Planning Discussions

With the caveat that I am not licensed to practice law in Uganda, I would be pleased to help with your organizational documents. (In the US, there are organizational statutes that say what a "coop" is but one is free to modify that by agreement - I do not know if there are restrictions to that type of modification in Ugandan law).

Start with how you would like to see it work - I can help put that in writing - and then we can get some advise from someone familiar with Ugandan law.

Comment 12 on August 2007: Ned Uganda Planning Discussions

thank you David. That would be wonderful.

Comment 13 on August 2007: Ned Uganda Planning Discussions

If you operate consensually (which is the African way), using "two-way" partnership protocols then "official" Ugandan law is pretty much irrelevant.

If it sounds radical, that's because it is.

You need some sort of Ugandan entity which acts as a "custodian" of assets, and any necessary bank account.

But that entity does not DO anything, EMPLOY anyone, CONTRACT with anyone.

What it does do is become a member (the "Trustee" Member) of a cross-border quasi partnership - a UK LLP is best IMHO - alongside a "Club" of local (and/or overseas) "Operating Members" and a "Club" of Capital Partners/ Investors.

ie the LLP is not an "Organisation" but a "Framework" within which the stakeholders "self-organise".

Regards

Chris

David Braden said:

With the caveat that I am not licensed to practice law in Uganda, I would be pleased to help with your organizational documents. (In the US, there are organizational statutes that say what a "coop" is but one is free to modify that by agreement - I do not know if there are restrictions to that type of modification in Ugandan law).

Start with how you would like to see it work - I can help put that in writing - and then we can get some advise from someone familiar with Ugandan law.

Comment 14 on August 2007: Ned Uganda Planning Discussions

Chris Cook said:

ie the LLP is not an "Organisation" but a "Framework" within which the stakeholders "self-organise".

As you know, I like your model a great deal. I see the self-help corporation as one possible self-organized structure within the more flexible structure you describe. Have you seen Denver CIE? - in which I add real estate investment as an additional factor.

I would be interested in drafting a set of agreements - like you describe - for a situation like Ned Uganda. If you are interested let me know where you would like to work.

Comment 15 on August 2007: Ned Uganda Planning Discussions

Microfinance team meeting (Two year plans)

The microfinance committee members on this day, Monday 3/9/2007 sat and had their first two year plans that they will review every Monday until the first draft is made and presented to the steering committee on first October. The secretary of the committee first reported to other committee members of Kampala who did not attend Gulu planning meeting.

Members discussed that for a smooth running of the loan, there Should be both individual and group loans where by if there are some group of people who have to invest in certain project that require a big amount that an individual can not request for should be in groups and and ask for that type of loan.

They also discussed that such groups should properly make their budget for that project and make a written application that should be submitted to the concern administration that later will see the agent or person to work on.

With the expansion to none members, their concern is that such people should provide security for the loan and should and should have an account with our organization and must have saved 30% of whatever amount they would wish to apply. Related to this the interest rate should be properly spelt like 1% or 2% per month. So far we are charging the best interest rate of 24% unlike others who say 10% per month but dont tell them that it is per month, this makes them think that our 24% is per month yet 2% therefore with the explanation given, they feel 24% is much better.

Upgrading to higher loan is yet another issue members discussed a way forward for our loan to grow; they say one may qualify for a higher loan depending on good performance. For example if one gets a loan of 250,000/= and repays off well that person may qualify for 500,000/= and the ladder goes up just like that.

The committee also discussed that there should be a person in charge of microfinance and be his/her job that they referred to as microfinance department. They described this person as will be responsible for putting up loans up, updating the journal keeping the records, communicating with our lenders, with or without any agent but with the help of an accountant. These were not decisions made but a two year plans that shall be posted every sitting until we come up with first draft for approval.

Secretary microfinance committee Kampala

Comment 16 on August 2007: Ned Uganda Planning Discussions

Thanks everyone for your contributions . I am really sorry that I have not yet been able to post the overview as promised , because i had some problem and was out of the city for the whole of last week, however all will soon be in place.

Chris's idea sounds great but am not very sure if I have fully understood it, may be someone can enlighten me more about it.

Comment 17 on August 2007: Ned Uganda Planning Discussions

Who has a photo for the group homepage?

This was posted to Ned-Uganda communities at Razoo by Haney Amstrong . http://beta.razoo.com/topic/show /320

I believe when you visit this link you will be able to comment or post the photo fo the group home page.