My dear ACCIOBA members

I want to use the opportunity offered by this website to communicate with you all, as your newly elected Chairman of ACCIOBA Old Boys Benin Branch, and also to thank God for the opportunity to serve this great association. An Association that parades over five Professors, several Medical Doctors and PhD holders, Engineers, Architects, Bankers and other well-meaning professionals in Benin Branch alone is truly a great and proud association to belong to. Hence, i want to say am indeed proud to have been elected by you to run the affairs of the Association for the next two years.

This Chairmanship has immediately bestowed on me an onerous task and enormous commitment to ensure the wellbeing of the Benin branch association of ACCIOBA for the next two years. I want to promise here that I will surely ensure this is achieved by the grace of God.

As promised during the swearing in ceremony, soon after the elections, I will want to immediately embark on the following towards enhancing the wellbeing of our dear old boys’ association.

1. Creation of Accioba Benin branch website:
Given the modern times we are in, it is expedient that we improve the way we do things aimed at enhancing the wellbeing of the association and the Alma-mata. Communication is key in the development of any association or organisation and so we must improve the way we communicate amongst ourselves; hence my choice of the establishment of the website for the association. I believe that not everybody has time to attend every monthly meeting of the association, but somehow they will have time to read the minutes of the meetings if made available in the Website. With a good number of gadgets now available to everybody, it is expected that people can now more readily access the web to get information about ACCIOBA (her events and happenings). As I said at that ceremony, we will endeavour to make the ACCIOBA website very interactive and informative. I therefore plead with all members to make effective use of the site to get information about the happenings in the Association regularly.

2. Use of Standing committees to run the Association:
I have always believed that not one person has the monopoly of knowledge and power to do all things. It is also true that two good heads are better than one; hence we have chosen to constitute standing committees covering notable areas of activities of the association aimed at ensuring proper management and organisation. We have therefore set-up the following committees:
    Social/Welfare Committee
    Membership Committee
    Finance Committee
    2014 Annual Dinner Committee
As I said during my swearing-in, other relevant committees will be set up as they become relevant as we progress in this two year term of office.

3. A Call to Duty:
My dear Accioba members, I want to specially appeal to each and everyone of us to be more dedicated to the cause of the association as what is worth doing at all is worth doing well. If you can recall the great contribution of your Alma-mata (Annunciation Catholic College, Irrua), to your general well-being, you will know it is worth-while to be part of what can better the lot of the Association and the School. As we tread along in the next two years of my Chairmanship, I will be requiring the dedication of all members towards achieving our set goals. We must all be prepared to be made to serve in one capacity or another. I implore all those so far appointed to serve in the various committees to take their appointment very seriously and dedicate themselves to the cause of the association. We will need your talents, treasures, time and interest for the association as we progress. Please do honour the association whenever you are called upon to serve in any capacity.

4. Finance:
You will all agree with me that finance is very key to the success of any establishment, hence i want to plead with all members to ensure payment of the approved dues and levies are taken more seriously. Finance is the life-blood of the Association and we will do better if money is available to make the desired impact. While we will rely on major donors in ensuring we meet up with our set plans and goals, we will require that every eligible member pays their dues and levies regularly and promptly too. Let me assure you of the prudent use of the finances of the association and without doubt, we will ensure an open expenditure pattern throughout the tenor of two years

Since all fingers are not equal, we expect that there are members who are currently more endowed financially than others. I therefore call on all members, who can contribute more that the approved/agreed dues and levies to feel free to do so. We shall ensure proper acknowledgement of all contributions.

5. Attendance at monthly meetings:
Attendance at our monthly meetings and indeed all the scheduled meetings of the associations, I can rightly say is compulsory for all members. I will therefore plead with all of us to ensure regular attendance at all scheduled meetings so that we can together take the association to another greater level. I am of the view that the monthly meetings enable us to bond, relax, fraternise and even gain knowledge. So let’s make it to our monthly meeting more regularly.

Conclusively, I want to thank every member for the opportunity given me to serve the association as the Chairman for the next two years. While craving your support, I assure you of my great commitment to take our ACCIOBA Old boys association to greater heights and indeed to the next level.