BYLAWS (“METEDADARI DEMB”) VERSUS “KITAB:”

 

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM ASSOCIATED WITH LACK OF DEMOCRATIC CULTURE.

Good Ethiopians in the Diaspora, who have good intensions for the well being of their country, form parties, coalitions of parties only to find further splintering and disunity. Of course, there are individuals who have other intentions and interests (Appendix 8). The case of the majority who have good intentions, though they fail to forge unity may be summarized as follows.

Problem #1. Absence of clearly written and understandable bylaws that provide guidelines by which a group wishes to be ruled. There may or may not be bylaws, and when present they may have been hastily drafted to the satisfaction of the authors by which they wish to govern their entire membership.  Such bylaws are like mantra written on parchment, "Kitab'" in Amharic, which the bearer wears around her/his neck, and which are supposed to do good things to the person.  However, such bylaws do not perform the intended task of allowing all members to function properly and to permit the growth of membership.


Problem #2.  Presence of unruly individuals who attack personalities instead of providing ideas or opposing ideas.
There may be individuals who tend to attack the personal attributes particularly of the executive officers and other influential opinion makers.  Their motives and reasons could vary. Yet, the end result of their role is to saw dissention and discord and bring about division and disintegration of the group.  They may succeed in their endeavor because of Problem #1, absence of a guidebook for the group.

 Problem # 3. Absence of a democratic culture, and the lack of insistence on one-person-one-vote democracy.
There may be individuals who shout the loudest, and who have pre-determined the outcome of a meeting of a group, and participate in a group meeting merely to get their position approved.  Such groups might come from the general membership, and or from the executive body.

 

Problem # 4. Concerns related to the use of funds of a community.There may or may not be precisely defined and agreed upon  articles that state how funds are to be  collected,  and placed in bank by which officer, and how the funds ought to be expended.  Unclear procedures result in people becoming confused and good intentioned volunteers who maintain the funds of the community being vilified in public by all kinds of people.


 PROPOSED SOLUTIONS.

The above four problems are causally related.  Often the problems do not result because the individuals who bring the problems are bad people. Rather the problems result because many individuals are not aware of the need of a universally applicable democratic order within their group.  More on this is given in the last part of the itemized concerns below.

1. In addition to containing articles on members, officers and how they are elected and how long they serve, the number of meeting of members and officer,  the bylaws should include that disputes on democratic procedures in a meeting will be resolved by a verdict of a designated parliamentarian in that meeting. Moreover, the guidelines should ensure a one-person-one-vote democracy as indicated below.

         a. All those present in a meeting will have one vote each.  If some represent a legally constituted group the representative will have as many votes as the number of individuals whom she/he represents.  Thus, if Mr. Tolossa represents a group of three individuals his vote will be weighted as though three individuals had voted, whereas if Mrs. Azeb represents a group of 77 individuals her vote will be weighted as though 77 individuals had voted.

         b. The same criteria must be applied across the board counting individuals who have legal votes.  If the criterion for having a voting right has been agreed to require that individuals must have paid membership dues, then before voting begins the secretary should ascertain that all individuals in a meeting have paid their dues, and that each of those in the groups who are represented by voting members had paid their membership fees.


 A very serious issue concerning Diaspora support groups of movements run from Ethiopia, such as the Diaspora Kinijit support groups, is that the bylaws should make a difference between liaison officers, who may be individuals nominated or appointed by Kinijit Ethiopia and may serve as ex-officio members in the Diaspora executive board, and other executive members who should be elected directly by those in the Diaspora. At no time or condition should the Liaison officers consider themselves to be leaders of the movements in the Diaspora or in Ethiopia. They simple serve to link the Diaspora effort with the effort by the leadership in Ethiopia.
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2. Concerning individuals who attack personalities. Since 1604 democrats have agreed that it is unacceptable to attack the personality instead of focusing on ideas.  All members should shun others who engage in person attacks of members of a deliberative body.


3. Concerns related to use of funds of a community. Sufficient care must be placed in matters that deal with funds as a movement may be blackmailed by all kinds of individuals.  If the purpose of the collected funds from the Diaspora is to use them for helping Ethiopians in Ethiopia, then the expenditures should be for that purpose and not to help Ethiopian that have left the country. If some amount of funds are to be spent for management of the organization such as renting an office, buying office equipment and supplies and taking care of official business including hiring officers, paying travel expenses to visit support chapters or to invite speakers or officers from Ethiopia, then the exact sum for such effort should be known and allocated as operating budget.   Germane to issues regarding funds is to clearly state in the bylaws of a group such as the KNA how funds are to be generated, collected and deposited in banks by a duly elected treasurer.  Withdrawal of funds should be cosigned by the treasurer and executive chairman for purposes that had been agreed upon by the executive committee.  Since a draft of bylaws that has not been ratified by the supporters of a group does not constitute the bylaws of that group, it is important to get ratified bylaws.

4. A common failing of bylaws drafted by groups in the Diaspora is the omission of an article that deals with parliamentary authority.  The failure to include that the members have agreed to a common and knowable parliamentary authority typically results in inaction, friction and disunity among otherwise well behaved folks. Therefore, it is extremely important to include an article in the bylaws which may state as follows.


Article YY. Parliamentary Authority.      
The rules contained in the latest edition (10th) of "the Robert’s Rules of Order shall govern the society in all cases to which they are applicable and in which they are not inconsistent with these bylaws and any special rules of order the society may adopt." (p..569, 1oth edition)

Notice that the society, e.g., KNA, could draft its own parliamentary authority in lieu of the Robert's Rule of Order.  However, it will be lengthy and in the end it will resemble the Robert's Rule of Order if the purpose is to exercises democratic principles.

HG: 5/6/07