Interesting Bead Meeting

So last Saturday I was invited to the Ghana Bead Makers Association meeting. I knew that the meeting was going to be long and that I was going to have a hard time understanding it but to say that it was a difficult meeting was putting it mildly.

My part of the meeting was finished in the first 30 minutes but of course I had to stay for the rest of the 3+ hour meeting. I was impressed that they kept minutes and that they went over the minutes at the beginning of the meeting, they also went over how much money they had and what they had spent it on since the last meeting.

About half way through the meeting they started to discuss what they were going to do with the money that they had saved from their dues. One of the chairmen had gone to several banks to find out about the different interest rates that they could get if they opened up a savings account. When they were talking about the interest rate, the chairman would convert the rate into real money so that all of the members could understand what they were talking about. After explaining their options (3, 6, 9 or 1 year investing) the group took a vote on which one they wanted to do. The vote was close but they voted to invest their money for one year because they would get the largest return on their money.

It was great to see that the members understood what was going on and that it was their opinion that mattered. It was also great to them investing their money and getting something back for it. Too often in developing countries one person holds the money and either runs away with it, takes a large portion of it or mismanages it.

After the discussion of how to invest the money they then talked about the Koforidua bead market move and the meeting got out of control. The people who wanted the market to move to Laasi started to yell at the people who wanted the market to stay in Koforidua. This went on for about 45 minutes. Finally one of the bead makers stood up and played the parliamentarian and started applying Roberts Rules of Order without realizing it. He was calling on people one from each side alternatively. He only let one person speak at a time and if someone spoke out of turn he had them taken out of the room. I sat in the room in complete disbelief that one man who was not on the board could control the room so well.

I will have to say that when the meeting started to break up I was ready to leave but I left with a feeling that their was some hope for the association.