July 22, 2012 -- Update and ideas for upcoming elections

July 22, 2012

MEMORANDUM

TO: HDF Board of Directors

FROM: Johnny Celestin

RE: Update and ideas for upcoming elections

Intro

Following the publication of my initial paper to the board and ahead of our preparation to elect a new board, I want to quickly highlight in this note what I hope can be a roadmap in the next few months for the Federation.

This update is the summary of our progress in the last few months. It is intended to serve three purposes. First, it is a reminder of what we committed to doing during my tenure as Interim Executive Director.  Second, it provides a summary of recent activities and finally it presents a set of action items to be undertaken by the Board at our next meeting and the following few months.

To start, I want to go back to the priorities I laid out in my November memo titled “Recommendation for taking the Federation to the next level” in which I proposed the use of the three ‘R’s” going forward: restructure, rebuild and rebrand.

In the Restructured section I recommended making the Executive Director position, which I accepted, an interim role with three main tasks:

·       Develop and obtain agreement on HDF strategy and programmes

·       Develop an outreach and fundraising plan to expand and support HDF’s programmes and operations

·       Recruit and hire a permanent Executive Director

My second recommendation was the creation of an Advisory Council that would be “representative of the major diaspora enclaves and include up to 30 members.  The participants will be appointed by the current BOD, abide by the Federation’s existing rules and will require a personal and financial commitment as per our bylaws.  The Council’s recommendations will be binding on the Federation upon a vote by the majority of members in good standing.”

Finally, I recommended that we undertake a rebranding effort that responds to the criticisms we have received and ensure that the Federation is known and “recognized as an open, democratic and committed organization that fights on behalf of all Haitians. “

Update

Based on these priorities I have engaged the board on a limited basis in the last few months in order to focus on building the basics.  To begin, I wanted to focus on the operational aspect of the organization starting with our registration for the 501c3 status with the IRS.  This process was completed and we are now waiting for a response.

Second, it took a tremendous team effort and commitment but we planned and held a successful investment forum in Miami with a turnout of 136 attendees.  I am developing further relationships based on the meetings we had with key potential partners.

The final component has been more circumspect and the goal was to assess the level of community support for the Federation.  The good and bad news is that we learned nothing new in that the community continues to see value in having a Federation.  Still, they do not fully understand our mission, organizational structure and most importantly how they can be engaged in the Federation’s work.    

This assessment also highlighted the fact that all the organizations and members of the community we spoke with indicated an interest in being engaged.  However, our greatest challenge is in organizing the community or communities within the diaspora. The work we hope to do in our communities start from a position of deficit of trust and of resources that are amplified by a lack of community cohesiveness – hence, my use of communities within the larger Haitian family.  There is neither a shared view of the “Haitian community” nor a shared understanding and even less of a shared vision.  While these particular challenges are too large to tackle in a simple memo, it is an important to point them out so that are not forgotten in our deliberations. 

As a result, my primary intent in this update is to focus on how the Federation can begin to position itself to respond to the challenges we face within the context of our mission statement, which in part is about creating a vibrant Haitian community.  In the next section I make a few suggestions, which includes changes in our board structure and the creation of three committees.

Next Steps

The most important action item we need to take is to lighten our board structure.  As we plan the elections, I want to recommend that we create an executive board that has a membership of ideally five members instead of the larger board we now have.  The current structure is hard to manage and make it difficult to obtain a quorum, which is needed for the organization to function effectively.  Instead, I want to propose a smaller but highly engaged and active Exec. board.  The executive board would focus on the broad governance of the organization and shift the core of the detailed work to a committee level.   Therefore, I am also recommending the creation or restructuring of three committees: Finance, Governance, and Outreach.  Each committee will include at least one Executive Board member and general members.

The committees will be responsible for the following:

·       The Finance committee would be responsible for the coordination of our fundraising efforts and financial oversight. 

·       The Governance committee would be tasked with Program Monitoring and Evaluation, Board Self-Assessment, and updating our bylaws. 

·       Lastly, the Outreach committee would be outward facing and responsible for our community engagement as well as membership drives.   As part of a broader undertaking this committee working with the Governance committee would be responsible for assembling the Advisory Council. 

The Council is a representative group of lay leaders with a focus on emerging leaders that will review and comment upon the Federation’s strategy.  I will say a few words later on the need to expand more of our time and efforts on the younger generation of Haitians/Haitian-Americans.

Although the Executive Board would have to define and agree on the Council’s remit, I want to suggest two possible goals:

1.    The Council would convene meetings with community organizations to take into account agency concerns and to build support for a new paradigm. It will be critical to illustrate that the federated approach is truly a win/win for all members.

2.   The Council should develop detailed steps to begin to effect cultural change, including specific Federation actions, as well as specific programmatic activities.

To achieve these goals, the Federation must recognize and accept its responsibility as a coordinating force in the community.  However, to do so will require that we provide the leadership for our community to become engaged.  Our work has to be about encouraging community members and organizations to embrace a set of shared goals and actively work together to achieve them.  Much work has been done on that front including the 2012 Investment Forum, the Rebuilding Haiti: Horizon 2030 conference held by the Groupe de réflexion et d’action pour une Haïti nouvelle (GRAHN), the Lott Carey Haiti Collaborative and Oxfam America’s Haiti Diaspora Forum both held in Washington DC, the Organization of American States (OAS) Haitian Diaspora Forum in Washington DC, the pre-planning meetings held by the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition (HAGC) in Miami, the Haitians Building Haiti conference held in Massachusetts,  to name just a few.

All of this work has been done using the community’s meager resources. The Federation must have no higher priority than engagement and we have a professional obligation to build on these efforts.

Most of the changes I have suggested above can be carried out at little or no cost. However, we will need to be attuned to a different target group, which communicates and interacts differently than the first generation of Haitian-Americans.  As I mentioned above I believe we need to expand more efforts targeting the younger generation of Haitian-Americans.  Some in this generation either don’t know how to engage with the community, while others are disenchanted with the current leadership or simply do not view leadership in the same way.  Although we have much to learn from the older generation of leaders, our work is over a long timeframe and requires that we begin to build up the new generation of Haitian-American leadership now.  This does not negate or minimize the contribution of the previous generation and indeed it builds on it, but with limited resources we need to have a focused approach and more efficient allocation of our resources.

Other changes will take longer and require significant resources.  We all know that culturally Haitians need to see before they believe so it is my view that the Federation will need to raise significant funds to invest in engagement efforts in the U.S. as well as in Haiti.  These funds would be used for promoting community engagement locally as well as in Haiti.  They would also be used to support highly visible projects in Haiti given priority to those that leverages other resources – public and private.  

In summary, I am suggesting in this paper that we a) stay focus on what we agreed to do based on the three R’s paper that the board approved; b) we need to modify the board’s structure through the creation of an Executive Board that is smaller, nimble and active.  They will be supported by three committees: Finance, Governance, and Outreach; c) we need to identify and build the next generation of Haitian-Americans; and d) we need to build on the work that has already been done by us and other organizations in the community.  These recommendations, I hope will be the basis for the next board meeting scheduled for Saturday morning August 1 at 8:00 AM.

As always, I look forward to your comments, criticisms and ideas on how to make our work together more productive.