12th October 2019

On Saturday the 19th of October 2019 the Midlands Branch of the UK Chapter of Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) Zimbabwe held a meeting at Secular Hall, 75 Humberstone Gate, Secular Hall, Leicester, LE1 1WB. The meeting was chaired by Tsungirirai Kahiya.

Register of attendance

Nicolate Gwati, Tsungirirai Kahiya, Lilian T Nleya, Marian Mangani, Normagugu Sibanda, Weston Mupfururirwa

Agenda

  1. Opening prayer
  2. Housekeeping
  3. Communication and timekeeping
  4. Subscriptions and membership
  5. ROHR blog
  6. End of year party
  7. Any other business
  8. Closing prayer

Meeting start: 15:09

Housekeeping

  1. Tsungi advised people that Nicolate and herself would be stepping down from their positions at the end of the year
  2. As a branch we need to discuss the way forward as we now have 3 vacancies in the Committee namely: Chairperson, Secretary and an Information and a Publicity Officer. These positions will need to be filled by December so that things will resume back to normal in December
  3. The Secretary will put a message on the ROHR Midlands WhatsApp group so that people will start nominating persons for these positions
  4. We will also reshuffle the Committee positions so that some can nominate themselves for new positions
  5. We will do away with vice positions until all the key positions in the committee have been covered
  6. Weston indicated that he was still having problems with his eyes as they were still being operated on and as such could not make all the meetings
  7. Tsungi responded by saying that it is not necessary to be at every meeting but to be able to execute the role behind the scenes and update people on WhatsApp.
  8. People need to change their attitude as the committee so that everyone will take responsibility for all the things that happen in the branch
  9. Nikki to do housekeeping and remove all the people who should not be part of the ROHR Midlands WhatsApp group
  10. This might push people to revive their own branches

Communication as Midlands branch

  1. We are to remind members to keep the messages on the ROHR Midlands WhatsApp group as strictly business. There should be no jokes and information about other branches posted on the ROHR Midlands Whatsapp group. All this information should be posted on the ROHR Community WhatsApp group.
  2. Let us initiate human rights conversations on the group.

Subscriptions and membership

Make sure that all subscriptions are up to date 

ROHR Zimbabwe blog

People were encouraged to write things that could be put on the ROHR Zimbabwe blog highlighting human rights issues in Zimbabwe

 End of year party

  1. We will have our end of year party in November on the date of the next meeting which is scheduled for the 16th of November
  2. Lilian to investigate booking the venue for the party
  3. We will have foods like chicken wings, frozen pizzas and chips
  4. People should feel free to donate any foodstuffs and/or money 
  5. Those who drink should bring their own alcohol
  6. Tsungi will bring the music for the boombox
  7. Lilian to bring the left-over cokes and water that she got after our fundraiser
  8. We will be looking for other soft drink donations
  9. Weston pledged £10 towards the Christmas menu
  10. Grace needs to be reminded about the £20 that was deposited into the ROHR main account
  11. Lilian should investigate booking the venue from 2pm to 9pm
  12. Grace will pay for the venue
  13. For our fundraiser Marian should enquire about Zimbabwe scarfs from Hillary Musarurwa
  14. We should also investigate getting Zimbabwe woolly hats and gloves

Any other business

  1. Tsungi has stepped down from her position as Chair of the UK Chapter
  2. The Scotland Branch is doing a demonstration in Glasgow at the end of October 2019
  3. Every branch is getting new banners from the money that was donated. Four banners will be printed
  4. New ROHR t-shirts are now being printed so people can buy theirs

All the agenda items were deliberated upon in detail and in a robust and enthusiastic way in a meeting where everyone present made contributions.

With all the agenda items having been disposed of, the Chairperson declared the meeting closed at 16.00 hrs.

To view pictures taken at the event, click here.

By: Information & Publicity Department