BCA-USA MIRROR
REBUILDING AND GROWING DESPITE CHALLENGES
GET TO KNOW THE GREAT LAKES CHAPTER By Ni Fidelis Kaspa Interim President, Great Lakes Chapter
H
earty greetings from the plains of the Great lakes to all our people everywhere. The Great Lakes chapter is one of the most territorially extensive chapters of BCA-USA. Extensive because, it covers all the greater states of the Midwest Il, IN, MI, OH, KY. Unfortunately it has been like a dormant volcano for a good while. Like a dormant volcano because it engulfs a huge human, material and other resources but have since been characterized by inactivity hence almost unheard-of or unknown to many. However, the chapter once stood up and successfully hosted the BCA-USA in 1994 in what was described as a hit base on the standards of the time. For a long time, the chapter has struggled to hold self together in vain due to reduced adhesive forces between members, probably caused by the geographic disparity that creates a low density of members in the regions. The foregoing coupled with a generalized state of “lack of enthusiasm� and other negative human traits factors simply made a bad case deplorable. In a bid to reenergize this chapter to stand up and reach for its deserved potential, the present administration under the leadership of President Ni Clarence Ndangam embarked on a couple of strategies. One of these strategies was my appointment to serve as interim chapter president with a major focus on closing the gaps within our membership and regrouping. This same administration promised us support (like was seen in other chapters that rose out of a similar conundrum like here) in consolidating our chapter once this initial phase was achieved. In order to bring
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BALI CULTURAL ASSOCIATION - USA
Ni Fidelis Kaspa
the organizational structure closer to the people, our chapter capital was moved from Detroit MI, to Chicago IL. Efforts were made to identify, contact and invite all members and even potential members to heed to this plan to reactivate the chapter. With the benefit of modern communication tools, we were able to address the challenges posed by geographic distance by organizing a virtual regrouping to plan the way forward. Helas! The slumber was still such that reawakening was not going to be as rapid as we had hoped. We did not get round to having a single conference call, hold elections nor could we
