Contents: 1. TransAfrica Forum Dinner -June 1, 1995 • 2. Board Meeting - June 2 • 3. Board Elections • 4. Strategic Planning Study • 5. Nigeria Campaign • Yolanda Caraway has been engaged to help improve the dinner with regard to both revenues and program. She is assembling a dinner committee that will be chaired by David Dinkins and consist of Vice Chairs (offering contributions of $15,000), Benefactors ($10,000) and Sponsors ($5 ,000). Regular ticket prices this year are $250. Conference activities will take place on May 31. The Boards of Directors will meet on Friday, June 2 rather than Sunday due to the change in day of the Dinner. Each board will meet separately, along with an...
Contents: 1. TransAfrica Forum Dinner -June 1, 1995 • 2. Board Meeting - June 2 • 3. Board Elections • 4. Strategic Planning Study • 5. Nigeria Campaign • Yolanda Caraway has been engaged to help improve the dinner with regard to both revenues and program. She is assembling a dinner committee that will be chaired by David Dinkins and consist of Vice Chairs (offering contributions of $15,000), Benefactors ($10,000) and Sponsors ($5 ,000). Regular ticket prices this year are $250. Conference activities will take place on May 31. The Boards of Directors will meet on Friday, June 2 rather than Sunday due to the change in day of the Dinner. Each board will meet separately, along with an overlapping meeting. The board election process has been reviewed, and Sylvia Hill and will send letters soon informing board members of their term dates, soliciting nominations for the board, and electing board members. Renee Yates of World Trade Associates has completed a study, funded by the Ford Foundation, about how to transform TransAfrica Forum into a premier think tank institution. Therefore, we have been reexamining issues such as organizational structure, strict separation of the Forum from TransAfrica, Inc ., and institutional policies and procedures. The report lists recommendations that TransAfrica Forum (and possibly TransAfrica, Inc.) should consider for this purpose. A preliminary response has been submitted to the Ford Foundation. The Boards will review the study's recommendations at their June meetings. We are launching a campaign calling for restoration of democracy in Nigeria that began with a newspaper article in the Washington Post and a press conference today, March 16. The campaign will continue with newspaper advertisements similar to the one placed in the New York Times last year on Haiti, demonstrations, and possibly civil disobedience. Reprints of "Black Americans To Press Nigeria For Democracy" by Kevin Merida and "Black Group Begins Protest Against Nigeria" by Karen De Witt are enclosed. The mailing mentions General Sani Abacha, African American politicians, Maya Angelou, Bryant Gumbel, Jesse Jackson, J.C. Watts, Johnetta B. Cole, Sugar Ray Leonard, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, Danny Glover, and A. Leon Higginbotham.
