The Ethiopian Chapter of OSSREA held its first general meeting at the end of the workshop. The meeting was attended by about 20 members of the chapter, all of whom participated at the workshop. Dr. Dejene briefed the members on three items: 1) problems of strengthening the committee of the Liaison Office, 2) lack of consolidated guidelines for the Liaison Office, and 3) selection of the executive committee members.
The meeting unanimously decided to strengthen the committee by raising the number of the members from four to five. Accordingly, Dr. Darge Wole was elected as a new member of the Liaison Office Committee.
The meeting felt that there should be consolidated guidelines defining the objectives, mandate, and responsibilities of the Liaison Office. The meeting benefited from explanation given by Ato Enemanachew Yimamu, OSSREA's Programme Officer.
The meeting decided that the committee should draft guidelines and submit to OSSREA for approval. It was felt that the proposed guidelines should be based on OSSREA's constitution and on relevant documents available within the Secretariat.
Guidelines for the election of the Executive Committee members were distributed at the meeting. After a brief discussion, the meeting unanimously nominated Prof. Bahiru Zewde as a candidate for the new Executive Committee to be elected at the Sixth Congress of OSSREA. In addition, the meeting felt that a second candidate be nominated as currently two of the Executive Committee members are from Ethiopia. Accordingly, and Dr. Fekade Azeze was nominated, although he was not a member of OSSREA at the time of nomination.
