Interested memberships has no voting power (by the way) when it comes to making decisions about anything or everything that comes before this core 'working group' BUT can of course contribute positively on ideas, suggestions, critiscisms etc during meetings.
The core group of seven (7) have a couple of things in common:
1. they are permanent full time residents on the island making Samarai Island their home.
2. are concerned about the general up keep of the island
3. are aware that sitting on their backside and watching the island plus some historical monuments fall apart is hypocritical.
A profile of each of the individuals will be posted at a later time when all relevant interviews/information are collated and approved by the group as correct (I do not want to be sued for posting wrong and degrading profile descriptions!!). Names of the core seven are listed at the end of this post including the three (3) people nominated as treasury/ book keepers who are by default identified as signatories to the bank account that will be open shortly (Bank account is not openned yet at the time of this post).
Pity I am unable to post a copy of the first meeting minutes on today (as I honestly do not know how to do that yet) but if anyone is interested to look-see the copy of the meeting minutes - email me or post your comment with an email address and I will forward to you in PDF format (so you dont change anything!!)
The aim of the group is:
1. raise awareness of the state of the island and it's surrounding island communities,
2. promote it's history including sites of historical significance
3. promote tourism activities
4. co-ordinate/ manage small project activities that it nominates to fund and do
5. liaise with those living elsewhere concerning their interests, links to the area
6. facilitate information
Note that the group does not see itself as replacing the district tourism authority, the government or the Samarai restoration committee for that matter. It will be non political, non religious, non profit and would be as informal as possible in its activities which mostly be basic and otherwise complementing the bigger picture of the said authorities or bodies.
The groups name identified during the meeting is Samarai Reunion, Samarai (with a comma) and during its first meeting also nominated WestPac Bank, Alotau as its banking facility.
And now shall I introduce names of the core seven (7) who have the voting rights and will drive us all. note that non of them will have official titles as all agreed in the meeting that this is an informal group and having titles is bullshit. Leadership is naturally following the seniority as it is on the island, of course we have other senior citizens that the core group can refer to as and where need be. The names without further ado:
1. Ernie Evernett - longtime resident, self employed (marine/ boats)
2. Rodney Abaijah - longtime resident, brother to former MP Josephine Abaijah
3. Maggie Tanaka - longtime resident who just loves Samarai Island
4. Maggie Sigamata - longtime resident, self employed (runs Samarai island Canteen)
5. John H. Marco - resident for the past 27 years, self employed (fuel servicing)
6. Paul Titus - former councillor (3 terms) and a very active youth coordinator.
7. Betty Andrew - born, raised and married on Samarai, current councillor, active youth coordinator;
The treasury/ book keeping team of three (3) whom are also signatories to the (yet to be openned) bank account are:
1. Carter Tanaka - wife of Richard Tanaka, longtime resident
2. Mary Abaijah - wife of Rodney Abaijah, longtime residents
3. Cypirian Kaisa - husband to Maggie Sigamata, self employed.
And lastly, ME MYSELF & I am the unofficial scribe, link, mail boy between you interested ones out there and the group on Samarai Island itself as I rotate back to Samarai Island from work breaks often enough as I live there.
Also there is TOBY AIWATI (facebook, emails etc) who can do the same I am sure as he also travels back to Samarai quite often too as he is a resident of Samarai.
The groups first priority right now is to raise awareness to everyone and anyone out there about the historical monument - Anglican Church building on Samarai Island.
Briefly, we have been recently informed that the Cardinal General of Anglican church will be visiting Samarai Island with the view to 'RECONSECRATE' (I believe the term is) the Anglican church (which means take everything holy i.e alters, the cross, holy water basins etc) and llet the building fall piece by piece. All Anglican Church services will be held in the rectory next door.
More of this with pictures in the next post........................................stay tuned!!!!
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