Distinguished Delegates,
Members of the GNAT Family,
My name is Bruce Senam McBrian—Vice Presidential Candidate in the 2018 GNAT National elections. I send you warm season’s greetings and felicitations. May 2018 be our best year ever as individuals, and as an association.
There is nothing more exciting than seeing all of you here gathered, travelling from various locations across the country. This demonstrates our collective resolve to see a new GNAT which appreciates the contributions of its seniors, and values the potentials of its youth.
I present myself to you as the vehicle to transport all our aspirations and hopes to the destination where teachers and education workers are healthy, hardworking and happy with their jobs and working conditions. Achieving job satisfaction, improved education delivery and industrial harmony is possible with the right leadership. Our brand must begin to challenge the dominance of our rivals like UTAG and GBA.
Business of Conference
The 5th Quadrennial (52nd) National Delegates Conference presents us a very unique opportunity to assess our dear association, take decisions, as well as elect leaders to carry through the decisions taken at Conference.
Among the issues to critically ponder are:
- GNAT: its history, achievements, and challenges.
- The hopes and aspirations of members of GNAT.
- The prospects and future of GNAT.
- GNAT’s contribution to the socio-economic development of our dear association.
When conference ends and we have all departed to our various homes and districts and regions, we will be expecting the real issues confronting us as members to be addressed; we would hope to see an improvement in our communication; we shall expect to see an expansion in the frontiers of the youth desk and a deeper involvement of the youth in activities of the association. We shall also expect to have our skills and capacities enhanced for improved delivery in or schools and offices.
GNAT’s Reputation & Relevance
As a union, we have established ourselves as a reputable teachers’ organization in Ghana and across the world. Our commitment as a body to the student, the community and the profession hinges on good remuneration and conditions of service; our existence on our numbers; our relevance on our services and our respectability on the quality of our leadership. Our reputation also hinges on our contribution to Professional Development, continuous and effective membership education excellent International Relations.
It is for these reasons that we must endeavour to elect candidates who have competences that set them apart from the rest of the pack. An association is only as good as its leaders. What GNAT needs now isn’t only good men and women; GNAT needs good men and women with relevant skills that bring value to the table. Value matters. Yes, it does. Otherwise, the whole election will be a mere formality. The whole essence of electing leaders is to have people who can use their skills, as well as leverage on social capital to address the challenges facing their followers.
Youth & Grassroots Empowerment & Succession Planning
Kofi Annan admonishes that:
Young people should be at the forefront of global change and innovation. Empowered, they can be key agents for development and peace. If, however, they are left on society’s margins, all of us will be impoverished. Let us ensure that all young people have every opportunity to participate fully in the lives of their societies.”
The least we can do to prove cynics wrong is to show true commitment to empowering the youth and the grassroots. There is no better time to get the youth of GNAT to the decision making table than now! The 70% new generation of GNAT members deserve a voice.
Getting the youth to the decision making table will be the first major step towards Succession Planning (the process of training and preparing people in organizations to replace their seniors).
The locals remain the most significant sector where GNAT’s impact can be felt. Ensuring speedy release of local grants and training local executives will be my priority.
It must however be made clear that this movement; the GNAT Youthquake is not targeted at our seniors. We cannot make the mistake of thinking GNAT can exist without the experience and resilience of its senior members. I made this point during the press conference to launch my campaign. The following lines from the press statement say it explicitly:
The association at this time therefore requires leadership that reflects the dynamics of the association’s demographics. Leadership that is proportionally balanced would be able to blend the energy, enthusiasm and creativity of the youth with the experience and resilience of the relatively older members of the union to produce a beautiful symphony.
But, the association does not need just any youth but those with the competence and the character required to lead in order to enable members remain healthy, hardworking and happy.”
Communications
Since communications lie at the heart of every organization, we need to work at re-structuring our communications system to enable free flow of information within the association as we thrive to improve administration and management.
Membership Drive.
We need a database that gives us a true picture of our numerical strength. We also need to significantly boost our numbers which continue to reduce yearly with the migration of some of our members join our opponents.
When elected Vice President, I shall leverage on my youthfulness and energy, my relationship with the Teacher Trainees Association of Ghana (TTAG), and my special skills in Social Mobilization to ensure the number of final year trainees we recruit remain significant, while making strong inroads in the various Senior High Schools where NAGRAT especially obtains most of its members.
What New For GNATLAS?
I have been told that GNATLAS is eventually collapsing at all levels. And I have been asked what interventions I’ll bring on board to make GNATLAS more vibrant when voted in the power?
It’s important to note that the success or failure of any association depends on its youth and women’s wings. That is why I love the slogan for this year’s Round Table Conference—“Women Power Unions”.
We need to elect someone who understands Gender issues and the GNATLAS language to be able to support the National President in promoting and prosecuting the GNATLAS agenda. I shall leverage on my background in this area, my engagements and experiences, and my relationship with the Girls Education Unit of the GES, to facilitate the work of GNATLAS and the Gender Desk of GNAT.
I will be your voice with the National President. I shall commit to ensuring the Gender Desk of GNAT and GNATLAS have what it takes to effectively accomplish their mandate.
I shall also commit to working hard for the [Draft] Gender in Education Policy and [Draft] Guidelines for Improving Gender Equality & Empowerment in Education in Ghana receive their pride of place in our overall scheme of things.
I shall facilitate the regular organization of intensive capacity building workshops for all district GNAT LAS coordinators through the Gender Desk towards equipping them with the requisite skills on funding proposal writing for sponsorship to carry out programs in their respective districts. I shall also lead the plea by GNATLAS to zone the country in to three or four.
I shall take personal interest in advocating for GNAT to collaborate with GES to get crèches in clusters of schools where female teachers can keep their babies while they concentrate on taking care of other people’s children. (I have just sent an article for publication in a national daily newspaper on the subject).
Ladies will be empowered to take up leadership positions at all levels through support of their colleagues females. When all the men failed, it was a lady who took up the challenge of steering our union up to this stage. It feels good to know she has not given up on us, and she is putting up a strong fight to retain her seat as President. Other ladies must be encouraged to aspire to greater heights. GNAT must lead the way in this direction.
Through collaboration with other executives we shall support the GNATLAS Coordinators physically and financially to get districts and regional soccer teams in place. This will lead to inter districts and regional competitions. We began this at the Youth level, we can do it with GNATLAS too.
Elections Are a Form of Investment
Elections are a form of investment. Investment is an act putting money, effort, time, etc into something to make a profit or get an advantage. When people vote in any election, they expect their votes to yield dividends. Expected dividends include an improvement in their living, and or working conditions or overall state of affairs.
So, an election is not something to be taken lightly. Consideration for who to vote for should therefore go beyond merely liking a candidate, to an objective assessment of the candidate’s track record, accomplishments, and potential of delivering positive returns on voters’ investments (of trust, time, and expectations).
Conclusion
My Dear Delegate, we have been told over the years (and we still hear) that, GNAT leadership is a clique of self-serving powerful individuals. We are told they set their agenda and then transmit these agenda downwards until it gets to delegates at the grassroots. Some have characterized these powerful individuals as puppeteers who pull strings to even get elections go their way.
My Dear Delegate, we have a choice today. We can choose to allow the game of musical chairs to determine our leaders; or we can choose to assess candidates on their own merits and make our own determination as to who we really want to elect to serve our grassroots interests. We can choose to allow same old pointless mechanism that selects people who only sit to wait for retirement.
We can also allow the puppeteers to pull their strings to get the elections go their way, and then we return home and grumble for the next four years. Yes, we can.
But, we can also summon the will to resist all schemes that undermine our sense of reasoning and ability to make rational choices without anyone imposing things on us. Yes, we can!
Our destinies lie in our own hands! Life is how you make it. I therefore encourage you to evaluate the individuals putting themselves up for election to the various positions—look at their accomplishments, skills, and the value they bring to the table.
We need to elect people who have a clear understanding of the core issues involved in public policy, social mobilization, management communication, etc. These are skills that add value to the table; not just dry adjectives and clichéd expressions of praise.
When you have done all these, my dear friend, you would come to the realization that one candidate in the Vice Presidential race stands tall among the rest. That candidate, with the greatest sense of humility, is yours truly, Bruce Senam McBrian (Number 3 on the ballot).
PS:
Bouquet of Skills
- Sound Management & Organizational Skills
- Proficient in Microsoft Office including PowerPoint and excel
- Working knowledge of WordPress; Has a blog.
- Excellent Public Policy Analysis skills
- Strong Advocacy Skills.
- Ability to manage and implement social media campaigns.
- Excellent written & verbal Comm. skills; Speaks & writes fluent English.
- Excellent editing skills.
- Social Mobilization Skills