INTRODUCTION
Dear Members and Friend of the WVU African Student Association:
Welcome! You now have before you a document that was put together by the Executive Council of the African Student Association (A.S.A) during the Fall 2005-Spring 2006 term. It is meant to be a useful tool, and a reference document about conducting business pertaining to the best student organization on the WVU campus. Such a status for the association did not come out of nowhere! It is the result of the hardwork and great dedication of several members, community resource-persons, and administrative support staff within the university, who committed themselves to making the A.S.A a success-story.
Whether you are a newly elected officer, or you are a curious (potential) member of the association, I would like you to know that this document could be a valuable asset to your understanding of how to run a student organization efficiently, or how to add quality programming to the A.S.A annual calender of events. This is why its promotors called it the A.S.A BOOK OF PROCEDURES. It is primarily a reference document that clarifies the various articles of the Constitution and By-Laws of the African Student Association.
However, and even more important, it is also the sum of several years of experience of African students living on the campus of WVU, and in Morgantown. As international students, and foreigners, they have experienced the same situations, anxiety, stress, sense of loss and cultural deprivation, that may have made you to consider joining the A.S.A, or some other student organizations. Also, they have tried to answer, as you may be trying to do so now, the numerous questions about their continent, their countries, their cultures, their traditions, and so forth, that many of their American friends, and other international students have been asking them. To perceive this aspect of "cultures blending" of the A.S.A behind this BOOK OF PROCEDURES is critical to the understanding of the document.
Why is it so? Because, the A.S.A is too much of a service organization in the lives of its members, too much of an educational instrument in which its alumni and all other students must take pride, too much of a dialogue facilitator between the various segments of the university and Morgantown communities, too much of a symbol of the African identity and civilization for both its African and African-American members, and too much of a fun organization during our staying in Morgantown, to be perceived only through some regulatory procedures!
Thus, I hope that you will join us in keeping this wonderful heritage growing. Your contribution is always welcome, and needed, to make the A.S.A a better organization. By participating in the A.S.A, you will assist with providing a wider range of actities, events, talents, and service to numerous students, and/or community members like yourself. You will enjoy the privilege of making a difference everyday by reinforcing continously the spirit of positivity and appreciation of a great job done, as it shows with the current membership of the association. You will make it your number one mission to overcome such a challenge, in order to become a better leader and communicator. Above all, you will become part of the most special student group, and of the warmest and most unique international family in Morgantown. To motivate you in undertaking such an endeavor is the ultimate ambition of the Executive Council officers who wrote this A.S.A BOOK OF PROCEDURES.
On behalf of the entire membership of the association, I would like to welcome you again, dear friend, into your "home away from home." In doing so, I will share with you these two popular African proverbs:
"Every member of the community is needed on harvesting day, but nobody is essential (to the completion of the work)"
"It takes a whole village to raise a child".
ASA Committee.
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