Photo: left to right: Raymond (Committee Member), James (DAAS Director & Committee Vice-chair), Maureen (DAAS Director and Committee Chair), Clayton (DAAS President).

Mr. Henderson said he was looking forward to the group promoting the vision of the committee to increase awareness and participation of all concerned.
Mr. Abraham was concerned about the mood in the country and the tourism sector in particular. He said we were celebrating 25 years of independence and he could not feel it. "It was the same ole, same ole." He said the roads and general preparation were poor, creating a bad impression for visitors. He said there was no significant project designed to commemorate 25 years of nation building. He wondered about the countries planners and the direction the country was heading. He said the committee had a role to play in education and training. He said the Diaspora can help, not compete with the locals. He hoped the committee could find ways to get them to buy into the idea of a vision, concept and master plan for the economy, for infrastructure and for urban development.
Ms. Paul was concerned about the attitude of locals towards the Diaspora. She said when one tried to help, locals were quick to ask: "Who do you think you are?" She hopes the committee can take a look at the cultural aspects involved in working with local counterparts. She said she felt there was a barrier - she felt resentment.
Mr. Abraham added that seminars were needed to educate people on aspects of our work. He said we must not appear to be imposing anything. He said protocol is a problem.
Mr. Shillingford said we need to take this as a given. He said we needed to see DAAS as a platform for more connection with the people. He singled out the work of Dr. Peter St. Jean in criminology as an example where a Dominican based overseas had successfully penetrated the cultural barriers to help in an important area in the county - crime He said we needed to boost the DAAS image through guest lectures etc and by formulating a strategy to deal with the perceived hostility. He continued however, that the committee needed to get engaged: visit the college and other institutions to be more visible on the ground. He said the IDP was a missed opportunity. He believes more could have been done. Further, Mr. Shillingford believes the Independent Monitoring Group (IMG) is another chance for engagement because of his membership there.
Also mentioned was the Youth Mentorship program which is part of a memorandum of understanding with the Minister of Education, Youth Affairs and Sport. Mr. Shillingford urged the committee to work with government and the private sector. He said while in Dominica for the Jubilee expatriates should engage the leadership of the country, and that just visiting family would not be enough. He disclosed that a Liaison for Diaspora Affairs would be established in government to help reorient those who chose to come back home.
Mr. Abraham expressed concern about the need for facilities in Dominica such as a stadium to facilitate events like the Jubilee. He said the committee could help engage investors like Sanford for example.
Mr. Shillingford agreed, saying it had to be a personal engagement in these types of matters in the initial stages. He said DAAS agents around the world could simply inform DAAS when certain groups or individual investors were in their area and DAAS would lock them in. He said it could all be set up using the platform of DAAS. He said in this regard, DAAS needed persons to write grant proposal to encourage and support activities like the Cultural Passport initiative.
He also said that more promotional agents were needed because we have a huge marketing problem in the country; "In agriculture, in services, in tourism." He said we don't seem to know how to promote things in Dominica, but we have made people come in, we don't have our act together and people continue to plan on local standards - "We are addressing self instead of costumer." Mr. Shillingford said. He said we were suffering from our perception of global reality in Dominica. He mentioned for example that we were guaranteed the sale of 70 tons of bananas to Europe but we did not address that. He said, instead, we continued to subsidize the farmers and play politics notwithstanding the fact that competition and price are global issues. He warned that we still have not conceptualized organic farming in the tropics saying this was another example of where we could suffer in the future.
Ms. Paul said she saw a problem with the way the economy was being handled. She said much attention was being paid to macro economic policies but little was given to the micro economic reality - the building blocks of the economy. She noted, for example, that the business sector was not happy and said it was logical that the costumers of those businesses would also be unhappy. She said there was an urgent need to get the necessary data to make informed decisions about Dominican economy. She said she understands the expense involved but the information was needed to get plans done.
Mr. Shillingford said it was difficult to get in at that level, admitting that even at the IMG level it was difficult to get the necessary information to report back to the nation.
Mr. James interjected that the IMF expected the government to deliver on its promises of performance next year. He said the government was going to need a lot of assistance from all to make it through.
Ms. Paul wondered how we were going to challenge the IMF with viable alternatives if the appropriate data was not available for analysis. She believes that kind of information was crucial if we had to inform the leadership or bring other people in. She noted that it was an emergency because the economy was contracting rapidly.
Mr. Shillingford said we can push from inside the establishment to divert such an eventuality using the DAAS platform.
In summarizing, Ms. Paul said we needed to hold more seminars, engage the authorities more and build the membership and infrastructure of DAAS.
Mr. Shillingford said DAAS now had to change its approach from cash and kind to more involvement on the ground. He said there is a framework for something to happen now, so we must make something happen. He said we simply need to deliver more.
Mr. Henderson said a greater effort had to be made "to think outside the box" when looking at solutions to the country's problems. He called for specific sessions where DAAS membership would spend time and resources and even computer animations to help thinking outside the box. He said it was not far-fetched because the DAAS concept as created by the founders was a perfect example of thinking outside the box.
Mr. Abraham said the last two symposia co-organized by DAAS were essentially session where members were thinking outside the box. He also took the opportunity again to state his dissatisfaction with the way the Jubilee was observed. He said the papers and magazines were well done but said there was nothing else of substance. He said the Capital was not decorated. He said it was just a fete commemorating of 25 years of independence, referring to the Creole Festival. He also said Creole in the Park was heaven-sent otherwise there would have been little else to talk about.
The meeting was adjourned and committee members planned to meet again November 3rd at a dinner and dance at the Springfield Guest House. It was 4:30 P.M.

Minutes by Raymond Henderson