Francis Ssennoga emerged victorious as the new president of the Uganda North America Association (UNAA), the premier organizations for Ugandans in North America.
Thank You for Your Continued Support
I take this opportunity to thank you for entrusting me (with) the responsibility of being UNAA’s 10th President. With your blessing I have also served successfully as UNAA’s Secretary and as UNAA’s Vice President. I appreciate your continued support and involvement in UNAA activities. Because of your participation and my hard working team, our Association has been restructured and is on a steady road to more successes than before.
I would like to begin this message by saying that my first priority is to make sure that UNAA’s 25th anniversary celebrations are a great success and this priority comes before everything else.
Now the time is right to kick off my re-election campaign for a second term as President. I hereby ask for a few minutes of your time to examine my record in the past two years. I also seek your support and your vote so that together we can complete everything we set out to do two years ago. Let us work together as before beyond this half way point.
My 2011 - 2013 Achievements
As UNAA’s Chief Executive Officer, here is what my team and I as President have been able to accomplish.
A record is worth 1000 words!
1 My administration filed all necessary annual reports and vital paperwork for the last 5 years with the Secretary of State of Massachusetts and has kept UNAA’s registration current. UNAA’s future will never be in limbo again.
2 As President, I have presided over an administration that stands for Unity and Balance comprised of a female Vice President and the first administration to have an equal number of women and men on the UNAA Executive. A lot of progress has come from this diversity and balance.
3 As President I created two key partnerships with important US based nonprofits doing commendable work in Uganda. Hope Medical Clinics - HMC and World’s Children Initiative - WCI that presented at the Convention in Philadelphia 2012. WCI is fundraising to build a heart institute in Uganda. HMC is building clinics in Uganda and opened up in March this year, the Gaylord Maternity and Pediatric hospital in Uganda to offer quality care to mothers and children. This is in line with the goals of our Wellness and Health Program (WHP) that was created at the beginning of my administration.
4 My administration established a sister relationship between the city of Philadelphia and the city of Kampala during the UNAA Philadelphia Convention 2012. This was the first time the UNAA convention was kicked off by the city’s mayor and the first time UNAA created such an important relationship. This is also the first time UNAA received a citation from a historical and major city of the United States.
5 As President, I supervised the biggest recruitment of talent for leadership in UNAA’s history, expanding leadership structures and leaders from 12 members of the Board to a total of 38 people, comprising of UNAA’s Executive Branch, the Board of Trustees, the UNAA Council of Representatives, UNAA Directors of Development and Finance and the UNAA Electoral Commission. This number will jump to a 50 member team with a full UNAA Council and I have shown that I can handle this challenge.
6 My administration acquired the 1st trademark of UNAA after a carefully managed legal fight. Now UNAA’s logo is a trademark of the United States Patents and Trademark Office. UNAA now stands on the strongest legal ground since her creation in 1988. The question of brand identity and protection has been permanently settled.
7 As President, I supervised the successful implementation of UNAA’s new Constitution and managed a smooth transition to a new and more efficient structure of the organization. UNAA is now a strong, modern organization with solid institutions to withstand any adversity. It is structurally transparent, representative of the community’s diversity and its leadership is efficiently carrying out specialized duties of the UNAA Executive, of the UNAA Council of Representatives, of the Board of Trustees and of the independent Electoral Commission. UNAA is better off today than it has been before and is now poised to prosper.
8 As UNAA President I am a member of the Eastern Africa Diaspora Business Council –EADBC, working with leaders of EADBC organizations to advance our common interests. I have rendered my expertise in technology to create a web presence for this Business Council.
9 As UNAA President I have overseen the seamless transfer of UNAA’s legacy web resources to a new platform with new managers and administrators. This new platform has a complete Job search resource for our community members to seek employment posted by various corporates.
10 As President I have maintained close relationships with sister organizations like; the Uganda Catholic community of Boston, the churches, local chapters, community radio stations and community leaders. As President, I have attended and participated in each Basoga Twegaite convention and Uganda Martyrs event of the Boston Catholic community. In the past I have also participated in the Banyakigezi and the Bamasaba Conventions.
11 As President, I brought new major corporate sponsors like Umeme Ltd, 3M, and Brussels airlines to UNAA. I have also engaged other US corporates to advance our interests. This way I grew sponsorship beyond our traditional list and devised new strategies like ticket lotteries and promotion airline tickets conversion into cash to expand our revenue base beyond registration fees. I also devised new non-exclusive airline sponsorship packages that have up to 3 or more sponsoring airlines generating more revenue for UNAA. Given more time, these strategies will significantly reduce our dependence on registration fees which will eventually reduce costs for our members.
12 As President, I have engaged over 10 American insurance companies to create specific packaged products for our community. I now have a team of Americans that is ready to educate the African and Ugandan community in particular in how to create Wealth, how to secure our community’s future and how to use various financial instruments. Given more time individual community members will gain tremendously from this initiative.
13 My administration has maintained good and balanced working relationships and cooperation with government and non-government entities back home in Uganda creating a very positive image. I have without doubt, steered the organization away from any negative publicity.
14 As President, I have led UNAA delegations each year to the Uganda Investment Authority summits in Uganda and strengthened working relationships with the press in Uganda and abroad further enhancing UNAA’s positive image. Last year I also led another UNAA delegation to the Ugandan Diaspora Awards event at Serena where I accepted an award recognizing UNAA’s work uniting Ugandans abroad which further highlights the positive image this administration has tirelessly built.
15 Because of this positive atmosphere, the UNAA Convention in Philadelphia saw a return of a number of our community members who had left the organization for one reason or the other. As President, I have presided over a calm and drama-free administration that listens, is humble and seeks understanding.
16 As President, I worked with a team to acquire UNAA’s first 1800 number, (855) 873 8622 or (855) USE-UNAA to make the organization more accessible and professional.
17 As President, I have managed good working relationships with all the three unified branches of UNAA’s leadership and local UNAA Convention organizing teams from Philadelphia to Dallas.
18 During my administration, UNAA has seen more marketing and reaching out, using new technologies and strategies than any other time in UNAA’s History.
19 As President, I have maintained a close relationship with US Department of State and USAID. I attended Secretary Hillary Clinton’s Global Diaspora summit and engaged with other diaspora leaders and officials at the Bureau of African Affairs, USAID and at State Department in Washington D.C bringing some of these officials to the Philadelphia 2012 Convention.
20 My team and I grew the participation in UNAA’s vital Convention forums that saw UNAA Philadelphia 2012 have the biggest forum attendance overall that is usually only reserved for the “Senga” session.
21 As President I presided over the biggest engagement of US Convention hosting cities that culminated in a dinner with the City Council at the historical Philadelphia City Hall home of Benjamin Franklin, America’s founding father. A team of UNAA Leaders, Businessmen from US and Uganda, Government officials, our then US Ambassador, community members attended and strengthened our mutual relationships with US entities and corporates at that event which is a great part of what UNAA is about.
22 My team and I have continued to grow our Trade and Investment program attracting more interest and attendance as seen in Philadelphia last year and as anticipated in Dallas this year.
23 As President I have supervised the creation and implementation of the Member Benefit Expansion (MBE) program and our members have started realizing its potential in discounts and select access to resources. Given more time, this innovation will just increase.
24 Under my leadership UNAA for the first time gave away 4 FREE return airline tickets worth $1800 each as a way to promote Uganda, give back to our community and encourage people, especially those born here, to visit and connect with our motherland Uganda. This achieves goals of our Cultural Preservation Program (CUP) that was created at the beginning of my administration.
25 As President I have maintained a close relationship with the Uganda Nordics Convention and Ugandans in Scandinavia to share information and experiences as sister groups.
I ask you to support me in building onto what we have started together. Let us finish the work we started. RE-ELECT, VOTE Francis Ssennoga for continued steady leadership as seen on his record that speaks more than 1000s of words.
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