annualreport2005

IIHFD

Annual Reports

2005

The IIHFD: The President’s Annual Report—2005

This year is almost at a close.

As an international Development Research Organization, the primary focus of the IIHFD membership is the publication of our journal, Review of Human Factor Studies (RHFS). We published a special issue on Bribery and Corruption this year. We now look forward to next year’s issue which will be devoted to a variety of topics. It will, therefore, not be a special issue.

This year, many of our members did not renew their IIHFD membership. I am not sure why this is the case. At the beginning of the year, I sent out several membership renewal reminder notices. But this did not work very well. May be the time has come for us to review membership issues and discuss what it is we are not doing right. For if we have no membership, we have no organization. We have been using the concept of National Chapters to build up the IIHFD. I am not sure whether we should revisit this practice and revert back to treating the IIHFD as one global organization. Those of you who have excellent ideas as to how we must proceed are invited to speak to this issue so we all can discuss it thoroughly through e-mail discussions.

As you are aware, EBSCO carries our journal Online. We receive royalties. This year, the total royalty check from EBSCO is $42.90. The check will only grow bigger in the future.

When the US Chapter of the IIHFD was set up, we were given the authorization to operate under an advanced ruling as a publicly supported organization and not as a private foundation until the end of December 2005. The 2005 is, therefore, the year in which we have to submit documents to the International Revenue Service (IRS) to substantiate the fact that we truly are a publicly funded organization—A 501 (c) (3) Organization. In other words, a Charitable Organization. We have received the appropriate forms from the IRS and will complete and submit them in January 2006. We will keep you posted regarding progress on this issue.

This year, we worked to get the RHFS accepted to be indexed in Cabell’s Directory of Publishing Opportunities in Management. Please join me to give our gratitude to Dr. Moses Acquaah who made this happen. He is currently the person in charge of having the journal indexed by as many indexing organizations as possible. If you know of any such indexing organizations we should pursue to have our journal indexed, please forward that information to me.

PLANS FOR 2006 AND BEYOND
1. We will continue to publish one issue of the Review of Human Factor Studies each year. The direction for the future is concentrating on the publication of special issues. Thus, if you have any special issues ideas you want to explore as a Guest Editor, please make a proposal to us as soon as possible.

2. The Editorial Board will be revamped this year. I have enjoyed working with every member of the current Editorial Board and will be glad to continue on with them. If it is your plan to continue on as an Editorial Board member, please indicate so by sending me a personal e-mail message to this effect. If not, may I take this opportunity to thank you for your years of service to the IIHFD. We also need new Editorial Board members. If membership of the Editorial Board of the RHFS is of interest to you, please let me know.

3. As you all are aware, our original plan to develop a HF Research Center in Techiman, Ghana, failed. This failure is due to one primary reason. That is, we lost the land donated to us. As a result, we could not continue on with the fundraising program we commenced in the year 2001. In 2001 when we made the plan for Techiman, a few of you made financial pledges. From those pledges, an amount of $350.00 was actually collected in total in cash. We still have these funds in our program development account.

4. Now, the new move is to pursue the development of a Human Factor Leadership Academy (HFLA) in Akatsi, Ghana. We now have a two acre plot to work with. This land is also a donated plot of land. Our current plans are to do the legal paper work so the IIHFD becomes the sole owner of this proper. We will keep you informed as to the progress in this regard. The primary objective of the HFLA is to build a facility and use it as a venue where we work with children and the youth on leadership issues. This program is more or less an after school program. Its primary purpose is to complement what the children do at school. At the center, we will provide the children and youth with computers, internet capabilities, e-mail addresses, online library resources, and leadership development materials. A series of unique after school activities will be provided to children and youth. Through these educational activities, the participants will be exposed to alternative futures. Hopefully, this program will develop into a formalized youth leadership development program. The plan is to commence work on the building of the initial facility in July 2006. We have budgeted for approximately $100,000.00 (US). This amount will make the whole program fully functional by the spring of 2007. However, we do not need to raise the total amount before we get started. Our colleagues in Ghana will get back to us regarding how much money we must have in hand to get the HFLA started in the summer of 2006

With this in mind, we need your input in terms of ideas and suggestions. So, please let us dialogue about it through e-mail. Any suggestions and concerns you may have are welcome.

I look forward to working with you in the New Year. In all our efforts at the IIHFD, our combined vision for the coming years is to give a gift of Honest and Compassionate Leadership to Africa as well as other developing countries.

We have a lot to contribute to Africa's progress and future. I am convinced beyond any doubts that without positive HF, no African country will make the changes necessary to improve the people’s quality of life. This conviction is the primary source of my personal vision and drive for the HFLA. I thank every one of you for your continuing support to the IIHFD.