FINAL Minutes of GBM of July 20 2013 (Updated!)


SPA ALUMNI
C/O SCHOOL OF PLANNING AND ARCHITECTURE: NEW DELHI-110002


Ref.No.                                                                                                                      25th July, 2013
Minutes of the Extraordinary General Body Meeting held on 20th July, 2013 at 5.30 p.m. in the Committee Room of the Planning Building of the School.
Present:
Shri Vijay Garg (Chairman)                                        Prof. Manoj Mathur (Vice Chairman)
Shri Mahesh Paliwal (Treasurer)                                Shri Amarjit Singh                     
Shri Romesh Sapra                                                     Shri  Ameet Babbar                      
Shri Sahil Bhardwaj                                                     Shri  Amit Aurora                         
Shri Shamit Manchanda                                              Ms. Amrita Raj                           
Prof. Sharat Chandra Das                                           Shri Ankit Gupta                         
Shri Sudhir Vohra                                                       Shri  Ashish Gupta                         
Shri Tanuj Kumar Aggarwal                                      Ms. Indu Mathur                          
Shri Uday B. Kapre                                                    Shri Kirti Kumar Arora
Shri Manoj Diwedi                                                     Shri Mayank Sharma
Shri Punit Sethi                                                           Shri Rafiq Kidwai
Shri Aditya Kumar Singh
 
 1.        The meeting was called to order. Due to lack of quorum the meeting was deferred for half-an-hour and thereafter the reconvened meeting was called to order at 6:00 pm. Twenty-three  members were present and they constituted the required quorum.  Shri Vijay Garg, Chairman of SPA Alumni informed the members that Patron had telephonically informed that he cannot reach the venue and meeting should be cancelled and Shri Garg requested that he send a message so that all members can be appraised. Thereafter, Shri Garg read out a message sent to him at 5:18 PM by the Patron, Director SPA,
            “Vijay, there is 2-3 feet water in SPA campus. Too risky to go inside. Let us postpone todays GB meeting by a month. Chetan”
The members present took strong exception to the late notice. They said that they have reached here from different far-off locations by passing through flooded roads and traffic jams for hours. Therefore, it is grossly unfair to cancel the meeting after they have arrived. Majority of the members opined that the meeting should be conducted as scheduled.  Shri Sudhir Vohra, opposed the view and said that the meeting should not be held, as the e-mails of various persons and Patron showed that there are some differences between the Alumni Association and the Patron. He felt that it would be wrong to decide any matter with an insufficient number of members present and raised a query of the attendance data on such meetings in the past.  Shri Rafiq Kidwai also felt that the number was less. After consulting the records, which showed that the present attendance was above average, it was decided that the meeting may be held.  Prof. Manoj Mathur suggested that as much as possible the patron’s agenda should be discussed, though the issues may not be entirely resolved. Members were free to record their dissent on resolutions they did not agree on.
            Considering the above, the Shri Vijay Garg, Chairman SPA Alumni, informed that according to Patron’s letter addressed to all members, this meeting is to be conducted under the Chairmanship of Prof. Manoj Mathur, Vice-Chairman SPA Alumni. Accordingly, Prof. Manoj Mathur took the Chair, welcomed all the members and appreciated their efforts to attend the meeting. Thereafter, items on the agenda were taken up.
Item no. 1.      Confirmation of the minutes of the last meeting:  This was deferred to be taken up at the end of the meeting as members present were more anxious to know more details about the situation that had been deemed extraordinary by the Patron.
Item no. 2.      Report of the Electoral Officer.  As requested by the Chair, Shri Shamit Manchanda, Electoral Officer, briefed the Members about the election process so far.   He informed  that elections for the next EC for the years 2013-16 were  processed through various meetings of the Committee and after due process, the elections were announced, nominations were received and eligible candidates notified, ballot papers were posted to the eligible Members, as per the schedule given in his letter dated 1st May 2013.  Some members complained to the Patron that many members were unlikely to receive ballot papers as they had not updated their addresses and for this reason the Elections should be called off. In an Executive Committee meeting held on 31st May, 2013, in which the complainants were invited,  it was resolved, as per the advice of the Patron, that the election process already started could not be stopped and that after allowing one week’s time for members to update their addresses, it should be resumed. All of a sudden, on 18th June, 2013, the Patron declared the whole election process as Null-and-Void and issued a letter informing all the Members by post.   Ostensibly, one of the contentious points was that the names of the Electoral Officers had not been ratified by the General Body. Thereupon, some of the eligible candidates sent E-mails to selected persons stating that they did not wish to contest any longer, even as their names existed on the ballot paper.   Many members had cast their votes by then but due to the confusion ensuing the Patron’s precipitate action, many other members did not send their completed ballot papers.
Item no. 3.      The Chair, Prof. Mathur said that the agenda of the General Body Meeting as earlier announced, cannot be taken up because the Patron has declared the election process Null-and-Void and has proposed a revised agenda for this extraordinary GBM.  Shri Sudhir Vohra wished to know the functions, powers of the Patron defined in the bye-laws of SPA Alumni.  The Constitution defines no role for the Patron and Prof. Mathur read out the limited function of the Patron defined in the Clause 10 of the constitution.   After consideration, the General Body observed that, in fact, the Patron had no authority to declare the election process as null-and-void and in so doing he had usurped the role of the General Body.
            Shri Vohra appealed that if the Constitution does not define the powers of the Patron, then the General Body should define it through the Constitutional provisions for effecting changes therein. On his request these provisions were read out by the Chair. Shri Vohra proposed that the General Body decide on it before proceeding further with the elections. Majority of the present members objected and stated that the role of the patron, if and when delineated, would be applicable in future and not in the present case.  The present situation is required to be viewed as per the existing Constitution.
            Members raised the doubt that if the election process is continued, the Patron may not agree, but it was held that the General Body is the Supreme body and its decision will override any view the Patron may take. The Patron exists to help the GB with physical and human resources and not to work against it.  Even so, Shri Ameet Babbar stressed, the General Body must initiate action to consider and decide the powers of the Patron in order to prevent any confusion in future. The General Body constituted a five-member committee under the Chairmanship of Prof. Manoj Mathur with s/Shri Sudhir Vohra, Asish Gupta, Rafiq Kidwai and Manoj Dwivedi, as Members to study, at length, this issue and all other issues which may require constitutional changes and place them before the General Body for consideration. The term of the committee was set as one year, initially.
            Prof. Sharat Das mentioned that he, being the senior-most member among the present members, had seen the School enjoy a great reputation earlier and the present acrimony cannot do the School any good. The issue of election process should have been settled amicably between the Association and the Parton. He lauded the contribution of the Association in the past beginning with memorable celebration of Golden Jubilee of the Department of Architecture under the chairmanship of Prof. Ram Sharma. He recalled that when he himself was the Chairman of SPA Alumni, the School had not convened General Council meetings for many years but when the MHRD, Govt. of India wanted to amend the MOA of the School, without consulting the General Council, the Association intervened and moved the Court. It won the litigation for the restoration of old MOA on the grounds that the General Council had been bypassed.  He noted that the SPA Alumni had supported the School when it was sorely needed and that spirit should be maintained. This is not the first time that the GBM has poor attendance, actually it is remarkably good under the circumstances, so let us not get bogged down by these non-issues and move ahead as there is much more to be done.
            Shri Rafiq Kidwai and Shri Kirti Kumar Arora echoed the sentiments of other members that for the last 20 years they never heard from the SPA Alumni and this was the first time that they had come for a GB meeting. They said they had never ever received a ballot paper for any of the previous elections. Shri Shamit Manchanda informed that it was after a long time that there were more eligible candidates than posts and ballot had been necessitated. Shri Puneet Sethi appreciated the present Executive Committee for having enthused so many members to actively participate, even if the election was just a beginning.
 Item no. 4.     The Chair apprised the members of the second contentious issue, according to the Patron, that of payment of Rs. 12.47 lacs by the school to the SPA Alumni. Patron had informed members that many SPA alumni had paid membership fees but had not been enrolled and this was one of the reasons for cancelling the elections. Chair explained to the members that this enrolment cannot be done without the Patron himself, as Director SPA, providing the details of break-up of these funds or their purpose. Shri Vohra further elaborated that SPA also must explain how much of this is the principal amount paid by students and what is the interest accrued thereon.
            The Chair elucidated that the process of enrolment of these “missing names” cannot begin unless SPA provides the names and contact details of each alumnus who had paid the “fees” over the last so many years. The list could have as many as 7000 names. It was clarified to the members that membership of the association is neither a compulsion nor a right.  Mr. Vohra observed that it is purely voluntary and members have to agree to become members by paying up their balance dues or else they should be paid their money back.
            Members’ enrolment is an on-going activity. The process of finding eligible members and their enrolment is an open–ended one and can never be concluded. However, elections have to be conducted periodically from amongst those who are fully-paid up members on a particular record date. Therefore a prospective membership drive cannot become a cause to suspend the elections. SPA Alumni cannot be held in a limbo pending enrolment of new members which may take forever. It was unanimously resolved the Election process should be logically and honorably concluded. The incoming Executive Committee should pursue the matter with the SPA in all possible ways so that the membership can be increased manifold.
Item no. 4       After detailed deliberations, the General body unanimously decided that the election already started, but paused due to the Patron’s action, should be continued in the following manner:
a.         The appointment of Shri Vijay Garg and Shri Shamit Manchanda as Electoral Officers to conduct the elections, stands ratified by the GB. 
b.         The Final list of candidates, as already notified by the Election Officers shall remain unchanged.
c.         The Final list of eligible voters as already notified by the Election Officers shall remain unchanged.
d.         Ballot Papers already put in the ballot Box shall be cancelled as also all the unused ones.
e.         New Ballot Papers shall be sent to all members by 10th August, 2013 so that they can vote afresh and after allowing 4 weeks time polling shall close on 7th September, 2013. The new Ballot Papers shall be in Blue colour to avoid confusion with the old ballot papers which were Pink colour.
f.          The present Executive Committee shall continue to fully discharge its functions till it hands over charge to the new Executive Committee elected through the due process as described in points (a) to (e) above..
Shri Vohra proposed that on-line voting may be arranged to facilitate members who are out of the country, but the proposal was not found viable at this stage. The incoming Executive Committee can consider its logistical feasibility after the required change in constitution is affected to facilitate it.
Deferred Item No.1:    Confirmation of the minutes of the last meeting
        The Chairman informed that the minutes of the last meeting were circulated to all the members and no objection was received.  The General Body considered and unanimously confirmed the minutes.
Item No.6:   Any other item with the permission of Chair.   
   Under “any other item”, the following was considered and resolved:
a.          The Chairman, SPA Alumni, Shri Vijay Garg,  presented the enclosed Report on various activities of the SPA Alumni, and the same was considered and approved unanimously.
b.         The accounts for the years 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 audited  and filed with the concerned authorities by the approved CA, Shri Prakash K. Prakash, Sagar Apartments, New Delhi, were received and were considered to be sent for approval by the General Body after circulation. The accounts are available for perusal by members on the blog   http://spadaa.blogspot.in/
c.         The term of the CA, M/s Prakash K. Prakash was approved by the GB for next three years.
d.         The General Body considered that full-time staff in sufficient number should be available in the Secretariat of the SPA Alumni to enable more interaction with members as well as for day-to-day work to be carried out smoothly. The office should be managed by SPA Alumni EC and supported by the School. It was noted that as per the constitution, a member of the association cannot be paid any honorarium for services rendered to the association. Members’ services are voluntary. We are thankful to Shri Haresh Lalwani, for his assistance rendered from time to time in carrying out our activities, but still regular office needs to be in operation. Shri Vijay Garg added that we are working in this direction, and apprised that recently one assistant, Smt. Neeraj Sharma has been deputed in the SPA Alumni Office, by the Patron. 
      There being no item, the meeting ended with vote of thanks to the Chair.

(Manoj Mathur)
Vice-Chairman
To:
All members of the SPA Alumni

No comments:

Post a Comment