15-01-2010
To:
THE PRESIDENT AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS,
Some Suggestions for the 1st AGM
I am writing this letter as I was requested to put forward the following concerns formally, in writing, by The President and another committee member when I raised these issues on a personal level. I do strongly feel that someone has to highlight the following so that there could some corrective and constructive measures be taken by the current office holders even at this late stage before the planned General Assembly. So, I have taken some time to do so. These are some the major disagreements I, as a registered member, have when it comes to your activities in the name of our community in Crawley:
01. The planned half- an- hour programme of SUBMISSION AND APPROVAL OF CONSTITUTION between 5.45 and 6.15 pm on your agenda does not provide a fair opportunity for neither discussion nor approval of hitherto publicly unknown Constitution for our public’s future, (including you and me.) I suggested earlier that you either upload the constitution on your website ASAP, or postpone the ‘approval’ with just the submission and make it available to all on our website. Then, allow the public two or three weeks to scrutinise . The approval process could be held after a Jumma at a later date.
02. Your recent campaign for membership registration and consequent refusals to some has raised some complaints from the public. Hence, you have to clarify your position and if you, at any point, have not properly acted to accommodate every one from our community. It’s time to acknowledge the mistake sincerely and withdraw the refusals immediately. I hope this little gesture of brotherhood would help to avoid an unfortunate division within our Crawley Ummah which , otherwise, is much more likely to happen in future.
03. There are very serious questions about our process of recruiting committee members for SLMWAC. The hitherto unelected committee may unfortunately remain as a group of committed individuals who have never gone through a systematic public process even after General Assembly. I do appreciate the commitment and efforts the committee brothers have put in on behalf our community. However still the question remains ‘Why not get elected through a public process? ( May be, we have answers for this in the prepared constitution,) Then the current committee has to stand for re-election after the constitution.
04. The SUBMISSION OF FINACIAL STATEMENT is scheduled between 6.15pm and 6.30. I would suggest that the printed copies of the statement to be provided to the attendees beforehand, this 15 minutes programme could be accommodative as well as meaningful to all present. (Please not that we have allocated much more time for the refreshments and the dinner)
05. Issue of women’s membership and participation has already been raised, I would suggest that you could invite them too as observers acknowledge the mistake and your restraints and propose the measures that you plan for accommodating sisters in future.
06. I would like to see a change from you in our (Sri Lankan Muslims’) attitude towards meals and refreshments. We keep wasting so much time, money and energy in arranging all these even for a evening gathering. Try your best to focus our energies on real issues. I would welcome just a refreshment in the middle of the programmes.
Those were just a few suggestions to repair the damage in the name of our communty even at this late stage. Now, it is up to you … .Please excuse the mistakes as it s written in a hurry due to time constraint.
With thanks, Signd by
Fazlur Rahman - Crawley UK
E-mail: fazlrman@yahoo.com
+447915345448
