Theos-Talk Archives (September 2008 Message tt00414)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Erica Letzerich" <eletzerich@...>
wrote:
>
> Dear friends,
> 
> Letter sent to the members of the General Council by Warwick Keys' the
> General Secretary of T.S. in New Zealand. 
> 
> To read it please visit the link below:
> 
> http://eletzerich.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/new-zealand/
> 
> Erica
>

I'm glad that in this issue we have an actual professional politician
(and one that has revolutionary ideas at that) to consult. I think his
idea is intriguing. It reminds me of the idea by Chris Richardson to
have two main functionaries: one who does the teaching job of the
president, the other would do the administrative job. 
http://theosophicalsociety.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/organizational-structures/
or:
http://tiny.cc/9k281

Anand: your idea puts too much power in the hands of the larger sections. 
I don't mind the General Council being small and representing each
section equally - as long as they don't get too much power. 

The presidential elections should be direct - partly as a sort of
compensation for the underrepresentation of the larger sections in the
general council. Partly to make sure the members have at least some
say about what happens internationally. This whole mess has not made
me trust my representation in the general council more. 

In other organizations there is usually a mix between a representation
based on numbers and a representation which prevent minority groups
from getting drowned out by the majority. 

Sending hundreds of people to Adyar yearly is obviously not feasible.

The main issues we face seem to be:

- Falling membership numbers. We need to get life back into the lodges.
- Probably related to that: low turnout for the election.
- Lack of transparency which disappoints and disillusions many active
members
- How to deal with the differences in size between the various
sections. How should we mix representing the smaller sections well and
also doing justice to the size of the largest section (India)? The
current scheme actually does that reasonably well - why change it in
anything but details?

Perhaps the following problem should be added:
- How can one person (the president) know all the issues the TS faces
worldwide and provide a one fit all answer to all of them? Radha may
well represent the Indian point of view on the TS well. John
represents the Western point of view reasonably well (though not on
election, I think). Perhaps they should join forces. 

Another solution to that might be to loosen up the rules and
regulations and give individual sections more freedom. This also
implies that middle and higher level councils should NOT get more
power (like electing the president). 

Katinka Hesselink