Theos-Talk Archives (October 2008 Message tt00008)

Below are two rules from the constitution from the print of 1997.
"4(a) The General Council shall ordinarily meet once a year, at the
time of the Annual Meeting or Convention of the Society"
"5(b) At all meetings of the General Council, members thereof may vote
in person, or in writing, or by proxy "
 
Rule 4(a) means generally meeting of the GC should be during
convention i.e. at Adyar. Those who are holding such high office as
member of the General Council won't avoid such important event as
international convention and also GC meeting. And in case few of them
can't come, they can vote by writing or proxy, as given in rule 5(b) 
Out of 150 GC members, 65 will be from India and out of remaining 85
members of the General Council, many will be from countries nearer to
India. Some will have to travel long distance. But for the
International Organization like TS, we will have to accept that.
Also members can discuss the issues through e-mails and such other
means even without having to come gather physically always. 
 To my judgement General Council of 150 members seems appropriate.
Considerable size enables bringing ideas and efforts from larger
number of people. That gives stability to the Theosophical Society.
Too small size of the General Council would make it vulnerable to
whims of few individuals and that can destroy the TS itself. 
Because of these reasons I think 150 is appropriate. But it can be
reduced to 125 or so by the same method of proportionate
representation from each country.
Best
Anand Gholap

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Anand" <AnandGholap@...> wrote:
>
> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, MKR <mkr777@> wrote:
> >
> > Let me mention my recent experience in the USA. Our district has two
> > directors. They represent a couple of hundred members. I sent a
> e-mail last
> > week. Till now, I have not even received an ack from them. 
> 
> If it is a democracy, then non-performing officers should get defeated. 
> Even if that disastrous proposal about disenfranchisement might be off
> the table now, members can not relax. Those interested in grabbing the
> power will try to include that proposal again. Now is the time that
> all members should be told about the unethical proposal and officers
> behind it. If all members know about it and protest, something will be
> done to permanently thwart such attempts.
> As I see, if these few individuals are to be stopped from hijacking
> the TS in future, changes in the composition of the General Council
> are necessary. If proportional representation was there, then
> constitution will have in built safety. 
> Right now attempts to hijack the TS are being done by individuals who
> represent just few hundred members of the TS, but who are getting too
> much rights. Present constitution is defective because it gives too
> much power to some GC members who represent just a few hundred members
> of the TS.
> The GC must have representatives proportional to the membership in
> each country. This is the only permanent solution to thwart attempts
> to hijack TS in future. This permanent solution is required because
> members can  not keep on worrying about such attempts all the time.
> Another change required in the working is proposals, agendas and
> minutes of all meetings must be published online for the information
> of members.
> In America and India and such countries with values, maximum
> information is disclosed to common people. In India, even parliament
> proceeding are broadcast live through TV channels. We also have Right
> to Information act which is meant to give maximum information to
people. 
> In America, when any meeting happens, most of the information is
> immediately given to people. President of America himself appears in
> news conference and gives information about what he discussed. Not
> only that, he gives answers to questions put to him. TS must evolve
> and and create an information system, which will publish the
> information soon. Why doesn't Genereal Council work on such
> constructive proposals, and instead keeps on devising power grabbing
> proposals ?
> 
> Best
> Anand Gholap
>