Theos-Talk Archives (October 2008 Message tt00710)

Thanks for the feedback.

When one section has a such a large number of members, it is bound to be the
big elephant in the room no matter what. It is a fact of life. Take for
example USA. With nearly half the population with Hispanic origin, we have
not had a single Hispanic in the position of President or VP.

As for new  lodges, the reasoning may be true. But multiple lodges in one
city is not unusual. For example in the large city of Chennai there are more
than 7 lodges and we cannot argue they should be called a section. So this
issue is something that should be discussed and we should try to get a
reasonable solution.

On the other hand, with all the talk about governance and governance
principles and theories, membership growth in various countries outside
India is an issue no one wants to address. It has been dropping except for
India. It is a hot potato that no one has touched so far. Why?

The other most important underlying problem, in my opinion, is the secrecy
surrounding the activities of GC. The secrecy provides an opportunity to
take actions which may be self-serving for the GC members and may hurt the
TS and may be in the best interests of the members. Also GC members should
not think that all the wisdom resides in them and none of the members have
any. This is the conclusion one has to come to when a few members tried to
secretly and in great haste tried to change the rules before any members
found out about it. It looks more like a coup we have seen in dictatorships
around the world. Why not a single member of GC had the common sense to
raise a red flag to warn everyone? One can only conclude that they found it
convenient to operate in secrecy and do what they want to.

We also saw a recent msg from Aryel dealing with the appointment of Linda,
the GS of Australia as the VP and the GC maneuverings going on the
background which again is kept as secret from the members.

Democracy and transparency go hand in hand. Secrecy issue is very serious
and unless tackled head on, is going to bring things to a stand-still and
destroy the TS as we know it.

mkr





On 10/21/08, Katinka Hesselink <mail@katinkahesselink.net> wrote:
>
>   What she told me was that she feels the Indian section determined the
> election too much. That was the main (communicated) motivation.
>
> As for the lodges: the whole point of her post, which was very good
> BTW, was that the system of having lodges no longer seems to work in
> the Dutch TS. Which is also something Betty shared on the theosophical
> ning platform, though it is not adressed in the proposal we are all so
> upset about: in Singapure there is only one lodge, but it has several
> hundred members. But it can't become a section as long as there aren't
> more lodges.
>
> In the past there were often several lodges to a city. I know
> Amsterdam had several at one time, including an artists lodge (which
> had Mondriaan as a member, I think). These days it just doesn't work
> that way anymore. At least in the Netherlands.
>
> This goes to the way the general council is organised: when a national
> group is NOT a section, even if it has several hundred members, it
> doesn't get voting rights. It is one of the issues I have with the
> general council.
>
> If only they had addressed that in the said proposal and ignored how
> the president gets elected....
>
> Katinka
> http://www.katinkahesselink.net/
> http://www.allconsidering.com/
> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com <theos-talk%40yahoogroups.com>, MKR
> <mkr777@...> wrote:
> >
> > In a statement on theosophyforward.com, which was taken down some time
> > ago, there is a post which says:
> >
> > "In our Dutch Section, a quarter to a third of the members are
> > unattached to any local group. In addition, the Section has nine
> > Lodges (some of which own their own buildings but whose members are
> > mainly older) and seven Study Centers (whose members are often
> > younger). No new Lodges have been chartered for some fifty years."
> >
> > I was shocked to see no lodge was chartered in 50 years! The General
> > Secretary of the Dutch Section is one of the Quartets who signed off
> > on the ultra secret proposal to disenfranchise all the members in the
> > President election as well as other radical changes to the Rules.
> >
> > It is ironic that with this sorry state of affairs in the Dutch
> > Section, the GS wants to implement changes around the world! Don't you
> > all think that she should first work where in the first place she was
> > elected for ? to take care and nurture and grow the Dutch Section
> > before preaching to the rest of the world?
> >
> > One wonders what is the motivation? I hope she comes forward and
> > enlightens all of us. It would be fascinating.
> >
> > MKR
> >
>
> 
>


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