Theos-Talk Archives (November 2008 Message tt00064)

These General Secretaries often have just 100 to 300 members in their
Sections, but they enjoy voting rights in the GC equal to large
Sections like India,. Disproportionate rights given to them is one
major cause of problems in TS. 
There is no transparency in TS. Some General Secretaries say members
don't have knowledge of Presidential candidates. But what have these
GS' done to disseminate knowledge and inform members? First they keep
members in darkness and then they say members don't have knowledge to
vote in the election. GC should show and execute some plan to
disseminate information and bring transparency. 
Members should find some way to show their strong opposition to
disenfranchisement. They should remember that disenfranchisement is
the first step towards decline of the TS. You don't know what they
will do next after disenfranchising members.

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, MKR <mkr777@...> wrote:
>
> In a comment on www.theosophyforward.com (Website is no longer up),
Susan
> Kaschula, GS from South Africa wrote:
> 
> "The votes of the General Council should carry more weight as its
members
> are in a better position to ascertain the true situation. From my
> experience, members did not know who to vote for and said they would
vote
> for the person the Section nominated".
> 
> The GS represents the small  South African section and reflects the
mind-set
> of a typical GC member. I surmise that with the low retention rates of
> membership outside India, ignorance of members about the candidates
is the
> logical result. Combined with downward trend of membership outside
India,
> the situation is going to become worse unless attention is paid to
diagnose
> the membership bleeding problem on a priority basis and try to increase
> membership.
> 
> Due to the decentralized autonomous setup of the TS, the key to any
growth
> of the organization is the lodge members' commitment and grass roots
> activity. It is the responsibility of the elected General
Secretaries to do
> everything they can to vitalize lodges in their countries.
> 
> Instead of recognizing the serious membership problem in the
backyards, GC
> members are busy secretly attempting  to disenfranchise members and
> radically change the rules.
> 
> I am yet to hear from anyone (1) how the membership bleeding is lowest
> priority ignorable/ignored issue and (2) how the secret attempt to
> disenfranchisement and radical changes to the rules is the highest
priority
> issue.
> 
> More silent the GC members are, coupled with the secrecy surrounding the
> proposals and decisions, more vigilant all of us should be, since we
do not
> know what is cooking we may be in for a surprise not in the best
interests
> of the members or TS or theosophy.
> 
> Again, let me add, without our most powerful ally - Internet - coming
> December we all would have woken up to find we are all
disenfranchised and a
> clique of handful GC members seized the power and made the International
> President a puppet.
> 
> 
> MKR
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>