Theos-Talk Archives (February 2010 Message tt00154)

World-wide, lack of transparency seems to be a pervasive issue among all the
Sections. This seems to have developed after Annie Besant became the
President. It appears that taking a cue from her, Sections found it
convenient to follow less and less of transparency and keep the members
informed of unimportant crumbs of key policy information and decisions.

Members did not seem to care for transparency when the leaders, due to their
past  actions and commitment commanded unquestionable trust of their
members. When in the minds of members, the trust level comes down due to
actions and activities of leaders, as in recent days, the only safeguard to
protect the interests of TS and theosophy is for members to demand
transparency.

It appears that there is also an assumption by the leaders that they know it
all and there is no need to fully keep members informed because in the past
most showed no interest in the policy decisions taken behind the closed
doors and crumbs being disclosed to members.

>From time to time, some members have also heard how prior to national
business meetings, the leaders and their underlings collect large number of
open proxies - giving the holder a free hand to vote as he pleases on any
question that arises in the business meeting. Thus a handful of
proxy-holders decide the questions, and an oligarchy rules instead of
democracy. Many members feel that this open proxies are a fertile source of
trouble for the TS and theosophical cause and this makes it easy for the
current leaders have their way in almost everything. I suspect that this
mindset is behind the daring ultra secret failed attempt by a handful of
leaders to disenfranchise all of us and de-facto take over of the
International Presidency. The proponents seems to have thought that they
have an ace and no member would raise any concern.

Considering the current shape of things in Sections outside India, continued
lack of transparency in Sections is going to make any meaningful revival of
the fortunes of TS and the Cause a very difficult upward climb. [Internet
has been throwing a lot of light on the matters relating to the TS and thus
keeping current members and prospects fully informed.] Current leaders seem
to be oblivious to this stark fact while they seem to be more concerned with
who is âmowing the lawn in Adyarâ as a member succinctly stated.


MKR

There is no religion higher than Truth.



On Sun, Feb 14, 2010 at 1:23 AM, preethi muthiah
<seeker_preethi@yahoo.com>wrote:

>
>
> MKR,
>
> You keep pointing out to the issue of a lack of transparency in the TS.
> Well, I do hope the President and her aides at Adyar especially are
> listening to you. They do lack transparency, but then how can you expect
> them to stand in the Light of Truth when they have not been able to do that
> with themselves in the first place?
>
> Fraternally
> Preethi
>
> --- On Sat, 13/2/10, MKR <mkr777@gmail.com <mkr777%40gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> From: MKR <mkr777@gmail.com <mkr777%40gmail.com>>
> Subject: Theos-World Membership and Transparency Issues in American Section
> To: "theos-talk" <theos-talk@yahoogroups.com<theos-talk%40yahoogroups.com>
> >
> Date: Saturday, 13 February, 2010, 2:18 AM
>
>
>
>
> Recently, there was a cryptic comment that the leaders from outside India
>
> seem to be more interested in knowing who is mowing the lawn in Adyar. This
>
> points to misplaced priority of the leaders whose job primary job is to
> make
>
> sure theosophy flourishes in their Sections. The sections are given full
>
> autonomy and also the National Secretaries are given total immunity in that
>
> they cannot be removed from the General Council for any reason. Diverting
>
> the attention of the members to Adyar issues while the membership situation
>
> in most countries is either frozen or on the decline â hopefully we will
> not
>
> end with sometimes quoted number of three theosophists. This diverting the
>
> attention of the members is seen by many as self-serving and not unlike how
>
> politicians divert attention of their constituents to unimportant issues
>
> while fire is raging on critical issues.
>
> Two key issues at Section level are the sad situation regarding membership
>
> and the ultra secrecy with which Section matters are handled, namely lack
> of
>
> real transparency.
>
> While reviewing the maillist archives, I ran into three messages touching
> on
>
> the membership and secrecy issue in the American Section. I am sure you
> will
>
> find them interesting to read. Here are the links.
>
> <http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/theos- talk/message/ 22096>
>
> <http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/theos- talk/message/ 22079>
>
> <http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/theos- talk/message/ 52720>
>
> MKR
>
> .
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
> The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage.
> http://in.yahoo.com/
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>  
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]