Theos-Talk Archives (March 2010 Message tt00047)

Lodge Charter Cancellation Crisis in TSA

The Orlando lodge charter cancellation should open the eyes of lodges which
own real estate and money in the bank. They may be the next target of TSA.

Members in the American Section are used to see a short sentence in the
official newsletter, the fact that the Board has canceled the charter of a
lodge and nothing more.

The present rules and bylaws of TSA allows the Board of Directors to pass a
resolution and send it to the lodge and then take possession of the property
and in all likely hood sell it and keep the money at Wheaton.

When the Orlando decision was made known to members, questions were raised
as to the details of the violations of rules and bylaws of TSA which led to
the decision. To this day, the leadership has chosen to be silent since, I
suppose, legally they are not required to explain anything to the members
regarding their decisions. I think time has come for transparency of
decisions.

It is time for all lodges which own real estate, some of which are very
valuable, should be concerned with the Orlando decision. Their lodge could
be next. It is also going to be expensive and impractical to legally fight
it out since Wheaton has lot of money to hire legal talent than lodges.

So it is time for the lodges get concerned and busy and organize and push
for changes to the bylaws of TSA to provide a transparent even handed
process before any charter can be withdrawn.

Once a serious violation is noticed in any lodge, the lodge must be notified
officially of the concern of the TSA administration and provide sufficient
opportunity to fix the violation. This should be done transparently.

Only after repeated serious violations can a decision be taken by the Board
of Directors to cancel the charter. It should not be taken behind closed
doors since transparency should provide equal opportunity for the lodge and
the Board to confront each other in an open forum. This is needed to prevent
arbitrary decisions by the Board in future.

As the saying goes, he who pays the piper calls the tune, once money is with
Wheaton, in due course the leadership can subtly enforce their version of
theosophy and TS in America can become a cult.

The confidence of many members in the leadership of TSA has taken a hit
since the start of the recent International election. The failed ultra
secret attempt to disenfranchise all members and seize control of the
appointment of the International President by the GC members further
affected the confidence in the TSA leadership in the minds of many members.

Now the Orlando decision with no simple clear cut explanation of the rule
violations by the lodge and not providing the lodge with adequate
opportunity to rectify the violations, further should raise a red flag about
future actions hurtful of TS and theosophy in the United States.

Now is the time for all members and lodges to wake up and demand changes to
the rules to protect the basic autonomy and rights of lodges, especially
those with valuable property and real estate. If we do not wake up now,
there is no point in crying over spilt milk later on when your lodge becomes
a cancellation target.

MKR


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