Theos-Talk Archives (June 2010 Message tt00051)

One of the key issues staring at TS world-wide is the aging leadership
everywhere. Recently, the National Secretary of a Section had taken sickness
leave and the Operating Head of the Krotona School is running the admin from
assisted living facility. Both are not young people.

When you visit most of the lodges, you see a lot of old men and women with
grey hairs and long membership in the TS. When young men and women show up
for the meetings, the crowd of old men and women turn them off and they do
not come back. This should not surprise anyone. Future survival and growth
of TS will greatly depend on younger members and not old members who are one
foot in the grave.

We all witnessed the electioneering and allegations of health of the leading
candidate and both the contenders for the job are in their eighties. The
election which drew worldwide focus on many issues, did bring up two key
issues - lack of growth of TS in the West and aging leadership.

While various allegations were broadcast in many independent  Internet
forums and emails, no one cared to address the above two fundamental burning
issues. No one knows why? Are they too radio active issues to handle that no
one wants to talk about since anyone who touches them may get burnt
figuratively.

It is very heartening to see the schedule of the next World Congress which
seems to indicate a cohesive and cooperative future among the Sections
foreboding a truly International TS body.

Too long we have been talking and arguing about all the finer points of the
unseen world. While they are all interesting and very challenging, most of
it is not first hand.

How many of the TS speakers and writers are able to talk about the unseen
world and the constitution and phenomenon there? I am yet to run into one,
in spite my being around TS for several decades.

Since the two burning current issues of TS are the lack of growth in the
West and the aging leadership and the need to identify and develop young
future leaders. I wish there was a session about these in the upcoming World
Congress so that some practical ideas can be developed for use in the
Sections which badly need them. I did not see any session addressing these
issues. Even now it is not too late to add on this topic to the World
Congress.

Since each General Secretary is like the head of a fiefdom and total
autonomy given to them to take the Section in any direction they like, if an
occasion like the World Congress is missed, then it is not going to do
anything to address important issues.

While we all know the organizational leaders are not seen on this and other
independent Internet forums, it is generally believed that these forums are
monitored by them as they are curious to keep track as to what is being
discussed in them.

I hope this msg too would be read by them and spur them into action in the
physical plane.

MKR


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