Ecircular No.DK/15 31-03-2018
Friends,
It is now over a quarter after our Gen. Council
Meeting at Mumbai, and I was wondering what kind of all-round Team work, rather
than all actions initiated at the Gen. Secretary level, can contribute
to a better development of this representative body for
the Retired LIC Class I officers. Towards this objective I thought I
should bring in greater
involvement of the Office-bearers spread over the
Country. The best way of doing this, for a first step, I
thought, would be to assign direct responsibility to our
Joint Secretaries and the Vice-Presidents in the areas of COLLECTIONS of Dues,
and undertake EXPANSION plans for widening our base of
about 18 units now, to a greater number, depending on the Density of Retiree
Officers positioned in various centres.
The most critical area for our existence as a
representative body happens to be our financial
strength. We are only looking at all our units of
Associations, and their members coming forward with whatever levy
has been requested of them. If we surveyed the scene now, we would
find that most units have been able to collect only a percentage of the Dues
that should have come in. This in turn results in the Units not
being able to support the Federation with sufficient contributions, resulting
in the Expenses at Federation level going beyond the inflow of funds.
One thing that came out in the discussions in the
General Council at Mumbai in Dec 2017, is that those Associations where good
initiative have been manifest, the collections of dues have been
quite good. But these were few and far between. That indeed was diagnosed as
our main weakness, in our ability to defray costs of our Legal
cases. Our members, being in the senior category, age-wise, need to
be reminded and requested for their levy amounts to be paid. This needs some
dedicated efforts from some members in each Association Unit of
ours. I agree that smaller centres can , when they get down to it,
make a good difference to their collections. Their distances and transport
issues pose lesser problems in contacting members on a regular basis. The
bigger cities where numbers of members are pretty high, and where
places of stay of members are widely distributed, the follow-ups may
not be simple. This is where some ingenuity is called for in beating out novel
methods to contact members and get the dues. Our
members are not intentional defaulters. They will pay up if there is
constant touch. This then, will need to be taken up with missionary zeal to
strengthen the hands of the Federation to fight our battles in Court.
Office-bearers can set up their own strategies, which may include
having sub-committees nominated, at nearer reaches to places, so
that the follow-up can be effective.
The second area relates to taking regular initiatives
to bring into existence, more units of Association in centres where a number of
our Retired Officers have settled down, and where we do not have Units now.
Yes, there could be apparently some issues, of many of our Retired Officers,
being members of AIRIEF or any other association. But given the reality that we
are not against members holding multiple memberships, and the fact that our
retired class has problems peculiar to it, which can be taken up only by a
representative body like the Federation of Retired Class I
officers, for redressing grievances, this need not be a road-block
to establishing new units in such places. So where we have a unit in a place,
and where nearby centres with a number of retired officers settled, are not
represented by a unit of Association in that centre, the existing nearby unit
should take over the responsibility of sponsoring new association Units, by
visiting the Place, connecting with a no of Retired Officers there and getting
them to start a unit. The example of how the Bengaluru unit has taken
initiative on its own to start new Units at Mysore, Dharwad and now on with
efforts to install a new unit at Udupi, should provide encouragement to the
rest of us. This becomes a very important aspect of our growth as a
Federation with greater numbers and greater effectiveness on our
issues.
These then will be the areas that are to
be taken over at closer levels by the Joint
Secretaries of the Federation in the respective Regions. The
Vice-presidents in the nearby centres can lend their help too in making this
movement a success. I am confining myself to only the Office-bearers of the
Federation in this communication. I would look forward to your ready acceptance
of this move by sending in a message from your side. There will be fair
autonomy to the Jt. Secretaries in the manner they choose to go
about their initiatives. They could plan out initiatives covering their
respective Regions and keep a track of how the plans pan out in terms of
results. They would then, brief the Federation later, on their
efforts, and Results when Meetings take place.
Chennai
D.Krishnan
General Secretary
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