Minutes 26 Feb 2016

MINUTES OF BUSINESS MEETING

February 26^th, 2016

Ashirvad - Loyola Hall, St. Marks Road

8:35 - 8:45 pm

ATTENDEES

CLUB OFFICERS

Esther Roshini Chandy       SERGEANT AT ARMS

Mahaveer Jain                   TREASURER

Raghunandan Damle          SECRETARY

Varun Dev                         VP PUBLIC RELATIONS

Joseph Dass                     VP MEMBERSHIP

Prakash Tamhankar           VP EDUCATION

Cherian Thomas                PRESIDENT

MEMBERS (30)

Abubakar Khan

Ankit Kumar

Ashish Varghese

Aswathy Sreekumar

Bhavana Jha

Inder Kumar

Jay Agrawal

Johnson Bruno D’Souza

Lalith Dhanush Tallam

Mahesh Vittal Rao

Mohiddin Shaik

Payal Pankaj Bhulani

Prashanth Nair

Praveen Kumar

Rahul Bhuyan

Rajdeep Manwani

Ratan Shetty

Richard L D’Souza

Robinson D’Souza

Sanjana OJ

Sanjay Yugal Kishore Hassa

Sathvik Shetty

Shilpa Samuel

Sreejith Kizhakkilot

Srija Jampana

Sudipto Ghosh

Vaidyanathan Duraisamy

Vichur Umakanth

Vijay Vasudev Kalkundri

Vinay Venkataramana

AGENDA 1 – INCREASE IN MEMBERSHIP FEE

The President, Cherian Thomas, opened the business meeting with a recap of the previous business meeting, in which the budget was presented along with a proposal to increase membership fee to overcome the deficit in the budget.

The President informed members that Toastmasters International has announced its plans to increase its fees effective Oct 2016. To ease the burden at that time the President proposed a nominal increase in membership fee of Rs. 100 per month for the current term. He also cited the weakening of the rupee as another reason for the proposed fee increase. Currently, from the membership fee of Rs. 3,600 per member per term, Rs. 2500 is paid to Toastmasters International. After Oct 2016 it is estimated that Rs. 3,100 will need to be paid to Toastmasters International per member per term, leaving the club with only Rs. 500 per member.

In the previous business meeting members were informed that Ashirvad hall management wants to increase rent for the hall from Rs. 2000 to Rs. 3000. Mr. Robinson informed members today that Ashirvad hall management has not increased rent in the past five years and they are citing power cuts, diesel cost and refurbishment cost as the reason for the increase. He said he would persuade Ashirvad hall management to increase rent by a nominal amount of only Rs. 250 per meeting.

The President informed members that their membership fee is heavily subsidised by Speechcraft. The club has conducted about forty Speechcraft courses till date.

The President called for a vote by show of hands to pass the increase in membership fee from Rs. 3,600 to Rs. 4,200 per member. The majority accepted the proposal and it was passed.

The President urged members to pay their fee at the earliest, particularly contest participants, as the fees need to be paid to Toastmasters International by March 18^th, otherwise contestants cannot contest.

AGENDA 2 – 1000^th MEETING

The President reiterated that the 1000^th meeting ticket cost is heavily subsidised for members. The difference is being raised through Speechcraft. He encouraged members who can afford it to opt for tickets in higher denominations to help the club meet the 1000^th meeting expenses. He mentioned that advertisements would be welcomed, if any of the members had the time to get advertisements, however as most of the members are busy professionals, the committee cannot rely on advertisements.

Umakanth inquired whether the committee had got the best possible deal with Magrath hotel and the President assured him that they had indeed got the best possible deal.

The President adjourned the business meeting at 8:45 pm.