It's a welcome development. And we owe it to Mr Vasudevan (B block), Mr A Chakraborti and Mr Krishna (both from F Block) for taking the trouble of making a trip to Chengalpet registrar's office on Feb.23 to complete the process of registration of Mantri apartment owners association. A letter specifying our registration number is expected (within 15 days) by March 7.
After registration I believe there is a statutory timeline within which a general body of apartment owners needs to be convened, to elect an 18-member management committee. March 18 is the date I heard being mentioned, though it has yet to be formally announced,by way of a circular from the ad hoc team.
It is to facilitate such communication, and to keep Mantri apartment owners (notably,those outside Chennai) informed of further development, a residents website is needed. A decision on this need not await the general body meet. I reckon we have already lost considerable time being indecisive. The professional portals can help us get a website up and running with a week.We have heard from two such portals, in response to our recent blog post. If we get a Mantri association website online by the first week of March, it will be immensely useful for residents to interact during the run-up to the March 18 general body meet.
March 18 would give us time enough to interact online, discuss, debate, and consider whether or not we want the current team to be elected to the association management committee. Incidentally, do we know who our ad hoc team members are ? All 18 of them ?
It would be helpful if a list of the team members, giving their names, Block/flat number, and phone/e-mail ID, is made available through a circular.It is something that should have been done earlier. As resident Madhumita Mohanty (C Block) wrote in this blog, in another context, 'committee members should let the residents know their contact details and how we may reach them. In case they are holding any meeting,the MoMs should be should be circulated'.
A circular with the list of ad hoc team members would enable residents to make informed choice between the current block reps. and the candidates, if any, who might wish to contest for association management committee. It is this newly elected committee that elects office-bearers - president, VP, general secretary and treasurer.
I believe Mantri's have a standard operating procedure that they follow in Bangalore, for facilitating the association's first election. They issue the election notice,act as returning officer verifying nominations submitted in a set format, and they also accept proxy forms from apartment owners deputing nominees to cast their votes.
We don't know what our core committee has in mind. It would be nice if those in charge on both sides - apartment owners and Mantri (PropCare) - set the election process in motion ASAP, so that we can meet to vote on March 18.
I'm new here, but I wanted to ask, even though renters can't be on the board, can we also ( if wanted) be included in your monthly GBM (general body meetings)? As it would be nice to be included since we all pay the same amount for monthly Maint. Just a thought. Thanks so much.
ReplyDeleteGood thinking. I suppose you could attend the general body meet on behalf of your apartment owner, if he/she were to nominate you. Your point about monthly maint. payment persuasive. Incidentally, the idea of a monthly GBM didn't cross my mind.
DeleteWe need to ensure the bylaws explicitly permit written proxy attendance in order to permit any person,including tenant, to represent the owner at General Body Meetings, subject to individual owners wishing to do so. But we need to go beyond that and engage tenants and all residents in the community process. For a start get interested tenants into management committees and technical sub-committees. Tenants bring in a lot of energy and enthusiasm. They are important stakeholders and Clients.
DeleteFor the resident website, it is a no brainer to me that ApnaComplex is miles ahead of the pack. First of all, their traffic is routed through https, which the secure way for machines to talk over the web. CommonFloor and ResidentsInc don't. ApartmentAdda is kind of being selective in that they route the login/signup through https. Secondly, ApnaComplex has proactively contacted us. The founders seem to know what they are doing.
ReplyDeleteDisclaimer: Yes, I am an owner of a Mantri apartment and no, I am not affliated with ApnaComplex in any manner.
Whatever the reason for this person to stay anonymous, the points he/she made here adds to the substance of the interaction on the website issue. Though I have no credentials to comment on technical aspects, I would say, ApnaComplex, having been proactive in contacting us, deserve to be considered.
DeleteIncidentally, anonymity cramps transparent interaction and goes against community spirit. We would however make an exception, if anyone with access to the association by-laws and list of our 18-member committee chooses to share them with us in this blog.This, because the ad hoc committee maintains a deafening silence, for reasons best known to them. They could at least disclose, if there is anything in the association by-law that says they can't part with such info.
GVK you live at Mantri. Can you contact the President or Secretary and have a chat about this and get the communication loops running? This is a daunting task ahead and I wouldn't want to see the Association start with a huge trust deficit. I think we are spooking out the Committee without intending to.
ReplyDelete