Poolside planting at Mantri on OMR

 

 Most Mantri residents missed out on Saturday's cozy family-like social gathering. The occasion was  community tree-planting. Advik, barely six months, marked his presence on clubhouse poolside as his mother Anuja planted a mango tree named after Advik, the second child to be born at Mantri Synergy. His sister Aadya, experienced in tree-planting, was there to help her mom do the planting.

And we had Pramud,a surprise visitor from Bangalore who came with his parents visiting Mantri's where they own an apartment. At our community planting, held after a long gap, we celebrated the first elected members of Mantri Synergy apartment owners association.

Treasurer Mrs Indumathy, secretary Mr R Vasudevan, and president Mr Giri Sundaram planted a sapling each.. Vice-president Mr Harinarayan expressed his inability to be present in view of his prior commitment out of town. We plan to get him plant a sapling sometime soon.

 

Resident horticulturist K S Arvind, with his gardening crew, volunteered their planting expertise and labour. Mr Arvind helped us identify spots for digging, and also advised us on the choice of sapling to be planted on each spot - two mango and guava were planted on the railings side of the lawn, while the two sapota plants flanked the park benches.

Sunday Santhai, a club for like-minded Mantri residents to trade ideas, info. and unvarnished gossip, thought of the tree-planting 'do' with a twin agenda - 1) to insure sympathy/support of the community for our crazy plans; and 2) to get some shade on the poolside lawns with tree-planting.    
Mr K Santharam (left in the photo) citing a Balachander movie (which one, would you know ?) writes -  It is not necessary that you should leave only your children after death. You can leave trees as well. They will live for several years like your children and the posterity will ever remember you.
Thank you,  Mr Santharam (A-202) for giving a lofty edge to an idea by 'a crazy foursome'  that met at our first Santhai.

Senior Srikanth suggests...

Mindset change, Quality Management System (Q.M.S.), a halt to PropCare bashing, and a compendium of procedures and formats for our functioning at Mantri Synergy.
"It might take a few months to write but if written once will pave way for 80% trouble free living", says Mr Srikanth (F-Block), in a letter addressed to Mantri residents. He has offered to help us draft the compendium of procedures and formats.
Mr Srikanth has made many other meaningful suggestions in his mail to CommonFloor, which isn't accessible to all Mantri residents.
Excerpts from Srikanth's mail to residents:
There are so many functions which need to be studied understood and analysed and a solution found. All that is needed to run a organization as efficiently as possible.
1)Administration
2)Aesthetics & ambience
3)Electricity Management
4)Energy Management
5)Entertainment (which is very essential to bring in talent, harmony and bonhomie amongst us)
6)Facilities like Swimming Pool, Courts, Gyms etc. lifts management
7)Financial Management
8)Garden
9)Garbage Management
10)Gas & Lines Management
11)House keeping management
12)Security & Safety Management (Have you noticed the “Security” whistles when the power goes. Is he scared? Or does he want to tell you it is darkness – when you are already deep in it?)
13)Sewage Management
14)Services to the flats like electrical, plumbing, etc.
15)Stores Management
16)Training all functions
17)Water Management (waste and disposal)
We have not been exposed to any of the functions directly we have only been bashing propcare...if we take up from the first April, we will be at the receiving end....
We need to have a vision,a mission,a plan. We need to strategize many many things. All these functions should have a written procedure which itself has a procedure to write a procedures. A compendium of procedures and formats as prescribed in International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a remarkable tool to mitigate our problems.
This will make every ones job “Go by the Book”. Lack of system can lead to the blaming game. The proposed committee has already blamed the ADHOC. Next committee will blame the earlier. They will work O.T. to do so.
Kindly understand that to adopt a system of ISO standard we need to break our mindsets.
Elected members should have the humility that they have volunteered to do good service to the residents including himself/herself.
All residents are themselves “Mantris” and hence elected members should have no hang ups or a superiority complex. ... Let us shed our egos, roll up our sleeves and get on to work as a team. Let us not curse the darkness,et us all hold a candle instead.
Residents should come out to state what he/she is capable or his/her USP and stand for election.Let there be “Fact” finding attitude and not “Fault” finding attitude in all of us.
Circulate your profiles and state where you would fit, this can help us form the committee with bundles of talent. You need many committees and sub-committees.
We need experienced professionals (managers to technicians). Mind you the Tamil Nadu which was a Haven for talented force does not exist now...We should not upset the apple cart now which is PropCare.
We should go with them,atleast for 6 months, review our operations and decide.6 months, though, in my opinion is a bit too short. Let us give it a shot.
The committee should have mixture of experience & youth.
Let us decide soon.
D.A. Srikanth
Flat F-1203/1204
(D.A.Krishna's father)

MaSOA AGM: Let's go for election

A new dawn over Mantri Synergites
It is clear that the ad hoc committee doesn't have the endorsement of Mantri apartment owners. So an election is inevitable, to the management committee of Mantri Synergy Owners Association (Masoa).
Some flat owners, signing in as 'Group of Synergites' have group-emailed a panel of names for our consideration as candidates:
President - (Arvind Rajgopaul-H Block);
Vice-president - (Giri Sundaram-E);
Secretary - (Vasudevan Raghavan-B);
Treasurer - (Natarajan-E)
Present ad hoc committee:
T.P.Rajagoplan Nair-D (President);
R.Vasudevan-B (Vice President);
Ardhendu Chakraborti-F(Secretary);
R Gopalan-F (Treasurer)
Though there is no rule against it, an election on the basis of competing panels promotes group-ism. Which, I am sure, isn't the objective of Mantri Synergites. But their announcement of a panel of candidates makes them representatives of a group .And contesting groups in any poll fray mobilize support on the strength of competing agenda.
1) At Mantri Synergy we all belong to a single community, with a collective agenda. Groupism doesn't fit in with in our scheme of things, does it ?
2) Core office-bearers such as president and secretary, are not directly elected. The general body elects (maximum) a 20-member management committee - comprising block reps. - which, in turn, elects office-bearers - president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer. Such is my reading of by-law 13 relating to 'management of the affairs of the association'.
3) Incidentally, association by-laws (including b-law 13), need to be adopted before election can be held. And as per the circulated agenda for April 1 general body, the election process is to be handled by PropCare. The general body decides the date of election.
4) PropCare, which has till date handled election to 8 associations (all in Bangalore), has standardized format for election notification, filing of nominations, submission of proxy forms, and the balloting process. Links to PropCare model formats can be accessed at our post - Mantri residents association: Electable members.
5)PropCare can come into the picture, if, and only if, the general body of apartment owners want them to facilitate our election process. Is there any reason why we shouldn't let PropCare conduct the association election ?
6)Operative points here is a) election is inevitable; b) the date has to be notified on April 1; and c) PropCare may be asked to issue notification and handle rest of the election process.

Mantri Association AGM

First General Body Meeting (After the process of registration of the Association) is scheduled for Sunday, April 1, at 11:00 am in the club house.
Agenda
1.Enrollment of owners of the flat as members of the association (The process of enrollment will start at 9:00am on 01.04.2012). The flat owners are requested to bring the proof of ownership for the flat to be enclosed with the enrolment form. Those who are not in the position to attend the meeting in person can authorize any of his blood relations to attend on his behalf or proxy to a person in writing to attend the meeting on their behalf.
2.To elect or select a set of office bearers to the association. If there are more than one contestant for any post election process will be held by secret ballet. The election process to be held, if any, will be held by a body other than the residents (i.e. by Propcare in the present juncture).
3.To adopt the bylaws and the MOA without any changes. Any change/modification can be taken up at the next General Body Meeting, which will be called for by the elected office bearers.
Ad hoc committee secretary, Mr.Ardhendu Chakraborti, has e-mailed AGM announcement to all Mantri Synergy flat owners.

Mantri association by-laws: Membership

Wish to share with you operative parts of association by-laws awaiting AGM approval.Membership enrollment:
Persons desirous of becoming member shall make an application in the prescribed form and submit it to the secretary with proof of ownership
Every member, shall be required to deposit a sum of Rs.1000/- or higher as may be decided by the General Body, with the Association to serve as Reserve Fund for such use as may be decided by the General Body at its Annual General Meeting.
Any member intending to sell his apartment shall notify the association in the prescribed form
Each member will be given a copy of the Byelaws. Each tenant can also get a copy of the same on payment of Rs.50
Every member who lets out the flat shall file with the association a copy of the of the lease agreement disclosing the flat number name of tenant, period of lease/tenancy agreement
It shall always be the responsibility of the owner concerned to keep the Association informed in writing about the change of occupancy of his flat if it is not occupied by the owner himself
Every new occupant or tenant shall be bound by these byelaws, rules and regulations

Mantri residents association: Electable members

My friend Arvind Rajgopaul (H-1104-05) in a CommonFloor post said an elected managing committee of Mantri's apartment owners association would replace the present ad hoc panel when the general body meets later this month. He suggests the association members should know who the candidates are, so that they can make an informed choice of managing committee members on election date.
The question that is very much up in the air is whether the ad hoc committee can mobilize a majority at the general body, to ratify its members to the management committee, without having to invite fresh nominations. If election becomes inevitable, the proposed AGM would fix a date, and indentify a returning officer to conduct election.
As of now, the ad hoc committee has yet to announce its decision to hold AGM on March 18. Now that they have the certification of registration in hand (got it today)the core committee can no longer withhold announcement of AGM and its agenda - 1) general body approval of the association by-laws; and 2)notification of the date of election to the management committee. Presumably,there is a time-line (45 days from the association registration) within which the election has to be held, that is by April 7.
PropCare, which has till date helped eight apartments associations (all of them in Bangalore) to conduct their first election, have a standard operating procedure. They have standardised formats for election notification,filing of nominations, acceptance of proxy forms from apartment owners deputing a nominee to cast their vote.
Prolonged silence on the part of the ad hoc committee could be misread as a ploy for it to seek AGM ratification, without having to invite fresh nominations for the association management committee. It does not appear that apartment owners seeking to serve the association would be queuing up to file nominations to the management committee.If anything, a few in the present committee are believed to have have expressed unwillingness to continue.
Their lack of enthusiasm is understandable, considering the challenges the Mantri Association would have to face in the coming weeks and months.Our concern is whether the present ad hoc set-up, if elected, can 1) articulate our common concerns and face up to the tasks ahead; and 2)to carry with them a critical mass of association members.
Individually, everyone in the ad hoc committee is driven by community spirit, willingness to sacrifice time and energy for the community good and the desire to make Mantri Synergy a nice and companionable place to live in. But as a collective entity the ad hoc committee cannot be said to have come up to expectations of association members.Style of functioning of some has not helped the committee to project a cohesive image. Effective decision-making hasn't been their strong point. Lack of transparency has been an issue.
On a positive note, the ad hoc committee includes quite a few public-spirited members who would be an asset to the proposed managing committee. Mr Rajgopaul his CommonFloor post names those who stood out in his reckoning. M/s. Vasudevan, Krishna, Jagadeesh, Ramkumar, Venkatesh are few names which come readily to mind, wrote Mr Rajgopaul. I can't agree more with him ; and I have a few names to add to our nominations list - Ujjal, Santhose, Sunil, Harinarayan, Deepa Mukherjee, Madhumita Mohanty and Jayanti (who wants to move the RTI on Mantri's power grid issue).
Now that we are into naming names, why not start a democratic process of suggesting online persons that apartment owners believe would do well in our management committee. Maybe, this is not the way our core committee would want to go about it. We, as association members, are only doing some loud thinking in regard to suitable candidates,if only to initiate a discussion before AGM. Whether those named would agree to be considered for the association management committee is quite another matter.
PropCare format - election notification
Nomination form
Proxy form

Let's get on with it

Though the ad hoc managing committee,in their own wisdom, is not forthcoming in announcing it to the members of the association, the fact is that the association has been registered with the concerned government body and our gratitude to them.
Congratulations to Mr.Vasudevan for doing the dogs work to draft out the legal documents with the help of a lawyer and seeing it through.
The task of getting the registration is done with by this adhoc committee, and our thanks to them.
The members of the association have not mandated any other task to them, and they should not proceed with any other business concerning the association.
They should set a date for and call for a general body meeting of all the members, and offer theselves for a proper election for the office they wish to stand for. There may be other aspirants for their offices.
This should be done forthwith, failing which, we the members of the association should fix a date on our own.
Your views are solicited
Yours truly,
Arvind Rajgopaul,
H1104
(Reproduced from CommonFloor for for the benefit of those who don't access it)