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Last year – I had taken up the responsibility of treasurer for our apartment association. Our first association meeting then (of the new committee) was about to turn into a dud. Here is a gist of what happened. I sent a part of this was sent as notes to the residents. Iam happy to say after that we have seen really good participation. For obvious reasons, I have tried to make some references generic in the note below. Meeting note from – Dec 2011.
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Today was to be a special day in more ways than one. To start with – it is Christmas! And then, this was the first residents meeting after the new committee had taken over. So – we, the committee members were all anxious, excited and driven. Weeks of preparations; hand over activities, arrangements on New Year celebrations, distribution of portfolios had preceded today. Some of us had spent entire days at the office, going over finances, discussing with vendors, and in general getting to terms with the bottom nine-tenth of the ice-berg which one sees only after entering the association.
Today morning, one of us had this bright idea that we should order a Christmas cake to be cut during the resident’s meeting. We called our one and only Manager to arrange for one. Right – we needed to get a cake, on Christmas day within the hour!
We trooped in at 9:45 AM and prepped each other on what needs to be conveyed. Voice modulation, phrases to be used, hand gestures and a slew of other things that great orators like Pt Nehru, Vajpayee and Obama would be proud of.
10:10 AM. No one had arrived. We knew people generally tend to be late. After all, it is Sunday – there will be so much to do. Need to wake up late. Need to decide whether to take bath or not. Need to decide what to have for breakfast. Or should it be brunch? Decisions, decisions, decisions. Of course Sundays are so difficult! So, we continued to wait and prepare some more for our earth shattering speeches. 10:25 AM. One resident turned up. We said, we will start in 5 minutes and took our places behind the table. Unfortunately, it looked more like a UPSC interview. One resident and 7 committee members. So we delayed some more.
10:35 AM. We established that we will have only one resident attending the meeting. The question was what do we do now. Can we place proposals for expenditure now? After all, there is no minimum quorum for a residents meeting approval. We could easily pass all requests for expenditure. But someone said, if that one resident disapproved, it would be a 100% rejection. Will not look so good for the new committee; right?
Then the question was – what to do with this cake? The estate maneger had resourcefully arranged for a 2 kg Chocolate cake with ‘Happy X’Mas’ written on it. Some of our apartment kids were playing outside. We called them in. They called their friends. And their friends called their friends. Soon we had a quorum. So what if they were not adults. These are after all our future citizens. We did a round of introduction. Then they sang ‘Jingle Bells…’. the youngest child cut the cake and all kids had cake and biscuits. We asked them, what they liked in the apartment. It turns out, the kids like the play area, the tennis court and the basketball court. What else do they want? – they want a badminton court and a cricket pitch. Well actually one child wanted the sea in the campus. And another wanted Meenakshi Mall in the campus. We had to respectfully express our regret on the infeasibility of fulfilling those two wishes – at least within the coming year.
Then out of sheer spontaneity we decided to form the Kids association with the Children who were gathered there. We asked who wanted to be President. Everyone put up their hands. Oh the sheer innocence of it all! How many of us adults will put up our hands to become the Association President?
Anyways – we picked up the tallest three (and hopefully the eldest ) of the kids from the group.
One kid wanted to become Prime Minister and another wanted to become the Treasurer. We again had to painfully express regret. Those are not open positions for kids as yet. The team has already been assigned one task. Do a survey of the cars that do not have apartment Stickers and report back within a week. So, if you see any apartment Kids moving around with a file and asking questions; be warned – they are from the ‘Establishment’!
That was that! The resident’s meeting was over. What started off as a somber and some would argue boring update meeting turned out to be a raucous, joyful beginning of something fresh, energetic and we believe pathbreaking. Thanks to all those who did not turn up!
On a serious note, we will try to put a more formal framework around the Kids Association in the coming days. But, this is here to stay. And we will extend support and guidance to the children in activities they want taken up within the campus. And we firmly believe, that these children are ushering the dawn of a new era. An era of civic responsibility, of entitlement and most of important of all, inclusive living.