Formation of an Association (Mandal) of the Marathi Speaking People in Switzerland.

Background:

1. All of you are aware that the Marathi speaking people/community in Switzerland has been organizing get-togethers and other social events on an informal basis so far. Everything had been running smoothly and there were never any serious issues jeopardising the unity.

2. A group of about 40 people met at Irchel, Zurich for a picnic organised by Swissmarathi (an excellent Yahoo groups forum) on the 12th June 2005 where Ashish R. Arondekar raised the idea of forming an association of the Marathi speaking people in Switzerland. There was no real discussion on this topic and it was decided that a date convenient to most of the participants would be announced, especially suitable to at least those who were seriously interested in the matter including members from Geneva or other places who could not have come to Zurich on 12th June 05.

3. Dr. Subash Patil announced, using his own initiative that a meeting of all the interested persons would be held on the 14th August 2005 in Bern. Dr. Patil was made aware of the fact that this date was inconvenient for a lot of the interested persons since they would be having their summer vacations. It was also suggested that if it was so urgent then an earlier date (before start of school vacation) in August would be more suitable. Dr. Patil promised most of the persons who objected to this date, that this would only be a preliminary meeting and more meetings would follow. The agenda wasnt circulated to the community early enough so it was obvious that people did not have the time to express their opinion.

Meeting on the 14th August 2005:

Around 14 persons including Dr. Patil were present for this meeting. Ashish Arondekar was absent and there was no representation from Geneva. In this one meeting the following was agreed upon:

a) This was a "General Body" meeting (GBM), the first of the non existing Association
b) The managing committee: President, Secretary and the executive committee (2 of whom were not even present) none of which could change till end 2008 by the constitution. (2005 thru 2008 almost 4 years whereas subsequent tenures were for 2 years)
c) The constitution of the Association which does not allow for any extraordinary GBM
d) The agenda of the events to be conducted by the Association
e) The fees to be collected
f) The main goals of this association

Following this meeting the association was also registered in Bern without the knowledge, review and acceptance of the constitution from the larger Marathi speaking community.

Petition:

The problems with this so called Marathi Mandal are the following:

1. The Constitution in the current form has sufficient loop holes which need to be fixed carefully. Many experienced and senior persons have seen it and are willing to help but according to Dr. Patil any changes to the constitution can be done only at the next General Body meeting to be held in late 2006 with a 2/3rd majority.

This means that this association will work for more than one year based on a constitution that has had very little discussion.

2. Open discussions about the Association cannot be held unless the present committee accepts the agenda proposed by other Marathi speaking people.

3. New members to executive committee need to go through an elaborate process to be accepted. This includes getting the confirmation of the current members.

The undersigned agree that the current Marathi Mandal is NOT a true representation of the Marathi speaking people of Switzerland and more open discussions are needed before formal steps of forming such an association take place for an overall consensus on important issues.

Consensus should be reached on important issues otherwise the most serious casualty would be the unity which existed before this so called Mandal was created in undue haste. Important issues could be and should be decided by the principle of direct democracy. We are living in Switzerland after all. We also believe that Executive Committee should execute the will of the Marathi speaking community in Switzerland.