Rose Bowl Oct 2009.pdf

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October 08, 2009

Dear Doscos,

You are aware that four vacancies will arise on and from October 11, 2009 in the Executive Committee. Of these, one is in the age group of 50 to 59 years, one in the age group of 40 to 49 years and two in the age group of 30 to 39 years.

In the age group of 50 to 59 years, we received one nomination; in the age group of 40 to 49 years we received three nominations and in the age group of 30 to 39 years we received five nominations.

Rule 6 governs the procedure for selection of new Executive Committee members. Rule 6(2) reads as follows:-

"(2) Selection of new Executive Committee Members - When a vacancy arises, approximately 6 months prior to the AGM, the President would inform all the class representatives of the concerned age group (10 classes in total) to collectively recommend a name to fill the vacancy. In the event, that there is more than one candidate, their details should be forwarded to the President who in consultation with the Executive Committee would finalize the name of who shall fill the vacancy. If the other candidates are in any case desirous of contributing to the activities of the Society, they could assist in the committees of their interest, as could any member of the Society."

By August 16, 2009, the nine nominations referred to above had been received by the Executive Committee. On noting that there were more than one candidate in the age group of 30 to 39 years and in the age group of 40 to 49 years, it was decided at the EC meeting held on August 21, 2009 that each candidate should be asked to submit the following to enable the Executive Committee to arrive at a considered decision on the merits of each candidate, namely:-

(i). A brief curriculum vitae.
(ii). List of his contributions to the Doon School and the Doon School Old Boys' Society in the past.
(iii). His strengths and the areas in which he expected to contribute to the Doon School and the Doon School Old Boys Society in particular and the Society at large in general.
(iv). The reasons as to why the candidate wanted to join the Executive Committee of the DSOBS and what he wished or hoped to achieve over the next four years should he be selected to the Executive Committee.
(v). The batch or class to which he belonged.
(vi). His ability to attend at least three of the six meetings of the EC in a year.

I accordingly wrote to each candidate for the aforesaid information, pursuant to which, all nine candidates submitted the requisite details. These details were thereafter circulated to all EC Members well in advance of the EC meeting convened for this purpose on September 12, 2009. At this meeting, the merits of each candidate were considered in detail based on the information and data submitted by them. The EC and I considered the merits and demerits of each candidate on extremely objective yardsticks after which the names were finalized by consensus.

After following the above procedure and after due deliberations, the Executive Committee has made the following recommendations:-

(i). Age group of 50 to 59 years (one) - Rahul Kohli, Class of 1975.
(ii). Age group of 40 to 49 years (one) - Jaswinder Singh Bull, Class of 1986.
(iii). Age group of 30 to 39 years (two) - Kunal Sharma, Class of 1993 and
Anirudh Chaudhry, Class of 1994.

As per the DSOBS Rules, these names are being placed before you for formal 'election' on the floor of the House at the AGM scheduled to be held on Sunday, October 11, 2009.

I must, before concluding, also express our deep appreciation and gratitude to Rohit Badhwar, Raguvendra (Donny) Singh and Prithvi Gill. In a spirit of magnanimity and in keeping with the highest traditions of the DOSCO community and respecting the convention of consensus. Rohit and Donny (in the age group of 40 to 49 years) gracefully accepted the decision of the Executive Committee. Infact, Donny sent a warm letter voluntarily stepping down in favour of Jaswinder and wishing Jaswinder success in his tenure as a Member of the EC. In a similar spirit, Prithvi Gill (in the age group of 30 to 39 years) exhibited the same magnanimity and stated that he respected the EC's decision and would abide by it. My heartfelt thanks to them all. We must collectively appreciate and applaud their decisions.

With best regards

Kanwar Vipin Malhotra
President, DSOBS

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NARSINGH BAHADUR SINGH ( 25-J CLASS OF 1955) passed away in Gurgaon on September 30. Our sincere sympathies to his wife GEETA, son HANUT ( JB - 481 CLASS OF 1987 ), his wife Reggie and son Aryan, his daughter GAYATRI and her husband SUDHIR SINGH(85-HB , CLASS OF 1989) and their sons Udai and Aditya. Narsingh was the brother of late Jung Bahadur Singh ( 245 -J Class of 1943). We pray the soul rest in peace and give strength to the family to bear this great loss.

From Ashok Mehta ( 295 - H, Class of 1955 )

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APPEAL TO ALL THE DOON SCHOOL OLD BOYS

Out of nearly 1,000 entries the Barefoot College is one of the 12 BBC
World Challenge finalists highlighting the Women Barefoot Solar
Engineers of AFRICA.

The voting has started.Please vote for the SOLAR SISTERS.
It is the only entry from India.

The link is
www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/index.php

We need your vote and as many more you could get by spreading the word to
friends and professional colleages.

Anyone and everyone can vote.It takes only 5 mins

EVERY VOTE COUNTS.
Thanks

Bunker Roy
125 - J 1961
bunker_roy@yahoo.com

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Dear Doscos,

This letter from the Executive Committee to the fraternity is to clarify some issues raised by Mr. Rajneesh Chatta, 191-K '90 in his e-mail of September 29, 2009.

Incidentally, Mr. Rajneesh Chatta is not a member of the DSOBS (since he didn't pass out of School) and therefore, has no say in DSOBS affairs.

Before every AGM several such mails do their rounds and till now we had not thought it necessary to respond till this particular mail was forwarded to us by senior DOSCOs such as Mr. Deepak Nirula and Mr. Dhruv Sawhney.

We therefore, felt that it was important to clear any cobwebs of doubt in Mr. Chatta's mind about the EC not having followed the Rules while finalizing the names to fill vacancies to arise in the Executive Committee in October 2009.

We would, however, like to preface this note by clarifying that we at the EC have neither taken umbrage at Mr. Chatta's or other similar e-mails nor is this letter being issued in a spirit of acrimony. We sincerely believe that questions raised show that the DSOBS community is a vibrant one and alive to the present situation.

However, we must also begin with a clarification. The proposed amendments have nothing to do with the nominations to the Executive Committee. The reasons for the proposed amendments are clearly spelt out in the President's Explanatory Note.

Let us, therefore, deal with Mr. Chatta's grievances on the EC not having followed the rules in finalizing the names of individuals who should fill the vacancies in the Executive Committee.

The fact that Mr. Chatta feels that the Executive Committee has not followed the Rules is evident from the following portions of his e-mailed letter where he has stated that:-

"Apparently, some EC members have said that 'as per the EC rules when there is more than one nomination, the decision shifts to the EC'!!"

x x x x

".... let not the EC betray its own rules, ...."

x x x x

" ... and not allow dilution of rules ..."

This allegation of alleged violation or betrayal of the EC Rules seems to stem from a belief that the number of nominations received from Class Reps in a decadal batch is the determining factor. However, that is not correct. The Rules of the DSOBS are available on the website. Rule 6 governs the procedure for selection of new Executive Committee members. Let us place before you the provisions of Rule 6(2) which read as follows:-

"(2) Selection of new Executive Committee Members - When a vacancy arises, approximately 6 months prior to the AGM, the President would inform all the class representatives of the concerned age group (10 classes in total) to collectively recommend a name to fill the vacancy. In the event, that there is more than one candidate, their details should be forwarded to the President who in consultation with the Executive Committee would finalize the name of who shall fill the vacancy. If the other candidates are in any case desirous of contributing to the activities of the Society, they could assist in the committees of their interest, as could any member of the Society."

This rule actually contemplates a very ideal situation of 10 classes collectively recommending one name to fill the vacancy but then what happens if this does not occur? The rule goes on to say that if there is more than one candidate then the President in consultation with the EC would finalize the name to fill the vacancy. This obviously means that ideally the EC looks to a collective recommendation of one name or more depending on the number of vacancies but:-

(i) It nowhere says that the criteria would be the number of recommendations received.

(ii) If the criteria were based on the number of recommendations, then the second part of Rule 6(2) would be redundant in the sense that if there is more than one candidate obviously one will have more recommendations than the other(s). In such an eventuality if the number of recommendations mattered then where was the question of the President consulting the EC to finalize a name?

(iii) In this sort of a situation then the rule should have said that whichever candidate receives the maximum number of recommendations will be automatically selected without the President or the EC having any reason to deliberate.

(iv) However, the rule was purposely not framed in this manner so that the basis of selection in cases of more than one candidate was not a question of number of recommendations but comparative merits of the candidates.

(v) An analogy can be drawn with IPPS selections. Once you have one proposer and one recommender, multiple recommendations are deemed unnecessary. If one still chooses to get multiple proposers, it does not mean that he has a better chance of getting selected over the others. It is the same in our EC process.

In view of the above, the moment it was seen after August 16, 2009 when all nominations had been received by the Executive Committee that there were more than one candidate in the age group of 30 to 39 years and in the age group of 40 to 49 years and before the President in consultation with the Executive Committee finalized the names of those who should fill the vacancies, it was decided at the EC meeting held on August 21, 2009 that each candidate should be asked to submit the following to enable the Executive Committee to arrive at a considered decision on the merits of each candidate, namely:-

(i). A brief curriculum vitae.
(ii). List of his contributions to the Doon School and the Doon School Old Boys' Society in the past.
(iii). His strengths and the areas in which he expected to contribute to the Doon School and the Doon School Old Boys Society in particular and the Society at large in general.
(iv). The reasons as to why the candidate wanted to join the Executive Committee of the DSOBS and what he wished or hoped to achieve over the next four years should he be selected to the Executive Committee.
(v). The batch or class to which he belonged.
(vi). His ability to attend at least three of the six meetings of the EC in a year.

Pursuant to the above, all nine candidates who had been nominated for four vacancies to arise in the Executive Committee in October 2009 submitted the requisite details. These details were thereafter circulated to all EC Members well in advance of the EC meeting convened for this purpose on September 12, 2009. At this meeting, the merits of each candidate were considered in detail based on the information and data submitted by them. The President, in consultation, with the EC, considered the merits and demerits of each candidate on extremely objective yardsticks after which the names were finalized.

To therefore, harbor any doubt that any Rule or Rules were violated by the Executive Committee is misplaced.

We are not going into the merits and demerits of each candidate considered by the Executive Committee because it is in any case a most painful process to have to choose between friends and fellow DOSCOs. Unfortunately, in the age group of 40 to 49 years we had three very deserving candidates for only one seat and in the age group of 30 to 39 years we had five candidates for two seats. Therefore, decisions had to be made, as painful as they were.

We can, however, assure you that all decisions were made by EC Members present (11 out of 13 with 2 having taken leave of absence) by consensus.

We hope you appreciate our position.

Before concluding, we would only like to clarify that no EC Member has any personal agenda nor is the Executive Committee indulging in any intrigue or taking any action surreptitiously as sought to be alleged.

We hope we have been able to allay all apprehensions in Mr. Chatta's mind and in the mind of the fraternity at large, should any have arisen due to Mr. Chatta's e-mailed letter of September 29, 2009.

Yours sincerely

The Executive Committee
DSOBS

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