Bihar Anjuman believes in self-help rather than charity

Roles and Responsibilities of City and Country Representatives

Model Charter for Chapters: pdf (Adobe Acrobat) file

Download Roles and Responsibilities: pdf (Adobe Acrobat) file

 

Basically, the local chapter acts as a medium between the local people and people in other chapters as well as the international community. So, the city or the country representatives facilitate this interaction at the city or country level as the case may be. 

Recommended Roles (not mandatory)
Local chapters are 100% independent entities, and representatives can choose their own roles, as long as these roles are aligned with the objectives of Bihar Anjuman  

1. Gather information about all the Muslims from Bihar and Jharkhand – maintain a database (Soft copies in MS Excel or MS Access, or hard copies, whatever is possible), to facilitate interaction between all of them and with other chapters/ international body. Send me the email addresses of all those who have access to internet, so that I can add them all to the Yahoo Group which acts as an excellent medium of interaction at all levels.
2. Bring people together with the sole aim of taking positive actions that would lead to fulfillment of Anjuman’s objectives. Achieve it by holding regular meetings of the active members to take stock of local activities during the one month gone by, familiarize them with developments in other chapters or at the international level, discuss action plans for the future, collect suggestions for improving the objectives, plans of actions, etc. Arrange at least one annual get-together to bring them all – members or non-members, active or inactive, those who agree with Anjuman’s objectives and those who don’t - everybody.

 

3. Devise a membership methodology wherein those who opt to become members of the local team contribute regularly a nominal amount (like Rs. 100) towards some of the objectives of Anjuman (You may finalize these in the first few meetings). So, you will actually be keeping records of two types of Muslim brothers (or sisters):
a. Members
b. Non-Members
You may decide (say, in your first two meetings) to provide some additional priviledges to members.
From among both groups would emerge contributors for some objectives of Anjuman, e.g., somebody may be a member contributing Rs. 100 monthly as membership plus Rs. 1,000 for awarding of scholarship or for construction of model school. A non-member thinks that the Rs. 100 being collected is not being used for the objectives of his interest, so he may decide not to become a member, but still contribute towards the construction of a mosque or a school or towards awarding of scholarship, etc.
Membership may have categories: Ordinary member (say, Rs. 100 per month), Life member (say, Rs. 5,000 one time), Patron (Free for some respected dignitaries whose presence binds the group together or who have already contributed a lot by some means. For others, you may charge e.g. Rs. 10,000 (one time fee), and so on. These are just examples that are meant to be for guidance alone.

4. Chart out a disbursement mechanism – the local chapters are free to spend the membership amount collected for local chapter chapters anyway they want. But, all disbursements must follow a charter (Download a model charter) agreed with the members at the time of formal launch of the chapter. Also include in the charter the contributions that will go towards the activities taken at the international levels (say, 50%, 75%, 100%, etc). Publish the charter in the yahoogroup as well as on the website www.biharanjuman.org
5. Propagate Anjuman’s values and objectives: Request (motivate) all the members to propagate Anjuman’s values and objectives with the aim to work jointly for common causes that are purely constructive in nature.
6. REACH: Work towards making the benefits of Anjuman’s activities reach the masses. This can be achieved by either bringing the masses into the network or by taking the Anjuman to grass-roots – have local representatives in each district in the first stage and in all the villages in the second stage.
7. Enlist the names and contact addresses of all the consultancies/ companies in your region and send it to the group – ultimately to be uploaded into the Files section of the yahoogroup. Try to establish good relationship with Consultants/companies’ HR departments and circulate their internal requirements to the group. They would love to widen their sphere.
8. Build a progressive mind-set: Develop a culture among the community that promotes mutual respect and readiness to help each other grow. Let’s promote a culture of actions and save ourselves from debates that don’t result in any actions. Mutual respect means that every other group (Muslim or non-Muslim) that is doing something was started with right intentions and we must acknowledge its achievements, if any, and ignore its demerits. Let’s learn from their positives, and ignore their negatives. It is no use to work against anyone. We should work for them, and support them, if we find them working towards the right goals. If we find them doing something wrong, we should mind our own business, so far as Bihar Anjuman is concerned. At individual levels, members in our group are free to have association with other groups. But, those who carry responsibilities must avoid being member of any group that has objectives contrary to ours.
9. Maintain a bank account for all the membership contributions – a joint account if possible – the names must be agreed in a meeting of members and disclosed to all the contributors.
10. Account-keeping: In each monthly meeting, collections received and payments made (disbursements of any kind) and the bank-balance (supported by the latest bank statement) must be disclosed. 
11. Local collection mechanism: Membership fees may be recorded in one book per collector (call him/ her by any name) with one page dedicated to one member. So, the responsibility is to identify “collectors” who can represent Anjuman among a group of people who can be easily accessed by him, issue a book to him, and ask him to bring him this book in each of the monthly meeting where he deposits all the collected money to the finance secretary (treasurer, or call him by any name) who audits the book immediately.
12. Maintain a list of all the Organizations/ NGOs working in your city/ country/ region. Cooperate with them in propagating values compatible to us, share info and efforts that could provide benefits to each other or to the community. 

Final Word: The above is just a guideline. Remember that we are just evolving, and this guideline is subject to change until we constitute our executive/ governing bodies or register an NGO. It may not be possible for a local chapter or its representatives to do all that the guideline suggests, but a beginning must be made somewhere. So, however little it may look like, efforts must be taken to bring people together with the sole intention to help our community constructively. This clearly means shedding all kinds of ill-will away against any individual or organization. Within Bihar Anjuman, everyone must be respected without any consideration to his affiliation at an individual level. We need not follow his/ her advice (decisions are taken as a group, honouring majority opinion), but urge him/ her to participate wholeheartedly in our activities and programs that we undertake. People are free to participate in activities and programs that suit their own thoughts and inclinations, and we don’t wish to force members to join in all activities and programs.

Moderating team: myrahbar@gmail.com

 

 

Shikwa-e-zulmat-e-shab se to kahin behtar tha;
Apne hissey ki koi shamm'a jalaate jaatey. [Ahmad Faraz]

 

Better light a candle than curse the darkness

better-light-a-candle-than-curse-the-darkness

 

Copyright © 2006 Bihar Anjuman