Special Meeting

The following is part of the minutes of the 6th BOD/Regular meeting which deals with my dismissal issue.

               

PDG John went on to say that the following resolution would be tabled   and considered and if thought fit would be passed.

Special meeting to dismiss Luqman Michel

Requisition for a Special meeting for taking action on a member- Luqman Michel

Here is an extract of the requisition for the Special meeting to be held on the 3rd of January, 2017:

A)“Luqman Michel has willfully created unsubstantiated and false reports against innocent members publicly, in particular, accusing President and Secretary of manipulating, altering and falsifying the minutes of the Board/Regular Meeting at which he was absent and therefore he could not possibly have any basis or knowledge to question the accuracy of the minutes without any amendments.

B) “His FB friends have made reference to our Club as ‘filth’ and claimed we are associated with ‘illuminati’. He has made many derogatory remarks on our club officers.”

Note: The meaning of illuminati from the dictionary is: ‘people claiming to possess special enlightenment or knowledge of something.’

The mysterious 3rd bank account

All this while in my Lions club I have been told we have 2 bank accounts. Only 2 accounts are disclosed to ROS. However, I have recently discovered that Lions Club of Kota Kinabalu Host has been operating three bank accounts under LCKKHost in Alliance bank for a number of years.

The 3^rd account, I am informed, is not audited by Horace Ho our auditor.

I have checked with many of the past presidents and secretaries and all of them, except for one, are unaware of the 3^rd bank account. The others who may know about the account are Joseph Chai and PDG John S F Ho.

Article v of constitution and by-laws of my club – Resignation

Section C says:

The name of any member who shall absent himself from four consecutive regular meetings of the club without acceptable cause being given to the attendance committee chairman or the club secretary, shall be submitted to the BOD by the secretary at the Board Meeting next following the fourth such absence, and the BOD shall decide whether such member shall be dropped from the club or retained on the club roaster.

My first visit to Registry of Societies

On 7.11.2016 I paid a visit to Registry of Societies (ROS) to get a copy of my clubs accounts.

I asked the person at the counter to make a search for ‘The Lions Club of Kota Kinabalu (Host). ‘

The person at the counter could not find the name on the file. She then asked another clerk and she too could not find the name on the list of names. An officer was summoned and she too could not find the name on the list.

Past President's Council and the meetings held

I was requested to attend two meeting with the Past President’s Council. The last meeting was on the 18.11.2016.

The meeting was arranged at the 4th BOD's meeting . I was not at the BOD meetings in October nor in November 2016. However, I met as requested. I decided to accept the minutes prepared by the Committee and even accepted to signing the apology letter proposed by the Committee chairman even though I did not agree, so that my club and I can move on. The President, Thomas Ho Thau Phin disagreed to the minutes let alone his apology letter.

New Name approved by ROS only on 23.11.2016

I have waited for more than half a day for some update by my PDG John S F Ho. I am a little concerned about writing in my blog and Face Book on what I have found out as our friend John S F Ho will tell, after he has read what I am writing here, that he and the rest of the members knew this all along.

Name of my club not in the Registry of Societies

I find it strange that some of my club members especially PDG John S F Ho is trying to vilify me and attack me for revealing many things that my club members have been sweeping under the carpet. Why go after me, go after John S F Ho for his wrong doings which I had high-lighted.

Legality of Board of Directors/Regular Members meeting

My Lions Club had its 6^th BOD meeting/Regular Meeting on 6.12.2016.

It was at this meeting that it was decided that an EGM will be called to decide on the expulsion of me, Luqman Michel, from the club.

Quotes from Martin Luther King Jr

Here are some words spoken by Martin Luther King Jr that are worth meditating upon.

"Those who do nothing while witnessing injustice and wrong-doing do worse than those who commit acts of injustice. The privileged have a responsibility to do what they know is right."

I have written many e-mails to all members of my Lion’s Club and except for 2 members no one else bothered to take a few minutes to comment. I am not talking about just any friends but talking about members and past presidents of the so called oldest and largest Lion’s club in Sabah.

Lion’s Mission and Vision statement

I have just returned after a week from a family get together in Port Dickson. I decided to check up a little more on the Mission and Vision statements of the Lion’s Club.

Mission Statement

To empower volunteers to serve their communities, meet humanitarian needs, encourage peace and promote international understanding through Lions clubs.

Vision Statement

To be the global leader in community and humanitarian service

I shall think aloud on how the Mission and Vision statements reconcile with what has been happening in my club here in Kota Kinabalu.

Pre-Board Meeting dated 17.6.2016

At the Pre-Board meeting on 17.6.2016 among other matters the following was announced by the President, Thomas Ho Thau Phin.

The 100% Pin will be at the discretion of the President.

It was also decided to do away with the current whatsapp group and form a new whatsapp group as a few members had decided to leave the current whatsapp group.

Fortunately, after the meeting at the fellowship gathering, someone with a little sense asked this idea to be scraped and just add back those members who had left the group.

Altered minutes by the President

The following extract from my club's 4th BOD meeting is fabricated by a puppeteer from my club.

e). President tabled an email from Ln. Luqman Mitchel dated 11^th September,2016 calling the President by using bad word and accusing and threatening the President. Copies of the email and various postings from Ln. Luqman’s facebook were distributed to all members at the meeting.

Concern was expressed on the tension, aggression, discomfort and conflict caused by such behavior which does not augers well for the harmony and unity of KK Host members and it also violates our Lions Code of Ethics.

After establishing that it is a club’s matter, President requested the Membership Committee to look into the issues and make recommendations on an appropriate action for the Board to take. However, Membership Chairman declined on the ground of conflict of interest as he is also Ln. Luqman’s sponsor and suggested the Past Presidents’ Council instead.

It was resolved to request the Past Presidents’ Council to look into all the issues and make recommendations to the Board.

Manipulation of minutes of Board of Directors/ Regular Meetings

On 17.6.2016 a Pre-Board meeting was held and chaired by Ln Thomas Ho.

At the meeting one of the points Ln Thomas Ho had brought up for implementation was to do away with the existing Whatsapp Group and replace it with another Whatsapp group. His reasoning was that some members had left the group thus requiring a new group. He had suggested a new Whatapp group name which I cannot recall.

I was surprised that no one said anything at all. At a subsequent fellowship gathering after the BOD meeting Ln CC Pung had suggested to Ln Delce that a better idea would be to keep that same group and bring back all those who had left.

Fabricating minutes is a criminal offence

I chanced upon a number of websites which says that altering minutes is a criminal offence. Here is something I copied from one such site.

The altering or fabricating of minutes is a very serious issue. Not only is it a red flag about the integrity and honesty of some senior management, but it is a sure sign that the policies and procedures governing the control of minutes and other legal records are seriously lacking. Not to mention the fact that it is also a criminal offense.

“Falsifying documents” is a type of white collar crime. It involves altering, changing, or modifying a document for the purpose of deceiving another person. It can also involve the passing along of copies of documents that are known to be false.

The importance of minutes of meetings

The duties of a secretary are both extremely broad in scope and onerous. A secretary is obliged to record only what has been discussed at a meeting and choice of words is extremely important. Words not uttered should not be recorded in minutes. It is just as important to ensure important matters discussed is actually recorded in the minutes.  

The minutes must be a true reflection of the meetings that were held. As such it is also very important that the person who proposes and seconds the adoption of minutes knows what he is proposing and seconding to adopt.

Letter Head

20.8.2016 Email to members

Dear Lion friends,

I write this email to get your views/comments on some, in my opinion, important matters that have transpired during the week.

I have mulled over these matters a great deal before deciding to bring them up with you.

I am not quite sure if we have any standard rules and regulations in our club. Are there rules and regulations on the day to day running of the club?

On the 14.8.2016 I asked the President if I could avail myself to some letter heads to solicit donations for some projects. He asked me to contact PP Delce to get a soft copy of the letter head.

For those who may not be aware, I am the chairman of Environment for 2016/2017 and I am a committee member of the “My Kampong” project in Monggis.

I sent off an email to PP Delce in the early morning of 15.8.2016.

I received a telephone call from our President at 9am asking me if I required the letter heads  for collecting advertisements to which I said no. He said that if it was for advertisement he had letters already pre-prepared. END OF CONVERSATION

I then received another telephone call from the President, Thomas Ho Thau Phin, at 11 am saying that it was decided that all letters are to be signed only by the President. I asked as to who decided this and he responded that it was none of my concern.

Now I have a few questions which I would appreciate some answers to, as this is our club and the Lion Movement is bigger than all of us put together.

What rules and regulations are there concerning as to who may or may not use the letter head for specific purposes?

1.       I was told that we have a special whatsapp group consisting of the directors. Should not the directors be consulted on matters such as the above instead of one or two members taking things into their own hands?

I attach herewith the email exchanges between PP Delce and myself.

I also attach the email correspondences between me as the Chairman of Environment and as committee member of Monggis Project to companies to solicit donations.

I have so far received:

1.       RM200 as a donation from a Face book friend which money was handed over to PP CC Pung.

2.       Received 42 activity books from a Public Listed Company – SP Setia and I have also handed these over to PP CC Pung.

3.       Received 8 planting kits from SP Setia and handed them over to PP CC Pung.

4.       I have received a promising letter in response to my request for donation from Hap Seng Bhd. All Hap Seng needs is a letter from us giving the details as requested. I thought we should ask for donation for the Talantang project as I believe Hap Seng will give a sizeable amount. (Note: I will not be able to sign an official letter on this project as I am not a committee member.)

Anyway, I have passed these emails to PP Delce. The President or anyone appointed by him may follow up on these matters.

Please read the attachments prior to posting any comments.

Thank you and kind regards,

Lion Luqman Michel

Response to John Ho's unbecoming remarks on Whatsapp

15.6.2016

Dear PDG John S F Ho and Fellow lions who may still want to read these posts.

I had said that I’ll not respond to any more emails and allowed both PP Nenita and PDG JH the last words. I have no choice but to write this email as PDG JH has now made a comment on Whats App which is uncalled for and is very unbecoming of a PDG.

100% Perfect Attendance Pin

The following is the first of my email to members"

12.6.2016

Dear Lion friends,

I just returned from a 3 days trip to Kudat and Kundasang.

Regret the delay in responding to the ‘what's App’ message re: 100% Attendance pin.

I fully support and agree with what Lion Dr. Arabi has said in the ‘What's APP’.

When I heard about the 100% Attendance pin award, I asked around as to who is entitled to it.

I was told it will be given to those who attend 100% of the BOD meetings. I asked

about the fellowship meetings and I was told that that is not compulsory.

It appears to me, now, that we are not quite sure as to what the 100% pin is all about.

I went through the internet looking for some material and the best I can find is the following:

Contribution to our discussion by Chairman of Past President Council and my response

14.6.2016 Written by our Chairman of Past Presidents – PP Nenita Tan

Dear Lion Luqman,

I just want to put my input here in response to your letter.

My club experiences

I seldom went out since 2002 and stayed at home and taught dyslexic kids on a one on one basis. When I was not teaching I studied Mandarin on the internet from free websites and read many books.

In October 2014 a few friends persuaded me to join the club they belong to. I attended Board meetings as well as fellowship meetings and enjoyed the projects they carried out for the good of the public. I was very keen on the projects carried out by my club.

In June 2015 I was nominated to become one of the directors of the club. I began to learn as much as possible about the club and the work they did. During the meetings I was mostly a passive listener.

At a meeting in May 2016 I asked the secretary to write to our Head Office to claim for the 100%  Attendance Pin for all those eligible. I knew I would be eligible as I had attended all meetings.

The President said that I was the only one eligible for the 100%  Attendance Pin. Immediately there were objections saying that attendance of other clubs meetings and attending projects should also be taken into account. These other meetings were called ‘Make up Meetings’. Not a single member knew that the 100% Attendance Pin had been done away with by our Head Office. Not a single member knew what a ‘Make up Meeting’ was.

Subsequent to the meeting there were many Whatsapp exchanges between members where each member started saying what he thought about the Pin and Make up meeting. No one was sure.

I was in Kudat with some friends from Kuala Lumpur when I received a telephone call from my president asking me to find out from the internet a little more information about the Pin and Make up Meeting.

I did this as soon as I returned home from the trip. I found some information from the web-site on the Pin and emailed to our list of members. I also wrote to a friend in US (Not the HO) and received a succinct response to my questions. I emailed this to all the members as well.

Two members from my club expressed their thanks for my effort.

The whole email group, on the other hand, received an email from someone who had never attended any BOD/ Regular meeting since I joined in October 2014. More importantly he did not have a clue as to what transpired at the meeting where the pin and ‘make up meeting’ were discussed.

I will post the whole of the emails in my next few posts.