| Minutes of Meeting |
3rd Meeting of Club Assembly of RY 2023-24
Date & Day : 26th March 2024, Tuesday
Time : 7.30 pm to 9.00 pm
Venue : Bal Kalyan Sanstha
Minutes of meeting
The Club Assembly was called to order by the President with singing of National
Anthem. The Club Secretary thereafter administered the customary Four-way
Test.
As per point No. 4 of Article 1 of the Club bye-laws, a minimum 50% of the
members (i.e. 31) form the quorum for the Club Assembly. As only 23 members
were present, the Assembly was adjourned for 15 minutes and then the meeting
began, considering that the available members form the quorum. As a few more
members joined during the course of the meeting, total 28 members were there
by the conclusion of the Club Assembly.
The list of attendees is given at Annexe-1.
The President, Dr Ashutosh Dubey, welcomed the gathering and initiated
agenda-wise discussions.
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Agenda 1: To approve the minutes of the previous Club assembly held on 5th
September 2023.
Rtn Sameer enquired whether the previous Assembly was considered valid or
void in view of inadequate quorum. It was explained that the previous assembly,
due to inadequate quorum at the scheduled time, was deemed adjourned for 15
minutes and reassembled and as such has been treated as valid assembly with
ROTARY CLUB OF
Pune Sports City
RID 3131
Club No. 31139
the available numbers considered as quorum. Rtn Sameer also clarified that his
name was taken after the previous assembly for raising the issue of quorum while
he had nothing to do with the issue.
Decision: The minutes of the 2nd Club Assembly held on 12th December 2023
were approved.
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Agenda 2: Action Taken Report on the decisions of previous Club Assembly.
(Annexe-2)
While discussing about a small committee to examine the current systems and
processes, the Club Secretary opined that the current systems and processes
already address the issues received from the members and the suggestions might
have been made by the members to bring about further improvements. On this
Rtn Sandesh Savant differed and said that for example there is no clarity on the
post of Vice-President (VP). Rtn Sameer expressed that there is no post of VP in
RCPSC and hence the PE Rtn Sadhana has not nominated anyone as VP in the
BoD for RY 24-25.
Rtn Manojeet clarified that under Article 2 of the club bye-laws, the post of VP is
explicitly mentioned and even the role and responsibilities of VP are also
enunciated. He also said that the bye-laws mention that the VP should be one of
the Past Presidents. Keeping in view this clarification, PE Rtn Sadhana proposed
to nominate current President Rtn Dr Ashutosh as VP and Rtn Ashutosh gave his
concurrence for the same.
Rtn Kaustubh opined that one of the new members should be nominated as VP
to ensure involvement of new members in club affairs. Rtn Biren, expressing
difference of opinion, said the VP is supposed to chair the meetings and lead the
club in the absence of President and as such a new member should not be
nominated as VP and the current instructions in the bye-laws are appropriate.
Decision: The assembly took note of the Action Taken Report. The Assembly
also approved the proposal of nominating Rtn Dr Ashutosh as the VP in the
BoD for RY 24-25.
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Agenda 3: To update on Treasury –
a) Presentation and approval of annual accounts of the Club for the Rotary
year 2022-23. (deferred from previous assembly)
b) Presentation and approval of annual accounts of the Trust for the Fin. year
2022-23 with Statutory Auditor’s Report. (deferred from previous
assembly)
c) Presentation of mid-year financial report of the Club and Trust for the year
2023-24.
d) BOD decision of continuing of bank accounts with UBI and not proceeding
with opening accounts in new age banks as approved by Club Assembly in
Sept, 23.
The Club Treasurer, Rtn Sadhana Joshi presented the treasury details as per
Annexe-3.
After Rtn Sadhana’s presentation about treasury details, Rtn Dr Rajesh Pawar
raised two issues:
i. He informed that a few bills aggregating around Rs. 14,000 in respect of
club related expenses incurred by IPP Sameer during 22-23 were not paid
by the club and he had to make good that payment as the then Treasurer
Rtn Sonia had informed about non-availability of funds in club account.
He expressed his dismay and wondered why the BoD 23-24 refused the
payment when the expenses were incurred in connection with the club
activities during the previous Rotary year.
ii. He informed that when there was shortage of funds for the Symbiosis
Dialysis GG project as one of the committed non-rotarian donor backed
out, he and Rtn Sandesh Savant requested Rtn Brij Sethi to approach nonrotarian donor Mr Nitinbhai Karia for donation. Mr Sethi flatly refused
and retorted that he would not make any request in this year. Dr Pawar
however, added that it was Mr Sethi’s right to accept or to not accept the
request and he respects that right.
Responding to the first issue, Rtn Sonia Pandey, the club Treasurer for 22-23,
clarified that when Dr Pawar raised this issue with her, she had explained that
the club did not have enough funds and proposed to make a request before the
members for voluntary additional contribution for meeting the said expenses.
She further clarified that Dr Pawar himself stopped her from making such
request and volunteered to make good the payment. He even insisted that the
issue should be kept just between two of them and not be shared with any other
member.
Rtn Sameer expressed surprise that the payment was made by Dr Pawar and not
by the club and said that he would not have allowed any vehicle to enter BKS if
his payment was not made.
All the members of BoD 23-24 present in the Assembly clarified that the issue of
non-reimbursement of expenses to IPP Rtn Sameer was never brought before the
BoD 23-24 and as such there was no case for its rejection.
Rtn Kaustubh expressed that the President and the BoD should limit their
expenses within the approved budget and should not incur excess expenses to be
taken care by the BoD of the next year. Rtn Kaustubh however, added that he did
not agree with Mr Brij Sethi’s comment that he will not donate in this year or
donate in that year.
Decision: The Assembly took note of the treasury status and commended the
work done by the Treasurer with regard to timely payment of bills and project
expenses.
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Agenda 4: Update of various avenues – Goals vs actuals as well as plan for
the rest of the RY by President.
The President, Dr Ashutosh Dubey made a detailed presentation about the major
developments that happened since the beginning of the RY 23-24. The highlights
of his address are given in Annexe-4.
Decision: The Assembly took note of various activities/projects undertaken by
the club as also the progress/performance under various avenues. The
Assembly specifically appreciated and commended the work done under CSR
and PI avenues and congratulated and applauded Director-CSR for the RCPSC
crossing the 50L mark under CSR support Director-PI for active use of various
media platforms.
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Agenda 5: To begin the process of selection of two Additional Trustees of
Pune Sports City Rotary Trust for RY 24-25 as per Clause 17.b of Trust deed.
Club Secretary, Rtn Sushrut apprised that as per Clause 17 of the Trust deed of
PSCRT, two Trustees are nominated/elected by the Club in addition to five exofficio Trustees. The term of all the Trustees is one calendar year beginning 1st
July of each year. As per the Section 7 of Article 3 of the club bye-laws (as
amended on 12th Dec. 23), the election/nomination of the Additional Trustees for
the RY 24-25 has to be done in the Club Assembly by 15th June 24. It was
therefore, proposed that the process of seeking nominations from members may
be initiated in the first week of May 24.
Decision: The proposal to initiate the process of seeking nominations from
members for two Additional Trustees in the first week of May 24 was approved.
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Agenda 6: Review the progress in revisiting the Trust Deed by the Committee
formed for the purpose.
Club Secretary, Rtn Sushrut apprised that in the joint meeting of BoD and
Trustees (held on 6th Nov. 23) it was decided to revisit the Trust Deed to suggest
required changes/amendments to:
a. make the aims and objectives of the Trust comprehensive and inclusive to
be in line with the Rotary focus areas;
b. explicitly indicate the types of activities and expenses that can be included
in our projects;
c. suggest a comprehensive format for the MoU to be signed with the
beneficiary institutions;
For the above purpose the BoD constituted a Working Group comprising Rtn
BMK Sethi as Convenor and Rtn Dr Rajesh, Rtn Dr Amita, Rtn Sadhana, Rtn
Trilok Kamdar, Rtn Sameer and Rtn Ajit as other members. The WG was advised
to complete the task by 31st December 2023.
As not much headway on the subject was done and Rtn Brij Sethi had recused
himself from the WG, it was required to nominate a new convenor to complete
the task early.
Rtn Sameer informed the house that background material like Trust Deeds of
PSCRT and a few other similar Trusts as also write up on Rotary focus areas was
collected and initial discussion among the members of the WG took place.
However, there was strong difference of opinion between Rtn Brij and Rtn Ajit
on whether the WG should examine the Trust Deed in entirety or should limit
itself to the portion dealing with aims/objectives of the Trust. Due to this
difference of opinion Rtn Brij decided to resign from the WG and as such a new
Convenor was required to be nominated to take the work forward.
Decision: Based on the suggestion of a few members the Assembly decided to
nominate Rtn Kaustubh Medhekar on the WG as Convenor in place of Rtn Brij
Sethi while all other members of the WG being the same. The Assembly also
advised the WG to complete the task by 1st week of June and place their
report/suggestions in the next Club Assembly (likely to be held in the 2nd week
of June 24) for approval.
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Agenda 7: Agenda issues for discussion in the club assembly received from
members:
i. Discussion on the issues faced in the recently held RID election.
While placing the agenda, the President apprised that the RI mail for Zone-7 RID
election was received in the last week of December 23. However, when he tried
to open the voting line using the given user id & password, he got the message
“invalid credentials” displayed. As he had no prior knowledge of RID election
process, he contacted Rtn Dr Sameer Dolare who was reportedly dealing with
RID election in the District office. Dr Dolare informed that several other club
Presidents were also facing similar issue and asked to forward the mail which the
President did in good faith. However, on 19th January when he again checked he
found he got the message “voting completed”. When Mr Dolare also expressed
ignorance about it, he sent a mail to RI indicating that his email was hacked and
voting was done by some unauthorised person and thus requested for cancelling
the vote already cast and to reopen the voting link for RCPSC. The voting link
was subsequently restored and voting in favour of club preferred candidate was
done. Though the issue was salvaged, he admitted that it was a mistake on his
part to forward the mail to an outside person which caused lot of consternation
within the club and he apologised for the same.
Thereafter, he invited the members if they wished to say anything on the subject.
Following members shared their opinion on the issue:
Rtn Dr Rajesh Pawar
He expressed his concern about the bad impression that was created because of
the happenings with regard to RID election.
Rtn Sameer Gupte
He opined that the facts related to the issue were never shared or revealed.
Overall a monkey act was done and club’s image and reputation was tarnished.
The name of the club became a laughing stock in the Rotary circle. At least 3
PDGs were seen ridiculing the RCPSC. The RI mail with voting credentials was
forwarded to one Dr Sameer Dolare who happens to be the right hand of DG
Manju Phadke. As such it was a conspiracy against our club. In fact in the Rotary
circle his (Sameer Gupte’s) name was being taken in this context, and thus, he
had to face lot of bad name and had to clarify to several people about the mix-up
between Sameer Dolare and Sameer Gupte. President kept a complete silence all
these days. Despite knowing about the matter, it was kept hidden and swept
under the carpet. The facts related to the issue were never shared or revealed
either to the BOD or to the club members after the matter was brought to
everyone's attention by Sameer. Also, the Secretary was not cc'd on the email to
RI regarding the request for reopening of the club voting line. He was of the
opinion that a Himalayan blunder was committed by the President rendering the
initial voting invalid. He also added that in a way, a sort of ‘chir haran’ of the club
was perpetrated while Dr Mahesh's subsequent persuasion with the RI saved the
dignity of the club.
Rtn Dr Mahesh Kotbagi:
He opined that this incident was the black day in the 29 years of club’s history.
He narrated the chronology of the events.
a. On 30th December, the Club President had received the RI mail providing
voting credentials for the election of RID Zone 7.
b. On 30th December, the Club President forwarded the RI mail having voting
credentials to Rtn Dr Sameer Dolare, a member of the RC Pune Phoenix
club. The President did not disclose this to anyone.
c. On 14th January, Rtn Sameer Gupte raised the issue of RID election in the
BoD group but, there was no response either from President or anyone else
in the BoD.
d. On 16th January, President forwarded the same mail to Dr Mahesh which
clearly indicated that the mail was already shared with Mr Sameer Dolare.
e. The matter regarding voting having done by an outsider came to light at a
District event on January 19 through a senior PDG of another club.
f. The President, later on 20th January, sent an email to RI claiming his mail
was hacked, but in reality, the email was forwarded to an outsider who did
the voting. The President of 30 years legacy club had thus, lied to RI about
hacking.
g. The evidence collected with regard to the IP address of the computer clearly
established that vote was cast by Rtn Dr Sameer Dolare. It was also known
that the vote was not cast in favour of Rtn Ravi Vadlamani whose name was
decided in the BoD but, in favour of Rtn Nagesh Kothanur for whom DG
Manjoo was canvassing.
h. Thereafter on 20th January, Dr Mahesh took up the issue with
simplyvoting.com, the agency to which RI had outsourced the job of RID
election voting.
i. Dr Mahesh explained that while he was the one who as an RID, in the past,
had opposed reopening of voting, had to plead with RI for reopening of
RCPSC voting link, because if he had intimated the truth, Mr Ashutosh’s
basic membership of Rotary would have been terminated forever and would
have been blacklisted.
j. Finally on 30th January a new voting link and credentials could be reopened
after hectic persuasion. He also informed that after the voting result was out,
some of our members sarcastically commented that despite all hullabaloo
Rtn Ravi Vadlamani could not win. He reminded the gathering that we vote
for the good candidate and not necessarily for the winning candidate.
He said that while we could regain our voting link, the damage to the club’s image
had already happened. Even when the discussion on the issue was happening in
the past president's WA group the President, instead of a direct apology, was
putting emoji. This raises questions about the sincerity of his apology now. PRID
Dr. Mahesh emphasised that it’s important for members to refrain from
introducing “district politics” into the club. Should any member exhibit
discontent or sharing voting link of sports city to a third person outside our club
or engage in such unethical behaviour, they are encouraged to leave our
cherished Rotary Sports City and we would readily provide a No Objection
Certificate (NOC) to facilitate their departure.
He expressed disgust on the entire episode and walked out of the Assembly
Thereafter, the President adjourned the Assembly.
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