Back to Base - Dubai
11th AGM Report
Shahid
Sangani
COO
– WMO
What better place to have the
11th AGM of the WMO other than Dubai, the Founding City of WMO 11 years
ago - A Young City full of Energy, Confident of its Future and Making a Name for
itself in the Global Stage, a story very similar to WMO
After a lot of hectic
planning and last minute preparation the curtains opened for the 11th
AGM on 16th Nov 2013 with a few side line meetings held at J.W.
Marriot in Deira, Dubai
Day 1 - 16th Nov 2013
International Ladies Wing
As the saying goes “Ladies
First” and so it was with a meeting of the WMO Ladies under the auspicious of
the International Ladies Wing (ILW) and chaired by the ILW Chairperson Ms Hawa
Abdullah of Pakistan. Over 40 ladies from India, Pakistan, Canada, UAE, Sri
Lanka, UK and South Africa took part in this discussion
The agenda for the day was
the review of the various projects done at the Chapter levels, share best
practices and experiences, critically examine the success of the International
Projects and chart the future of the ILW.
After a lot of talk, cross
talk and excitement the following projects were identified for 2014
} Children with Special Needs – Continue and
expand further
} Memon Connections – Continue and expand
further
} International Trade Exhibition - To be held
in Dubai in March’14. Promote Trade & Craft of Memon Ladies and give them
opportunities for Networking and Business Promotions
} Job Portal – Initiated by the Middle East
Chapter and to be linked to the WMO Website once developed
} Memon Language (Memoni) Promotion by Ladies
at all Chapters
} Memon Directory - Initiated by the Middle
East Chapter to create a Business Network Directory
} International Qirath Competition – A
project of WMO ME Ladies Wing in Memory of Mohammed Ghazi Vahedna
International Youth Wing
Next it was the time for the
Youth. Over 30 Young Ladies and Gents from all parts of the world meet under
the Chairmanship of Arsalan Nara to chart their future action plan under the
IYW.
The Youth Charter which has
been a work in Progress for the past 6 month was presented to the Youth and
this was unanimously approved by all present
Thereafter after much deliberation
the following projects were identified for 2014 and beyond
} WMO Website &
Social Media - An IT committee to be formed with
representation from each chapter which shall be responsible for maintenance and
updates of the WMO International Web Site and activate all Social Media
Networks. Wasim Carrim of South
Africa to lead this initiative.
} Create a Job Portal
as the 1st step towards Future Youth Exchange Program
} International
Youth Conference:
} When : 3 days before the AGM
} Where : Same Venue as AGM
(Hosted by the same Chapter)
} Days : 2 days
} Frequency : Annually
} 2014 Theme : “Language and Culture”
} Sports
} Cricket - Memon
Premier League, to be held every 3 years. Next tournament
in 2016, Next Host?
} Indoor Sports - Together
with IYC, 3-4 Sports with
separate sports for Ladies and Gents
Governance Committee
The WMO Governance Committee
which was formed at the BOM meeting held in Feb’13 in Colombo to review the
overall Structure of the WMO and to make recommendations to make WMO more
effective and transparent and be in line with similar International
Organizations met late evening to the finalize the proposal for submission to
the BOT and BOM.
With Yunus Suleman of South
Africa in the Chair, proposal based on the many Conference Calls, and legal
advice was drafted for BOM and BOT approval.
GOV COM RECOMENDATIONS
} Retain
WMO CF and change name to “WMO”
and dissolve the present WMO (WMO Assets are taken over by WMO CF)
} Board
of Trustees
} Only all Fully Paid up Trustees will form
the Board of Trustees
} Role/Powers - Hold All Assets of WMO, Elect
the WMO OB with the Chapter nominees. Fund Raising – Zakath and Lillah ,
Oversight Advisory role on the BOM – Bi Annual Reporting by BOM
} Board
of Management
} Consist of 3 nominees from each
Chapter + 2 additional members each from India and Pakistan. The
Chapter Chairman (VP) shall be one of the above
} Fully Paid Trustees + the Chapter Nominees
shall elect the Office Bearers from the nominees. (President, Dep Pre, Sec Gen,
ASG , Treasurer and Asst Treasurer)
} Any nominee elected as an OB of the WMO
shall resign all post in the Chapter
} Country/Cluster
Chapter
} Only Fully Paid Trustees and Patrons will
be members of the Chapter BOM
} No other change in the current
Structures/Powers
Dhow Cruise - International Youth
Wing
A
special Dhow Cruise for all the Youth attending the AGM was arranged by the ME
Youth Wing and Sponsored by the WMO. The event was attended by 46 people from
all across the world with Pakistan, India & Middle East forming the bulk of
the audience. The event provided an opportunity to the Memon Youth across the
world to meet others and share their views and ideas. The main motive behind
arranging a dhow cruise was to have fun plus work towards globalization which
is one of the Key focus areas of the IYW. The event had a mix of some very
experienced community workers and some very new to the cause which allowed all to
learn from each other.
The
event started with forming of 7 groups with random nationalities and given one
topic each to brainstorm among the group members and come up with detailed
answer. The man of the moment was Mr. Altaf Vayani from Pakistan Chapter
who sang a song in Memoni to portray the need to keep the Memoni language
alive. The discussion ended with all groups sharing their views, followed by
dinner
This
cruise gave the opportunity for many youth in the community to make new friends
and come together as one group for service under the wings of WMO
Day 2 - 17th Nov 2013
Day 2 was the time to begin
the formal business of the AGM with the Board of Trustee (BOT) meeting of WMO
CF scheduled for morning and Board of Management (BOM) meeting of WMO scheduled
for the afternoon
Board of Trustee Meeting – WMO CF
The BOT meeting was held at
10.00AM at the J.W. Marriott, Deira Dubai chaired by the WMO CF Chairman Mr
Suleiman Noor Mohamed (Solly Noor)
As always, Solly Bha
emphasized the need to increase the Zakath Collection of WMO in order to meet
the bare necessities of hundreds of Memon’s living in parts of India and
Pakistan in poverty while we live and meet in 5 Star comforts. Zakath is our
commitment to Allah (SWT), and by no means a favor we do anybody and we need to
set our sights higher and go for bigger bolder targets for collection.
Trustee Fee Update &
Usage, ARY Buy Back settlements, Memon Medical Institute and Zakath were some
of the important points of discussions which were deliberated and future
actions agreed. Yunus Suleman Chairman Gov Com presented the draft proposal for
the re-organization of WMO and WMO CF which was unanimously approved by the
BOT.
Board of Management Meeting - WMO
After a sumptuous lunch
sponsored by Shaikhani Group the Board of Management Meeting under the
chairmanship of Abdul Satar Dada, President WMO was held at the same venue.
All Chapters presented their Annual
Reports for 2012 and these were followed by presentation by the Ladies and
Youth Wings on their past achievements and future plans.
These were once again
followed by the Gov Com presentation by Yunus Suleman which was also approved
unanimously by the BOM
The days preceding ended with
a Dinner hosted for all delegates by Shabbir Merchant (Trustee, Middle East)
and Mr Majid Ranani (Trustee, India)
Day 3 – 18th Nov 2013
Day 3 was the time for the
actual AGM meetings of both the organizations
Annual General Assembly Meeting of the WMO
The 11th AGM of
the WMO with Abdul Satar Dada President in the chair saw the participation of
over 150 Members and Well Wishers of the WMO
An important highlight of the
meeting was the address by Dr Muhammad Farooq Sattar, Parliamentary Leader for
MQM in the National Assembly, Lower House of Pakistani Parliament. A prominent
Social worker in Karachi, Pakistan, Dr Sattar a proud Memon himself requested
the WMO to Think Global and Act Local in the era of Global economy to utilize
the natural inborn talents of the Memon’s world over. Calling WMO, a Weapon of
Mass Ornaments, Dr. Sattar offered a
plot of land in city of Hyderabad to build a Cardiac Hospital for Sindh
province. He requested the WMO to create a future Road map of 10-30 years to
make the community – “Denevala athe, not
lenevala athe”
Suleman Noor mohamed (Solly
Noor), thanking Dr Sattar for the land offer, accept the offer to build a cardiac
Hospital in Hyderabad and requested the Pakistan Chapter to start working on a
project plan for same
Once again the Gov Com
proposals were presented and unanimously accepted by the house.
Mr Yunus Suleman (Trustee)
was appointed as the Election Commissioner to conduct the WMO elections for
2014 and Karachi Pakistan was selected as the venue for the 12th AGM
with tentative dates fixed as 14th and 15th June 2014
The meeting was concluded
after Appreciation Awards presentations by Middle East Chapters to the Office
Bearers of WMO and WMO CF and Prominent Members/Well Wishers of the Middle East
Chapter
Annual General Meeting of the WMO CF
The 11th AGM of
the WMO CF followed immediately after the WMO AGM with Chairman Suleman Noor
mohamed in the chair.
All chapters confirmed the
2013 Zakath Commitments will be completed in full and further agreed to an
increase of 20% in the 2014 Zakath Commitment, accordingly the commitment by
each Chapter for 2014 is as following
} Africa US$
600,000/
} Europe US$
360,000/
} Far East US$
240,000/
} India US$
720,000/
} Middle East US$
480,000/
} Pakistan US$
720,000/
TOTAL US$
3,120,000/
The disbursement at 50/50 was
decided to be disbursed between India and Pakistan and accordingly each Chapter
will be getting $1.56M for their respective Zakath Projects.
The Lunch was hosted for all
delegates by German Property House
Memon Traditional Dinner and Mini Trade Exhibition
Hassan and Memoona Darvesh
very generously agreed to host all the delegates to a Traditional Memon Dinner
at their Villa in Jumera where a Mini Trade Exhibition organized by the Middle
East Ladies Wing was also held
Over 10 stalls exhibited and
sold various hand craft produced by Memon Ladies/Organizations from India,
Pakistan, South Africa, Middle East and Sri Lanka. This gave the delegates an
opportunity to pick up some beautiful handcraft items at reasonable prices. But
more importantly this was also an opportunity for lady entrepreneurs in the
community to network & make business contact and at the same time show case
their creative and business acumen.
The guests were entertained
by 2 hilarious standup comedy acts, the first one being our very own Memon duet
of Sana Fayz (Daughter of Memoona Darvesh) & Aamir
Majeed Latif which was followed by Salman
Qureshi a facilitator, trainer and a comedian rolled in one.
The Highlight of the evening
was the serving of a delicious Memon traditional dinner comprising of
traditional dishes such as “Dhokra”, “Akini” & “Keema”, etc. During the dinner time the guest were treated to
beautiful music of Mr.Bilal Patel, Pakistani Memon
Born with a visual impairment, who left with no alternative, has taken to
singing as a Profession.
Overall a very successful and
satisfying conclusion to the 11th AGM with some very important and critical
decisions and targets set as the WMO beginnings its second decade of service to
the community and humanity
Some of the Key decisions & Targets
} Implementation of the Governance Com
recommendation by the 12th AGM
} Establishment of the WMO Education
Endowment Fund in Pakistan with a target of PKR 1.0B to offer loans for Higher
Education
} Setting up of a committee to publish the
Memon English Dictionary
} Mandate given to Investment Com on the
disposal of Dubai Properties
} 2nd Edition of MPL to be held in
UK in 2015
} 2nd IYC to be held with the next
AGM
} Memon Business and Job Portals to be
created
} WMO Website and Social Media to be managed
by the Youth Wing
} International Ladies Trade Exhibition
} Proposal to be submitted by WMO PC for
establishment of a Cardiac Hospital in city of Hyderabad
} Expansion of MITI with one additional Floor
to increase the No of Course on offer and increase the student intake
} 2014 Zakath target of US$ 3,120,000.
A heart
congratulation and appreciation to the Middle East Chapter for a Job Well Done.
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