Dear Chayan,
It is indeed very nice of you, as a well wisher of Sangam, to try to get everyone into the Sangam fold. Your thoughts and deeds now, as well as at our picnic, are very much appreciated.
I would like to start with saying, Sangam has no grievances against anyone and welcomes everyone as members. The members can then get nominated by any fellow member and be elected to any of the Sangam Organizing Committee positions at the open elections every two years at the picnic. Sangam is absolutely transparent in all its operations and every member has a right to all information. He or she just has to make a request. Sangam follows its by-laws and regulations to the letter, and files tax returns each year to IRS.
Let me respond to your suggestions with some pointed statements:
1. In any community organization, it is not possible to fully satisfy
each and every one, however it broadly addresses the aspirations of the community at large.
2. No organization founded on established principles, where members put in their selfless hard work voluntarily for its viability and success, will allow certain disgruntled people, who are non-members and have vested interests, to take over the organization or dictate terms to the organization.
3. There will be some in a community who can never be satisfied, however much you may try, but will from time to time foment unpleasant situations . Such non-members cannot make demands of an organization which they have decided to shun for their best personal reasons.
4. Some people with vested interests are spreading incorrect facts about Sangam in an effort to destroy the goodwill that people, like you, have for Sangam. We have also learnt that some amongst them have been using unethical means to pressurize people to act in a particular way.
5. We do feel Sangam, a 16 year old organization, will ride over such motives, with the support of its members. Sangam, all of a sudden, cannot just circumvent its established rules, regulations and by-laws to appease these people.
6. Some of the senior most members of the community, who are also Sangam founder members, have clearly expressed to this nebulous group of their commitment to Sangam.
7. Finally, as a president of Sangam, may I assure you, Sangam is open to discuss any and everything under the sun with any member/s of the community at
any of the monthly Sangam Organizing Committee meetings, subject to a written request to the organizing committee - e-mail address:
sangam_...@hotmail.com
8. I hope you will appreciate Sangam's stand, which is based on principles, ethics and its own rules and regulations.
Thanks again for your e-mail and feel free to e-mail me or call me if you have any further comments or clarifications.
Bhalo theko.
RANJANADI
Debasish, Ranjandi,
Though I normally don’t get involved in any dispute, I am sending you this email because I feel that we should try at least one more time to resolve the differences between Sangam and KCBA before you decide to continue as two separate Bengali organizations. I feel that instead of talking about the past differences, we should take a few forward looking steps to resolve the differences and reunite so that we can have better cultural and entertainment programs.
I would like to request you to consider the following as the steps towards reunification:
1. Debasish identifies five to ten things that need to happen for KCBA to reunite with Sangam. These things should be reasonable, specific and actionable. For example, Debasish may say that Sangam should open their meetings to any Sangam member instead of saying Sangam needs to be transparent. 2. Ranjandi identifies five to ten specific things that are non-negotiable. For example, Ranjandi may say that Sangam will never change its name and take KCBA’s
name. 3. A three or five member committee formed with neutral committee elders like Anandada decides which of Debashish’s or Ranjandi’s suggestions are not reasonable and removes them from the list of discussion items. 4. The same neutral committee mediates a meeting between a few key members of Sangam and KCBA to go over the list for determining whether a majority of these issues can be resolved. 5. Hopefully, Sangam and KCBA will be able to resolve the majority of the issues and continue as one Bengali community. If they can’t, though it will be unfortunate, we will have to accept that there will be three Bengali organizations in the Kansas City area.
Finally, I believe that the reunification effort will work only if both of you are willing to forget the past and want to reunite. I hope that you can move past your differences so that we can have a united Bengali community capable of providing better cultural, entertainment, and religious services to all Bengalis in the Kansas City area.
Would it be possible for you to respond to this email by the end of this week letting everyone know which direction you want to take?
Can both of you please let me know whether you received this email?
Thanks for listening.
Sincerely,
CD (Chayan Dasgupta)
913 706 8716
