Shivani Apartments @ Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai

Click here to read the Shivani June-2010 Newsletter

The 5th Annual General body Meeting (AGM) of Shivani Owners’ Association (SOA) will be conducted on Sunday 27th July 2010 at 3:30 PM in the community hall of Block-III of Shivani. The following business is planned to be carried out during the AGM.

1. Presentation of Annual Report of activities of the association.

2. Presentation and adoption of Annual Accounts and Budget.

3. Election of off-bearers and members for the Managing Committee (MC) of SOA for the next term.

4. Appointment of Auditor / renewal of term.

5. Discussion on the following issues leading to members’ decision on further course of action. Issues c to h are pending from the last EGM.

a. Four Amendments to Shivani Bye-Laws. (See website / notice boards). These amendments could be considered before election subject to approval of members.

b. One Resolution on creation of Emergency Corpus Fund. (See website / notice boards)

c. Collection of deposit from New Tenants while moving in.

d. Use of lift for moving heavy items.

e. Late fee payable in case of delay in payments.

f. Id cards for servants, drivers, regular vendors, etc.

g. Only one car can be parked in one allotted space.

h. Block-2 & 3 members to pay separately for use of hot water boilers.

i. Additional issues for the consideration of next MC : Repairing cracks in buildings & repainting, Controlling Dove Menace, Extension of Fire-hydrant, Leakage from A/cs, Fixing broken name boards, Fixing grill gates to improve security, Removal of School Advertisement board at the entrance.

j. Measures to improve service by the Facility Manager.

k. Annual Budget and collection of fund for the Financial year 2010-11.

Any member who wishes to discuss any matter during the AGM is requested to submit a written request to the President of SOA on or before 24th June.

Nominations are requested from the members of the association for the positions of : One each of President, Vice-President, Secretary, Joint Secretary, Treasurer and 6 Committee Members. There could be a change in the constitution of MC if the proposed amendments are passed in the AGM. Self nomination is allowed. Last date for submission of your nominations by 24th June 10.

If more than one nomination is received for a post, election will be conducted as per the bye-laws of the association. Every owner will have only one vote during the election. As per the bye-laws of SOA, only permanent members (Owners) can be nominated for the position of office-bearers. Any resident, whether a permanent member or tenant, can be nominated as a committee member. Tenants can vote only upon presentation of a written proxy from the owner of his / her apartment. Tenants may please this notice to their respective Owners.

All members are welcome to the AGM. Strictly no children please ! High tea will be served at the end of the AGM. Punctual Attendance will be greatly appreciated.

DRAFT AMENDMENTS & RESOLUTIONS

Amendment -1:

The issues of whether a corpus fund is required, its purpose and its quantum were discussed in more than one AGM / EGM as well as MC meetings but no consensus has emerged. Also recently when an emergency expense was required to replace a pump, the provisions in the bye-laws were not clear about handling it. Hence the following amendment to the bye-laws is recommended.

Text to be added as Clause 70 (g) : A sum of Three Lakh Rupees (Rs.300,000) will be collected and set aside in bank deposits as Emergency Corpus Fund. This fund can be used only for unplanned emergency expenses related to supply of water, electricity, lifts and building safety which cannot wait for an approval in a general-body meeting. Any amount utilized out of this fund should be replenished before the end of the following August. Decisions that have huge financial implications like Purchase of water, replacement of major equipments like generator, etc. cannot be considered as emergencies. Amounts required for every other expense will be subject to clauses 70.e and 70.f of the Bye-laws.

Amendment-2:

In the last 4 years it has been noticed that it was difficult to fill the 11 positions in the MC and hence an amendment to clause 27 of the Bye-laws was passed in AGM-2009 to ensure formation of MC when less than 11 members volunteer. Also even when there are 11 members in the MC, not all MC members regularly participate in MC meetings and association activities. Hence the following amendment to clause 25 of the Bye-laws is proposed. (If Amendment-2 is accepted, minor changes are required in clause 27 also to correct the numbers)

Replace the Text of Clause 25 by : The Managing Committee shall consist of 7 members and shall comprise of the President, Secretary, Joint Secretary and Treasurer (who shall be collectively known as office-bearers), the rest being Committee members. In addition, the Managing Committee will be assisted by an Advisory Committee of 6 members, 2 from each block of Shivani, in matters that require wider consultation and / or a large expense.

Replace the Text of Clause 25 by: The members in an Annual General Body meeting shall elect the Managing Committee and Advisory Committee. An elected Management Committee will retire at the next Annual General Body meeting where as the elected Advisory Committee shall retire at the Annual General Body meeting after a term of 3 years. Retiring members are eligible for re-election subject to their fulfilling the criteria for eligibility. Any vacancy in the Advisory Committee arising out of a resignation can be filled in the next Annual General Body meeting till the end of the term.

Replace the Text of Clause 43 by: Working of the Committees :

a. The Management Committee members shall assist the Office-bearers in all respects.

b. The Management Committee is required to consult the Advisory Committee on matters that involve huge expenses as discussed in clause 70 of the bye-laws and matters that are NOT day-to-day in nature and are important. The collective vote of all the members should be considered in such cases.

c. The Advisory Committee shall not take up any other routine tasks of Managing Committee as defined elsewhere in the Bye-laws unless requested by the Managing Committee.

Resolution-1 :

Quite a lot of practical difficulties were faced in collecting money from residents and accounting it in the past years. Hence the following resolution is recommended : “In one financial year, the MC should collect a single amount for all type of budgeted expenses and amounts can be set aside from the total collection. A separate membership fee may not be collected anymore”.

New Gates

After years of discussion and months of planning, finally we have the gates in place at the ECR entrance / exit of SHIVANI. They are in place and operational since over a month now. The gates are designed as a pair consisting of a small gate for pedestrians / 2-wheelers and a large gate for 4-wheelers on either side.

We have provided a spacious cabin (4 x 6.5) on either side with dual lookout windows, fan and an intercom connection. A watchman is posted at each gate to operate it as per the newly published guidelines. In the initial month, the operation is observed to be smooth and have eased out quite a few of the earlier issues. However, the issues due to haphazard parking on the ECR is still a concern, as it is territory beyond our control.

Parking & Sign Boards

The gates alone may not have given much power to the watchmen in ensuring compliance of the newly posted rules. To enable this we have placed professionally made, reflective sign boards giving directions about the direction of traffic, exits, no-entry, no-parking, no-smoking, speed-limit, etc. at strategic locations. At least an attempt is made by the watchmen in promulgating these rules but a lot more is to be done to make the residents and visitors to comply.

Also the parking spaces around block-1 have been remarked in the direction of the traffic and named clearly. Work is underway to provide exclusive cycle and two-wheeler parking spaces in blocks-2 and 3.

Garden

You would remember that last year we cleared the one side of the garden and installed net to enable children play badminton, volleyball and cricket. We have now aded three concrete benches with Granite tops, a light and a small fence to add beauty. Now we see a lot of activity in the garden till even 8:00 pm.

In last year’s AGM we had deliberated and decided that the children should play only in the ground. This was decided in view of the safety of the children as well as the safety of the property. Recently some of the children were noticed attempting to climb into one of the balconies using a ladder to retrieve a ball.

As I have received written requests from the elderly residents about the issues caused by children playing in the areas between the blocks, I am left with no option except to restrict children from playing in areas other than the garden, though I am in fully in favour of promoting children’s activities.

On my part I have ensured that one side of the ground is cleared for this purpose last year. To help them play cricket, I have given two suggestions to Mr.K.V.Subramanian and Mr.Sudhir Rao. I urge parents of boys who play cricket to discuss with them and confirm whether they want to implement any of those suggestions.

President, SOA Date : 18th May 2010

The issue of power shortage in Tamilnadu should be a well known to everyone. But what you may not know is that though we are having nearly continuous power supply in Shivani, we are getting very low voltage of power. This has been causing numerous issues including frequent blow out of fuses.

Being summer season, many of the residents are using Air-conditioner particularly in the afternoons and nights. This draws high power resulting in frequent melt down of nearly a half-inch thick clamps and fuse wires. This happens more frequently in Block-3. There was a total outage for about 12 hours from the night of Thursday, 13th May due to this. Consequently, the consumption of diesel for generators has increased since over a month.

The only way we can reduce this problem, if not eliminate it fully, is to observe the following measures to the extent possible :

1. Power off the wall switches of all appliances like TV, Microwave, chimney, computer, Geiser, etc. when not in use. Putting them in standby mode consumes at least 25% power of normal use.

2. Use lesser number of lights when possible.

3. Try to use fewer Air-conditioners by accommodating more people in the same room. Switch-off stabilizer when not in use. Ensuring that the windows are closed without gaps and filters are cleaned will save lot of power.

4. It has been determined that a few of the HRC fuses (3 are situated below your meter boxes) have blown out. This has resulted in some of you using power from only one phase leading to stress on that phase. You may not know it until your apt’s main fuse blows out or your main switch trips frequently. Our supervisor Suresh has a list of such apts. You have to pay for replacing this fuse, to ensure that you get uninterrupted power.

5. All the lifts of Blocks-2 & 3 will remain closed between 11:00 PM and 5:00 AM. In case of emergency call the security at 4205 6172 (Block-2) or 4205 6173 (Block-3).

Hope by initiating these self-control measures we can collectively tide over the common problem till the summer is out of our way.

President, SOA Date : 18th May 2010