A Proposal for the Constitution of the Devendrakulam Social Organization

 

The purpose of the Devendrakulam Social Organization is to

 

  1. Help Devendrakulam people to grow Economically, socially and politically
  2. Create awareness about the history and tradition of Devendrakulam

 

 

The idea to propose the following constitution is to give fair chance, to as many people as possible, to get the involvement of as many people as possible, to bring forth the talents of as many people as possible and to create a true democracy.

 

The people holding office of Devendrakulam Social organization can use its influence and means to grow economically, socially and politically with the appropriate right conduct but cannot hold two positions at the same time. For example a person can be the President of the Devendrakulam social organization and use its influence to achieve political upcoming say to become the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu but cannot hold the post of President of Devendrakulam social organization as well as Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, similarly cannot be a Director to the Devendrakulam social organization and at the same time cannot be a MLA of a Assembly constituency, etc.

 

The Devendrakulam Social Organization will have the following position with the duration (tenure) for each position as given below. Any one holding office position of the Devendrakulam Social Organization should be born members of Devendrakulam community. (The Constitution should be evaluated and amended as needed every 7 years. Once the Constitution is accepted and is in place, any flaw or need for change in the following 9 items should be written with reason but cannot be modified immediately.

At the 7th year all the proposals for change should be discussed / debated by the governing council, directors and any willing participants of the Devendrakulam community and with 70% approval of all participants the items can be modified which will then be the new / modified Constitution for the next 7 years. The idea behind not modifying any ‘proposals for change’ immediately is to prevent any inflammatory short-sided ideas. Moreover any plan or set of rules takes time to show its effects. Frequent changes in rules will hinder the steady long-term objectives. A period of 7 years is good duration to know if a set of rules work to achieve the desired results.)  

 

The same structure will be available at the National, State, District and Village level.

 

  1. An elected President whose tenure will be for a period of 3 years and can hold the position / office for only one term. (A term for the President is for 3 years)

 

  1. The President can choose

A Vice-President

A Treasurer

A Secretary and

Two assistants of his / her choice that should not be his close relatives (like Spouse, Parents, Siblings cousins and in-laws)

{By the above structure the President can give his best for a period of 3 years and during this 3 year period he / she can do the things what he /she deems right without the concern of being re-elected as he /she can be the President only for one term of 3 years. As the President can choose the Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary and two assistants of his choice whom the President deems can work efficiently with him / her, the President can provide maximum output. But in order to prevent wrong doings of the President the Board of Directors are available as given below}

 

  1. There will be 15 Board of Directors (Representatives).

The Directors should not be close relatives to one-another and not close relative to the President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary.

 

  1. The Directors will be elected on a yearly basis and can hold the post for a maximum of 7 years (Each term for a Director is one year).

 

  1. There will be 20 Advisors to the governing council (President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary) and representatives (Directors).

 

  1. Each Director, President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary can appoint an Advisor. The choice of advisor can be anyone whom the appointer (President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary and Directors), thinks will help in the good decision and direction of the organization. (15 by each Director + 1 by President + 1 by Vice-President + 1 by Treasurer + 1 by Secretary = 19 Advisors. The out going president will be an Advisor until the next President fills his post when his /her term ends as President)

 

  1. A person cannot hold more than one post on a given time duration.

 

  1. Any policy can be proposed by a Director, President, Vice-President, Treasurer or Secretary and has to be approved by 70 % of the Directors (11 out of 15) and approved by the President.

 

  1. If 70% of Directors did not agree on a proposal then the cause of the disagreement should be analyzed and the original policy amended to get the approval of more than 70% of directors and then once again approved by the President. If the President did not agree then once again the President’s amendments should be included and approved by 70% Directors and finally approved by President.

  

 

 

 

The rules of the above constitution were made with the following consideration.

 

1.      Absolute power corrupts any human.

2.      A person in office (President) has more advantage, in several ways, than a person not holding office. Hence a one-term limit (a term     for President is 3 years) for the President will prevent this unfair advantage. This limitation will give opportunity for many and also bring about   the best from the President as he / she has the pressure to do what he / she wants to accomplish within this 3 years and won’t be laid back f     or these 3 years, since if he / she misses this opportunity he /she is not going to get it again.

3.      Belief in true Democracy

4.      Belief in shared and equal opportunity and responsibility.

5.      To give opportunity to as many people as possible.

 

   

 

In order for the Devendrakulam Social Organization to function well and to help progress the people of the community

 

  1. A rupee should be collected from every adult over the age of 16 years every month. 40% of the money should be used in the village level, 30% of the money should be used in the district level, 20% at the State level, 5% at National and 5% at International level. The income and expenditure should be well documented and made available through the Internet for anyone in the community to review it.

There by the accounts will be transparent, avoid corruption, give more public confidence and any money spent ineffectively or at higher cost can be improved by people who have better ways of doing it the next time.

  1. A Devendrakulam Professional Organization should be created. Any one from the Devendrakulam community above the age of 45 and below 70 with at least a Bachelors Degree or Diploma can be a Member of the ‘Devendrakulam Professional Organization’. Members of the ‘Devendrakulam Professional Organization’ can be collected a memebership fee of Rupees 100 every year. Part of this money can be used for rendering services to them while they provide service to the Community. (E.g. Making letter heads, Business cards with the Devendrakulam emblem, Buying common pull transportation for their travel when they provide service, Organizing lectures etc)
  2. The expertise of the Devendrakulam Professional Organization should be used in every possible means. As example to built roads, to built schools, homes, water tanks, to build hospitals, to give tuitions, to help build business, to organize common pool farming with the use of modern agricultural equipments, to clean roads using modern equipments, to provide electricity through Solar, wind and other energy means, to organize common pool business parks, to help people study and work at foreign countries etc.

 

 

 

 

 

Guidelines for electing the President at the State and National Level:

 

Initially as the organization is not strong and do not have much participation in the State and National level, the village and district level organization should be made stronger by forming an organization at every district and every village that has Devendrakulam people. The President and Directors for each District and village should be elected and the organization mobilized. Then the State level and Nation level elections should be held. A person that can contest for the post of President at State and National level should have been a President or Vice-President or Treasurer or Secretary or Advisor or Director at the District or Village level for at least 2 years at some period of time in the past.

 

The elections will be held once every 3 years for the post of President on the same week of year (Say First week of March). The polling will be open for 6 days of the first week of March and the votes will be counted on the Sunday and results known by Sunday night. The newly elected President and executive committee will take office on the first week of April. This will help the smooth transition of office.

 

The person that received the largest number of votes will be the President.

 

The person that received 2nd and 3rd largest number of votes will become a Director each in the 15 Director positions.

 

The out going President will become an Advisor as stated earlier.

 

All people of Devendrakulam community should be encouraged to vote so as to get at most 100% participation.

 

Other than the people contesting for the post of President there will be one more name in the ballot called ‘No confidence on any one’. A person can vote for this fictitious person if he / she does not have confidence on any of the contesting candidates.

 

The number / percentage of votes given to ‘No confidence on any one’ can be used to decide on curtailing the power of the President. (As an example if the candidate with the most number of votes for President received only 40% of the overall votes, the candidate with the 2nd largest number of votes for President received only 30% of the overall votes, the candidate with the 3rd largest number of votes for President received only 5% of the overall votes and the ‘No confidence on any one’ received remaining 25% of the votes then it indicates something different compared to say if the candidate with the most number of votes for President received only 80% of the overall votes, the candidate with the 2nd largest number of votes for President received only 15% of the overall votes, the candidate with the 3rd largest number of votes for President received only 2% of the overall votes and the ‘No confidence on any one’ received remaining 3% of the votes. To accommodate the percentage of confidence on the President elect the powers of the President should be curtailed or expanded. But as this is a new Organization this aspect of curtailing or increasing the power of President based on the pergentage of votes received can be left out for now and can be introduced in the later years when the next Constitution amendment is debated every 7 years.)