Theos-Talk Archives (February 1997 Message tl00276)

At 05:54 PM 2/11/97 -0500, you wrote:
>
>MKD wrote
>>Some years ago the Charter of Canadian Section was cancelled.
>
>Thanks for this information on the Canadian Section.  I am very curious
>about this situation because of the outcome of it at my Lodge.  The story we
>hear is that the Canadian section and some country in Europe (Belgium or
>Denmark - not sure which ) have been taken over by the Shantara Group
>(spelling unknown).
>
>This has been used as a big stick for many years of changes to our
>constitution which has resulted in us having a constitution which
>effectively creates and supports a closed shop. At each AGM we have more
>rules changes making the constitution more and more complex and
>disenfranchinsing members more and more, and if anyone speaks against these
>changes, the big bogey of a "takeover" is raised and the changes are
>promptly voted in.
>
>So, I would very much like to have as much knowledge of this as possible so
>that I can counteract the fear mongering.  Does anyone know the "human" side
>of this (and the European  situation) other than the facts as presented in
>the article?
>
>Christine

Can you tell us the key aspects of the changes recently put in in your Section.

In the USA, last year changes were approved. Several knowledgeable attorneys
feel that these changes cannot stand a court challenges since the procedures
adopted for changing the bylaws were defective.

Also after the changes, several members lost their franchise retroactively.
These are the same members who had cast the ballot for the change. The
changes were presented to make them appear as if they were simple general
housekeeping even though they are very substantial. I wish you were on
theos-l during the last quarter of 1995 when there was intense discussion on
these changes. For your benefit and those newbees I am giving a brief
general summary of the changes and other developments in the USA.

At this time, the following are the situation (even though may not stand a
court challenge -- of course the HQ has a multi-million dollar fund which
can be used to litigate for ever).

1. The National Board can throw out any member.

2. The National Board can cancell the charter of any lodge, center and
immediately seize the assets.

3. The National Board has to approve each and every expenditure at each and
every lodge and center before they can spend $5,000 or over for any purpose.

4. The National Board has to approve any borrowing against Lodge, study
center property.

5. The National Board and or Adyar can shut down the Section. Once this is
done, all charters of lodges and study centers are automatically cancelled,
which immediately triggers seizure of assets.

6. Once this happens, all assets go into a Trust governed by Trustees who
are not answerable to anyone. (There is precedence to this kind of Trustees
not answerableness  to anyone -- Krishnamurti Trusts did that and the
Attorney General of California had to sue the Trust and Trustees so that
Krishnamurti can use it for his work -- this happened when Krishnamurti was
*alive*)

So everything is in place if a need arises, to shut down the entire Section
and roll over all the assets into this Trust.

In addition to the above, following are significant other items that seem to
indicate the direction in which things are moving in the US.

1. Now all new lodges and centers are initially granted a probationary
charter. They have to prove to the satisfaction of the National Board that
the activities are "Theosophical" in their (NB) judgement and opinion. Only
after such a probationary period, a regular charter is issued.

2. An Institute has been set up to teach Theosophy. (Wonder who can teach
anyone Theo-sophia -- Divine Wisdom when even worldly wisdom is difficult to
teach).

At this time it is staffed mostly PhDs, (not yet by PhDs in Theosophy). Now
only a certificate is issued. Nobody should be surprised if in the future
you see this certificate is a requirement to hold any office even at local
level. May be in due course we will have Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate in
Theosophy -- D Theos, not unlike DD. One of these degrees may become a
minimum requirement for any National Office. I am not a mind reader so I do
not know what is cooking. These are just *my* thoughts.

3. We now have *approved* National Lecturers who are the only ones who can
travel and lecture at TSA expense. No one knows what the pre-requisite for
approval. So only *approved* Theosophy is spread thru these Approved
National Lecturers.

4. We also heard that some years ago that some of the libraries were
cleansed of books which do not present TS in a good light.

5. Some months back, in an official publication, a new invention/discovery
has been made/proposed. We all have heard if three Objects of TS. Now it is
the three aims of TS. These aims appear to suggest that TS is the recruiting
ground for chelas for gurus. The advantage of this approach is that once
this concept is accepted by any one, he/she can be expected to follow the
party line and can't speak his/her mind without some consequences.

6. Looks like what typical orthodox religions and cults have done in the past.

I would like to have feed back from the subscribers from other countries, on
what kinds of developments are seen so that we can see if there is an
International  pattern developing.


MKR


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