February 13, 2004

Brothers and Sisters in Islam Assalamu Alaikum


The MCA General Body Meeting was held on Sunday, Feb 8th. The Executive Committee and the Board of Trustees gave a presentation about the progress made last year and the plans for the upcoming year. A detailed annual report (available from the General Secretary) was presented and accepted at the meeting.

The meeting was unfortunately dominated by an hour long discussion - not on the future of MCA - but on a motion to extend free membership until the end of February instead of the one day that was announced on December 5th, 2003. After a long discussion, a few other motions were presented. The final motion passed was to revoke the free membership provided last Friday, and to set the membership fee for this year to be $25. Besides a couple of other questions, there was no other discussion at the meeting.

It is extremely unfortunate that we as a community focus on the most minute issue and make a mountain of a mole hill. It is very easy to de-motivate the volunteers who devote their time selflessly - by not following the proper process in discussing these issues - the proper process being to bring issues of concern to the Executive Committee.

As we move forward, the Executive Committee is focused on establishing a Shura, creating the MCA Activity Center, updating the constitution to involve more women and youth, and to help the educational institutions at MCA get to the next level. Meetings of MCA Executive Committee (Tue 7 PM) and Board of Trustees (Tue 8:30 PM) are open to all members. We urge you to bring any issues to these boards. Unfortunately we are not very good mind readers. We need to know the concerns of the community if we are to address them.

Razi Mohiuddin
MCA President