F ORMER STUDENT’S
A SSCOCIATION OF
S SM POLYTECHNIC
T IRUR

MINUTES OF THE MEETING

FAST-UAE’s 3rd annual general body meeting was held on 25th May 2007 in Basma

auditorium in Sharjah. The meeting started at 11:00 am. Main agenda of the meeting was

to elect a new central committee.

Following members were present on the dais:

Mr. Raveendran (President)

Mr. Subramanian (Vice President)

Mr. Abdul Hameed (General Secretary)

Mr. Rajagopalan (Treasurer)

Around 100 members and their families were present for the meeting.

Registration was open at 9.30 am.

The meeting started with a silent prayer followed by the welcome speech by the General

Secretary and then followed with the presidential address. In his address, Mr. Raveendran

expressed his joy at some improvement in the committee’s activities but also stressed the

need to improve. He expressed his special thanks to those members from Abu Dhabi, Al

Ain, Fujairah, Khorfakkan, for their efforts to travel to Sharjah to attend the meeting. He

mentioned the reason behind conducting a family meet was to bring about a better rapport

and fraternity among the members. He also mentioned the possibilities of a business venture

by FAST and other welfare activities that can be carried out to improve the life of

SSMPTians in the UAE. He requested members’ continued co-operation to the future

committee.

The presidential address followed the report presentation by the general secretary, Mr.

Abdul Hameed. In his speech, he briefed the activities of the the committee and presented

the report which highlighted the achievements and short falls of the organization during the

past two years. He reported that the organization managed to contact 325 members.

The report was passed unanimously as there was no disagreement within the members.

Mr. Rajagopal, our treasurer, submitted the annual accounts. He summarized on the current

financial status of FAST. He said that until before this meeting the financial status was poor.

He urged the need to be more careful with the spending. He thanked all our sponsors viz

Heilbronn, Oasis Chenicals, Grand city Mall, Hepworth PME and Al Karama Glass &

Aliminium for their contribution towards the expenses for the meeting and the family gettogether.

He expressed his special gratitude to advisory board member Mr. Ameen. He

welcomed all the members and their families and requested the sincere co-operation of all

the members.

Mr. Raveendran asked if the accounts are acceptable to all members. After considering the

suggestion from Mr. Hassan Kutty that all the future accounts must audited before submitting

it in the general body, the accounts were accepted unanimously by the members.

The President then invited the members for their comments and suggestions during the

Question and Answer session. The following comments were raised by the members:

• Need for a dedicated website for FAST. Mr. Mohammed Iqbal was assigned the task

of building a website. He replied it will be made possible at the earliest.

• Mr.Shanavas asked for yearly address book – President accepted the suggestion.

He said soon we will release an address book with profiles and contact details of the

members, also with local information and advertisements which is a good source of

revenue

• A member suggested that we release yearly magazine. To this Mr. Raveendran

answered that there may be a few issues but assured to consider it anyway.

• Another member suggested that we have a CD instead of printed directory that can

be updated and also to create blogs.

Vote of thanks was given by Mr. Subramanian. He thanked the central committee members

one by one for their continued efforts and enthusiasm towards the improvement of FAST.

Advisory board members Mr.Balakrishnan, Mr.Dileep, Mr. Anwar Ameen were thanked for

their support and co-operation.

Sponsors of the event Grand City Mall (Mr. Ameen) and Heilbronn (Mr. Dileep) were given

special praise and for their support and encouragement. Sincere thanks was extended to

other sponsors Hepworth PME, Oasis Chenicals and Al Karam Glass & Aluminium, whose

contributions helped fund raising. He thanked the members for their suggestions.

Mr. Raveendran announced a few job vacancies for interested candidates.

With this Mr. Raveendran announced the general body election. Members were asked to

nominate and select candidates. Mr. Balakrishnan was chosen as the returning officer.

Election results are as follows:

President – Mr. Raveendran

Vice President – Mr. Hassan Kutty

General Secretary- Mr. Mohammed Iqbal

Treasurer – Mr. Rajagopalan

Auditor – K.P. Ali

Joint Secretary – Mr. Niyas

Joint Secretary – Mr. Rauf

Joint Secretary – Mr. Hafees

Social Secretary – Mrs. Roshna Iqbal

With this the meeting was dispersed. Sumptuous lunch was served after break and Friday

prayer.

Cultural programmes followed. In addition to the many games and activities for both adults

and children there were two professional singers performed to entertain the gathering. Prizes

were distributed among the winners. A Raffle draw was conducted with Television as first

prize, Digital camera as second prize, Mobile phone as third prize and wrist watch as fourth

prize.The winners collected their prizes.

As planned the day’s events were brought to an end at 5.30 pm.

CONSTITUTUTION

Name:
The name of the organization shall be Former Student’s association of S.S.M. Polytechnic Tirur. The name shall be referred in short as “FAST” U.A.E.

Introduction:
Seethi Sahib Polytechnic, Tirur is a pioneer institution established in the year 1962 at Tirur, Malappuram District, Kerala, a place most backward in education. This institution has played a significant role in the remarkable transformation of the educational status of the people as a whole and particularly ih this region. It ahs made immense contributions to the world of engineering by producing thousands of Technical Experts who later spread all over the world making their home away from home. FAST is an association of Engineers who have educated from Seethi Sahib memorial polytechnic, Tirur and residing in the United Arab Emirates.

Objectives:
The fundamental purpose of the association is to promote friendship and brotherhood among the former students who become members of FAST. Any former student of SSMPT residing in the UAE is eligible to become a member by enrolling his /her name in the list of members.

Other important objective is to keep a strong and continuous relationship with the Polytechnic, support the genuine development activities planned by the authorities of the institution.

Activities:
To attain above objectives, following activities shall be conducted for the members:

Establish a help line to provide job opportunities for jobless members and to their dependents.

Establish a Career Guidance Bureau to help the children of the members for their higher education in India and abroad after the Senior Secondary education.

Organize occasional get-together such as Iftar parties, Eid Meets, Onam feast etc. for the members and their families to promote mutual interaction.

Organize pleasure trips and tours exclusively for the members and their families in the UAE.

Keep close association with other organizations in the UAE, especially organizations based on educational activities to secure updated information and pass them to the members of FAST.

Arrange receptions to high dignitaries in the field of education and literature, visiting the UAE from time to time.

Organize activities to promote the high values of secularism and democracy by making awareness about the multicultural character of India.

Cooperate with other similar organizations by inviting them to FAST functions and by attending their functions on invitation.

Explore investment opportunities in India and in the UAE and pass the information to the members.

Make feasibility studies for profitable capital investment for new projects with the participation of FAST members and encourage them in the field of investments.

Managing Committee:

1. The governance of the association shall be vested upon the Managing Committee consists of 15 members as follows:

1. Hon. President
2. Hon. Vice President (Senior)
3. Hon. Vice President (Junior)
4. Hon. General Secretary
5. Hon. Secretary
6. Hon. Secretary
7. Hon. Treasurer
8. Hon. Asst. Treasurer
9. Hon. Member – Dubai
10. Hon. Member – Sharjah
11. Hon. Member - Abu Dhabi
12. Hon. Member – Alain
13. Hon. Member – Fujairah
14. Hon. Member – Ajman & Umm al Quwain
15. Hon. Member – Ras Al Khaimah

2. The Annual General body shall elect all the above posts.

3. The Managing Committee shall hold the office for a period of two calendar years (24 Calendar Months)

4. One third of the Managing Committee shall form a quorum

5. The notification of the meeting shall be made through telephone / e-mail / sms messages.

6. Special meetings can be convened with short notice as and when required.

7. The Managing Committee can nominate temporary sub-committee prior to any special activities to help the Managing Committee as and when required.

Bank Account:
1. A Joint bank account shall be opened in the name of the President, Secretary and the Treasurer.

2. Any income above AED 500 (UAE Dirham Five Hundred only) shall be remitted to th Bank account within seven days of the receipt. General Secretary can keep an amount of maximum SED 500 (UAE Dirham Five Hundred only), to meet any contingency operations of the association.

3. All payment exceed AED 500 (UAE Dirham Five Hundred) shall be made by cheques only.

4. All cheques shall be signed by any two of the officials i.e., President, General Secretary and the Treasurer in which the Treasurer’s signature is mandatory.

Duties and Functions of the Office Bearers:

1. President: President shall be the Chief Executive and the chief spokesman of the association. He shall preside over all the meetings of the association

2. Vice president: In the absence of the President, the Senior Vice President and in his absence, the Junior Vice President shall perform all the duties of the President in the capacity as Acting President. In the absence of the President and the Vice presidents, one of the members, chosen by the Managing committee shall preside over the meetings.

3. General Secretary: The General Secretary shall be the principal executive of the association and shall attend to all routine correspondences. He shall take proper steps to implement all the decisions of the Managing Committee and general body meetings. He shall convene all meetings and maintain the records of minutes of the meetings. He shall prepare the annual report of the activities and place it before the Annual General Body. The General Secretary shall be the custodian of all the records and movable and immovable assets of the association.

4. Secretaries: The Secretaries shall assist the General Secretary in discharging his duties and in the absence of the General Secretary, his duties shall be discharged by any one of the secretaries designated by the Managing Committee in the capacity as Acting General Secretary.

5. Treasurer: The Treasurer shall be responsible for all the receipts and payments. The Treasurer shall maintain all financial transactions. He shall submit current monthly income and expenditure statements in all the Managing Committee meetings. He shall be responsible to make available necessary records to the auditor.

6. Assistant Treasurer: Assistant Treasurer shall assist the treasurer in his duties. In the absence of Treasurer, he shall assume the duties of the Treasurer as Acting Treasurer.

7. Committee Members: The Committee Members shall assist the Office Bearers in their duties.

Auditors: Auditors shall be nominated by the General Body or appointed by the Managing Committee either honorary or by appointing corporate. Auditor / Auditors shall be independent of the Managing Committee. Auditor shall submit their findings as a report to the General Body through the Managing Committee. Auditor shall not have any executive function in the association other than auditing the accounts.

Patrons: High dignitaries among the old students of SSMPT in the UAE, holding high positions in the government, private, business sector or Social fields, shall be nominated as Patrons of FAST, by the Annual General body. High National dignitaries also can be nominated as Patrons.

Central and Branch Committees:

FAST shall have a UAE Central committee with it’s head quarters in Dubai or Sharjah. For implementing the programs of the Central Committee more efficiently and competitive spirit in al areas of UAE, branch committees at all the seven emirates shall be constituted.
All branch committees shall have an elected Managing Committee consisting of not more than eleven (11) members as follows:

President
Vice President
General Secretary
Joint Secretary
Treasurer
Assistant Treasurer
Committee Members (Five)

Presidents and General secretaries of the branch committees shall become the ex Officio Member of the Central Committee. All branch committee shall submit their annual report of activities and statements of accounts to the central committee every year or as and when demanded by the central committee.

General Core Committee:

1. Constitute a “General Core Committee” consists of selected members from each unit to represent general members for amendments in FAST Constitution.

2. The General Core Committee shall carry out constitutional amendment. It is mandatory that 2/3 of the core general committee to be present to carryout such amendments. If sufficient members not available in the first sitting, amendments can be executed by 50% core committee members in the second sitting. Constitutional amendments cannot be executed in a meeting where less than 50% of the core committee members only present.

Annual General Body :

1. The Annual General Body meeting shall be held in the month of March every year.

2. One third of the total members of the General members shall constitute a quorum. No quorum shall be necessary for a adjourned meeting.

3. Election for the new Managing Committee shall be held every two years in the Annual General Body meeting.

4. Nominations shall be submitted by panel or individual. No candidate shall be allowed to contest for more than one position at a time. All nominations shall reach to the General Secretary prior to the General Body meeting.

Dubai. United Arab Emirates

Date: 26 October 2005

General Body Meeting of "FAST", UAE held on 16-Jun-2006

Minutes of the Meeting

FAST-UAE’s General Body Meeting was held on the 16th June 2006 at the food court of Al Rais Centre, Opposite Ramada Hotel, Dubai, from 6:00pm onwards. The objective of the meeting was to discuss the general activities of FAST, future plans, reconstitute the Central Committee and inactive area committees and bid farewell to FAST President Mr. Abdul Salam.
The following members were on Dias:
• Mr. Abdul Salam (Former President)
• Mr. Subramanian (Vice President)
• Mr. Abdul Hameed (General Secretary)
• Mr. Rajagopal (Treasurer)
• Mr. Ravindran (New President and Former Member of Advisory Board)
• Mr. Anver Ameen (New Member of Advisory Board)

More than 75 FAST Members have attended in the meeting.
The meeting was commenced with a welcome speech by our Gen. Secretary Mr. Abdul Hameed. In his speech he has generally briefed about the activities, achievements, and non-achievements of FAST during the last 18 months. He has also touch based about the future goals in front of us.

The welcome speech was followed by the Presidential address. In his speech, he has expressed his happiness about FAST’s achievements but the same time he has mentioned that the performance of Dubai and Sharjah area committees are not up to the expectation. He requested all the corresponding member’s cooperation and commitment to improve the performance of these units, in terms of membership collection, general coordination and all other FAST activities.

The present status of discussions on the proposed Business Venture of FAST, was addressed in his speech. He also addressed the recent development in reinstating rapport with the present principal of SSMPT. We have started receiving communications from the Principal, in which he has extended his and the Institution’s full support to all our future activities and business opportunities. In light of this new development, FAST will reciprocate with the polytechnic by extending our support for the benefit of both SSMPT and FAST.

The following important and urgent items have been identified for the immediate actions:
1. Re-constitute the Dubai and Sharjah Local Committees
2. Membership Campaign
The presidential speech was concluded by announcing that he will be retiring from his service and leaving the country in near future and he wishes to hand over the Precedence of FAST to a newly elected person. He also reiterated that the time available to discuss all these matters further in the meeting is too short hence all are requested to cooperate to take quick decisions on each and every matter.
A PowerPoint presentation received from the Principal was shown on big screen.
The following comments were noted:
• Members from Abudhabi and Alain expressed their disappointment on the comments from Principal about the good performance of Dubai and Sharjah Committees. Genereal Secretary has clarified that the Principal is unaware of the fact and he is under an impression that the hands behind the achievements of FAST are the members of only Dubai and Sharjah.
• Most of the members requested to have a copy for their further viewing and it was decided to send a copy to all members by email or handouts and the comments to be fed back to the committee.

New Advisory Board Nominee (Mr. Anver Ameen)
As one of the Advisory Board Members’ (Mr. Abdul Aziz) performance was founds to be unsatisfactory to all, Mr. Anver Ameen has been nominated as a new Advisory Board Member. All are unanimously agreed to this suggestion.
Mr. Anver Ameen was working as a Staff Member of SSMPT and at present he is on leave and working under the Regency Group as a Managing Director.
In his self introduction, he has explained about the new administration of SSMPT. He has informed that the new setup in there is much better than before under the new Administration of the present Principal and Advisory Committee. He has mentioned about the possibilities of FAST to obtain a few opportunities in SSMPT’s Governing Body Representation, Management Seat, etc. He has also remembered the good response from the Principal and other Staff members during his visit to SSMPT as a member of FAST.

Briefing of Business Venture
Mr. Subramanian, Vice President of FAST UAE has presented a briefing on the proposed business venture. The presentation is given below for reference.
“A meeting to discuss the possible business opportunities in UAE for FAST was held in October 2005. Six members participated in the meeting are as follows.
• Mr. Abdul Salam (President)
• Mr. Subramanian ( Vice President)
• Mr. Rajagopalan ( Treasurer)
• Mr.Ravindran ( Member Advisory Board)
• Mr.Dileep Kumar ( Member Advisory Board)
• Mr. Mohamed Kutty (Member Advisory Board)
In the meeting widely discussed possibilities of business venture in various field such as Trading, Man Power supply, Investment in Share Market and Construction & Maintenance in UAE.
After extensive discussion on the merits and demerits of all the different fields, possibilities of Trading and Investment in share markets were ruled out.
For the Man Power Supply, there are more chances of defaming the Association, if go for all classes of manpower supply other than technical categories only. So it was agreed to go for technical category manpower supply in later stage along with main business.
Considering the current and future scope in construction field, after discussing in detail, we unanimously reached to a conclusion that Construction & Maintenance field as the viable main Business venture for FAST.

Mr. Dileep offered his assistance for arranging Sponsor of his present company to sponsor with minimum sponsorship fees to establish Business in Dubai. It was discussed and unanimously agreed to keep Head Office and begin with business in Dubai.
After detailed discussion it was agreed that an initial establishment cost of Dhs.100,0001-and an additional running capital of another Dhs.150, 000/- for one year will be required to start the project.
To form the Business capital, it was discussed and decided to issue shares to the FAST Members with a cost of Dhs.1000/- for one share at the beginning stage and increasable according to the business progress in the course of operation. Mr. Ravindran was authorized to prepare project report and the terms and conditions of shares in details.
If decided to proceed further, all interested members can get together to discuss the way forward.”

Reconstitution of Dubai and Sharjah Local Committees
Due to the failure of Dubai and Sharjah Committee members towards contributing anything to FAST, it has decided to elect a new panel for each committee as soon as possible.
Mr. Iqbal – 050 5954094 (Joint Secretary, Dubai Committee) and Mr. Thabu – 050 6373196 (Secretary, Sharjah Committee) were authorized to hold meetings of all the members in the respective area independently and elect the new area committees within 15 days.

Election of New President of FAST
As our former President Mr. Abdul Salam has declared leaving, there was a requirement to replace that vacancy. 3 options were discussed to find a new President such as:
1. Nominate the existing Vice President as the President
2. Elect a new President from the existing FAST Members
3. Elect one of the Advisory Board Members as the President
The third one was found to be acceptable and more practical to all hence Mr. Ravindran has been nominated by Mr. Abdul Salam and all members have unanimously supported this suggestion to elect the new President of FAST.
In his speech as the newly elected President, Mr. Ravindran has expressed his concern regarding the present progress of FAST activities. He has again reiterated all that the solutions to recover the failure that we faced. He has explained the developments that are going on with SSMPT at present such as new courses, campus interviews, new facilities and faculty, more opportunities in the job sector, etc. He has again requested the full supports and cooperation of all members for driving FAST to achieve the future goals.
Farewell to Former President
The new President Mr. Ravindran has extended his and FAST UAE’s gratitude to Mr. Abdul Salam for his sincere and wholehearted cooperation towards the formation of FAST and other contributions towards the positive growth of it. He has announced that FAST UAE was giving out an official farewell to him. On behalf of FAST UAE, a memento was presented to the outgoing president by the newly elected president.
Felicitations
Mr. Ravindran, the President of FAST has briefed the whereabouts of Mr. Abdul Salam including his academic and extra curricular achievements, jobs that he has had in India as well as in abroad, various organizational, cultural and religious ventures he furnished in his expatriate life, etc. He has extended his and FAST UAE’s best wishes to Mr. Abdul Salam and his family for their future endeavors. Mr. Ravindran has requested Mr. Abdul Salam to be an Advisory Board Member working from Kerala. All members have echoed this request and finally Mr. Abdul Salam accepted to continue his support to FAST as a member of the Advisory Board Member.
Mr. Mohammed Haneefa (Old Student and an employee of SSMPT) and Mr. K. Shajid (Secretary, FAST UAE Central Committee) were also expressed their gratitude to Mr. Abdul Salam and wished all success to him and his family.
Reply Speech by Mr. Abdul Salam
In reply to the felicitations, Mr. Abdul Salam thanked all and he has again requested all to cooperate with the new administration and actively participate in all future activities. He has also spelled out some facts and moral values of life on this world.
Self Introduction of all Members
All members attended the meeting were introduced themselves to others by giving a short self description.
Conclusion (Mr. Ravindran, President, FAST)
In the his speech, the president has concluded by putting forward three items for the future programs of FAST such as:
1. The process of Business Investment Program
2. A fund-raising Eid Get-together tentatively on 2nd September 2006.
3. FAST Website. (Mr. Iqbal and Mr. Latheef has been nominated as the developers of FAST’s website)
All are agreed to proceed with these program.
Vote of Thanks (Mr. Rajagopal, Treasurer, FAST UAE Central Committee)
On behalf of FAST UAE and himself, Mr. Rajagopal has expressed the sincere thanks to all the members and committees for attending the meeting, cooperation for the successful completion, helping to make quick and appropriate decisions on right time, etc.
The meeting was concluded before 9:00pm following a buffet dinner.