News & Notes 879:FAMC monthly report April 2021
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FAMC monthly report April 2021
Units and Trusts
- The office of the Secretary, Auroville Foundation is taking up the task of internal audits. The Foundation will start with auditing ‘Housing’. Focus will be the beneficiaries of the Government of India (GoI) grants.
The FAMC was encouraged by the Secretary-in-charge to continue to conduct management audits to strengthen the audits done of entities under the Auro¬ville Foundation. - The FAMC reviewed the audit of Kalpana building project and after due deliberation accepted to return the building deposit of Adwitya.
- The FAMC having deliberated, rejected the applica¬tion of the City Centre Canteen (at ACUR) for the fol-lowing reasons:
- Lack of cooperation with the subgroup (FAMC-BCC) created to resolve all pending issues with the application and Laxmanan.
- Unresolved issues with Laxmanan and his wife be¬ing proposed as manager of the activity is not ac¬ceptable while these remain.
- The Canteen has been receiving cash for many years in spite of several reminders from the FAMC not to do so.
- The Canteen building was created without the No Objection Certificate (NoC) of TDC.
- The scope of the Town Hall Canteen is to pri¬marily serve the Town Hall users, however the present reality is that it primarily serves guests.
- Since there is no legitimate way to operate the Canteen anymore (FS account has been closed as of 31st March), The FAMC recommends the clo¬sure of the Canteen without any further delay.
An appeal is in process.
- AIRE Mask activity graduated into a unit, under Auro¬mode Trust. Executives are Juan Felipe and Lola.
- Gastronomica activity graduated into a unit, under Artisana Trust. Executives are Antonello, Helena and Davide.
- Yuvabe, a new unit approved under Swagatam Trust, is focused on providing consulting services in the area of software programming, content research and design. Executives Sundar K. and Abilash S..
- FAMC met Sumark with regard to the MoU for Vi¬brance project. After studying the agreement a re¬vised MoU was agreed to by all concerned.
- Request of the unit UTS (Unity Transport Service) to change parent entity from Swagatam Trust was ap-proved. Henceforth under Kattida Kalai Trust.
- Request of the activity Oceans for change of parent entity from AVA (Auroville Activities), for streamlining of accounts, was approved. Henceforth under ASSA (Auroville Small Scale Activities).
- Request of the unit Auroville Consulting to change parent entity from Swagatam Trust, was approved. Henceforth under CSR Trust (Centre for Scientific Re¬search). An MoU signed with regards to future contri-butions to City Services.
- Nalan an activity under ASSA – change of entity name and scope of work was approved. Henceforth called Good Earth, to sell and promote products for sustainable environmental products.
- Atelier Maa, under ASSA change of name approved. Henceforth named Kimaya.
- Nowana, Korean restaurant, a unit under Artisana Trust, approved after the MoU was finalised, agreed to and signed by all concerned.
New Activities Approved
- Coffee Break, under AVA, a cafe with a focus on or¬ganic coffee and a space to learn about coffee. Man¬agers are Dinesh, Mira and Dinagar.
- Inspire Studio, under ASSA, provides cultural cos¬metics, paintings, and crafts. Manager is Poornima Kaloya.
- Arya Accounting, under AVA. Manager is Sheida Sharif.
- VSB Computers, under ASSA, supplying necessary and essential office materials to activities and units. Managers are Venkatesan and Aravindh.
Resignation or Reappointment of Activity Managers, Unit Executives, and Trust Trustees
- Resignation of Marco Feira as executive of Auroville Art Service, a unit under Auroville Service Trust, was approved.
- Resignation of Claude and Samata (Ingeborg) as trustee of New Engineering Trust approved.
- Resignation of Divya Kapoor, and appointment of Yorit Rozin as trustee of Auroville Village Action Trust approved.
- Appointment of Sabine as additional manager of Il¬ion, an activity under ASSA, approved.
- Executive reappointment, Balasundharam (Balu), Yu¬val and Ranjit, of Bamboo Centre under Swagatam Trust, approved.
- Executive reappointment, Vidhyalakshmi, Sreevatsa and Vijay, of V Designs a unit under Swagatam Trust, approved.
- Executive reappointment of Subbulakshmi, Verena Keinberger of Auro Yali a unit under Kattida Kalai Trust, approved.
- Resignation of executive Eugene Eigenmann and ap¬pointment of R. Ulaganathan, of Aurolakshmi Con-struction under Discovery Trust, approved.
- Appointment of Lakshay Dharan as executive of AIAT (Auroville Institute of Applied Technologies) under Au-roville Village Action Trust, approved.
- Resignation of Emanuele as executive of Naturally Auroville, under GNP Trust, approved. Jean-Fran¬coise has been encouraged to find an additional, new executive as soon as possible.
A question was raised concerning the Housing Service representative in the Housing Board. As the Housing Board Mandate revision was nearing completion, it was felt it would be better to wait and then reconstitute the Board.
The FAMC reviewed the changes to the Housing Board Mandate, which the Auroville Council suggested, after completing the open community process. The FAMC and the Auroville Council settled on one version and published the new Housing Board Mandate.
Together the BCC and FAMC reviewed La Terrace's ac¬counts. A joint communication was issued with the neces¬sary changes.
FAMC, Land Board and Working Committee continued the weekly meetings.
Appeals
- Padmanaban and Jaques’s appeal concerning the decision regarding the Auromodele housing project: after the first meeting, ATDC offered to reopen and review the proposed building project.
- Morning Star’s appeal concerning a unit application for a Maternity Centre. The facilitated meeting was held and the Morning Star team agreed to withdraw their appeal given the FAMC willingness to have a fresh look at their application.
Housing Service (HS)
Housing situation of an Auroville couple and Housing Service was mediated. After a facilitated meeting FAMC agreed that the full housing deposit balance can be released back to the couple.
Miscellaneous
- An issue forwarded by the Project Coordination Group (PCG) concerning a complaint of a recipient of funds for a program that got canceled due to Co¬vid, and an Auroville unit for refund of tickets that got canceled on short notice. The PCG requested a clarification of how to reach a conclusion. The FAMC suggested that a mediation be encouraged, and if that is not agreed, perhaps it needs to go to arbitra¬tion to bring the topic to a close.
- An advertisement using Auroville name and property was brought to FAMC notice. The said issue was the Subu’s Cricket Academy using Auroville’s Palmyra cricket ground facility. As this was an address and long standing program in principle it was seen as ac¬ceptable. The trustees were reminded that an agree¬ment, if it does not already exist, should be signed between them and the outside party. This agreement concerning an outside entity using Auroville assets needs to be notified to the FAMC.
- The Citizen Assembly Exploration Group made a pre¬sentation to the FAMC to share the process and out-come of this pilot project and to receive feedback in terms of considering the potential of this process for the FAMC’s scope of work or in other areas.
The Citizen Assembly Exploration Group felt this mod¬el had potential for tackling community-wide issues in an informed, harmonious and constructive way. - Dominik requested a leave Auroville Allowance to as¬sist him to settle back in his home country. This was reviewed and he was given an allowance.
- Bharat Nivas applied for a tax exemption under Social Science Research, to increase its funding re¬sources for research activities on campus. This was approved.
- Centralized and Standardised accounting initiatives from the former FAMC are being followed up and relevant pending information is being sought.
- The FAMC called out a status quo of functioning for the small guest houses registered under Exploration, an umbrella unit under the Guest House Trust, whilst the FAMC maps and tracks the several issues to be able to address the concerns raised. This is ongoing.