General Body Meeting Jan 2012 minutes

Islamic Center of Little Rock General Body Meeting FY 2012

Held on Saturday January 14 at the Muslim Community Center

1. The meeting started with recitation of the Holy Quran By Brother Salman Syed.

2. Brother Kaleem Syed moderated the meeting.

3. Dr. Khalil, President of Islamic Center of Pine Bluff, gave briefing to the community on the Muslim Cemetery Project. The Project requires an additional $33,000 to acquire additional land as well as for fencing of the area. The cost for one lot for a grave is $500.00 and can be set aside for the donors.

4. Brother Ahsan Ali, Huda Academy School Board (HASB) Chairman, gave briefing on the state of The Huda Academy. He spoke of the vision and goals HASB FY2012. He told the audience how HASB was able to bring the school deficit down to $ 66,000 from $ 100,000 in the year 2011. He informed the audience of the plan to use the Muslim Community Center (MCC) as the school Gymnasium.

He spoke about the efforts that are being made to ensure that the school has certified teachers and qualified staff to compete with any school.

One of the goals of HASB is to increase the enrollment and to be financially independent during the current fiscal year.

At the end of his briefing he answered questions from the audience.

5. Dr. Mufiz Chohan, Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BT), spoke on the current state of ICLR and the plans the BT has FY2012. He spoke of the two important goals that BT would like to achieve:

One is the internal Audit of ICLR and second, the changes to the ICLR Constitution. He also spoke of the clarity and openness he wants to bring in the running of BT operations.

At the end of his briefing he answered questions from the audience.

6. Dr. Amir Qureshi, President of the Executive Committee(EC), introduced the EC and honorary members. He spoke of how EC will be working at many levels during the year 2012 and about his expectations and hopes regarding participation from all the community to make this year a success for all of us. He spoke briefly on the following goals that Executive Committee has set for itself to achieve in the coming year:

“We will be working at three major fronts:

a) Within the organization ICLR to improve the functioning of ICLR and making it a strong, efficient, and viable organization that provides services to Muslims as well as representing Muslims in front of the rest in the best possible manner. We will be mainly working towards capacity building of the organization through creating procedures to do everything professionally and effectively in a systemic way.

b) In the Muslim community at large to bring together the different factions in the community, rejuvenate the youth and create a strong Muslim body which is united;

c) With the Little Rock and Central Arkansas community to improve the image of Muslims in Arkansas by reaching out to Non Muslims, improving our relations with them, and presenting them with the true face of Islam.

In order to accomplish all this, we will be forming different committees who will consist of members from the larger community. Each committee will be led by a Coordinator or Director who will directly report to one of the EC members. These committees will meet and work on their goals on a monthly basis and update EC during the monthly EC meetings. EC will advise, support, and provide the maximum support to the workings and outcomes of these committees.

EC will also collaborate with BT and HASB on all fronts so that these committees can help achieve the goals set by the EC.

EC will directly work with the city and the neighborhood to improve the security conditions in the ICLR area and the working of some the committees will help with that.

Committees:

Youth Committee: We will have a strong focus on youth during this year. The Youth Committee led by a Youth Coordinator will put together a team of individuals and youth who will plan, coordinate, and implement initiatives for our children and teens. They will:

make ICLR and the mosque a place where youth looks forward to come
have regular sports activities and events for our youth
invite guests speakers who have expertise and background in working with and revitalizing the young spirit
plan educational programs for our youth
trips and other events to bring together the youth and create a love of Islam in them

Public Relations Committee: This committee, led by a Public Relations Director, will carry out a campaign to improve the image of Muslims in central Arkansas through:

Helping establish good relations with Public officials in the city and state
Establishing good relations with other faith groups including Christians, Jews, etc
Establishing good relations with other organizations and diverse groups who work on common causes and interests
Having better media relations for ICLR and have regular posts in local blogs, newspapers, and a letter to the editor campaign on issues of Interests to ICLR
Planning and carrying out public events for ICLR including dinners and dialogues for Non Muslims
Improving Muslim community’s visibility by involving members in the city’s and state’s events

Membership and Outreach Committee: One of our strong goals is to bring the Muslim community together by:

reaching out to different ethnic and racial groups and encouraging them to get involved with EC and its committees
increasing the membership of ICLR and the revenues of the ICLR
using the expertise and potential of our diverse membership body to improve our organization

Events Committee:

Events committee led by an event coordinator will make sure the ICLR programs are well organized and carried out in a professional manner through planning each event’s program and agenda, arranging for children’s activities during the programs, having a volunteer bank to help with events, and working with all other committees to carry out EC events

Women’s Committee:

The women’s committee will help in making sure that issues faced by our daughters and sisters in the community and on the ICLR property are brought forth to the EC and BT and we address them in a timely manner.

Hajj and Umrah Committee:

Will plan and help umrah and hajj packages for ICLR members every year so that the ICLR members can go together at better rates.

We cannot do all this alone, we need all of you to get involved, help us, work with us, and give us your feedback. But since we are putting better structures in place so the EC runs smoothly, I encourage all the community members to join a committee that interests them.”

At the end of his briefing he answered the questions from the audience.