Why FOBANA Should be Dismantled!

September 1, 2022

WHY FOBANA SHOULD BE DISMANTLED OR HAVE A FACTORY RESET!!!

Fellow FOBANA Lovers:

36 years ago, FOBANA’s founding fathers had a vision closely aligned with their mission to build a better community for all and build a bridge between Bangladesh and U. S. Main Stream Media, with a laser focus on our next generation of leaders.

FOBANA (Federation of Bangladeshi Associations in North America) is a not-for-profit organization of organization who should lead by example, as we all have the opportunity to grow so does the FOBANA, I’m NOT a voting member nor do I represent any organizations within the FOBANA umbrella, however, I love every basic idea and principal of the organization which was created 36 years ago to promote the rich and vibrant culture we so dearly love and to build a bridge between Bangladesh and U. S. Main Stream Media. Remember so many of our loved ones give blood and life to preserve the very culture. FOBANA, arguably one of the best organizations, is still only as good as the people running it. We must stop the practice that divides us, favors some of us over others, and tears apart the fabric of our community.

I understand it is much harder to do things than say, however, I also believe, that public service is a privilege and honor with a great deal of responsibility and all of us in the community has the responsibility to do our very best to protect any good initiatives. Being said that I’m simply trying to do my part and have also tried in the past without having any authority or holding any official title within the FOBANA. I have given much feedback in the past, but sadly no one from the executive committee has even had the audacity to review it nor to have a dialogue. We must understand that we are all EXPANDABLE, and all of us have an EXPIRATION DATE, that is in life and or position or power.

Why FOBANA Should Be Dismantle or Have a Factory Reset!!!

For the past 36 years, it has had no positive impact on the community other than division and competition for position and power. Some people continue to run for executive positions as if there are no other qualified individuals in the community. Don’t get me wrong, they are all well qualified, everyone leading or led the organization is some of the finest individuals in our community and almost all of them are my friends and they deserve our very best and respect for the work they are doing to preserve the founding principal of FOBANA. But often we are so tied down to our idea and lose side and don’t embrace the new idea and don’t create opportunities for new leadership, what exactly we are doing for the next generation. We must practice what we preach, we are stating we wanted to have new leaders, and all we see is almost the same leaders are running the organization in a different capacity.

“Leaders don’t create followers they elevate leadership.” Unfortunately, FOBANA miserably failed. We must practice what we preach, we are stating we wanted to have new leaders, in the past 15 (in my experience) years of FOBANA all we see is almost the same leaders running the organization in a different capacity. All past EC members can serve on many advisory boards and standing committees.

Division and disagreement among the leaders divided the community, and more importantly reputation of Bangladesh is at stake, as many lawsuits have been filed (few examples: NY Supreme Court Lawsuit in 2005, Docket # N.Y. Slip Op. 52291 and Another lawsuit Docket # 19-CV-3399 (RRM) (SMG), in NY on September 28, 2020. In addition, there was a second Trademark Application filled and approved on September 2011 (Docket # 85424821), a few more lawsuits were filled and the public records are out there.), many NY Times published the clash and division (few examples: On September 2, 2020, Sarah Kershaw, and August 4, 2000, Shaila K. Dewan published an article about the division and competing FOBANA in NY Times), none of these seems to help the mission and vision of the founding fathers of FOBANA, not to mention bringing shame to the community and mainstream.

Many like me boiling inside seeing the division, as we see that reputation of Bangladesh is at Stake, many like my family gave their blood for our independence to hold our head high on the global stage, to see that reputation being tarnished by so-called leaders among us is heartbreaking and unacceptable, FOBANA “SELLING” to the community and the sponsors that leaders are upholding the rich and vibrant culture of our beloved Bangladesh and creating leadership among our youth more specifically working with mainstream to bridging the East and West, none of those statements are accurate. The only thing we see in almost every convention time is leaders fighting with each other, disrespectful to each other, cursing on social media, and dividing FOBANA, in addition, sadly many don’t even understand how to conduct themselves in the meeting, I never saw they follow “Robert’s Rules of Order and Parliamentary Procedure”, which is the guiding principle of any board, they talk over each other, curse each other, etc.

Each year collectively FOBANA spent about 300K to 400K to host its annual convention where no Main Stream people are seen, if someone comes, they are not being treated fairly nor given the opportunity to speak to the audience and if they do the introduction of them is so poor is unbelievable. And as per the youth involvement, there is none, no youth have been mentored during or after the FOBANA, the only thing being done for the past several years is a few thousand dollars in scholarships where they spent about 400k and exploit community resources year after year. In the past 3-4 FOBANA, I have not seen more than 1500 people attending in prime-time most of them are the family members of the FOBANA, and of course, nothing was being done for the cultural diversity as I have not seen any non-Bangladeshi, so where we promoting Cultural diversity where we continue to fail to bring them to our convention. I have seen more success in local events where they spent 10k to 15k and have more attendees than the 3-day convention that drains the community resources.

Please understand, I’m NOT SOLICITING, I’m not writing this publicly to say I’m better or to create my profile to run for the EC position, no I will NEVER RUN for a position as I deeply believe, “Informal authority is the ability, without a formal position of power, to inspire people to willingly follow your direction“. However, I have served voluntarily in many positions in the past and this is simply based on my observations from at least the past 15 years, I’m simply giving my 2 cents to make the organization more vibrant and more structural. The organization should lead by its guiding principle and leaders of the very organization should take the oath to protect as such. I’m speaking “truth to the power” because it is heartbreaking to see the reputation of Bangladesh being tarnished for our selfishness, and I can no longer be silent, many of our loved ones gave their blood to free us and to have an independent Bangladesh, I will do everything in my power to uphold their sacrifice.

Please understand my purpose is to make the organization more vibrant and structurally strong while urging to be more inclusive and stricter in policy, I’m making my recommendations based on my experiences serving various organizations outside of our community and I have reviewed every document publicly available including the vision 2020 and operating procedures. There is no question below recommendations will put an extra burden on the organization and the EC team but this is the responsibility we accept when we agree and take the oath of office to serve, this is a volunteer job to serve the community and it comes with its privilege and honor. If new leadership doesn’t take bold action, then this organization should be “DISMANTLED” or it is time, general members take BOLD ACTION to make it right and start from the beginning.

1. Membership:
   1. When an organization registered and pay its fee, it should automatically become a voter as part of its membership. They should not have to pay additional funds to vote, if the organization desire to perform, an additional fee can be charged as they are now.
   1. New Membership Policy: Membership policy seems to apply to general members who are in position or power doesn’t (i.e., new organizations need to provide a picture of their events, while I know many serving on the EC have the organization but never have hosted a single event and year after year, they are voting members), If you took an oath to serve you MUST be FAIR and square for ALL.
   1. Member Organization: The organization must have an active and valid board of directors who are elected by the members of the Community (current processes don’t confirm the requirement) and currently many of the members of FOBANA have a one-man show that defeats the purpose of the organization and FOBANA’s stated mission.
   1. Organization Validation: The membership committee should be responsible to validate each organization by their registered State (each state has its own processes and website which is public record), current processes are not that, as I have evidence of an organization that HOSTED FOBANA convention but their corporation was revoked for non-filling but they HOSTED the convention and central committee doesn’t even know their status).
   1. Strict Policy: Stricter policy will increase membership. If we are not strict in our policy, we will not be able to increase our membership many organizations look at this as the guiding principle is WEAK. In my count, there are over 425 registered organizations in the United States (many more not registered), with FOBANA registered members only 50.
   1. Storage & Cloud Base Filling System: Often submitted documents are missing, I have forwarded documents for many organizations and it was later missing and asked to resubmit, very unorganized and unprofessional unless politics is being played to disqualify an organization. FOBANA should adopt a system to have each organization filing system in cloud base storage
2. Standing Committee:
   1. No more than one member from the same organization shouldn’t serve on the same committee and should be also limited to an only maximum of 2 individuals to serve at any given year on any committee (conflict of interest).
   1. One person shouldn’t serve more than 1 committee, except the executive committee members, but no more than 2.
   1. EC should be more diligent, accepting and assigning standing committee team members, Folks assigned to social media, Publication, Media, etc. should be consisting of those who are an expert in the fields or at least have a vast knowledge of their assigned committee. Over the years EC has assigned folks in many standing committees who don’t even understand or don’t have the ability to write an article but they have been assigned to social media, publication, or mainstream media. Again, if we are not fair and square, with our due diligence and processes we are not eligible to serve
   1. The Standing committee should also have a few members from the community at large to be more inclusive to get outside perspective and their terms should expire at the same time EC terms expire.
   1. WHY do EC members have to serve as chair of every standing committee they can’t even do their own responsibility for their position but hold the chair of almost all standing committees.
   1. There seem to be several duplicate standing committees, some of those which may be combined, having a standing committee is great but being un-useful serves no purpose (i.e., Media, Newsletter some of those can be combined with Communications).
3. Host Organization: Host Organization: The host organization must be IRS-recognized 501(c)3 and an active non-profit organization. Because host organizations solicit and collect donations and they are responsible to report as they are often giving donation receipts for tax exemption. Currently, many organizations are not registered 501(c)3 and they are using central registration which is acceptable, however, if that is the case then central is REQUIRED by federal statutes to file IRS form 990, NOT an e-post card. We are violating federal law.
   1. Convention Committee Should more carefully review the organization that is competing to host the next convention. FOBANA shouldn’t award an organization to host the convention if their current board has a disagreement or pending lawsuit among the board of directors.
   1. The Convention committee also should check the organization’s previous work and its ability to host
   1. Why would Host organization have their key position from outside of their community, they don’t have a qualified individual to serve in their community (i.e., this year’s Cultural Secretary is from DC, how do you bring your community together under one umbrella if you don’t have the ability to unite and one of the most important posts you have to recruit from another state)
   1. Central Committee and Convention committee should review the venue contract to ensure it is in the name of the host organization (in the past, the convention venue was booked under a Fictitious name)
4. Competing FOBANA: If any organization that works, support, aid, and otherwise play any role agonist the FOBANA convention, then leaders of that organization should be permanently banned from FOBANA and the organization should be suspended for at least 5 years and be eligible to be a member after 5 years. And they should wait an additional 3 years to be eligible to host the FOBANA convention. If the same leader remains in the EC of that organization, then they should remain suspended until new leaders take the oath (in order to be a professional organization, one must have its policy and elected leaders should exercise the policy regardless of who is on the other side, the policy should apply to all equally). Last FOBANA in NY in 2019 we witnessed such an act and leaders failed to act upon it. Of course, no one can really claim the Trademark, as court NY supreme court ruling was to everyone has the right to use FOBANA, and that is why year after year different people (divided from this FOBANA) host and no one can stop it, there is unification committee not sure of their function as they have not able to unite anyone yet
5. Meeting Policy: Starting from Sunday AGM, FOBANA should immediately adopt “Robert’s Rules of Order and Parliamentary Procedure” for the meeting. It is healthy for the organization to have policy debate (respectful argument), disagree with each other, and policy differences but we should NEVER curse or be disrespectful to each other, in order to protect FOBANA and its integrity we should have harassment policy and each member every year should sign and keep in file. Next time any member act in the such way should be dismissed and given written notice if they do it the second time they should be terminated and not be eligible for 2 years to serve in any positions elected or selected.
   1. There seems to be no accountability for anyone on the Board, each standing committee should be responsible to attend the meeting and provide reports of their progress at least once a quarter
   1. I know many Standing committee members don’t even attend the meeting but they are on the standing committee for years after years
6. Website: FOBANA website looks like a personal banner to promote individuals, not an organization, first thing we see is all the members and their titles promoting themselves. The organization’s website is to represent the organization’s work and its mission and vision. (Google some examples of other boards and their website to gain some conceptual ideas)
   1. Host Organization website: this should mirror the central website with a hyperlink to promote their work. This year host organization’s website looks like some kinder Garten kid’s scrapbook
   1. In 2020 then leaders took the initiative to redesign the website and many of us worked with them and provided feedback, due to internal politics whole work went to the west side. Finally, there is a new website but it is still the EC member’s promotional site, not the organization
7. Diversity: FOBANA should encourage more women to run for the EC position including the chairperson
8. Bylaws and Operating Procedures:
   1. EC should not have the authority to make amendments to bylaws and operating procedures. It MUST be approved by 2/3 of the active members from the past year (NOT VOTING members, general members).
   1. Advisory Board (The most organization has policy embedded in their bylaws similar to what I’m proposing here):
      1. The Advisory board should be consisting of 11 TO 13 ADVISORS AND 60% of that should come from the community at large who is NOT A MEMBER OR AFFILIATE of the FOBANA (transparency and un-bias is the objective)
      1. The Advisory board should have the authority to take over the current board and conclude the current terms and conduct the next election in accordance with the Bylaws and operating procedures, should elected EC have disputes among themselves like they did in the last board of directors (a.k.a. EC) that caused division and is now some of the ex-chairmen created another group and now hosting another FOBANA in CA
9. Election and Executive Member:
   1. No one should be able to run for EC POSITION for more THAN 2 TERMS IN A LIFETIME (especially Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Joint Secretary, Treasurer, out Standing Member), this way new ideas will flourish, and opportunities to grow the organization for the betterment
   1. Executive member organizations should not be able to run for more than 3 terms
   1. No more than one EC member from any single state (Specifically Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Joint Secretary, and Treasurer) and no more than 2 maximums from one State (i.e., chair and Member Organization or Out Standing member), DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION SHOULD BE THE OBJECTIVE
   1. No past or immediate EC members should serve on any Position other than the Advisory post (which should be requested and approved by the newly elected EC), why would past EC members automatically hold a position
   1. Every EC position contester should provide a statement in writing with their vision as to what they would try to accomplish should they be elected; in addition, they should have debated at least among the chair contester about their vision
   1. Individuals running for Chair positions should donate 5k to the central committee trust funds and personally take responsibility to raise 10 to 15k for the host organization during the convention.

If we don’t fix the problem at hand (of course first thing is to acknowledge and accept that there is a problem) there will be more division and its member will continue to shrink. I am not biased nor do I represent anyone, I am simply providing guidance to protect and better serve the organization. Consider voting for the candidate below, all outstanding members were unopposed.

LET’S MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Enjoy the fulfillment that comes from knowing you are helping to make history and build a better FOBANA.  YOUR VOTE IS YOUR VOICE! remember you are equally responsible for the outcomes of the organization, all of you have the ability to change the direction of the organization by electing a better candidate. Don’t vote for someone just because he or she is your friend, act independently and make your own judgment. If you truly LOVE FOBANA you wanted to change the direction because it is time to dismantle it completely which is the current direction organization is going, or ACT BOLDLY to change the wind. Be the Kingmaker and Right Side of the History! History often calls upon noble individuals in special situations to do more. The time is now for FOBANA.

“Life is not just a passing of time, Life is a collection of experiences, their frequency, and their intensity. Whatever the span of your life turns out to be here is what you want to fill it up with: experiences and the intensity of those experiences”.

The best way we can join hands to serve our community, and fulfill our moral obligation is to help build a better community for all. At the end of this Rainbow, is a better, more abundant FOBANA for all. Together we are strong; our voice will be loud and proud, and together we can make it a better FOBANA.

Thank You for your eyes and ears. I hope my statement and recommendations aren’t taken negatively but rather as constructive feedback to make it a better and more abundant community for all. If I may help in any way, I’m at your service and just a phone call away.

In-Solidarity,

-Radwan Chowdhury