Meeting Report

Here's a summary what was discussed at our meeting on 16/12/07.

(Please also see the previous post by ..N.. , which raises some important points)

The report of the meeting in the media: Indian express, Hindu,

1. The online petition- The petition is addressed to Rod Pryde, the head of the British Council, India . It has collected 1159 sigantures in 8 days. The petition aims to persuade the council to reconsider its decision. Mr Pryde should also come down to Tvpm to meet the members and explain to them, the rationale behind this move.
2. Members of the Bhopal library have started a campaign as well.Tying up with them was discussed, as their campaign is significantly more active than ours.
3. The need to get all sections of the members, including children and women into the campaign.
4. The examples of the USIS and the Russian cultural centre were mentioned.
5. The lack of transparency in the British Council's move. Many members suspect that the real reasons for shutting down the library might be different. The fact that the library was refurbished very recently at a cost of around 45 lakhs, is also suspicious.
6. The British Council says that it'll 'stay in touch' through its UK Education counselling facilities. This probably means that they have now decided that selling UK education products to Indian students and helping to recruit them into UK universities is a much more profitable activity for them. If the British Council does not reconsider its decision to shut down the library, which is a service at large , the students from the state should be asked to stay away from UK education products.
7. Removal of assets from the premises, should not be allowed.
   
8. The idea that IT tools could replace printed books and a real library was firmly rejected. Participants pointed out the failure of such initiatives around the world. Also, that Kerala is being selected over the metros for implementing these IT tools and promoting UK education products is highly illogical and possibly even suspicious
9. Shashi Tharoor has already offered to help in retaining the library. Involving him was discussed. Tharoor is taking it up with a colleague of his.
10. Involving the Kerala International center and Ex Ambassador T.P Sreenivasan. Mr Sreenivasan is meeting with the Mr Subramoni.
    
11. Rod Pryde has visited many of the council libraries and interacted with the members. Similarly, he should meet the members of the Thiruvananthapuram library too.
12. In the event that the British Council decides to exit,in spite of all our efforts, we need to think of an alternative . An alternative library could be set up under the ICCR itself. Low cost editions, Indian publishers and independent UK publishers could be included in this.
13. Most of the current magazines at the British Library do not have much of a readership. These could be replaced with the older set of magazines, which were also cheaper.
14. The counseling facilities at the library, though useful, is not the primary reasons why we want the council here. Its for the library.
15. The Principal of the Tvm Intl School is taking up the matter with an UK MP.
    
16. The Government should facilitate to set up an alternative organisational structure.
    
17. The library is profitable.
    
18. Running the library independently will be financially viable too. 6000 members contributing 1000 per yr means a budget of 60 lakhs per year - more than enough to run the library.
19. It was suggested that citizen's committee be formed - a diverse gp of 10 citizens ( includes children, elderly, women, disabled, students, aritists, techies- in short compostion to reflect the readership of the library). A rotating position - each member serving for abt a
    year. This will meet abt 4 times a year to review the library and see whether any recommendations shd be made to the BC abt its running.
20. The Chief Minister V.S Achuthanandan is meeting with a high ranking official of the council on 18/12/2007. The outcome of this meeting will be crucial.
21. Even though a meeting with the CM has been scheduled, the library has already started sending out letters , announcing the closure and the refund of membership. This indicates that the Council has already dismissed the meeting as inconsequential.
    

Finally, the following action points were decided upon.

1. A status quo needs to be maintained till an acceptable solution is found.
2. Members should not get their membership fees refunded right now
   
3. British Council officials should come to Thiruvananthapuram to interact with the members.
4. School and College students should be involved in the campaign
   
5. A Plan B needs to be worked out. To raise funds for such an event, Malayalee Industrialists, Technopark cos, NRIs etc need to be contacted.

An incomplete list of the participants in the meeting :

Asha Gopinathan, Niranjanaa Sajan, Shailaja Nair, George Thomas, Saraswathy Nagarajan, Hemachandran S, T.T Kripananda Singh, Krishnamohan, Robs george, Unnithan Venugopal, S.A Rahman, Suseendra Das, K . Padmakumar, George Koreth,Sebastian Mathew, Dolly Thomas, Prof M Sirajudeen, P Vijaya Kumar, Abraham D Patrickan, Lt Gen (Retd) VK Pillai.


The following have volunteered to be part of a core group, who will coordinate the campaign:

Asha Gopinathan, Saraswati Nagarajan, George Koreth, K Padmakumar, Dolly Thomas, P Vijaya Kumar, Krishnamohan



The next meeting will be held on 23/12/2007
Time 4pm.
Venue:Press Club Hall