The proceedings of the AGM commenced at about 10.45 am, after two adjournments of 15 minutes each, due to lack of quorum.

Shri P.S. Sundaram, President, Shri A.V. Swaminathan & Shri D.K. Gupta Vice Presidents, Shri K. Subramanian, Hon. Secretary, Shri R. K. Verma, Hon. Treasurer and Shri P. Mohanadoss, Council Member and Chairman, Constitution & Legal Committee occupied the position on dais and President requested the Hon. Secretary to initiate the proceedings. Hon. Secretary informed the members present that the Hall availability for AGM was upto 1330 hrs only and he requested the gathering to observe one minute silence as a mark of respect to the departed soul of the following members who had passed away during the period from Oct. 2005 till date.

Thereafter, President welcomed the members of the society to the AGM. He observed that the society is greater than any individual and that all our actions should be aimed at the betterment and growth of the society. He briefed the members about the conduct of the BES EXPO 2008 and various steps adopted by the present council for its success and to improve upon the performance. He also mentioned about steps taken in the recent past to streamline the working of the society. He said the number of regular council meetings will be limited to four a year and that the council can transact business the whole day, if required. He emphasized the need for holding AGM every year regularly in future. The agenda points were then taken up one by one for discussion.

Agenda Item No. 1: Confirmation of Minutes of the last AGM held on 1st Oct. ‘05 at New Delhi.
Before the Hon. Secretary could start the scheduled agenda, Shri Arun Kumar, raised a point regarding his request to reschedule the agenda for discussing the need for taking council's approval for issue of a legal notice by BES . to one of its own members. Hon. Secretary replied that his letter on this issue has been received and that the necessary approval from the council has been obtained.

After this President requested the house for the confirmation of the minutes of the last AGM held on 1st October 2005. All Members unanimously approved the same. He further requested members to be brief in discussions keeping in mind the availability of Delton Hall upto 1330 hrs only.

Agenda item No. 2: Report on the activities of BES since last AGM
President requested the secretary to present his report on the activities of the society since the last AGM. Hon. Secretary made a power point presentation on the matter.

Agenda Item No. 3: Report on the formulation of Financial Rules and Operating Procedures.
Shri P. Mohanadoss was requested by the President to make a presentation on the Financial Rules and Operational Procedures. Shri V.K. Mehra expressed his opinion that such Rules & Operational Procedures may need a reference in the constitution and to that effect necessary amendment be made if required. His request was accepted. Shri Mohanadoss mentioned that a member has pointed out certain contradiction and omission in the FR & OP. Shri Arun Kumar said that some time should be given to all members for offering their comments.

Decision:
It was decided that the FR & OP will be revised to take care of the contradictions and omissions and the constitution also will be amended as desired by Shri V.K. Mehra. Copy of revised FR & OP will be circulated to the members with the request to offer their comments within a month. On receipt of comments, necessary changes shall be made if required before making the FR & OP effective from April 2008.

Agenda Item No. 4: Adoption of accounts for the financial years 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07
President requested Shri R.K. Verma Hon. Treasurer to present the accounts for the relevant period. A power point presentation, indicating the Income and Expenditure for the period 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07 was made by Hon. Treasurer. Some members asked for break up of figures under some heads. Since all the information was not immediately available, the house was informed that the information is available in the BES Head Quarter and can be obtained any time. It was committed by President to the members that in future AGMs, all such details will be kept ready for reference. The expenditure to the tune Rs. 18 lakh towards the event coordinator came up for discussion. President made a suggestion that some members could come forward to manage the BES EXPO Exhibition utilizing in-house resources. However, some members felt that it is a professional job and as such should carried out by professional(s) on contract basis. It was subsequently decided that tendering for the same should be done every year to get the best offer. During the course of the discussion on accounts, President expressed his opinion that AGM should be held every year in May/June, so that the accounts can be adopted and IT return filed well before 31st October of every year.

Decision:
The accounts for all the three previous financial years were adopted by the general body. In future AGM should be held every year in the month of May/ June to adopt the accounts before the IT return is filed. It was also decided that all local chapters should send the audited accounts to the BES Head Quarter for including in their report well in time.

Agenda Item No. 5: Report on the activities of the Local Chapters
Before the respective chapter chairmen started their presentations, ShriG. Natarajan of Chennai Chapter raised the point about his expulsion from the Executive Committee of Chennai chapter and demanded that the AGM should withdraw the expulsion. Shri S. Ramaswamy, Chairman Chennai chapter and few other members expressed that the expulsion was done after giving number of opportunities to Shri Natarajan to stop his anti BES attitude and activities. Shri Arun Kumar demanded to know under what rule he was expelled and also expressed his displeasure on Chennai chapter not withdrawing the expulsion in spite of the decision of the council. Arguments in this regard continued for sometime and finally President concluded by saying that the enquiry by Shri. L.V. Sharma which is pending will be completed at the earliest and the matter will be resolved.

After this, the chairmen of the following chapters presented reports on activities of their respective chapters.
1. Chennai 2. Hyderabad 3. Thanjavur 4. Mumbai
No report/presentation was made in the AGM from other chapters, as neither the chairman nor his representative was present in the AGM.

Agenda item No. 6: Amendments to Rules & Regulations
When Shri P. Mohanadoss started presenting the proposals as already recommended by the council, members felt that since the same had been already circulated, there was no need to elaborate item by item. The members were then asked to come out with their reservations if any in respect of the proposals. Since no one had any comments to offer, it was taken that all the proposals are approved.

Decision:
AGM unanimously approved all the 25 amendments as proposed.

Agenda Item No. 7: Appointment of Auditor
Shri K. Subramanian, Hon. Secretary informed the AGM that M/s. Ashok Goel & Company who are currently the Auditors have expressed their willingness to continue the auditing work for the year 2007-08 at the same rate and same terms and conditions.

Decision:
The AGM approved appointment of the M/s. Ashok Goel & company as auditors

Agenda item No. 8: Representation by Shri Rajiv Sinha and 13 others
Shri N.K. Gupta said that the BES Head Quarter did not reply to his representation about the validity of nomination of Hon. Secretary and President. President replied that the reply was sent to Shri Rajiv Sinha, who was the authorized coordinator for these 13 members as a signatory and it was the duty of Shri Rajiv Sinha to intimate the other members . Some members raised the point that the former Hon. Secretary Shri Ashish Bhatnagar was forced to resign. At this point, as requested by President, Shri A.V. Swaminathan read out the relevant decision of the council meeting as well as the letters of the then President Shri A.S. Guin to clarify that the former President and Secretary resigned their own. On this matter Shri Ashish Bhatnagar came to the dais and expressed in his speech that reconstitution of some committees was the starting point of unpleasant happenings and asked whether the President and Secretary do not even have the power to change the committees. Subsequently, in this regard Shri. Mohanadoss informed members about various developments after the BES EXPO 2007 and felt that the former Hon. Secretary instead of facing the council, ran away from reality. Shri P.K. Singh, in the course of the above discussion expressed that nobody persuaded Shri. Ashish Bhatanagar to continue and that he should be brought back as Hon. Secretary. Heated arguments on the matter kept continuing. After some time President requested the house to calm down and requested Padmashree H.S. Jolly, who wanted to speak to come to the dais.

Shri Jolly expressed his concern over the manner in which some council members and office bearers were behaving in the emergency council meeting. He expressed his opinion that adequate discipline be maintained otherwise the society may find it difficult to survive. He lauded the just concluded Expo and congratulated all concerned. After Shri Jolly concluded his speech, Shri Arun Kumar wanted to have some more discussion on the matter. However, since there was no time left, President could not allow the same. President in his concluding remarks said that when he took over he had two prime tasks, successful conduct of Expo and holding of AGM, at hand. Since both these have now been completed he along with the Secretary and Treasurer would like to be relieved of their duties. He however, said that the Expo accounts will be closed by them and submitted to the council before relinquishing.