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MSA eBoard - 2007-2008
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President: Maweza Razzaq
Vice President: Ryan Strom
Finance: Jibril Jama
Community Service: Shimaa Mousa
Administrative Affairs: Fatima Foflonker
Education: Mahmood Farooqi
Media: Sabtain Khan
Outreach: Zain Shamoon
Public Relations: Bashir Hakim
Political Action: Nada Zohdy
Brothers' Social: Arshan Ahmad
Sisters' Social: Asma Hasan
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General Assembly Meeting 2005
Friday, June 17, 2005
Time: 7:30 PM
Place: Multipurpose Hall, Islamic Center
Attendance: Brothers ~35 and Sisters ~ 20
Minutes:
- Executive Committee Annual Report - By Br. Asadullah Khan
- Dawah Committee Report - By Br. Najm Salman
- Information Committee Report - By Br. Muhammed Hammad
- Financial Committee Report - By Br. Maher Mahmoud
- Education Committee Report - By Br.Asad for Br. Zubair Ahmad
- Expansion Project Report - By Br. Kabeer Sahib
- Election for the Interim Executive Committee(2005-2006) - By Sh. Omer Soubani
- Questions and Comments by the members and attendees
- Library Volunteer. Let us organize it and put up a computer in the library to track the check in and check out. Br. Saad (from Pakistan) is willing to volunteer that job.
- Give dawah during the time of Iftar or any dinner.
- Sunday School Holidays. Let us preplan it for the whole year instead of announcing it at the last moment.
- Social Programs. Let us preplan it to get more volunteers.
- Let us give dawah to non-muslims in the Churches, Hospitals, and Prisions.
- We can get Dawah fliers from ISNA, ICNA. Do we have any plans of publishing our own magazine to generate some income out of it?
- Gym Schedule. Is there any specific time schedule for the kids and women? Br. Aftab (from Bangladesh) is willing to volunteer his time in the Gym.
- Give dawah on the day of Eid-Al-Fitr, Eid-Al-Adha and even on Christmas Day. (Dr. Khan, Father of Br. Aftab)
- Are we getting sufficient tax relief from the Consumers Energy since the masjid is a non-profit organization? Do we need to contact the city or political figures for the subsiding the cost of Consumers Energy? Dr. Abbasi.
- To Consumers Energy, non-profit organizations does not make any difference to them, they consider it as a business organization, so we are not getting any subsdise from them so far. - Br. Maher.
- We need to put up a neon sign outside the masjid to advertise any of our event to the public to attract more crowds even the non-muslims. (Dr. Mohmand from Pakistan)
- We need to approach certain family for the masjid expansion and parking lot. That is the people who are coming to the masjid regularly.
- Error in the new Constitution: Correct the sentence "support moderate organizations in Islam". It should be "support moderate organizations of Islam". - Br. Mustafa
- It costs about $250, 000 to complete 2nd floor in the new building.
- Select one or two people from different ethnic community and let the Dawa Committee train them, so that each of the trained people can give dawah to their own community in their language. - Br. Towfiqul Islam
- Maintain cleanness in the Wudu area by not wearing toilet slippers/shoes in the wudu area.
- We need to address one Khutba just to concentrate on the social aspects like cleaning. (Dr. Mohmand from Pakistan)
- Start the Friday Khutba on time and finish it up on time since many people cannot afford to take more time than what they afford to take from their work due to their individual situations. (Dr. Mohmand from Pakistan)
- Establish a volunteer a database system like the Dallas, TX masjid had done. Through which we can easily track our volunteer efforts and its status, and this would make our volunteer efforts more organized and managable. We can get help on this from Br. Thasin and Br. Abubacker.
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Town Hall Meeting - Sponsored by Executive Committee (2004-2005)
Minutes:
Date: Saturday, June 04, 2005
Time: 6:30 PM
Place: Islamic Center
- We need to have an accountability system in the masjid.
- We should consider hiring a full-time manager for the masjid.
- Establish a system for volunteers to have it more organized.
- We need to have more and organized youth activities. We have not collected the pledges so far and we cannot start the parking lot project work until we collect all the money.
- Open a day care in the two Muslim houses to generate income from the government. Start day care in the women's room
- We can charge $10 monthly fee for parking and we can issue some kind of tokens. Or we can charge some parking fee on every Friday. Ask one time payment from everyone who park his or her car at the masjid for the parking lot project. Make sure to keep enough volunteers to take care of parking during any MSU events or games to generate income.
- Hold halaqa and classes on a daily basis with different topics; something different from the Deen, which is beneficial to our community.
- We need to make use of the talented people in our community.
- We can arrange a small room for the younger kids when the parents come here for the prayer.
- We need to maintain the Qutbah time and set the exact time for the Jumuah prayer.
- We need to monitor the kids when we bring them to the masjid and we need to keep the masjid clean.
- Paint job in the masjid is due.
- Pray 2 rakat in the motion of paying the masjid's debt.
- Shop groceries at the masjid kitchen store to support the masjid.
- Religious accommodations in the schools, universities - we, the masjid, need to step in and help the Muslim students to get religious accommodation for them.
- Bring the youth to the prayers and especially for the Jumuah prayer.
- Increase the knowledge of Quran and learn Arabic language. Br. Harith is willing to teach Arabic in the masjid.
- We need to let the people know what we have done in the past related to the debt we owe to NAIT. We need to assess what went wrong in the past.
- Prioritization of the major project should be done democratically rather than within the EC.
- We should consider the option of family membership instead of individual membership. Membership committee should do this job. We need to charge $75 for the family membership and $20 for students. We need to define clearly the difference between the formal paid member and informal member. Currently there is no benefit or extra advantage of being a member, so we should giving substantial discounts or some benefits to the paid member. Define the membership in the constitution clearly.
- Establish Islamic kindergarten or day care for the small kids.
- Everyone has to share his or her money, time and contribution. Have certain percentage of ethnic community in the Executive Committee.
- Sisters need water fountain at the women's side, Bathroom renovation.
- Present Islam door to door. Take care of Masjid Landscape.
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Islamic Society of Greater Lansing - General Assembly
January 28 2005
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Reports received are listed below:
Sunday School Committee Report Zubair Ahmad
The Sunday School for 2004-05 started on September 19, 2004 and will
InshaAllah continue through the Winter and Spring terms and will end
on June 26, 2005. The School's academic session spans over a total of
41 weeks (Sundays), of which 30 are committed to instructional, 3 for
two mid-term and one final examination; one for Teachers Meeting; and
8 for holidays on account of two Eids, national holidays; and spring
and winter breaks. The school hosts pizza party on three occasions for
students, teachers and parents: Eidul-Fitr, Eidul-Azha and End of the
year program.
With the Blessings of Allah SWT, the Sunday Islamic School enrolled
over 80 students for the year 2004-05 and raised over $5,000 in cash
and some pending payments in enrollment fee. The main expense of Sunday
school is purchase of books. The first consignment of books has been
distributed to the students and the next shipment of the books is expected
during December 2004 or early January 2005. The estimated cost of the
book purchase is $2,500. The shipment of books was delayed due to non-payment
of outstanding invoice from previous years, which was settled.
The Sunday School is completely managed by volunteer efforts. There
are 9 male and 11 female teachers including two administrative aides.
These persons devote 1-3 hours on each Sunday when the school is in
session. May Allah SWT reward them for their efforts and contribution.
The Sunday School experience is only possible with the blessing of Allah
SWT, community participation and the efforts of these volunteers. The
Sunday School starts at 10 AM (at 11 AM in spring) and terminates after
about three hours at Salat Zuhr to allow students pray with the parents.
Snacks and fruit juice is provided on each school day during a 15-minute
break.
Since last year, the Sunday School has introduced the concept of substitute
teacher who is an alternate designated person to teach when a teacher
is absent. Majority of the teachers are connected with the principal
via e-mail for updates and notifications. May Allah SWT make this year
rewarding for the students, parents, teachers and all those individuals
who are directly or indirectly providing their services to the Sunday
School.
Year-Women’s Committee Report: by Sr. Sue
The Women’s Committee, elected to serve for 2005-2006, agreed to enact a 6-month transitional plan in order to accommodate the new constitution. Officers understood the limited time we would serve but that didn’t stop us from enjoying many successes throughout our tenure.
Successes:
We initiated an e-talk group for the executive committee to stay in touch about the women’s issues we were facing on a day to day basis. This enhanced the communication across all workgroups.
We sent a representative to the Executive Committee Meetings of the Greater Lansing Islamic Center (GLIC) every other Thursday to bring the Women’s committee issues to the men and created an avenue for both sides to stay informed about each other’s activities.
We contributed to the rewrite of the GLIC Constitution.
We had a successful babysitting program during Taraweeh this year.
We held a welcome party for new sisters, held Eid parties for sisters and also children parties during Eid at Casesarland.
We engaged the MSA students as members on the committee. We thank them for their assistance on various projects: Open House, reserving rooms at MSU for activities, & cleaning, babysitting, and generally assisting each other on scheduled events.
We offered Two Arabic Classes, (one in the Masjid and one outside of the Masjid), and one English class.
The women contributed significantly to the Open House held in May.
We also created a service learning program with Vanderbilt University. 12 students will be arriving in March to assist our community as part of the student’s “Alternative Spring Break”.
Various Fundraising activities were held, i.e., the kid's carnival , and the Friday sales of food/drinks.
The women’s committee set up a class and taught some convert sisters how to pray.
We recognize and thank Sr. Lul for the continuation of her successful kitchen project and store.
The Women experienced some trials as well, many of which are unresolved so we send them forth as recommendations for action to the next committee.
Unresolved Issues:
Properly utilizing the space in the masjid to facilitate events. This last 6 months the Women’s room underwent renovation, and to date we have not been allowed access to return to the room. Attempts are being made to work out this issue, but the next committee will need to address this issue. Women need space to hold halaqas, learn Qur’an, English, etc and we continue to struggle to find space.
Unsupervised children running through the masjid- While the majority of the mothers supervise the children we have found situations where kids without supervision are in the masjid, running free creating a disturbance for both men and women’s halaqas. This must be corrected.
Dawah Committee Report: by Br. Najim Salman
The Da’wa committee is striving to serve this community in the best possible way. Our goal is to spread knowledge of Deen while following the Sunah of our prophet Mohammed (sala Allahu alaihui wasalam).
The Da’wa committee is responsible for conducting several programs:
-Arranging the speaker of Jum’ah prayer.
-Two short talks (Khaters), Monday and Thursday.
-Friday Daras (lecture)
-Arranging Ramadan program.
-Short Talk after Fajer prayer.
In addition to the above programs, we are also involved in other interesting activities that serve the community and spread the message of Islam such as: going to churches and hospitals as they request from us, replying to local invitations, and replying to questions we receive by email. - We are also planning to have an event for new Muslims this coming January of 2006, and we have more ideas still under study to do in the near future.
As I have been serving in the Da’wa committee for almost two years, I have developed the following thinking: Da’wa is the responsibility of each person and not only for certain peoples. Every person could do so much, if he or she has the will and sincerity. We all should be part of the committee even if we are not a member of it. We all should educate ourselves and families to participate in this program. Do not be little whatever you could do, because if you don’t do it, it is a loss for all Muslims. Therefore, I really encourage every single Muslim in our community, even the little ones, to participate and be proactive, because it will be saved for you in a day that no wealth and offspring would help except the one who comes with pure heart. (talking about the Day of Judgment when you meet the Allah, SWT).
May Allah Subhanhu watala guide all, increase our knowledge, and grant us good behavior and wisdom.
June 2005– January 2006 Executive Committee Reports
Information Committee Report: by Br. Abdoul Karim
The following is the progress of the information committee’s plans:
- The cataloguing of English collections of the Islamic Center Library is going well. The classification of books in English in different subjects has been completed. What is remaining is to label the books and store them in the library software. We are looking for brothers/sisters who are willing to help in cataloguing the books in Arabic.
- Library Hours: The Islamic Center Library is now open every day between Maghrib and Isha prayers.
- Muslim directory: the update of the data base of the Islamic Center of Greater Lansing has been almost completed. The community Muslim directory will soon be available.
May Allah reward all the volunteers of the information committee for their time.
Br. Abdoul Karim, Information Committee Coordinator
Not provided.
Social Committee Report: by Br. Mursel Catal
The following activities and events were organized or involved by the social committee.
Summer Picnics
Upon assuming the responsibility, the committee organized two community picnics during the summer. The picnics were attended by 350 and 200 people. New refugees from Russia and Somalia were invited to these events and get acquainted with the community.
Ramadan Activities
The committee organized Iftars for singles during the whole month of Ramadan. The dinners were free of charge and sponsored by generous brothers and sisters in our community. The center provided dinner supplies and drinks.
The committee in cooperation with the president organized four community dinners on Saturday during Ramadan. These dinners were attended by the majority of the community. The committee volunteers and MAS scouts did an excellent job to make these dinners comfortable enjoyable events.
The committee served tea and sometimes sweet following the community dinners or teravih prayers. Sahur dinners were also provided by the center in the last 10 days of Ramadan.
Other activities
The committee planned to organize sport activities and tournaments during the summer. We could not find enough young people interested in these events. However, some sport activities such as basketball and soccer were resumed by small groups. On the other hand, our youths were involved in many summer activities organized by MAS Lansing Chapter such as summer camps.
In this short period, the social committee tried to do its best to serve the muslim community in Lansing. However, the lack of enough interest and involvement by our community members prevented us from planning and executing better and larger activities. The spirit of Volunteerism and Serving the Community has not developed in our community as we see in other religious communities. We see certain brother and sister doing all the work around. Every member of the community should come forward to help and execute any activities happening in our center. We should not expect others to serve us all the time. We should always keep in mind that serving muslim community is serving Islam
Finally, we would like to thank our members all of our brothers and sister who contributed the social committee. The committee especially thanks the Sultans restaurant for providing food for our activities with almost no cost.
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Constitution of the Islamic Society of Greater Lansing