Update on 19 Sept 2008

Update on 19 Sept 2008

Dear all,

My apologies for the silence over the past 2+ week. On one hand we had made some progress so that's good. But on the other hand we also encountered more spanners thrown at us this time from DJROA. They are now reluctant to help us, will tell you more in later part of this email. So it has been challenging and frustrating weeks..

First the good news. The committee have discussed and decided on the companies that we will be working with.

(1) Metro Security Services Sdn Bhd - They provide Napalese guards. BU 7 & 10 are currently using their services and feedback from the Chairman of BU 7&10 is that they have been reliable, and there's lots of synergies. They have the relevant experience and have been accommodating to our negotiations and requests. Details will be revealed later as there might be changes to our implementation plans because of DJROA. They will need 3 weeks lead time from the time we give them the go ahead. We want to get them in as soon as possible. Can't do that until we have collected the monies from all of you to get this project started.

(2) West Mark Alarm & Automation Sdn Bhd - They will provide the boomgate and CCTV hardware and software. Their prices was the lowest, response and service was the best. The MD himself presented and negotiated with us. Dealing with the decision maker made things move faster and smoother. We have full confidence that they can deliver on their promises. And in future if we want to add in security card system, they can provide that too. However, implementation of boomgate and CCTV will done in stages. Priority is to get the security guards at the post first.

(3) MBPJ - They have given us conditional approval for our guard houses. The condition is that we need to get from all of you your signature to show them that we do have the 85% supporters. So what that means is that we will need to go back to each of you to get your signatures. We will do that together at the same time with the collection of the money from each of you. The guard house will be the 4ftx4ftx7ft container type for a start. And in future, once this scheme is successful and you guys feel that we need to upgrade to a permanent and nicer guardhouse and willing to pay for it, then we will do it.

(4) How much will be the Monthly fees? - Well, now with the spanner thrown at us by DJROA, we may need to revise the amount again. We had already worked out an amount that we think would be palatable to all of us and it's actually a little lower than what we had projected. Now we will have to rethink that amount. Please bear with us while we try to resolve the bank account issue first.

Now for the bad news. The president of DJROA Mr Yew Cheng Ho, his secretary and the treasurer have all resigned as of Wednesday (2 days ago). I heard 2 other committee members too have resigned. That's 5 of them! So they are now left with 6 committee members. His reason for resigning is personal and I won't go into the details. If you are interested you go find out yourself.

Our last meeting with DJROA was last night where the Acting President Mr Toh presided over it. The treasurer (who had resigned but will stay on until a replacement is nominated) was there too. Six of us from our committee and two from the SS22/22A security committee was there. The meeting was suppose to have been for us to get back to DJROA if we agree or not to the conditions that Mr Yew had set on us, before they are willing to help us to open a separate bank account for all of us to bank in the monies to and manage the payment.

We were there to revert to them that we are willing to accept their conditions and we wanted to know how fast they can open the bank account for us and give us the name of the account. The key condition is that we must all sign up and be members of DJROA. That was what we were struggling with to accept. However, it turned out in the meeting that the treasurer was very reluctant to help us even after we inform that we accept all their conditions.

His point was that DJROA will not have a say as to how the money will be spent as it is our project and it will be managed by our committee, not theirs. The check signatories must be from DJROA according to the constitution. His concern is that if we were to commit fraud and abuse of the funds, he does not want to held responsible what so ever. Our argument is that the funds usage and approvals will be by a committee and not by any one person. We will have checks and balances to make sure of that, like with any respectable company. Corporate governance is just as important to us too. Infact we are even willing to give DJROA an indemnity letter to absolve DJROA from any liabilities or legal law suits should it arise. He was still not satisfied with it. We told him that when the people volunteered to take on any committee position, it will naturally come with certain responsibilities and he should accept that and find a way to minimize the risk.

Mr Yow from our committee even volunteered his services to be the secretary of DJROA. And we also suggested that we will offer 1 person from our committee and 1 person from SS22/22A to be on the treasury committee, to take over from him when he leaves. Mr Toh said he has to put that suggestion to his committee to decide and will revert by mid of next week. As the meeting was heading no where we left. All the 6 of us from our committee and 2 from SS22/22A's committee left feeling very disappointed with the outcome.

I have now called for a committee meeting this Sunday at 4pm to brainstorm as to what can be other possible ways that we can get this project moving. The most important stumbling block now is to get a bank account opened so that we can go to you to collect the money and get this project off the ground. We may now end up not working with DJROA but go the way of starting our own association. If any of you have any suggestions, please email them to me and I will bring it up with the committee.

Its been 3 long months since we started this project and we've come so far. We will need to keep the momentum up. We do not want all our efforts to go to waste. Please bear with us while we try to find an amicable way to solve this problem. We are all equally disappointed with the impasse and assure you that we will do our best to find the best solution to this. I will keep you informed on the outcome.

Thank you.
John Chen