Wisdom of the Trustee

We have a finance trust in the institute called something like Heart, Club, Spade or some such Jubilee Society Trust. We will call it Some Jubilee Society Trust or SJST. Being a trust, it has trustees. Being a trust, it must be trustworthy. It handles all donations and grants brought in by staff members, deducts 10% of the amount as processing fee, and lets the said persons use the balance funds for buying equipment or consumables etc. It is a very closed group. So much so that despite the era of 'Right to Information', the secretary refuses to let us know who the trustees are. The refusal is more vehement when one of the trustees has passed some remarks we do not like and want to know who it is. It is rare to find such protective behavior in modern times and is quite laudable. The trustees are wonderful people too. It is not disclosed what the mode of their selection is. It is definitely not those who put up the money for the trust. We are the people who put up the money, and they just handle it, deducting 10% for the trouble. This is not the trouble they cause us. It is the trouble they take to handle our money and sometimes trouble us in the process. Troubling us is painful to them too, since they are very sensitive and empathetic. The trustees have a deep knowledge of technology, management, finance, and in general what is right and what is wrong. They decide how we should spend the money we generate and put in our accounts in the trust. They are inquisitive. They want to know our thought processes when we put up proposals for purchase of this or that. They are innovative. They keep coming up with newer terms and conditions, when we put up proposals based on the original terms and conditions. Such demanding nature ensures that the depositors of the trust are kept on their toes at all times. Some of the trustees have a knack of asking questions. They excel at this art so much that they ask for the sake of asking, even when the answers are in the original proposals or if the matter was not in the proposal. I recall they asking me who would read the ebook reader I wanted to buy with money I had deposited in the trust. I supposed whoever could read should read the reader. Then they asked me who would read it. that was beyond me. After all, I could just provide the reader, not force people to read it if they did not want to. Then they asked me about finance for downloading new books on the reader. I had not mentioned downloading, because I did not propose to do so. I had plenty of books myself for reading. One trustee is particularly vigilant. He questions if one particular vendor quotes a price much lower than the others. He wants us to buy expensive items, from the lowest quoter in the group. I had a vendor selling me a cautery for Rs. 85000/-, when two others wanted to sell me cauteries for Rs. 5 and 7 lac respectively. The latter were imported. But this trustee would have nothing of it. After all, imported goods must be so much better than Indian goods, though we poor people do not know that. It is people like this trustee see that our foreign trade thrives. Some trustees believe in improvement. When I get three quotations as asked, they want me to get more. One must always excel in whatever one does, they believe. I admire that spirit. Another good quality of the trustees is slow and steady method of working. even if something terrible is happening, they won't be rushed. I recall desperately trying to buy an electrocautery (with funds I had deposited) because I had only one in my emergency OT for two tables, the trustees obliged by going through my proposal before the meeting so as not to delay anything. That they took so long that it was anyway time for the meeting when they were through is the result of their slow and steady method of working. But they are elderly and have the wisdom to do so. They expect the younger persons who put up the proposals to answer with alacrity, or the proposals are postponed by another month, when they would hold another meeting. This time they sent me a list of questions ten minutes before the time of the meeting. They said the stress would do me good - puts adrenaline in circulation and releases steroids too. the secretary is especially wonderful. Must have known me for about forty years. Such a sport - she omits an e from my name's spelling, just to make me feel good. The qualities and abilities of the active trustees are endless. I will write more about them some other day.