BD Mariners London Event

Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:59:46 -0400
Subject: BD Mariners London Event

Salam  to  All ,

It gave us an immense pleasure to see so many of you at the get-together. We thank you all for coming to the event.

Our aim was to welcome you all, get maximum people engaged and interact. It was nice to see so many of us gathering at one place under the umbrella of Bangladesh Mariners. It gave us an opportunity of meeting so many of the fellow mariners and their wives and families at one place. It was a pleasure to meet a few new mariner colleagues including Quadi Harun. Many of us took the pain of travelling from a long distance and Quasem bhai travelled South from as far as Aberdeen to lighten up the event together with Chisti bhai and Nazma bhabhi. This proved how much we valued this get together. Quasem bhai, Chisti bhai, Khairul, Kaisar, Neaz, Iftekhar, Sarwar, Zohurul, Faiz, Zillur, Shameem, Sajed, Saminul and their families all assisting in many events. Our heartfelt thanks to all of them. Being away from our comfort place of Southampton, we on the organising side may not have done as much as we would have liked. Prizes, as such, for various events were just the tockens of friendship; not having any material value. We wish to thank those who gave honest and constructive views regarding this. Inevitably there were many areas that we could have improved in many ways. Our honest and sincere aim was to get all onboard for fellowship, interaction, share thoughts and enoy the event together.   Please do accept our sincere apology for any pitfalls and or shortcomings. At the same time; a lot of hard work by other committee colleagues went into this; who together with their families tried to do their best to welcome you all with open heart.

At the closing meeting on 28 June it was proposed that we hold our next get together in about 2 years time at South Shields, if mariners living in Shields agree to that. It appeared that the proposal was unanimously accepted and Sajed agreed to take the proposal forward to our colleagues living in South Shields area.  An alternative including Lowestoft area will be considered as fall-back venue if the above do not work out. We believe all mariners living in the UK will be able to attend the next gathering to make that a success. Fellow colleague Neaz Hyder made a formal proposal to give the UK Mariners’ gathering a formal shape. Details of this wonderful proposal will be distributed through e-mail for wider acceptance. An e-blog will also be introduced as proposed by Zillur. Faizur Rahman propos ed the formation of a universal forum for seafaring officers that would see to the interests & welfare of mariners. This good proposal will also be circulated to all mariners in the UK via Zillur blog.

We are a very small community of Bangladesh Mariners in the UK and our request would be to work towards greater bonds of a bigger and united family. As family members, we may differ in some issues but we stand tall as a family with united fellow feelings.

Our South Shields crowd may wish to start thinking of ideas and share these with us all in due course; as we formally wish to hand over the rein to our South Shields fellow mariners /collegues.
A contact list was prepared on the occasion of the get together for all of to keep in touch. I am sure you would agree with me that this list would be helpful in maintaining the contacts. Our colleague Zakirul will soon finalise the London event expenses that will be circulatede together with a copy of contact list.

May you all have a safe journ ey home and enjoy a healthy life ever after. Allah be with you. Thank you all again.

Best wishes.
Forkanul Quader (6th Batch)
On behalf of the Organising Committee

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It was wonderful to participate in the UK BD Mariners Get Together 2009 in London.  Many thanks to fellow mariners of Southampton for organising the reunion.

I would like to put forward some of my views the attention of the Bagladeshi Mariners livining in the UK .

1. The goal and objective of get together is to have fun, get to know each other, socialising, exchange views,  form a big marine family.
2. It is important that we make effort to participate in the get together.  A larger number of participants will bring bigger and better success. Participating in the get together should be taken seriously.
3. It is important that UK BD Mariners have a fund available to continue with the reunion and other needs arising from time to time.  I am proposing that each mariner make a contribution of GBP5.00 per month.  This will enable to accumulate a sizable fund at the end of two years. Get-together contribution amount will then substantially drop at time of get-together, reducing the burden of paying a lump-sum, and will also give us choice to select attractive places.
4. If we agree on item no.3,  then to open an account and other associated work can be discussed and arranged.
5. There are few more ideas which I do not want to disclose at this point and over burden everybody.  Let us progress one step at a time.  The main factor is to remain united and committed to have a get-together every 2 yeras in a larger and more elegant style.
6. I fully support the initiative taken by Rahman brothers to establish a platform for the voice of mariners.
7. Please feel free to give your views and ideas to make UK BD Get-together a success.

Neazuddin Hyder (Neaz)

10th Batch

Glasgow, Scotland