Our first meeting at the Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok on September 19, 2009
was a huge success.
We were pleased to host a considerable number of Thailand Elite Members
from China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, France, Belgium, the UK, Australia, HongKong and Monaco representing their country’s members, as well as a
Thailand Elite Country Representative and several high profile Lawyers.
After a welcome word by the organizers, Mr. Alastair Henderson and Mr.
Surapol Srangsomwong, Partners of the International Legal Practice Herbert Smith Thailand ( <http://www.herbertsmith.com/> www.herbertsmith.com )
gave a very interesting presentation about the legal issues involved in
organizing ourselves and safeguarding our rights.
According to Thai Law a Class Action Suit does not exist in Thailand but
individual TE-members can jointly initiate a court case.
However a court case should only be initiated after all other avenues of
negotiating with Thailand Elite are exhausted.
Mr. Alastair Henderson and Mr. Surapol Srangsomwong advised our group to
form a Steering Committee representing as many Members as possible.
This Steering Committee could then make all necessary decisions.
A viable course of action in the short term would be for the Steering
Committee to appoint a lawyer, who should then hand over an official letter
stating our concerns to the Thai Government.
After the presentation of Herbert Smith our Korean Fellow Organizer
explained the history of Thailand Elite, the changes in the Thailand Elite Management and the decrease in member benefits.
All this information was illustrated by a detailed PDF presentation on a
large projection screen.
The next presentation was given by our Webmaster who explained the setup
and the goals of our website.
The purpose of this website is to facilitate the communication between all
the TE-members, to gather and make accessible all information about
Thailand Elite and to communicate our actions to all the members.
It is possible to integrate a fundraising page into the website to cover
for example the lawyer’s expenses but this has to be investigated further as not to cause any legal or tax problems.
After a short coffee break, we proceeded with an open discussion between
all attendees.
The general feeling amongst the attendees was that the Thailand Elite
Program had gradually lost its focus and purpose of promoting Thailand and attracting Foreign Investors.
A TAT-endorsed program like this should not be run as a money making
enterprise but as a government sponsored promotion campaign for Thailand.
The financial benefits of the Thailand Elite Program should therefore not
be analyzed as a company’s Balance Sheet, since the benefits for Thailand will be substantial but of a more indirect nature through the Members’investments and promotion with family, friends and business connections.
Please find in attachment the Balance Sheet of Thailand Privilege Card Co.,LTD. for your consideration so kindly provided by one of our fellow
Thailand Elite Members.
The attendees mentioned what they want to obtain from Thailand Elite.
Some members want the services to continue uninterrupted, others want a
financial settlement.
We talked about how the Thailand Elite Program could be made profitable.
A possibility would be for TE to act more as a service provider / butler
service and charge or a small annual fee or payment for certain services.
All attending Thailand Elite Members unanimously elected this meeting’s
organizers as the President and the Board Members of the Steering Committee.
Everybody agreed on letting the Steering Committee make all necessary
decisions in the near future, as not to lose valuable time.
Many attendees are willing to financially contribute to the expenses of
the website, Legal representation and a media campaign.
How this can be organized should be discussed at a next meeting.
As a conclusion we decided to approach Thailand Elite in a constructive way to find a solution that is beneficial for all members.
The handing over of an official letter to the Government was suggested and most attendees agreed that this would be a good first step.
Following up on this, the possibility of launching an international media
campaign was discussed.
If all our efforts would remain unsuccessful, legal action would be a
logical next step.
We decided to hold a second follow up meeting at the end of October.
This meeting’s venue, date and agenda will be discussed via email and
communicated as soon as possible to all Thailand Elite members.