 Assalamu alaikum everyone, it looks like we are starting to get an audience online, welcome to the candidates forum for the 2022 MCC board elections. What you see in front of you are the candidates running for several positions, five open positions. The treasurer position was actually fulfilled, there was nobody other than brother Samir Lakhani who was running for the treasurer position, so he is running unopposed, so congratulations to him. Then we have two that are running for the VP position, and that is sister Humera and brother Najeeb I believe, correct, for the VP position and the rest of the candidates, Heather Yusuf, Heather Watkins, Zahir Khan, Sadat Syed, Amir Khan, Alam Akbar, Saqib Awan and Mohamed Khoshid are all running for board of directors at large. So there are five of those open positions and I'm sorry, there are three of those open positions. And so you will be instructed with an email that goes out midnight tonight and giving you the opportunity to vote for the candidates that you see in front of you. And if you have a household member, an adult household member that's living with you, then you can request another ballot for that person, just give us the email and then another email will go out to that adult person living in your household so that person can vote and it could be two, three or four adults living in the same household that are eligible to vote. So just once again if you have additional people, adults living in your household that want to participate in the voting, they can by sending an email to the election committee asking for another ballot. With that I'm going to turn it over to the candidates and we'll go from right to left if that's okay. Is that agreeable for everyone? And everyone is going to provide a kind of a opening statement, candidate statements and the format I guess we will, it'll just be general, your name, the position you're running for, your occupation, how long you've been part of the MCC community, what do you like about the MCC, what do you think can be improved and finally what positive impact do you think you can make if elected to the board position. So with that I'm going to turn it over to brother Mohammad Khurshid, is your mic working? Yes, I think it's working. So please go ahead and introduce yourself. I remove my mask, sorry for that. Assalamu alaikum, my name is Mohammad Murshid Khaji and I am in, sorry, I'm working in Marvel Semiconductor in Santa Clara. I've been in USA for about from 2012 to until now and all the time I've been present on in this mosque. So the mosque is like the main reason actually I choose to live in present for the mosque. This is the MCC, it's my part of life and this is every day I come here just for peace and the tranquility for my life. This is my part of my life. What MCC brought to my life is I just tell you that before the COVID actually we have a lot of activities in MCC and we enjoy it like every single day to come here and especially the Ramadan is for me and my family is special for it in this commentary. The positive thing about MCC is that all my friends I missed in Pleasanton is actually most of the friends are USA is from MCC. I meet friends here and with you we come, we share our, get advice, give advice. We share our joy, we just saw everything with MCC. So it is like my family in here. So that is the positive thing to bring this thing to MCC and it's a blessing for our community that we have MCC in here and actually I went to the before the COVID one thing I just want to share with you. I went to different mosques actually to pray tarawih during the COVID before COVID and friend is speaking in the in the barrier after the MCA we have the most activities in barrier and I feel proud of it and the positive thing I had to bring I want to become like MCA to here. So for my work I went to actually I go to MCA a little bit for Asia or sometime like Juma and even the COVID what I see in MCA that they have a lot of youth activities like from the children to every like age old they have a still they're running activities here and what I see that is little bit missing in our community right now because of the COVID and all this thing. So I think when COVID go away or from now on I think we should have a more youth activities because youth my children and youth children is the future of this community and they are the bearer of the Islam in here. So we should when I if I become a director of this position position data alert so I will emphasize on the youth activities mostly for each of the age group and before COVID I take my children to MCA they have a playground actually and to play there from all they hear from Santa Clara we take them because they can play at night and they can so I was wondering that if I can do that actually we want to have the same kind of facility in MCA the playground all the children can come they can play in here so you don't need to go to Santa Clara any other places they can so they can meet each other also the parents can meet each other also something like cafe like they have to say and also we have more youth activities also so like it can be a hub of the our community not for the Muslim but non-Muslim also that is the ambition in future and here we ever took and it is here I'll make get selected I hope that we emphasis on this thing that it can be a hub of all our communities in here so people can come and enjoy their life share the life not only for prayer for everything we can once thing I went to one day I went to actually New York and I just share with you they have a software learning course in the mosque actually so people come for their career advancement in the mosque so those thing actually can have here so not only for praying but can have people can connect to each other they can they can advance their career they can get ad they can also get advice for career what their marriage actually we have not of non-Muslim single brother and sister maybe looking for partner they can find their sweet old partner in India so it can be you can help all in all aspect of life if we can do improvement on this area for MCC MCC here so if I go elected I will like to emphasize on the youth and all other the thing I talk about so we can be it can be hub of our communities everybody can come for even they don't pray they can come if they can come and they can connect to the God there's the main important we want to attract people in here either for eating or if we enjoy the child or the marriage or the job it can be half for us so we ever get Allah make elected this position we hope that we can we can make those improvement thank you so thank you brother so I think that was just a little over five minutes let's try to keep it at five minutes and I'll set the timer and one more thing before we continue the candidates have submitted their profile online as well so you you the members would have gotten an email with a link showing if you click on that link you can go and see the profiles that the candidates have submitted and so you can read that and get an idea of what the candidates like about the MCC community what they think can improve it and what positive impact they want to stamp on the MCC with their election winning the nomination for for the board so now I'll turn it over to brother sakev and if you can keep it to five minutes appreciate it thank you my name is sakev awan and I have been us for almost 25 years I have been living in Boston before coming here in California so I came here in 2011 and since then I have been involved in various technological work I have my own startup my own business that I I run I have been involved in masjid in Boston metro Boston area for 10 years before coming here in California but in California I actually was heavily involved in technological work last year in august my father actually passed away and next day when I was cycling a car hit me on the road and and that was a turning point in my life because when I woke up I woke up in my dreams I was kind of like dead person for two days and and in my dream I saw nothing close to my creator a lot about a lot about I never saw anything like that after that I promise myself that when when I when whenever my soul actually wakes up it will find all good goodness around it when it wakes up next time so that is my greatest inspiration I want MCC has been my my inspiration all along I am greatly inspired by the great people that I pray for in my prayers as well as solaheen so I treat them as solaheen and I pray for your success and that is my short introduction I have promised myself that I will be serving my community especially all people in the MCC and other mosque in my surroundings for the rest of my life that is my greatest inspiration thank you so much okay thank you brother sake I just want to introduce brother armored Malik who is also running hopefully the camera can kind of see that he's he's here and I'll try to because if I sit here I think I'll block out the candidates so maybe maybe if I can sit like this I think I'll be okay all right so we'll continue the introductions and brother allam why don't you take the mic and introduce yourself and a candidate statement from you thank you sound like I'm hopefully you guys can hear me okay my name is allam akbar I go sometimes by allam zeb or zeb as well for those of you that know me outside of the folks here I'm applying for the director at large position I've been a member of the MCC community we moved to Dublin my wife and I and we have two kids in 2009 and you know that was right around the time that the decision was made to go from trying to build a masjid to acquiring this building so you know Svanila when we moved here from the south bay we didn't have a masjid and you know some of us might recall that we were had a rented place in in Dublin or we had the service masjid up in San Ramon that we would go to and you know when you Amir asks about what are the things that you like about this community and I you know I think back to when we moved from that period to now Svanila you know we have a masjid we have a building that is you know fun a fully paid off that is self-sufficient financially that not only provides a place for daily prayers and Juma prayers and eat the masjid but so many you know opportunities to perform our civic duties you know we have the weekly or the bi-weekly food delivery that takes place which is amazing you know we have the covid testing that's going on and you know so many other things that brother Munir has been initiating and has had a lot of volunteers participate in so I think from the period of when we've purchased this building to where we are now you know the way the community has grown is is amazing the some of the things that do concern me though you know and when I look at the people that are interacting with the activities that take place it's usually the same people you know and we're I don't have heart statistics but I would think probably five percent of our community is involved in the masjid in in terms of volunteering which is you know which is concerning but it's also an opportunity so one of the things that I would like to see and I would strive for uh whether I'm elected or not to be honest it's it's something that I want to be able to inshallah you know do towards the community is look at how we can increase that level of engagement and have more people be involved in in the masjid and it doesn't have to be volunteering it doesn't have to be oriented in a religious manner one of the things and I think you know everybody if you think about your own lives and you think about how and who you interact with a lot of times you're interacting with people that have similar hobbies that you enjoy being around and I think that if we can start to develop programs beyond that and have clubs for example right that are set up for people that can get together that have common interests right and then start to integrate that through our community we would get a lot more engagement that um than where we are right now and this doesn't apply just to the youth you know I think alhamdulillah we have a lot of focus on our youth as we should but there are other segments of our community that also need attention right you know we have the young couples we have uh families with young children we have people in their middle age we have people that are older right we have people that are retiring these are all different segments of our population that need a mechanism a way for them to interact and to be able to engage with others in our community so those are some of the areas that I think I would like to focus on inshallah again you know whether elected or not it's it's something that I would like to see um and I hope to to participate in and to be able to build out thank you thank you brother alham I'm gonna uh before we continue I just want to say that a lot of people are watching this online this is live streamed and if anyone has any questions that they want to submit uh then please go ahead and do so uh I'll get them here on through the through the internet here that I'm connected to so uh if there are any questions then please submit them and uh let me know which candidate you want uh me to ask the question to if there isn't anyone in specific then I'll just kind of pose it to um in general so the next uh is uh candidate is Amar Khan please go ahead Mr. Alham Alaykum this is Amar Khan so um just to introduce myself I've been in Pleasanton since 2012 and um I have three kids so one each in high school middle school elementary school so I get a good sense of what's going on in in the schools in Pleasanton and um and um even myself having grown up in the U.S. experiencing like you know some of the things that kids have to deal with um so um maybe starting off with you know what do I like about you know the programs at MCC and MCC in general is the level of scholars that we have you know access to and that you know participate and you know lead from Juma to um you know some of the evening lectures and programs are very helpful I think for um just helping our knowledge of Islam so that's I'd say one of the things that definitely we can build on um and a lot of things that you know everyone has said so far I agree with all of them you know in terms of um you know bringing you know programs for the overall community as well so the things like the covid um testing like I'm seeing very positive you know um reaction from just the overall community you know the non-muslim community as well and you know that MCC has brought this and made it available so those are the types of things where I think MCC is in a very good place and we want to I think continue to build on on this um so what would I look to bring um really it is focusing on the youth so I look at it as how do we get our kids how do we get the next generation and the generations even after that to want to come to the masjid so not where the parents are you know prodding them to go to the masjid but where they are going to their parents and saying oh next Friday night there's this thing going on at MCC can we go I want to go so I I want us to be able to get to that point and you know that's um I'd say a big challenge you know easier said than done but finding out and tapping into you know what are what are their interests right so um you know things simple as if we set up like a full basketball court you know in the in the back space um a nice basketball court we have some hoops right now and my kids themselves have complained about the quality of the hoops but really setting it up where it's something that you know it's a nice court and maybe organizing games tournaments um you know in between maybe we have short talks you know getting pizza for them so giving them things to I think attract them to the masjid um and during that also taking an opportunity to understand what are they going through um you know what are other programs we can do helping educate them um because at the end of the day what's you know there's we're building a beautiful masjid I think like I've seen since 2012 in MCC like this all wasn't like this in 2015 even so we're making a beautiful masjid I feel but there's no point to it if you know 20 years from now that next generation isn't coming here so uh so that's a main part of my focus okay thank you yes so brother Najib who's running for uh VP please go ahead I was willing to say so um yeah I'm running for the VP and um I have actually been in this SF Bay area for about 22 years but in Pleasanton specifically for a little over three years and I really enjoyed my time over here this is a great masjid I really like the diversity of the community the diversity of the programs and the scholars that come here and particularly the administrative staff their professionalism is amazing I've had quite a few experience in the Bay area and otherwise too as a student um but this is an amazing place and I think it's a lot due to the professionalism of the administrative staff I like the congenial atmosphere over here alhamdulillah and you know though there is not much that I can suggest but there are many good ideas here that we can improve on I've always tried to in my professional as well as community life build on that court that that is there in my profile as well that says whatever isn't growing wears out so if you're not improving your services there's no steady state in nature so there's a danger of you know wearing out so to say um similar to some of my colleagues who have mentioned here I really think that yes the involvement of you brother alhamdulillah I totally support his idea that there's only five percent of us that participate in community work and a few Fridays ago uh brother parwiz was actually encouraging us a lot after juma prayer that you need to give back to the community so in a sense I think that not just do we need the youth to come into the must it and and you know uh bless the mustard with their presence but we need to promote leadership in the youth and the leadership towards the final because we are going to be in the community for a few time maybe I'm the oldest guy here anyway but I speak from that experience that we need to and and what I enjoy about the community work is basically it follows the professor salams uh court that who said the most beneficial of people are those who benefit other people so this is an opportunity for all of us to benefit the community right um there are a few other things there are challenges to the youth as well as ourselves uh we really need I think get to have more programs you already have them but more programs that actually focus on um you know making an awareness of what Islam is and what it is not there are challenges to our values and so on so forth and I think uh more programs that focus on that and these are not just challenges to our youth they are challenges to adults as well um these are a few of the things that I uh I uh mentioned about also uh I think that we have fantastic ideas and these are ideas on our own but we need to know more about the community what are their ideas so one of my ideas is actually to have a survey of our community would they like to see a basketball court or a swimming pool by the way the reason I mentioned swimming pool because I was part of uh SBIS South Bay Islamic Association where I served as Vice President and this was at a time when we purchased the the Harris Way facility as well as started building the Evergreen Muscle and there were many questions you know everybody had really fantastic ideas but since we are serving the community we should get to know what does the community look for and that is one of my things what I would bring to the table this is interesting um in my in my profile I put in something way back so I was actually back in 1982 thrust into the position of Vice President of MSA by saying thrust I was out of town and I came back and I knew without my permission they elected me as VP but since then I got in yeah okay uh since then I got involved in um you know this work I was also for the MSA in the East Coast Regional a few states um I just think that um Hangula I am myself a biomedical engineer by profession but at the moment I am technically retired but I am partly teaching at the various high school and this has taught me a lot since the last two years I'm more in touch with the youth needs and all as a result of that thank you so next we have brother Sardar uh please go ahead As-Salaam-Alaikum brother uh first of all As-Salaam Bismillah-Araim-Araim and uh salams to everybody on this podium and also salam and also greetings to the community who's watching us I have been a uh my name is Sardar Saeed and uh I have been uh in the community for since 1998 23 plus years and uh I was here when we were uh ICPD and you know we had struggles and obviously successes later and we were praying at Musallah's at brother's house and it was a beautiful feeling then too but it's a better feeling now that we have a permanent center and alhamdulillah we are blessed to have the center and uh I have also been in the tech industry for 20 plus years and uh my experience of community service has been uh I have been a unofficial volunteer here I mean whenever needed I just sign up I mean they know that whenever there any events or anything I'm always available and uh also I'm a board member for my Laguna Oaks hotel community and uh I've been there for eight plus years and uh I have also been the golf director here and we had a very successful golf tournament which actually helped spread the word of MCC around uh from you know we have players from the tri valley uh San Jose all the way to Stockton and the golf tournament was so popular that there would be like uh they as soon as we made it available the seats will be filled up so and uh some of the people here in our community also used to play with us then uh I have uh there the things I love about a community is the brotherhood the camaraderie the you know the togetherness and uh how we all you know have most of us I mean I know we have beautiful new people who's come come in the community later on and there are a few G's also but uh also most of the old timers have been here for a while and uh I I thank the board of trustees for the vision initially of you know making uh getting the center and also trying to make itself sufficient by having the school uh you mean the Chinese school which uh we are renting out so my vision is also to have something to make MCC more self sufficient in a way that we don't have to depend more on the donations my my dream is to have a uh a school for uh boys and girls where you know like a hip school and uh also with uh with with scholars like Hari Amar we should take care I mean we should use his skills I mean his knowledge to have that and uh secondly I also want to have want to help MCC with its social media presence because nowadays kids don't go mostly on Facebook but there are the other various apps like Instagram where they I mean they are more present there so I am a social media director of a charity called gift USA and I can bring that experience to our MCC also and uh I the reason I want to serve for this community is uh you know uh I have a special place for the MCC because of my long-term uh connection with it and with because of the board of directors for I mean board of trustees most of them I have known for years so my my vision is my my reason is to uh you know bait forward you know give back to the community the community which has given me and my family so much so I want to give it back to them I want to basically pay it forward to them and uh finally one more thing I just want to add is I also want to have uh care like uh banquets annual banquets where you know we invite people guest speakers from outside maybe maybe twice a maybe once in two years and that's a great way I mean to also not only raise funds but also get our name out you know not not only just in the barrier but also nationally thank you very much and I appreciate your support thank you brother Salih uh the next candidate running is uh brother Zaheer Khan please go ahead my name is Zaheer Khan um I live in Dublin uh it's almost like 2008 we moved here Alhamdulillah I shared a lot of stories with Salah by next to me uh from ICPD onwards we have we have gone through that MashaAllah we are now in MCC so here being a MCC volunteer and Musalli I'm involved in most of my volunteer activities this is my first time running in board so I'm learning for a board of director at large I work for Intuit the company here in Bay Area itself so as a volunteer as I was talking about I'm a Sunday school teacher for almost 10 years I've been teaching Quran to all the students Alhamdulillah so almost like close to 200 students I have now MashaAllah in the Bay Area our community and I've been involved in other activities I really enjoy MCC with all the MashaAllah the activities pre pre pre covid was like our MCC center was an active center very active and MashaAllah all the programs amazing programs with Karyama especially with Tarawi and Ramadan programs if tar things and Fajr program after Fajr we do with the Latif and other things and other than that MashaAllah MCC is involved like food pantry so many good services are happening here so my focus being if I get elected inshaAllah is to on a very specific thing one is as Mursad bhai also said the same thing my dream is to have a Hifzul Quran program here in MCC we have a beautiful facility we have a large community we have it's a it's a need of our community also Quran is and we have we have MashaAllah top top scholars especially Karyama and we should utilize we have the plan we can do that inshaAllah but that's my dream project second thing is the one thing which really I always think of is the funeral service that's a very very important service our community here in such a big facility we don't have that's a need actually it's a funeral service is need and unfortunately our youth or our community is not much involved in that anything happens in that area we have high dependency to other places like S.I.S.R.V.I.C. sorry Lorry Masjid and MCA so we I personally feel that my goal if I get elected is to give kind of awareness to our youth on these two areas and then other than that I could also thinking like we should do some kind of field trips to our youth young adults basically to see how these process happens so that's the need of our community second thing on the so this one one of the area which I really see is we have MashaAllah our area community is full of successful people here so availing MCC facility we should conduct some of the seminars I remember when I first came to California Dr. Oval I still remember they were doing some beautiful seminar programs inviting some highly professional and intellects I think now we have our own facility we are self-sufficient we should run a continuous program in giving a successful stories so that our youth can actually come connected and last point which I really see where I want to bring MCC is when we think of going to a prayer we know there is a place called MCC in similar fashion I am thinking that any concerns or questions related to religion or something social thing we should again think there is MCC where we can get the answers for it so with that said inshaAllah I thank everyone here I pray for everyone inshaAllah so jazakAllah khair I really appreciate your time thank you jazakAllah brothers are here the next candidate is Heather Watkins please go ahead assalamu alaikum some of you may know me as a lunch lady I work with shazia selling lunches on Fridays and I love being at MCC I took my shahada on August 1st 2018 and I've been volunteering since there's a lot of things I'd like to see happen at MCC I would love to see the banquet room be made over so we can rent it for Nikas and charge a good price for renting the room for other activities I would like to also have a tree planting event where the kids and adults all go out and we trampoline plant trees somewhere I would love to have greeters at both doors the men's and women's entrance to help greet people as they come in and help answer any questions they may have I am drawing a blank I also I love MCC and I think it's a wonderful place and I know that it can continue to grow and I will add diversity to the directors of the board at large I am a Muslim convert and I was born and raised in California and I might bring just a little bit of a different perspective to a few things which will add diversity and there's a lot more on my profile if you'd like to read it and I appreciate your time very much and if you'd like to vote for me it's all in Allah's hands whatever Allah wants will happen inshallah thank you thank you sister Heather Watkins the next candidate running is Humaira Nawaz please go ahead Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem assalamu alaikum everybody I have to say that I'm really inspired by everybody who's on who's wanting to serve the community and I hope that even if they're not elected they continue to serve the community in other capacities I have I've been part of the MCC community since before we bought the land or MCC came into being from ICPD days and then starting MCC as either a volunteer or as a member which I'm really proud of alhamdulillah I was given opportunity to serve MCC as vice principal of the Sunday school for quite a few years and then in other capacities I have served as interfaith event coordinator and as anything that Humaira has wanted me to help volunteer for the last three years I have been part of the board of directors the last two years as vice president on the board MCC is a place of community and getting engaged I am the beneficiary of that community for the last 25 years that I've lived in Pleasanton and some capacity or the other this community has supported me this is where my children grew up this is where we have formed friendships which are now closer to us than our families back home that debt weighs really heavily on me the reason I am running for the position of vice president is because I feel that I owe this to my community if we do not stand up and commit to the time and the opportunities that the community has we are doing a disservice to our future generations what I love about MCC as you know is the community here the programming here the the scholarship level here is amazing alhamdulillah we have been very blessed and I have learned a lot from them for the future there are many things that that we are doing right but we need more engagement from the community at all levels one of the things that this selection brought more to light for me personally was that we have mashallah really good female leadership as volunteers of the community but come election time we do not see that leadership standing in for the positions of board of directors I would really like to see and encourage those female volunteers around the mosque to take the opportunity to run for their leadership roles another thing that I would really like to see is more younger people who are our future like 20 something professionals and their 30 something professionals starting to commit to some time for the mosque because they bring a different perspective and their stories and and what they can bring to the board or in different leadership roles is different from other people who are serving currently or might be serving in the next board so thank you so much for your time and the opportunity thank you sister humera so I'm going to actually just step back here so the folks can see the the next two candidates uh brother yusuf why don't you go ahead and assalamu alaikum alhamdulillah um this is uh always feels like a special thing for me to even be invited here to be a board you know I'm I'm currently a board member and to be nominated again is a really special thing um it's been an interesting two years being a board member here for the last couple years going through COVID you know we came in as board members with sister humera here and we went through a lot of up and downs dealing with COVID and but we we we stayed the course and we were able and I was able to see so much being a part of this mosque that I've never seen just being a member of the mosque but being a board member I got to see the inner workings and all I want to say is that quarry Omar brother moneer sister almanah these these are hearts that are pumping and keeping this mosque going and you know you know I mean obviously it's pretty evident I'm African-American here uh you know I've been I'm from California born and raised California but I was born Muslim alhamdulillah and um and I don't know I don't think about what impact I can bring I think about support I think about having a way of looking at things that come to us because as board members it's not really about everything that we're going to bring all these ideas to the table it's about the ideas that are coming to the table and we're going to and we're the ones that are going to make choices on how things are done and how they go forward whether it's supporting the pantry how we want to how we want to keep these things these great things going and making sure they have the resources and they're put that way rather than going maybe another way so there's a lot of things that are involved with being on this board I have this experience over the last two years but in a lot of ways I feel like because of COVID a lot of the things that I would like to see like some things with the youth and things that I would like to be a part of are bringing over different retreats for the youth and adults alike you know we're kind of shut down but inshallah I think maybe my experience in life from from from being an athlete to now running my own business um I have those organizational skills and I have those skills to connect with people I think I can help in that way but I think the main thing is I see what we need to do and keep continuing to do is keep our focus on our master Muhammad sallallahu sallam in that make sure that everything that we do that we're looking trying to look at it through those eyes trying to whatever we we put whatever project we do that we do it with with this rights of going through our profit if you will and um so inshallah I think everyone's beautiful here to just to come here and to willing to put up their time and inshallah Allah is the best of planners uh this place is going to thrive and inshallah whoever uh is a board member that we keep with this mission that's already there this is a beautiful place but the key is is to keep pushing forward and keep getting better as we should do as individuals right we were taught let's go from you can't be who you were yesterday you gotta you want to be better each day and if we can take that focus and put that energy into any of these things that are going to come up because we're not going to be able to do all of them in two years but understand that but the ones that we do get let's be able to put that righteous energy behind it and that's uh you know and that's what I think I'll bring to the table is coming with that type of attitude you know to being a board member jizakalakir assalamu alaykum jizakalab brother yusuf um our last candidate um brother almer malik please go ahead salam alaykum um let me just give a little bit of background myself um we have lived in the area uh since 2001 uh so we've been involved with either liberal masjid or or mcc or srv ic so just in the community um uh i'm by profession and engineer um my uh and obviously you know people have brought up a lot of good ideas and there are a lot of very qualified people here um and from my at least what what i think is uh in terms of the from the name of mcc i think probably you know because it's supposed to be a community engagement also as well as the islamic center so maybe focusing more on the community side you know as some of the ideas people have brought up is to be able to get kids uh you know adults uh seniors have um have to have a place for them where they can actually hang out and come here uh you know so you know either be you know like somebody mentioned uh either swimming pool or basketball court or other activities or we have programs which are you know which focus on not just islamic area studies area but also uh something for their entertainment either be a field trips or you know fishing trips or whatever so they feel like they have an engagement from the center and they don't just only come here for uh specifically for praying and all that uh the other areas that i think uh i can provide some value is uh you know is just to be able to make the center a little bit more efficient uh you know uh when they're making selections and doing improvements at the center uh what ideas i can bring or maybe you know provide some suggestion in terms of what vendors we go with what what landscaping we do what you know center improvements we can do where it would be you know it would be more efficient in the long term uh and uh you know just like you know we do different type of things like we you know we set up the tents we set up you know we obviously covid center uh covid testing going on and uh you know the whole pantry uh project these are just uh you know a lot of great things which are doing which which is bringing a lot of good uh you know it's sort of uh a lot of non-muslims know about mcc because of these programs and they they have been a really good success and we can look through to expanding it uh that's about it okay jizakalab brother Amramalik um so at this point uh yeah i just like to say that uh you know hearing all the candidates and their statements uh we got a really strong field here and it's going to be tough to try and make a decision uh everyone has some great ideas great background experience and i think you guys would really um you know make a positive impact to the mcc and make it shine and make it better each and every day so um this is kind of like the q and a portion of the the session is from anybody out here does anyone have a question they'd like to ask a candidate anybody have any questions okay so let me uh let me ask a question and if you guys can keep it to uh to a minute let let's see if we can get everybody to answer it we'll we'll uh start with brother Amramalik and then go from left to right um so the question i guess i would ask is um so i i've i've been a board member member at the mcc for a couple of years uh 2018 to 2019 and um you know what is important being a board member is just not to be a board member in name right there there's going to be uh i i think to be effective in this position is to dedicate somewhere between six to eight hours maybe four to six hours every week trying to make a difference uh you know that's a minimum to try and uh be effective in helping the mcc and helping out the community so brother Amramalik you know uh with that in mind you know how would you be able to to balance uh your work your life family and also be a board member for the mcc go ahead yeah uh and if you can just keep it to a minute please sure um so i think that is that is a good point i mean not just being elected but be able to actually uh be available and contribute to the programs and stuff and it is uh you know at least i feel that there is besides our normal life that we have work and family and all that we need to have a percentage of our time and resources dedicated to you know the cause of Allah and doing the right things as the masjid or the islamic center so uh that that is the commitment that you know i'm looking to make in order to be able to not just be elected but be be present and be able to contribute and make make a difference at the center go ahead for these yeah something like um yes in regards to time you know it could be very challenging especially having a young family five children and uh running a business but i think it comes down to your time management and it's like anything else when you're doing things for the cause of Allah it time seems to kind of go out the window so i think that it's for me um it's about whatever we're doing if we have something to do i'm going to find a way to be a part of that and that's that's what it is it's just for me life is you know week to week with business and as a if we were running because we've been running kind of often on because of covet this last you know year and a half so our timing was more zooms and stuff like that but i would look i would be just refreshed to be able to have a more active role again uh for these upcoming years inshallah that's a great question i really appreciate it being an active board member does require as you said between four to six hours on a weekly basis and that's a commitment i have made to myself and to the mcc board of directors three years ago and i continue to have that kind of commitment and the day i do not have that time or i cannot make mcc our priority that day i should step down because this community needs my undivided attention because that's a commitment i am making that's a promise i am making to the community so far i have tried to live this with integrity and i continue to do that and again the day i am not able to do this i will step down if elected i have a lot of time to give to the board i have no family here in the area and i'm single without an immediate family and i have quite a bit of time on my hands and i like to donate my time to mcc as a volunteer in all shapes and forms so i'd have lots of time jizakAllah rather say here jizakAllah a beautiful question so as i said i'm already being a volunteer i'm a quran teacher every sunday i give my an an hour for almost 10 years so it's already i have committed to that and it's been for 10 years plus and along other than that i also and kind of an event coordinator uh for every year i plan to do some event here in mcc being a volunteer so i have part of that alhamdulillah we did a couple of good programs like um imam anubhavi 40 hadith and then hadith akhutzi 100 hadith and recently last uh like beginning of this year i was an event coordinator for uh ibn atallah secondary of arisms for 111 so i give my time alhamdulillah to the community and i made um i am i committed to that inshallah and if i get elected i respect if elected or not i'm going to be the quran teacher but still i have that commitment inshallah so thank you excellent question i i feel that when you have a passion for something you do make time for it so i think that's not an issue with me i have also experienced being a board member at my community which i mentioned in my profile uh and uh i feel that i can i have been able to do a balance that and now that i i have free time on my hand uh i i'm i'm willing to i mean it's not only willing but since i love this community as being a member for so long for 23 years i have a special place special passion for it and uh like i said if you have the passion you you find the way i mean so that's not an issue inshallah and uh just one thing i forgot to add in my original statement i would like to also focus on the youth uh involvement in this community and my goal is to not only have a golf tournament again i mean revive it but also like we used to have tennis tournaments and uh so maybe a tennis tournaments and basketball tournaments which would attract the youth so that's uh because that's very critical thank you very much it's not like rather than a jeep i was thinking to myself that when i was vp of sbiya i was doing one and a half jobs working 60 to 70 hours and we had two like projects that did not take four to six hours we had the harris way project and the evergreen musketeers building project so i was able to do that um i am able to do that with my halftime job inshallah thank you so so um i'm lucky enough humbula i live and i've lived since 2012 five minutes from mcc so i'll make myself available inshallah physically anytime if anyone needs me here inshallah i'd mix myself available i actually have no doubt that every single person here will make it a priority because um i mean that is time like it's that you're getting blessings right that you're doing something that inshallah is like you know um you know a reward that comes from Allah so i have no doubt like i think there's no ceiling to how much time people will be putting into it inshallah brother although sure so um you know obviously really good answers from everybody and i will i will admit that you know where i am in my in my lifetime with uh work and kids and family you know my my time is very valuable to myself um but you know putting myself uh or my name on the list here implies and i think as it does to everybody else here that you know they're willing inshallah to put in the the sort of time that's required to to make it successful and you know the one of the things i've experienced over life is that if there's something you enjoy if there's something that you really want to do you know you will make the time for it inshallah and you know things have a way to work themselves out so um um yeah i have no doubt i think for anybody here uh to to put in the necessary time and commitment inshallah i will say pervis by told me two to four hours and you upped it to four to six so i just i'm just gonna remember i don't know if somebody's gonna go six to eight so oh boy during during Ramadan exactly okay so the socket so no problem at all um i will be available i live close by i live in Dublin and i have done similar work in the past uh my kids are quite uh old now they are in university so i have to run my own company and just mcc or serve humanity so that will be my goal the rest of my life thank you okay last but not least brother Muhammad so i believe strongly believe that if i make time for Allah Allah i'll make my other job easy so i don't think that if i spend eight hours of Allah Allah make others are busy so your time is not a problem thank you uh i'll once again open it up to the audience here if there are any questions that anybody wants to pose no okay i think we we've heard quite a bit um and i'm i'm ready to kind of wrap it up here um anybody want to maybe just say a few more words uh actually i i think i'll skip that because that's not fair we'll go through another you know half an hour so i i think we've we've kind of heard uh a lot of information from these great candidates and i guess to the community uh you will be like i said in the an introduction getting an email with the ballots and please i think the the the deadline will be the 30th of this month to get your vote in and if you have a member in your house an adult member they're also eligible to vote all you got to do is send an email to the election committee and let us know the email of that person so that we can send them a separate ballot for voting and um okay so i think with that uh we'll end the uh session uh um thank you everyone