SNMC Journey (Part 3): Name, Bylaws, Non-Profit and Charity registration, Taraweeh, Jumah Salah
The years 2003-2007 were very critical for SNMC growth and development. In
2003 we started Friday Jumah, from one shift and in a few years it became three shifts,
but we maintained upstairs for sisters.
We started celebrating Ramadan Eid Al-Fitr with gifts for children, Eid Al Adah, and
Annual Picnic. We were able to attract a good number of new family members with
children.
In 2005, after a lot of discussions, we agreed to do formal registration. We debated and
finally agreed the name, SNMC (South Nepean Muslim Community) to emphasize
community aspect and as another masjid was in Nepean, we called ourselves South
Nepean.
One day from our work at Nortel, we made an appointment with a lawyer who happened
to be a priest at Merivale Road at Nepean Centre. We knew, some organizations got
charity registration by giving lawyers up to $10k. We had no money, so we decided we
would do it ourselves. The lawyer fee was high, but we convinced him, we will do all the
work and requested him to answer a few questions, with an agreement that we will give
a modest fee after we get registered.
We asked three questions. What happens If we registered as a subset of another
charity, why do we require a non-profit registration, and why is there a need to have a
BOD (Board of Directors), or should we or not have a Board of Trustees?
By ourselves, we looked at the industry Canada for non-profit organizations, reviewed
sample by-laws, looked at CRA website for charity examples, and reviewed the by-laws
of few other charity organizations. Alhamdu Lillah by ourselves in 2005, we got non-
profit registration. The lawyer said if we get non-profit status, we are known to government, and it will be easy to get charity registration later.
We learnt that if we become a sub organization to get quick charity status, we will tie
SNMC to another organization forever. In 2006, we started charity registration process
with CRA and by persistent follow up, we became a familiar name to many people in
CRA, and finally got registration on 1st of January 2007. We did not take the registration
in the middle of 2006, as it would have required a tax return filing two times in a year.
After getting charity registration, we met the lawyer again and as agreed gave him a
modest fee. The lawyer was happy and asked us to wait. He wrote the same amount
and gave it back as a donation to SNMC. So, we did 100% work ourselves and at no
cost to SNMC, Alhamdulillah with three activities, religion enhancement, education
support and needy support. As a policy, we had a seven-member multiethnic BOD and
Dr. Emdad Khan became president, Dr. Farrukh Syed as secretary and Dr. Ismail Kaka
as director of finance.
On weekends, we started Sunday Quran and Islamic School and on weekdays the
school subjects tutoring were continued.
As stated, someone complained, and the city of Nepean tried to charge a very high
hourly fee for prayers. It gave us a lot of hard times. One day we went to the city
booking office, and Clark helped a lot. We were not using the SNMC’s name, rather
another non-profit organization of ours for tutoring, MCSO. After six months when things
became quiet, we slowly started using SNMC again.
Our Sunday Quran and Islamic School was very successful. In the next episode we will
discuss how we got registered with the public school board. Next in SNMC Journey Part
4, we will talk about SNMC’s multi languages school, our first pledge form and how we
made a few posters, banners, and arranged our first fundraising at Centurion Hall with
Sk. Ahmed Shehab in June 2007. We raised nearly $200K, Alhamdolilah.
As we started our first community WhatsApp group, we received several comments
about SNMC and us. We replied, Jazakallah Khair Brothers and Sisters. A few imams,
elders, brothers, and sisters requested us to write about how we brought multiethnic
communities together and worked to build SNMC. All of you and us were part of this
great journey. Let us pray Allah swt forgive us, our mistakes and accept the works and
reward us all here and InshaAllah in hereafter. Ameen.
