Present: Kedar & Ruprekha Bhuyan, Sanjib Bhuyan, Utpal & Munmun Brahma, Mukul & Geeta Chowdhary, Prakash Deka, Nomal & Pronati Dutta, Jukti Kalita, Jugal Kalita, Probal & Probina Tahbildar, Jayanta Thakuria, Anjan Saikia, Ritumoni & Kabita Sarma. Proceedings: The first meeting of 2004 took place at the home of Mukul & Geeta Chowdhary of Edison. The meeting was called to order by Kedar Bhuyan at noon. Kedar Bhuyan gave a lecture describing the history of ASA, its past presidents, on-going projects, and its relation to other expatriate Assamese associations. Bhuyan also announced the results of recent ASA general election and presented its new President, Mr. Sanjib Bhuyan and Vice-President Mr. Utpal Brahma. The new office bearers who were present took to the podium and Sanjib thanked Kedar Bhuyan, those who were present at the meeting, and all those who elected. Agenda items were presented by Sanjib Bhuyan for discussion. A summary of the meeting is given below:
1. Flood relief efforts – In the NJ/NY/PA area these efforts are led by Purandar Sharma, Pallav Bordoloi, and Sanjib Bhuyan.
2. Amendment of ASA Constitution – Sanjib Bhuyan suggested that the Ex-President be added to the Executive Committee as such a person would have garnered experience that will come handy.
3. Financial status of ASA – Sanjib Bhuyan said that there will be transparency in financial as well as other matters and there’ll be either annual or bi-annual reports that will include financial balance sheet. Such report will be published in the ASA newsletter for members ONLY and others may get a summary statement. To this regard, Kedar Bhuyan will work with Sanjib. Similar financial transparency will be enforced for all ASA sponsored projects.
4. ASA Treasurer – Although there is no formal treasurer for ASA, Kedar Bhuyan has agreed to take that position for 2004-06.
5. ASA Foundation –Sanjib Bhuyan appointed the several key members to head the ASA Foundation Board (Mukul Chowdhary, Nomal Dutta, Jukti Kalita, and Kedar Bhuyan) and report by Sept 30, 2004 at which time the Executive Committee will make the necessary decisions so that the ASA Foundation can be formally incorporated and publicized for public participation. Note that the ASA Foundation and ASA are two separate entities and therefore, their individual financial matters will be handled separately.
6. Membership, Directory, Fund Raising, etc. -- Sanjib commented that efforts should be made to increase membership. He urged those who were present at the meeting to urge other to become paid members of ASA. Because ASA works towards better and brighter goals for all Assamese people, and particularly those living in Assam, i.e., uses its organizational energy, efforts, and both financial and manpower for the betterment of people in Assam (e.g., Project Hope which provides material assistance to the Deaf and Dumb School of Assam), anyone should be proud to be a member of ASA. Sanjib also introduced fund raising possibilities through businesses some of which allows “automatic” fund-raising options. ASA needs funds to carry out its philanthropic work both in Assam and abroad.
7. Management of Projects – currently the following projects (coordinator’s name is in parenthesis) are either on-going or planned under the auspices of ASA: a . Scholarship Project (Vavani Sharma) – to provide scholarship to the needy students in Assam b. Project Hope (Malabika Brahma) – providing material and monetary help to the Deaf and Dumb School of Assam, Guwahati c. Project Save Our Culture (Jugal Kalita/ Chandan Mahanta) – to make digital copies of rare Assamese hand-wr i t t e n manuscripts for preservation. d. Project Niki (Vavani Sharma) – e . Adopt-a-Child (Jugma Bora) – adopting children from Assam for support of their K-12 education. f. Nalbari Mahila Samity (Akhil Chowdhury) – g. Book Project (Jugal Kalita, Sanjib Bhuyan) – providing text books to institutions of higher education in Assam. Currently Jugal Kalita regularly sends books on technology to the Tezpur University, while Sanjib Bhuyan sends books on marketing, management, public policy, agriculture, and related subjects to the Assam Agriculture University, Jorhat.
8. Sanjib Bhuyan proposed to implement the following: (i) quarterly reporting on activities of each project, including fund raising and fund spending, by project coordinators to the Executive Committee so that better coordination can be assured (e.g., elimination of overlapping functions) as well as to inform donors about project status (note: donors want to know how their money, no matter the amount, is used); (ii) revision of the ASA membership form to let the receiver have the option of donating money or material without becoming a member of the ASA.
9. ASA Newsletter – Currently Jugal Kalita, Vavani Sharma, Satyam Bhuyan, Ganesh Bora, Symanta Saikia and others publish a Web version of the ASA newsletter every month (that’s lot of work!). Sanjib proposed that the ASA newsletter be published in paper regularly and mailed to members and non-members. Several members present at the meeting pledged the postage, estimated at $60 per issue (month) for the 2004- 05 year starting with the August 2004 issue of the ASA newsletter. Sanjib will call the above named persons for postage in due time. Sanjib also urged those members who were not present in the meeting to get involved by donating postage or by other means.
10. Regular meeting of the ASA – It was also decided that there’ll be quarterly meeting of the ASA members residing in the NY/NJ/PA region, including its NE Chapter. Efforts will be made to have teleconference with ASA members in other parts of the country. Utpal Brahma will explore this and will work with Kedar Bhuyan and Sanjib to ensure teleconference facility provided the cost is not too prohibitive. Following are the dates for these meetings for the 2004-05 year (host name in right; hosts are selected at random by lottery; ASA thanks the hosts in advance). Note that the August 2004 meeting was hosted by Mukul and Geeta Chowdhary on August 8th.
a . October 8th or 9th – Ritumoni and Kabita Sarma b. January 7th or 8th – Prakash Deka c. April 8th or 9th – Jayanta and Nilakshi Thakuria. d. August 12th or 13th – Kedar and Ruprekha Bhuyan.
11. Web Site: The minutes of these meetings will be posted on a dedicated ASA Web site which will be maintained by Probal Tahbildar and Jugal Kalita.
12. Publicity – ASA and its members have been quite active in the lives of Assamese people in North America as well as those in Assam but such work has not been publicized well. It is time to let others know what we are doing. Strategies for PR work will be discussed by the Executive Committee and members are expected to participate in such efforts.
13. A United Assamese community and relation with other “probaxi” Assamese organizations – Sanjib reiterated that his philosophy is to try to find a common thread where possible with such organizations (and agree to disagree on other issues) and that he’d try his best to achieve that. In that regard, he informed the meeting attendees that he had already talked to Mr. Mahesh Kalita, AANA President and would again contact Mr. Kalita after today’s meeting and will keep ASA members posted of the developments. If Sanjib’s efforts are not fruitful in a reasonable time period, ASA will implement its plan of action which may be independent of others.
14. Sanjib agreed that regional matters, such as holding tithi, Bihu, etc. should be left to the ASA regional chapters. Currently, the NE chapter is headed by Prakash Deka and ably helped by Probina Tahbildar (Secy.) and Nilakshi Thakuria (Cultural Secy.)
By Sanjib Bhuyan, New Brunswick,
New Jersey
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