NAFA Executive Board Minute

 Meeting date: February 7, 2015 (Saturday), from 3 – 5pm

Venue: 505 Rosa Road, Madison WI

Members attended in the meeting

1. Purna Shrestha
2. Himal Regmi
3. Rajeeb Karna
4. Archana Malla Shrestha
5. Abiskar Bharati
6. Narendra Thapa

General Member attended in the meeting

1. Paul Benjamin

Agenda Discussed -

I) Updates on Past Program activities:

a. Sahitya Sanjh 2014 (November 22, 2014) at Midvale Baptist Church.

The Sahitya Sanjh event was coordinated by Abiskar Bharati, and participated over 100 people. Nepali Movie “Jhola” was showcased, after the event. The movie was watched by 150 individuals.  Many general members helped to provide foods in the event. There was enough food for everyone. Prize money was increased by the sponsors for “Bijay Malla Sahitya Puraskar”, from $300.00 to $500.00 and Abiskar Bharati added $30.00 to “Nafa Bal Sahitya Puraskar” NAFA had some surplus from movie expenses.

The meeting also discussed on the issues raised by Church officials.

         - Church complained about vandalism due to scribble on their main wall by children.
         - Church complained about tap in Women's restroom which was left running whole night.
-the meeting agreed that parents need to monitor the children by taking turns and also agreed to check everything before wrapping to home.

b. Gift Wrap 2014 (December 21, 2014)

Gift wrap fund raising event was held on December 21, 2014, Sunday at West Town Mall. The event was coordinated by Mahesh Luitel. Total  25 volunteers from NAFA participated from 9 am to 9:30 pm.
- The event generated 591$ for NAFA making 450 packages wrap. It was a successful volunteer program.

c. Kakshya (ongoing program)

The event is being coordinated by Archana Dwa & Abiskar Bharati. The meeting also discussed about the number of participants. The numbers of children are decreased in recent days due to most children out of the country to Nepal and out of city. The meeting concluded that the Kakshya is/has been very beneficial to keep children actively involved in different NAFA programs via songs, poems or dance. The meeting decided that NAFA will fund for the books for KAKSHYA children. The meeting discussed about more involvement of parents and volunteers in Kakshya. The Kakshya coordinators are requesting more volunteers.

II) Future Program of NAFA:

a. International Fest: Febuary 21, 2015 (Saturday)

The event of international fest will give NAFA to incorporate in the local community of the state and also will be an opportunity to display Nepal related products. The coordinator for the event is assigned to Abiskar Bharati. A table for a booth is reserved just like last year for the event in overture center, Madison WI. NAFA already has paid fee of $35.00 to overture center. We will set Nepal related materials with NAFA activities on the display table with Nepali national flags.  

- The date and time: Feb 21st 2015 from 10 AM to 5 PM at Overture Center, Madison.

- 2 Shift volunteer needed

         - Shift 1 - from 10 AM to 1 PM

         - Shift 2 - from 1 PM to 5 PM

- Need 1 volunteer for Shift one and 3 volunteer for Shift two.

- Abiskar will dispatch email requesting need of volunteers and also requesting Nepali handicrafts or iconic materials to display at the stall.

III) Formation of Election Committee for Executive Board for the term effective from 2072 Baishakha 1 (April 14, 2015)

The new executive board will take over the management responsibilities of NAFA for next two years. An election committee is formed headed by Archana Malla Shrestha. Archana will appoint two members for the election committee. Election committee members should be appointed from the existing board members. She will request to Mahesh Luitel and Abhiman Pashachhe. The committee will call for application setting deadline by March 15th 2015. The committee will dispatch email asking applications for all positions.

IV) Annual General Meeting (AGM) & New Year Program 

The AGM will be done on the day of New Year celebration. The event coordinator is assigned to Archana Malla Shrestha. The event will be done April 18th 2015 (Baisakh 5th 2072), if hall is not available then on April 11, 2015. 4 PM to 11 PM at UW Community Center, eagle height.  The Eagle Heights community Center will be rented with Kitchen. The hall will be booked by Narendra Thapa.  There will be AGM and Cultural program in the event of New Year celebration day. Archana will ask food arrangement question sending email to general members asking their preference of Pot Luck or doing food cater from restaurant.

V) NAFA Picnic 2015

The picnic is proposed for the date - July 18th or July 25^th. The Picnic Coordinator is not assigned yet. Proposed location for the picnic is Token Creek Park, Deforest shelter #5. Himal Regmi will take care the booking of the shelter for date available above. The shelter cost increases to 160$ versus $60 last year. The fee includes free parking, no extra cost like entry fee.

VI) Youth Program 

- Surendra Prajapati informed that he will not continue next tenure in NAFA due to possible relocations related to career.

- Youth program initiation is still planning phase. No coordinator assigned for the youth program yet.
- The idea was brought to mobilize the NAFA scholarship recipients for community oriented program. 
- We are looking for enthusiastic young generation to run the activities.

VII) NAFA Excellence Award (Scholarship Program) in response of Kiran Shrestha.

Kiran Shrestha raised concerns about discontinuation of NAFA excellence award (aka scholarship program). The scholarship program was discontinued after series of discussions in several meetings. Those discussions were held focusing program sustainability and various aspects on students’ academic life and career such as opportunity of admissions in academic institutes.

- The scholarship program was discontinued for following reasons:           

1. No application was received from potential candidates even after making phone calls and extending the deadline. There was no competition to receive the award.  There were three quotas but only one application received in the year 2013.  There were four high school graduates in the year from NAFA members.           

 2. No recipient is seen appreciating the scholarship. The recipients were not participating or volunteering in the NAFA events. Therefore, it is concluded that NAFA award was not considered valuable by the potential candidates for their future career.

This meeting again discussed about the concerns of scholarship program and possibility of continuation. The meeting decided that the scholarship program will be continued if following conditions were fulfilled. The potential student who is applying must have volunteered at least 40 hours or more toward the activities of NAFA community such as Kakshya, International fest, Bratfest, Gift Wrapping, Picnic, New Year program, Sahitya Sanjh, Dashain etc. NAFA will keep track of number of hours volunteered.

VIII) Financial Report :

- Presented by Himal Regmi
- Emailed the detailed version to all the general members.
- Discussed the need to invest/mobilize the amounts in bank account by new executive board for NAFA's better return.

IX) NAFA Facebook page/ Email / Website / Youtube Channel

- Facebook page is the only NAFA information platform right now 
- Sushma Karna and Archana Dhakhwa was working on it, but due to personal reasons could not complete the work.
- Need to look into options for Website - Abiskar Bharati and Rajeeb Karna will to do some research on it.
- Email of NAFA was locked due to some unknown reasons, Abiskar Bharati helped to unlock it and it is working fine now.
- Commercial emails will not and should not be released via NAFA.
- New NAFA youtube channel was started by Abiskar Bharati, namely 'Nepali American Friendship Association'. This will host all the videos of the NAFA programs. It already has 8 videos of different events from past.

X) General Member session:

 a. In response to Mahendra Pathak's email. Here is the list of people in current Executive Board.

1. Purna Shrestha (President)
2. Abiskar Bharati (Secretary)
3. Himal Regmi (Tresurer)
4. Surendra Prajapati (Public Relations Officer)
5. Archana Dhakhwa (Member)
6. Archana Malla Shrestha (Member)
7. Ayodhya Batajoo (Member)
8. Narendra Thapa (Member)
9. Rajeeb Karna (Member)
10. Rajendra Aryal (Member)

b. Paul Benjamin's request

- Paul Benjamin was the only general member attending the board meeting. This was his second attendance in the meeting. 
- He is volunteering for 'AmeriCorps' who is teaching/helping/mentoring Bhutanese kids with academics as well as English classes.
- He is looking for Native Nepali speaking volunteers for 1 - 2 hr/week to help the kids.
- His second request was to bring Nepalese children and Nepali speaking Bhutanese children together in a space where we can help them with academics (Academic Support Group). His suggestion is to start an English kakshya, like Nepali Kakshya.
- He also suggested to start Adult English classes for Adult Bhutanese to help them adjust to the community.
- His contact info is as follow, if anybody wants to volunteer,

                   Paul Benjamin
                   608-238-8263 (Home)
                   608-302-8639 (Cell - prefered)

XI) NEXT MEETING is scheduled on March 21st 2015.

Minute Prepared By : Abiskar Bharati