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Minute: Nepali American Friendship Association
Date: March 18th, 2017
Venue: 505 Rosa Rd Madison WI
Start time: 3:00 PM
Members Present:
a. Executive Member –
1. Purna Shrestha (Chaired meeting)
2. Abiskar Bharati
3. Archana Malla
4. Ayodhya Batajoo
5. Kabindra Adhikari
6. Narendra Thapa
7. Rajendra Aryal
8. Rosha Pokharel
b. SRP Subcommittee member –
9. Santosh Lamichhane (Coordinator)
10. Paul Benjamin
11. Shridhar Ranabhat
c. General member –
12. Samyam Shrestha
13. Namrata Dangol
d. Shanti Education Initiative(SEI) Rep –
14. Mabindra Regmi (Vice Chairman – SEI Nepal)
Agendas:
1. Updates on School Rebuild Project. Presentation from Mabindra Regmi. Updates on fundraising activities (Bijuli Machine film show) from SRP Coordinator (Santosh Lamichhane).
2. Review on past events (international fest, Kakshya and Utkhanan). Lessons learned for future reference.
3. Discussion on future activities:
Updates from Narendra Thapa (Election commissioner);
Rosha Pokharel (New Year Program Coordinator).
Annual General Meeting
NAFA Membership drive
Picnic 2017 (July 22, 2017)
Brat Fest Volunteering
4. Activities Projection and budgeting for the year 2074. Treasurer’s Report.
5. Social Media (Face Book, web sites, email, Paypal account, Library books, Kothe Sahitya.
6. Miscellaneous: Networking with NRNA USA.
Agenda #1 – School Rebuild Project in Nepal (SRP/N) :
Mabindra Regmi & Santosh Lamichhane briefed to executive board.
Mabindra Regmi presented the vision, mission & goal of Shanti Education Initiative (SEI) Nepal. SEI has completed the construction of 20 school rebuilding project, 1 is still ongoing and 1 MOU is being signed after earthquake and this is excluding the school funded by NAFA SRP/N fund. Hilepani Sanskrit Madhyamik Vidhyalaya, Dolakha will be SEI’s 23rd project.
Mr. Regmi also presented about the process of school rebuilding after earthquake and reasons for selecting of Hilepani Sanskrit Madhyamik Vidhyalaya, Dolakha. This school was in need of 16 classrooms out of which NAFA is funding for 4 and Department of Education, Nepal is funding for 6 rooms.
NAFA funded SEI’s Hilepani Sanskrit Madhyamik Vidhyalaya rebuilding will most probably complete and handed over to community within end of June 2017 i.e. as soon as MOU is signed between SEI and school.
NAFA has dispatched first installment of $16,000 plus $40 for bank tranfer fee to SEI-Nepal on February 5th 2017 as per email from treasurer, Mahendra Pathak.
Mr. Regmi, on behalf of SEI-Nepal, presented a “Citation of Contribution” to NAFA for funding this project. (Photo at the end of Minute)
Fundraising
Himal Regmi & Family has donated $150 towards SRP/N project
Abiskar Bharati & Family has donated $500 under the name of their grandfather.
Holding a movie night for fundraising on March 25th ,2017.
Agenda #2 – NAFA On-going Events:
Past Event :
International Fest
Abiskar Bharati briefed to the board.
A table for an information booth was reserved just like last year for the event in overture center, Madison WI. NAFA paid fee of $50.00 to overture center.
Wood, Metal, Bamboo, Paper, Clay & Woolen handicrafts from Nepal was on display. NAFA activities banner, painting done by NAFA’s children along with Nepali national flags was present as well.
Volunteers with Nepali attire were present at the NAFA info booth
Total sale of 20.00$ as per interest of visitors and 20% of this goes to NAFA
‘Write your name in Nepali’ was an attraction among visitors to the booth
NAFA youth participated in this event with full enthusiasm.
On-going Event :
Kakshya
Coordinator Abiskar Bharati briefed about Kakshya.
Children are preparing for NAFA New Year 2074 program as well as excelling in language.
Children played Holi festival in Kakshya.
Coordinators and volunteer are greatly needed.
Utkhanan
Utkhanan is going very well. A different platform and participant are enjoying the experience sharing and games played at the venue.
Utkhanan was last on Saturday, March 11th, 2017.
Dr. Rachna Tiwari was the guest speaker in this Utkhanan & explained about sleep apnea.
Dr. Krishna Pradhan was also the guest speaker in this Utkhanan & shared his life in Madison since 70s!.
Agenda #3 – NAFA Future Events
Election Year
Election Committee Coordinator : Narendra Thapa
Kabindra Adhikari had to pull out from the position due to unavailability.
Election commission is sending out emails, as per ByLaw, asking members to submit the candidacy for the executive board.
Election Committee Coordinator along with following person are in committee
Mahesh Ram Shrestha
Abiman Pasachhe
The Deadline to select the new board is March 30th, 2017.
NAFA New Year 2074
Coordinator assigned : Rosha Pokharel
Date : April 15th, 2017
Time : 4 PM to 11 PM
Som Khanal has booked the Eagle Heights Gym for the program.
Signup sheets has been sent out to general member.
Following people are assigned the coordination :
MC – Kalpana Rizal & Kripa Tiwari
Cultural Program – Archana Dwa
Games – TBD
Music setup – Naresh Shrestha & Rajib Karna
Photo : Ram Shrestha
Video : Deepak Shrestha
Children snacks/Cutleries/drink/water/napkins/plates/Projector : Archana Shrestha
Food : TBD
Volunteer appreciation slides : Abiskar Bharati
AGM : Narendra Thapa
$100 budget has been approved for the cultural program
NAFA Summer Picnic
Coordinator assigned : Not Assigned Yet
Date : July 22nd 2017 from 10.30am to 09.00pm
Picnic Spot : Governor's Nelson Park, Waunakee WI
NAFA Membership drive
The email request is dispatched along with New year program requesting to renew.
Brat Fest Volunteering
It was not discussed due to time constraint.
Agenda #4 – Treasurer’s Financial Report
No Change in Financial information since last board meeting other than the dispatch of funds to SEI Nepal & donations from Himal regmi Family & Bharati Family.
Treasurer is actively planning the budget for new year 2074.
For more details, Please contact Treasurer.
Agenda #5 – NAFA Social Media
Paypal
Abiskar Bharati has setup the NAFA paypal for business(as per Paypal’s regulations). He has provided Paypal the necessary documents to reduce the percentile taken by paypal from 2.9% to 2.2%.
Mahendra Pathak & Abiskar Bharati has linked the paypal account to NAFA’s financial institution.
Abiskar informed board that there was a already setup charity under the name of NAFA using NAFA’s EIN. He reached out to the giving fund section of Paypal and attached that (could be fraudulent) charity account of NAFA in paypal charity to NAFA’s official account. It has NAFA’s logo and mission statement present now. Paypal informed there is no record that they can provide if there was any transactions under that account. Board is confused whether to report it to authority or not. NAFA will circulate a email to general members asking if anyone started a charity under NAFA’s name and go forward with it.
The donations made from charity account is 100 percent free of charge & no commission is taken by paypal. This is the link : https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/2232672
Websites/ YouTube
NAFA website is up to-date with current information and has a new domain i.e. www.nafa-online.org
Website will have School Rebuilding Project’s information in it along with the new photos of School.
The link to the YouTube channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf778gnxaAD80OPthwclnZw
NAFA Facebook page
FB has been a route for many people moving to Madison to learn about the community and get the help needed.
NAFA Sahitya Blog
The blog is complete with all the poems of poets who recited at Kothey Bhela or at Sahitya Sanjh program. Few new Poems has been added.
All poet’s photos are added in the blog. :
NAFA Library
Abiskar Bharati & Ashish Bharati are numbering all the books present in NAFA Library to avoid missing books from library.
All the new & popular books in Nepal currently are here in library.
New book arrival email is being circulated to inform members.
Agenda #6 - Miscellaneous
NRNA USA association was not discussed due to time constraint.
Some of the board members along with some general members requested to cover the necessary expenses toward the performer’s dress & accessories during the cultural activity of NAFA. Board will discuss this further in next meeting.
“Citation of Contribution” to NAFA
Meeting End time : 5:21 PM
Minute Prepared By :
Abiskar Bharati
Secretary
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