Minutes of the monthly meeting held at Queen’s Park on August 08, 2005

Present:

Thomas Saras

AhmedShah Hotaki

William Doyle Marshall

Ned Blair

Massood Marjahi

Clyde McNeil

Iraj Emad

Neel Nanda

Alamgir Hussain

Pooyan Tabatabaei

Majid Mir Zohari

Kenrick Bobb

Tania Nuttall

Aaron Bernane

Sunny Sang

Aris Babikian

John Saraidaris

Srimal Abeyawardene

Dr. Ubale

Maxwell Wynter

Anne Dawson

Danielle Zhu

Luba Cherny

Mohamed Tajdolati

Emmanuel Ayiku

 

Absent

Elizabeth Wolski

Jai Ojah Maharaj

Cindy Gu

Hassan Zerehi

Mona Feng

 

 

Agenda

 Opening Remarks by the Chair
 Minutes of the previous meeting
 President’s Report
 New Business
 End of meeting

 

Opening Remarks by the Chair:

 The Chair, Clyde McNeil welcomed everyone to the meeting

 

Minutes of the Previous Meeting:

 Aris Babikian moved a motion seconded by Srimal Abeyewardene to approve the minutes of the monthly meeting held on July 11, 2005. It was carried.

 

Matters Arising out of the Minutes:

Due to poor participation, present workload and other prevalent circumstances, the President’s Picnic for the summer of 2005 has been called off.

 

 

 

President’s Report/Discussions:

The summary of the President’s Report is as follows:

·        The office of the Lt. Governor has officially confirmed  to host the annual award giving ceremony for the NEPMCC on Thursday September 15, 2005 at the Lt. Governor’s Suite in Queen’s Park ( Approximately 200 individuals will attend this function)

·        The Federal Government and the Provincial Government will start their media campaigns from the middle of September

·        Resignation of Sybille Forster-Reintmaster  before the executive of the NEPMCC

·        The annual ethnic festival will take place at the CNE (International Building, Hall “B”) on September 3rd and September 4th from 2:30 p.m. –3:15 p.m.

·        The Lithuanian / Russian group will perform on Saturday September 3rd and a South Asian group (Tamil) will perform on Sunday September 4th.at the CNE.

·        The Word on the Street Festival will take place on Sunday September 25. Members should contact Ahmed Shah Hotaki for participating in this event.

·        The President asked the members to submit the names and number of guests,  who would be attending the function on September 15 at the Lt. Governor’s Suite in Queen’s Park( a maximum of four guests per member and award recipient would be accepted)

·        The office of the Lt. Governor , the Honourable James K. Bartleman will send out invitations to individuals from the list provided by the NEPMCC

·        The President will mail the CNE passes on a limited basis to only those members who would attend the festival.

·        The President is in negotiation with a few insurance broker to get the best rates as a group for medical, dental , liability and other  coverage.

 

 

Motion:

 “The Executive of the NEPMCC has accepted the resignation of Sybille Forster-Reintmeister and the body has endorsed it.” Thomas Saras moved a motion to this effect and Anne Dawson seconded it. The motion was carried with all in favour and one absentia.

 

 

Business Discussions:

Numerous discussions on a wide range of topics took place. The highlights of these discussions is as follows:

·        There were discussions on inviting and honouring the politicians and the members of the diplomatic corps from the award giving ceremony on September 15. It was decided that honouring them in the annual seasonal party in December would be more appropriate

·        The annual book would be published by June 2006. A committee was set up that would work on it. This committee consists of the following members:

Kenrick Bobb

Srimal Abeyewardene

Clyde McNeil

Pooyan Tabatabaei

Aris Babikian

Aaron Berhane

·        The advertising rates for the annual book was also discussed and members were urged to bring in advertisements from their respective communities.

·        Luba Cherny would invite Federal Minister Ken Dryden to one of the monthly meetings

·        The Council welcomed the new members to the organization , They were

 1) Alamgir Hussain  - Publisher/Editor of  “ The Weekly Shomoy” the most popular Bengali Weekly published in Toronto and circulated all over Canada

2) Pooyan Tabatabaei - freelance photojournalist

 

End of Meeting:

Srimal Abeyawardene moved a motion and Aris Babikian seconded it to adjourn the meeting. It was carried. The Chair adjourned the meeting at 9:00 p.m. The next meeting would take place on September 12, 2005 at Queen’s Park, boardroom 230, second floor, Main Legislative Building.