Minutes of the Monthly Meeting held on November 9, 2009 at Queen’s Park

Present:

Thomas S. Saras

Bikram Lamba

Asha Rajak

Gerald Paul

Irene Keroglidis

Ali Mahboub

Raffi Sarkissian

Spatriv Iosif

Khan Khoda

Saad Alsafar

Josif Spataru

Michael Shiravand

Teshome Woldeumanuel

Mario Spataru

Muhammad Ali Bukhari

Neel Nanda

Suleyman Guven

Liz Philbert

Ned Blair

Parry Long

Shahidul Islam Mintu

Juhani Ministo

Ahmad S. Hotaki

Bahram Bahrami

Hassan Zerehi

Kathy Lin

Hai-Tien Lin

Moorthy Sellathurai

Srimal Abeyewardene

Prem Arasaratnam

Taha Hassaniani

Danielle Zhu

Suni Rao

Mila Astroga-Garcia

John Saraidaris

N. Logendralingam

Kevin Wang

Saeed Soltanpour

Kris Kanugenthran

Rajasekar Athiappan

Hermie Garcia

William Doyle-Marshall

Emmanuel Ayiku

Regrets

Clyde McNeil

Agenda

1.      Welcome Remarks by the chair.

2.      Minutes of the previous meeting.

3.      Presidents Report

4.      New Business (Motions)

5.      Adjournment

Welcome Remarks by the Chair:

Dr.  Bikram Lamba chaired the meeting and declared the meeting open.

Ahmed Hotaki moved a motion to approve the agenda of the meeting. Mohammad Tajdolati seconded it. The motion was carried.

Minutes of the previous meeting:

Irene Keroglidis moved a motion to approve the minutes of the previous monthly meeting held on October, 2009. William Doyle Marshall seconded it. The motion was carried.

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President’s Report/Discussions:

·        The President is in discussions with the PMO to hold sessions with the Council.

·        There are only a few seats available for the Development Training Seminar and the President urged the members to inform their colleagues to enroll in the seminar and take advantage of this unique opportunity

·        The seminar will now take place on November 20, 21 and 22 due to non-availability of the Prime Minister on the earlier agreed upon dates.

·        Applicants arriving from other provinces will be put up at Delta Markham. Every member attending will get a name tag. The Prime Minister is going to be present for the gala dinner. 

·        The Premier of Ontario, Leader of Opposition, Minister of Immigration and a host of other provincial and federal ministers will be guest speakers during the three day conference.

·        Irene Keroglidis proposed to distribute scarves to the registrants/participants of the training seminar with the NEPMCC logo embedded in them as part of the conference package. Majority of the members agreed with Irene’s suggestion.

·        The President urged the members to buy guest dinner tickets for gala dinner in advance in order to avoid last minute disappointment as there are only limited space available.

·        President Thomas Saras had a special word of mention for Asha Rajak, for her tireless efforts towards the preparation of the historic training and developmental seminar for the ethnic media of Canada.

·        The annual dinner is on December 11.

·        Thomas Saras asked the dinner committee on the progress they have made so far.

·         Tickets of the annual dinner were distributed after the meeting.

·        The conference details are available on the website www.nationalethnicpress.com

·        Motion            Irene proposed to authorize NEPMCC to buy Wine for the Gala Dinner. The motion was carried. Muhammad Ali Bukhari abstained from voting.

The following members volunteered to form a committee overseeing the logistics of the three developmental and training seminar. They were as follows

Dr. Bikram Lamba,

Irene Keroglidis

Ahmad Hotaki

Suleman Guven

Srimal Abeyawardene                                   

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New Members:

Juhani Niinisto –VAPAA SANA

Adjournment: Hassan Zerehi moved a motion to adjourn the meeting .Suleman Guveni seconded it. The motion was carried. The chair adjourned the meeting at 9 pm. The next meeting would take place on December 14, 2009.