Minutes
of the Monthly Meeting held on May
16, 2011 at Queen’s Park, Toronto, On.
Present:
Thomas
S. Saras
Asha
Rajak, E.D.
Jonathan
Annobil
Mohammad
Bayher Samimi
Irene
Keroglidis, VP
Bikram
Lamba, Dr. Senior Adviser- Speaker
Teshome
worldemanuel, VP
Parry
Long, VP
Ahmad
Shah Hotaki, VP
Adrew
Raudkivi, VP
Ned
Blair, VP
Sultan
Ali Shunbali
Mohammad
Tajdolati, Dr.
Ombdusman
Khan
Khoda, Dr. VP
Hai-Tien-
Lin Senior
VP
Cyris
Yiu
Mulugeta
Zergaber
Paulraj-
Kathir Oli Media, Rev.
Perrii Muthuraman “Dreams @ Money”
Maoharamthanggiriju
Mohamed
Busvri
Srimal
Abeyewardene, Treasurer
Gerald
Paul, (senior Adviser)
Bhaskar
Sharma,
Ranjit
Wicks V-P
Aaron
Berhane, VP
Elizabeth
Philbert
Rakkee
Prabhakar, Senior Adviser
Sandeep
Prabhakar,
John
S. Saraidaris, VP
Adnan
Hashmi
C.
Senthi,
Fardad
Housh Mehregon,
Luba
Cherny, VP
Suleyman
Guven, VP
Blagova
Ristic,
Susana
Donan, VP
Jose
Donan,
Kevin
Wang,
Peter
Galiatsos
Mila
Asdtorga Garcia, VP
Hermie
Garcia, VP
Neel
Nanda, Secretary General
Agenda
1.
Welcome Remarks by the chair.
2.
Minutes of the previous meeting.
3.
Presidents Report
4.
New Business
5.
Adjournment
Welcome
Remarks by the Chair:
Dr.
Lamba chaired the meeting and declared the meeting open. He opened the
meeting with kind remarks on President
Thomas Saras and Executive
Director Asha Rajak. Dr. Khan Khoda moved a motion to approve the
agenda and Srimal Abyewardene seconded it. The motion was carried.
Minutes of the previous meeting:
Dr. Khan Khoda moved a motion to approve the minutes of the previous monthly meeting held on April 11, 2011 Irene Keroglidis seconded it. The motion was carried.
President’s
Report/Discussions:
·
This year
NEPMCC organized the Annual Ethnic
Press festival Exhibition from May 9 – May 15 at the rotunda of City
Hall. The exhibition was a grand success. More
than 700 friends, guests and visitors attended the ceremonies of the
official opening of the 5th annual exhibition of the ethnic
press at the rotunda of the Toronto City Hall. Among the attendees were
members of the diplomatic missions in Toronto, delegations from the
Toronto and York Region Police Services, also from NDD, the City of
Toronto, members of Parliament and also members of the official opposition
of the provincial legislature assembly, and more than 300 publishers and
staff. The Hon. Eric Hoskins, minister of Citizenship and immigration of
Ontario, was the guest speaker. Two hundred ethnic publications in about
sixty eight different languages are participated in this year’s
exhibition. The first full day of the exhibition alone, more than two
thousand visitors went over the exhibits and got an idea of the work the
ethnic publications are doing in Canada. The exhibition was very popular
among different sections of society starting from Government officials,
school students and even tourist who visited the City Hall during the
exhibition.
·
President mentioned
special thanks to Asha Rajak, Ahmed Shah Hotaki, Ned Blair, Saad Alsafar,
Suleiman Guven, Liz Philbert, Luba Cherny, Dr. Bikram Lamba, Sandeep and
Rakhee Prabhakar and other volunteers for their special efforts during the
exhibition
·
Thomas Saras also
thanked all other members for participating in the ethnic media exhibition
in large numbers. The exhibition was a grand success.
·
Government of
Ontario donated $15,000 to NEPMCC towards the annual ethnic press
exhibition. This is a sign of respect towards our organization as the
Government is realizing our efforts towards the promotion of the members
of the sector.
·
The president also acknowledged the financial support of the
Government of Ontario and especially the Ministry of Citizenship and
Immigration, the Hon. Eric Hoskins, Dr., for the help they provided to
NEPMCC, towards the completion of this project. “Expressing the feelings
of the members and on their behalf, I want to thank the Hon. Eric Hoskins,
an d the Government of Premier McGuinty for their generous financial
assistance towards this project”, Also I want to thank Patrick
Callaghan, the President of “WebNews Printing” for their generous
financial support, Jack Kyriazakos, President of Brazilian Canadian
Coffee, Cathy L. Lin, publisher of the Chinese Canadian Times, Irene
Keroglidis, VP Public Relations and all other supporters of the project of
the exhibition. Thanks to them we organized the event with honour and
integrity and without begging anyone from the “Department of the
Canadian Heritage” for the few pennies they usually provide”, added
Mr. Saras.
·
Asha Rajak is
working hard to get financial donations from different financial
institutions to meet the expenses of the award ceremony.
·
Thomas Saras informed about Canada Periodical Fund for Business
Innovation for Digital Periodicals and Print Periodicals. This is the
first year that digital periodical are eligible for the funds under Canada
Periodical Fund. This is a great progress due to the persistent hard work
of NEPMCC.
·
NEPMCC had submitted
a proposal on the socio economic survey of the ethnic media.
·
President Thomas
Saras informed that the proposed economic survey submitted earlier to the
Federal Government is in the final steps.
This project is going to enrich our powers. We have to demonstrate the power of ethnic media through the
survey. He informed the members the proposed funding for the economic
survey has been approved by the ministry and a tentative agreement has
been signed by the Federal Government and NEPMCC on March 31,2011
·
President urged
members to cooperate and respond to the economic survey undertaken by
NEPMCC as it was in their own interest to participate.
·
The project will be
conducted in liaison with Seneca College.
·
The office of the
President will send the questionnaire via email. The office of the President will also mail the hard copy of
the questionnaire to all the members. Students will also individually call
members of the ethnic media publications who did not respond earlier
either by electronically or by filling the hard copy. President urged
members to participate in the survey.
·
Mila Garcia
suggested in cooperating with the faculty of Seneca College while the
drafting of questionnaire so that the right questions are designed for the
survey.
·
NEPMCC will seek to
conduct a national seminar based on the findings of the survey.
·
President
is working with the Federal Government on a proposal submitted earlier for
2011-2012.
·
Effective from the month of September, we are going to start
planning second phase of the educational seminar. We are going to hold
this seminar in 2012, since there are various processes involved in
applying for funds and preparation and we also need enough time for the
preparation
·
President Thomas
Saras encouraged the suggestion of an artistic NEPMCC pin to be
distributed during various
events organized and hosted by NEPMCC.
·
The President asked
for the acceptance of the members of all these projects and especially the
projects for the 2011.
·
President suggested
to organize a two day workshop in City Hall dealing with training of
application for PAP
·
President Thomas
Saras mentioned a professional Information Technology Company will
maintain the website of NEPMCC making it highly interactive and user
friendly.
·
President Thomas Saras mentioned that when we are deciding
on an award we are recognizing a publication due to their attendance and
for their commitment in supporting the organization by working hard for
the promotion of the causes of the ethnic media and the Council.
·
NEPMCC Awards. In October we will organize our Awards
ceremony. Effective from January 1st until 31st of
May 2011, members can download nomination form from our website and submit
names of members they propose from their community, media or organization
who they think are eligible for recognition or to receive the NEPMCC
Awards. Forms are available online. For the awards, we are planning to
reach various Ministries to sponsor awards for each award recipient and
category. This process is open for the submission now. Members were asked
to send the completed nomination form to either Dr. Tajdolati or to the
office of the President. .
· Canada Day celebration will take place on Saturday July 2nd, at the “whistlers’ and the McNeil Room, at 995 Broadview Avenue, Toronto On. M4K 2S1. Steve Mastoras is the responsible manager and he can be reached at 416- 421 1344, or his cell 416- 805 6789. President will notify the members of the special guest for the event.
· Annual get-together is slated to take place on December 16, 2011.
·
Canadian National Exhibition (CNE). This year we have rented a
space and we are full participants of the CNE, Our exhibition will be on
the international pavilion where we can display our papers for 18
days. Members were urged
to ask their local businesses to sponsor some prizes which are going to be
announced through lucky draw for the people who visit our pavilion.
(August 18- September 5,) There may be prizes for the draw. Srimal
Abeyawarden suggested of advanced publicity for the event. We are going to
participate 18 days at CNE.
· NEPMCC will have to submit a financial report prepared by a CA to receive $10,000 towards last year’s exhibition from the Canadian Heritage.
· Word on the Street. Besides Toronto, this year we are going also to organize this exhibition in Vancouver on the same day with Toronto.
· Ned Blair suggested that members could give donations to Council.
· President Thomas Saras expressed disappointment on Hassan Zerehi Senior Vice President of NEPMCC as he was unable to attend the annual ethnic press exhibition. The event which was planned for months in advance. Srimal Abeyawardene also gave his views on the issue
· Ned Blair suggested publications participating in the exhibition should have given a helping hand towards the preparation.
· Motion: Thomas Saras suggested that the donation of each member towards Canada Day celebration should be $15 per person and moved a motion to that extent. Srimal Abeyawardene seconded it. Asha Rajak also moved a motion suggesting $20 for Adult tickets and $ 10 for children under 15 for the Canada Day celebration. Irene Keroglidis seconded it. The motion proposed by President Thomas Saras was carried by a majority of votes. They also approved all the proposed by the President during his presentation.
· Tickets for Canada Day celebration will be distributed in the next meeting. Members interested in attending should contact Asha so that she could bring the required number of tickets in the June meeting. Members interested in buying tickets should make their payments in full in the next meeting by cheque payable to NEPMCC.
· Committee for July 2nd Canada Day Celebration
The
following volunteers enrolled their names in the committee, they were as
follows:
Suleiman
Guven, Ned Blair, Asha Rajak, Luba Cherny, Ahmed Shah Hotaki, Neel Nanda, Muthuraman, John Saras and Parry Long
New
Business: Dr. Khan Khoda informed
of a software of e-book page
flipping and web traffic technology and distributed a handout to the
members present at the meeting.
President Thomas Saras suggested that Paul
Gerard be appointed as a special advisor on the Board of Directors of
NEPMCC. The council accepted his suggestion
Bob Ristic spoke of financial difficulties
faced by TV producers in Rogers multi cultural channels.
Thomas Saras suggested getting similar
producers who are in Bob’s shoes to form a delegation representing them
in the senate and other concerned offices. Many other members gave their
views on this issue. Thomas Saras also suggested getting issues from the
producers in writing to highlight the issues faced by TV producers of
Rogers. President Thomas Saras thanked Bob Ristic in bringing forward the
issue and his office will pursue the matter with all seriousness with the
efforts and cooperation of the TV producers who are facing financial
hardship, to CRTC.
“Asian
Connections” Newspaper and their associates are organizing a protest
march on May 19 at 2:30 pm outside Queens Park against rising fuel prices.
New
Member- Bhaskar Sharma –Equality News.
The chair hoped that the new member would be
an active participant in the organization.
Adjournment: Ahmed Shah Hotaki moved a motion to adjourn the meeting, Irene Keroglidis seconded it. The motion was carried. The chair adjourned the meeting at 10:30 pm. The next meeting would take place on June 13, 2011, at committee room N# 2, main legislative building, Queen’s Park, Toronto.
The Minutes have been prepared by Neel Nanda, Secretary General of the NEPMCC.
