August 2002

The third Annual General Meeting of Nepal Cultural Society of BC (NCSBC) was held on April 13, 2002 at Bahai Centre in Vancouver.  The meeting had an attendance of 91 members. This was the first ever AGM that did not have election of new Board of Directors on the agenda. The 2nd AGM had fixed the term of NCSBC directors at 2 years.

The meeting started with straw poll on language of deliberations. By show of hands, the members voted to deliberate in Nepali language during this and future AGMs. After the agenda was adopted, the meeting deliberated on various items on the agenda and made important decisions.

Among the resolutions proposed and adopted were, a) spelling out the number of votes to two per family membership, and restricting the eligibility to only one member of the family to be nominated for election to the Board of directors, b) limiting the term of the directors to a maximum of two consecutive two year terms, c) authorizing the Board of Directors to make changes in NCSBC by-laws to enable it to carry out charitable activities and other activities related to members’ interest. The BOD has subsequently decided to add “to undertake activities of charity and welfare benefiting members of Nepali community or Canadian citizens at large” as one of the purposes of the society. The BOD also decided to add clause 65 to its by-laws as follows “Within the purview of the BC Society Act, the Board of Directors is entrusted to exercise its own judgment and discretion in matters not explicitly stated in the bylaws. However, any such action has to be approved by 2/3^rd majority of the Board of the Directors.”

The AGM also appointed Deb Adhikari as new Secretary of the society to replace Suresh Bhatta who resigned due to personal reasons.

The AGM also nominated members to the various committees. They are Social and Festival Celebration, Cultural and Performing Art, Sports Youth and Children Committee, Education, Organization and Communication Committees.

Earlier, the minutes of second AGM was passed unanimously. Following this, the President Parashar Malla and the Treasurer Ganga Malla read their reports to the members. The reports were subsequently adopted by the members.

Other items discussed during the AGM included hosting of first Pacific North West Nepali Community Picnic on September 01, 2002, participation in multicultural parade and increasing participation in Nepali language classes. The members were informed that Nepalis from Seattle, WA and Portland, OR USA were expected to attend the event. The members endorsed the idea of participation in multicultural parade and suggested that the Nepal Heritage and Language Centre (NHLC) try holding classes in locations other than Vancouver to encourage greater participation.

The AGM adjourned at about 5:45 PM following announcements on subjects of members’ interest.

President’s Corner