Meeting Minutes - Aug. 08, 2005

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  1. Opening Remarks by the Chair  2. Minutes of the previous meeting  3. President's Report  4. New Business  5. 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.