Meeting Minutes - Jul. 10, 2006

Meeting Minutes July the 10th, 2006 Present: Thomas Saras Hasan Yilmaz Iraj Emad K. David Lim Victoria Wang Taha  Hasieniani Fred Pourtaheri Amir Mahim Tanas Jovanovski Thomas Kim Mona Feng Stephanie Williams Ali Eshghi Mohamed Tajdolati Ronald Isai John Saraidaris Alamair Hussain Thesome Worldeamanuel Clyde McNeil Ranjit Wickramasoni David Ferninands Sremal Abeyawardene Clyde McNeil Maryam Aghvami Irene Keroglidis. Hassan Zerehi Dr. B. Lamba Senthi Chellish Ahmed Shah Hotaki Emmanuel Ayiku Emily Mills Cindy Gu Rahim Motom Luba Cherny   Absent: Kenrick Bobb Elizabeth Wolski   Agenda: 1. Opening Remarks by the Chair 2. Appointment of New Board of Directors 3. Report of the President/ Business Discussion 4. End of meeting   Opening Remarks by the Chair: Thomas Saras initially chaired the meeting till the arrival of the regular chair of the meetings   Minutes of the previous meeting: Mona Feng moved a motion to approve the minutes of the monthly meeting held on June 12, 2006. Iraj Emad, seconded it. The motion was carried.   Appointment of New Board of Directors: Motion: President of NEPMCC, Thomas Saras moved a motion and Srimal Abeyawardene seconded it to accept the following appointments Dr. Mona Feng appointed as the Vice-President (Public Relations) Rino Vultaggio Publishing Editor, Marco Polo, Vancouver, appointed as the Agent General for BC. Angelo Persichilli Political Editor, Corriere Canadese, appointed as the Agent General-Ottawa  The motion to accept the above appointments was carried by all   Report of the President/ Business Discussions. -Thomas Saras welcomed Mona Feng’s return to the Council as the new Vice- President (Public Relations) -Thomas Saras has been in touch with officials of the Federal Government for fair distribution of Government campaigns in the ethnic press. -The office of the President is in negotiations with the Federal Government so that at least 10% of Government advertising is given to the ethnic press. -Thomas Saras received a final report from the Senate Committee on telecommunications. -Most of our recommendations accepted by the Committee -The PMO has promised the President of NEPMCC to review the whole process of distribution of the government advertising. -NEPMCC will hold a roundtable conference with the Prime Minister in the fall of 2006 (end of September or early October). -The Agenda of the roundtable conference would be submitted to the PMO. The meeting would last approximately three hours, with an introduction by the PM and Questions and Answers. -NEPMCC, will sponsor a Citizenship ceremony on August 24 at the CNE, following the ceremony NEPMCC will organize a reception with full lunch at the premises of the CNE. Is going to be an opportunity for the members to meet that day and continue as in a Pick- Nick. -The organization will provide free entry tickets and also parking tickets for the members, Lunch will also be free of charge. Food for all the needs will be provided by the organization. -In this ceremony more than 50 new Canadians from 41 different Countries of origin,will take the oath of allegiance in order to accept the Canadian Citizenship. -NEPMCC will host a reception with full lunch for the new Canadians and our quests as well as the attending members, after the ceremony. -NEPMCC will celebrate the annual ethnic media week with cultural events mostly Saturday September the 2nd 2006, from 1:30 to 6:30, at the CNE. -The President informed the members, the amount of funds currently available in its treasury and urged the membership to proactively raise funds for the various upcoming events. -The annual ethnic press festival will take place on September 2nd and September 3rd at the International Building at the CNE. Luba Cherny is responsible for organizing the shows. -The office of the President will distribute entry passes for the CNE to only those members who would be attending the Ethnic Press Festival and the Citizenship ceremony -Thomas Saras urged the members to give the exact number of entry passes required by them so that his office can make arrangements to distribute them in advance. -The nominations for award recipients have been forwarded to the selection committee. The committee will send its recommendations to the Council after thoroughly going through each nomination. -The President read out his response to a letter from a lawyer of one individual who had made allegations against  the President of this Council and some of its members -The membership urged the President to adopt a resolution to stop this individual from interfering with the business of the council and also to stop harassing the members through his derogatory emails. -The various appointed committees reported their progress to the Council. Some of the committee members were not present in the meeting as they were away on vacation. They will report on the progress of their work in the next meeting.   New Members: The chair welcomed the following new members to the Council Thomas Kim –  Korean News- VP, KT Web Printing Ltd. Stephanie Williams- The Weekly Gleaner- Editor Ali Esghi – The Weekly Gleaner- General Manager David Ferdinand –Voice of Lanka- Producer Senthi Chellish – Lankan Tamil Directory/ Publisher   The Chair welcomed the new members and expressed his hopes that they would actively participate and make significant contributions towards the objectives of NEPMCC End of Meeting: Srimal Abeyawardene moved a motion to adjourn the meeting and Hasan Yilmaz seconded it. It was carried. The Chair adjourned the meeting at 9:45 p.m. The next meeting would take place on August 14, 6:00 pm 2006 at Committee Room N# 2, at the Main Legislative Building, Queen’s Park, Toronto.