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January 15, 2004 Dear Friends, On behalf of the Orissa Society of the Americas (OSA), I would like to wish you, your family and friends a very happy and prosperous New Year 2004. May God bless you all with professional successes, good health, wealth, and peace of mind? I also welcome you to the first newsletter of the New Year, which is posted at the OSA website: http://www.orissasociety.org/publications/public.html. Many of us just returned from our winter vacation in Orissa. Our visit was marked by a successful organization of the First Annual OSA Symposium on Orissa Development at Bhubaneswar on December 24, 2003 at Swosti Plaza hotel. About 20 families from USA, Japan, and Germany attended the symposium together with a large number of NGO representatives from Orissa. I would like to thank all those who attended the symposium in spite of their pressing engagements with their families and relatives. I would like to thank the symposium organizers, in particular to Dr. Dhanada Misra who devoted considerable time and effort as Local Organizing Chair. A copy of the proceedings that was distributed at the symposium is available at the OSA website. We would like to supplement this with many other development projects being carried out by the OSA members. Please send me a 1-page abstract of your project for posting in the web. The Chief Minister of Orissa inaugurated the OSA symposium, and promised to open a Non-Resident Oriya (NRO) cell in his office. We are following up on that. The OSA Symposium created much awareness, need, and interest for establishing development projects in Orissa. All major newspapers, radio and TV had wide coverage on the symposium. The education committee of OSA is working on an understanding with Mrs Ashish Garg, Regional Coordinator for India, of the World Links to open a few schools under our Adopt a School program. Mrs Garg who flew from New Delhi for this occasion will provide free teacher training with the financial sponsorship of multi-national institutions. Please contact us if you would like to participate in this program. Also, the OSA volunteers had a series of meetings regarding setting up an IIT in Orissa, and are engaged in developing a solid proposal to the Indian government. OSA also co-sponsored the International Conference on Information Technology (CIT-2003) at Bhubaneswar, which was attended by about 250 people from around the world. Because I am an academician, it is true that only educational activities have drawn my attention somewhat disproportionately. There may also be other understandings reached between OSA symposium attendees and NGOs. We are trying to gather such information for future dissemination. The attendance in the symposium was good, but fell gradually during the day. About 200 people attended the inauguration, 70 people attended the lunch, and about 30-35 people attended the last session. The overall opinion at the end was that the symposium was successful, and we should organize this symposium every year. However, some members also felt that the symposium could have been better organized. If we hold the symposium next year, we promise to do the best we can. Regarding other OSA matters, our membership drive has resulted in attracting a good number of life members/patrons/benefactors during the past six months. Even though the promotional membership drive has ended, we will continue to work on recruiting more members in 2004. The 2004 OSA convention will be held in Dallas with Dr. Niranjan Tripathy as the Convener. I am pleased to report that Dr. Kabi Prasad Misra has accepted our invitation to address the convention as the Guest of Honor. I am working on his travel arrangements at present. The convention committee has already finalized the hotel, and is working hard on other arrangements. Please plan to attend. I would like to focus my attention during the next six months on constitution and financial matters of OSA. We would like to post all the General Body resolutions in the OSA website along with the constitution and bylaws. If needed, we will obtain approval of these bylaws in the OSA general body meeting again during the convention. Let me have your thoughts on this. With this, I again wish you a very happy New Year. If there is anything that we can do, please feel free to contact us. Thank you for all your support during the past year. Laxmi Narayan Bhuyan OSA President http://www.orissasociety.org/ Laxmi Narayan Bhuyan, OSA President E-mail: lbhuyan@hotmail.com Tel: (909) 789-9890 Greetings - OSA 2004 Convention Committee Convener's
Message Namaskar, Warm greetings to all from the members of the Southwest Chapter - Orissa Society of the Americas! We take great pleasure in inviting you to attend the 35th Annual OSA Convention, which will be held in Dallas, Texas on July 2 - 4, 2004. The convention will take place in Hilton DFW Lakes Executive Conference Center, only minutes away from the DFW International Airport. Designated as a Pinnacle Award-winning business resort, this facility will house all our convention activities, including cultural programs, dinning, seminars, workshops, executive meetings, and organized sports, under one roof. We have been able to negotiate a fabulous room rate of $69 per night. This year, the convention registration fee will be $110 per family if you register before the May 15, 2004 and $140 after this date. We encourage you to register early, to take advantage of the lower fee and give us the flexibility of planning ahead. The organizing committee is investing a lot of effort and imagination, in putting together the three-day program, which will consist of a mix of Orissa heritage display, popular and classical performing arts, guest lectures, seminars, workshops, reunions, fine cuisine, merrymaking, and everything else that we have all come to expect from OSA Conventions. This committee also wants to make sure that all of your expectations are not only met, but also exceeded. With your participation, we hope to make OSA Convention 2004 a platform for building unity among Oriyas in North America and carry forward the torch of Oriya heritage and culture for our future generations. With best regards, Niranjan Tripathy
First Annual Symposium on Orissa
Development The first annual symposium on Orissa Development was held on December 24th in Hotel Swosti Plaza, Bhubaneswar. Please check the Symposium Report (PDF version) for details.
Welcome New Members
(After the 2nd
newsletter, Between 10-14-03 and 12-31-03) List of OSA New Life members Susanta and Ipsita Satapathy (IL), Dharmresh Patel (NJ), Saswata Mohapatra and Geetanjali Mishra (OH), Pradipta Kumar and Jyotirmala Kar (ONT), Kailash and Sanghamitra Sahu (OK), Jyotiranjan Kar (TX), Birendra Mishra and Meerabai Mohapatra (CA), Basanta Kumar and Madhusmita Mohapatra (OH), Narayan and Kalyani Sahoo (NY), Sabyasachi Nayak and Swati Das (TX), Lokanath and Sujata Patro (TX), Uday and Minati Choudhury (CA), Tapan Padhi and Sudhamayee Panda (TX), Sandip K. and Lila Dasverma (WA), Anam C.and Rashmi Sahoo (TX), Surya Narayan and Manju Prava Acharya (Alberta), Prasant and Sabita Subudhi (LA), and Raj and Refern Patro (TX). NEXT |
