First Convention Bhutanese American Community Center (BACC) Berkeley, CA, USA
Posted On December 22, 2007
December 16, 2007
“In people We Trust, Community We Care”
A full decade after the arrival of the Bhutanese immigrants in Alameda, California, U.S.A, “The First Convention Of The BhutaneseAmerican Community Center (BACC) has been successfully conducted in Mount Everest Restaurant, Berkeley, California, U.S.A., on16th Dec. 2007. It was a historic day, since it was the first ever Bhutanese convention held in America by the Bhutanese non profitorganization.
The convention started at 11:00 a.m. and concluded at 3:00 p.m. The convention was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, theInterim Board of Executives automatically dissolved and eight new Board Members were registered. The Executive were elected bythe Election Commission Board. The four Election Commissioners, Mr. Subha Lal Shrestha, Mr. Manoj Pradhan and other twocommissioners (names not given on request) conducted the election. The election was peaceful and fair.
There were seven candidates who actively contested in the election viz; Mr. Bir Thapa, Mr. Jiwan Subba, Mr. Umesh Rai, Mr. DickChhetri, Mr. Ananta Gurung, Mr. Rajen Giri, Mr. Milan Rana and Mrs. Mamta Giri.
Mr. Bir Thapa was unanimously elected Chair Person of the BACC. The other elected Executives are:
Mr. Umesh Rai – Vice Chair PersonMr. Jiwan Subba – SecretaryMr. Milan Rana – TreasurerMr. Ananta Gurung – Executive Director
Mr. Ananta Gurung announced the names of the candidates contesting for the executive portfolios of the BACC. Later the full chargeof MC was given to Ms. Annie Subedi, who did an excellent job.
Mr. Bir Thapa thanked his community members for their unanimous support for his election as the new Chair Person of BACC. Hethanked the election commissioners and the guests for conducting fair election and participating in the event and making it successful.Mr. Thapa expressing the need of a community organization, urged every Bhutanese individuals to show a united support to uplift thefragile community into a stronger one. He further said; it has become our responsibility to groom this community with specialattention to younger children to keep our culture and values intact.
Mr. Thapa, in his final statement said that BACC has opened up new vistas of dreams and hopes not only to the Bhutanese Americansbut to the entire Bhutanese Diasporas world wide.
Mr. Dick Chhetri, one of the senior most members in the community recited few verses from the Holy Bhagwat Gita. He emphasizedon the sufferings of the Bhutanese refugees and urged everyone for unity and good karma to reach out to not only the Bhutaneserefugees but also to the Bhutanese people living in Bhutan who are silently suffering.
Mr. Dick Chhetri, one of the senior most members in the community recited few verses from the Holy Bhagwat Gita. He emphasizedon the sufferings of the Bhutanese refugees and urged everyone for unity and good karma to reach out to not only the Bhutaneserefugees but also to the Bhutanese people living in Bhutan who are silently suffering.
Mr. Ganesh Subedi, a first Bhutanese American to reside in California expressed the need of the community platform and theimportance of building mutual relationships with other NGOs and INGOs.
Mr. Umesh Rai, Former Executive Director of BACC, briefed on the activities of the organization accomplished in the past one yearperiod and thanked all the Election Commission Board, Mr. Subha Lal Shrestha, Mr. Manoj Pradhan and their team; Mr. Anil Pandeyand Mr. Anil Pradhan, president and vice president of Motherland Nepal respectively, and other guests for their participation and forclosely monitoring the BACC election.
Mr. Manoj Pradhan, a Bhutanese representative from Atlanta, U.S.A., expressed his appreciation for the BACC’s accomplishments intheir services towards their community. He promised to return to Atlanta with a vision to do the same as has been done by BACC inCalifornia.
Mr. Pandey presented four Nepali CDs to Mr. Thapa, as a token of friendship between the two organizations. Mr. Pandey laterpresented certificates of appreciation to Ms. Annie Subedi, a freshman at UC Davis, California for her outstanding educationalachievement; Mr. Dhruva Thapa, an International Press Correspondent for Nepal, for his selfless services to the different communitiesin the international circuit; and to Mr. Ganesh Subedi for being the first Bhutanese to settle in California and establish a Bhutanesecommunity, and for the role he has been playing for it’s unity and national integrity.
Mr. Jiwan Subba, after having thanked everyone for their participation in the Convention, requested everyone to join in for the Free Lunch Buffet. The First Convention of the Bhutanese American CommunityCenter (BACC) concluded in a fine note.
BACC, P.O.Box 3120 Alameda, CA 94501 (P) 510 864 0895 (F) 510 337 0824 http://www.bhutaneseusa.org/
One Comment
Please,
I am writing this from Bhutan. Please, please when you talk about the problem of forgotten Bhutanese now settled in America and elsewhere and thrusting out the grievance, please do not mention anything like that on those Bhutanese still living in Bhutan, whatever we are, whoever we are, but living in peace, you are the people acting as leaders showed and showing wrong trail to innocent people, who are suffered, suffering! oh no… how can suffering people can effort week in week out party in America!!! So please mind your own business and you have no right to think about us in Bhutan. If you take care of yourself rest will take care of themselves.