Dear Members,
We, the new Kannada Sangha committee members would like to thank you for giving us an opportunity to coordinate the 2007-08 Ottawa Kannada Sangha events on your behalf. We would like to outline our vision and approach in continuing to make Kannada Sangha a desirable organization for people who appreciate the richness of Karnataka and the Kannada culture, who wish to support the community, and all those who have fun celebrating together.
Before we share our vision for 2007-08, we would like to thank the outgoing committee members for their dedication and hard work. The activities they organized, especially Ugadi continues to be the talk of the town. We will continue to work closely with the outgoing committee to ensure a smooth transition.
Our vision:
The fundamental tool for bringing a community together is communication. In this regard, we will resurrect the Kannada Sangha website and make it user-friendly. All announcements from the committee will be posted on the website. We will ensure that your email addresses are kept confidential and will be used solely by the committee members to contact you regarding Sangha related matters only. We will encourage our outgoing committee and others who may have access to the membership database, to contact us for communicating with the community. Also, with a view to enlighten you about our annual and planned events ahead of time, we will share a synopsis of each event ahead of time to help you better plan your participation.
One of the most important and essential focus of the new committee will be to support the Kannada school. This medium of instruction provides a thriving and nurturing environment where our children can collectively get exposed to Kannada in a structured fashion. This has been possible only because of the dedication of our teacher Mrs. Radha Swami, the parents who ensure the children attend the school and most importantly, the children who have demonstrated interest in learning more about their culture and language. We thank Mrs. Radha Swami for her efforts and unflinching dedication to the school and request your continued support for our school. Please enroll your children.
As witnessed recently, Kannadigas came together and generously donated time and dollars to reach out to the less fortunate members of our society. The event was extremely successful and brought a sense of greater awareness, purpose and connection to a noble cause. The new committee would like to continue with this tradition and work closely with those associated in the past and make it an annual Sangha event.
While celebrating the annual events - Picnic, Ganesha Pooja, Christmas and Ugadi, we will explore options of organizing additional events that can showcase the talent of our community. It is becoming increasingly apparent that Ugadi alone does not allow adequate time to showcase our community talent. Tentative dates for Picnic will be July 14 (rain date July 21) and Ganesha will be September 15. We will share dates for Christmas and Ugadi celebrations once we confirm the venue.
5. Finance:
Kannada Sangha is a non-profit entity. We will work towards using your funds for making your participation enjoyable and less bothersome. In this regard, we will explore options like catering or subsidizing food and beverages throughout the year.
6. Ugadi Set-Up:
It required dedicated efforts to set up the audio and lighting equipment, the auditorium, the dining room for Ugadi, and cleaning up. In order to ensure that everyone enjoys the event, we will be exploring options of delegating these responsibilities to interested members. In the event there are no takers, we will consider options of hiring additional help for a fee.
In closing, we thank you for giving us an opportunity to coordinate Kannada Sangha activities for 2007-08 and look forward to your thoughts about our vision. This is your Sangha and you have a say!
Regards
Committee - 2007-08