The once powerful all inclusive only Nepali umbrella organization ANA is showing signs of becoming defunct after last year's financial fiasco during the Boston convention.

2011 ANA Convention was to be held at Denver Colorado, but ANA has recently made a press release announcing this year's ANA convention to be held in Washington DC. It is a known fact that organizers of Denver, Colorado had major reservations partnering with the ANA after witnessing the bitter partnership with the organizers from Boston. The fact that they had to resort to organizing the ANA at their home turf shows that they were not capable of capturing any interest from any of the plentiful Nepali organizations spread across the United States. Observers have noted that pretty soon ANA would be lucky to end up serving the VA/MD/DC area in the future if they are not able to regain the trust of Nepalis residing the US.

ANA used to be the only influencial Nepali organization in the the US as a whole, but this influence is gradually slipping away due to the incompetence and personal agenda displayed within it's core committee.

At this point, there is a panic within it's central committee because of the accounting abnormalies haunting them from the Boston convention. Observers have noted that the Boston convention abnormalties are just a tip of the iceberg. As the largest Nepali organization in the US, ANA has accumulated a lot of fixed assets amounting to few million US dollars. Now, with the future of the organization under question, the assets need to be scrutinized before it becomes a playing ground of the few priviledged.

When ANA was formed, the number of Nepalis were a handful so it made sense for ANA to become a central organizing body to hold convention for this handful of people. Now even a small city has more Nepalis than at that time. It is now time to shift the focus to more local events and reigional conventions.  What ANA could do is have a decentralized presence and support more local events and interactions than hold one converence a year - the executions of which have been failing, disorganized and incompetent to say the least - mostly due to lack of leadership and guidance.

I do not want to sound hasty here but my gut feeling is that the missing funds are most likely a result of years of financial mismanagement. I commented about this and the ANA board in my last post:

http://sajha.com/sajha/html/OpenThread.cfm?ThreadID=86733#799747

Non-profits, by its nature, are supposed to be transparent about every activity they pursue - they should, in large, disclose these to their members. The general health of the organization can only be assessed through its financials - so this too should be part of the disclosure. They are required by federal law to submit Form 990 to the IRS - in the absense of balance sheets and profit & loss statements, ANA should be able to distribute a copy of the 990 to their members. The form should tell you the amount of equity (net worth) they have built up. I have decided long ago not to become a member (my own choice, of course) - however, if you are a member I urge you to contact ANA and request a copy of the form.

I hope that senior members of the board have been honest in their dealings and what is reported on the 990 is in fact the reflection of true business reality of the past P&L. Accounting can be such a dirty game - to that end, ANA can hire an external auditor (at their own expense) to provide some assurance to the members and the community - and rebuild some lost credibility - that their hands are clean.

I do not know much about ANA and its leadership team (please ignore if they are doing these already) - but if I happened to be in their position I would do whatever I can to undo the reputational damage and stop the train from derailing. We should not let a national cultural organization such as ANA go defunct - it is not the existence of the organization that's in question its the people who run it - although some restructuring and overhaul is called for. As an adamant believer of honesty and hard work, I believe if the funds are really missing then the executive board needs to be held accountable and impeached if required (I'm sure the bylaws cater for this). Once the funds are found, why not start by announcing a merit based college scholarship fund for an aspiring young talented nepali to give the organization another go?

And lets not judge ourselves or fellow nepali with that of ANA's behavior as it merely represents an average nepali american in my opinion. With a slight modification from one of the most competent individuals in the world, let this be the guiding light:

"When a management team with a reputation for (incompetence) tackles a (non-profit) business with a reputation for (good) economics, it is the reputation of the (non-profit) business that remains intact."

@242 what are you talking about? are you saying that ANA board is not responsible and only Boston organizers are to blame? what nepali politics are you talking about? you do understand that ANA, a non profit organization, is in the middle of money mismanagement mess? if we the people don't point our fingers at the ANA board members and ask them about it  who else will? what is there so wrong about raising questions to the ANA board members? if they were responsible and careful enough there should have been no difficulty answering any of it? especially questions about the lost money from the last convention and finances of the organization for the past 15-20 yrs. People have been too laid back and let this organization run free like a "chada gai" all these years in my opinion.

No matter who took the money, it is evident that this mismanagement occured under Simon Dhungana's presidency, therefore he and the rest of the board members are equally responsible (guilty or not remains to be seen) and as a result they should all step down by virtue of the them not being able to prevent it from happening. The guilty party, whoever it is, should be sent to jail and made an example.

सजिलै र चाडो आर्जन गर्ने बानी हाम्रो मौका पाउदा किन गुमाउथे पाको पालो । देश मा होस वा बिदेश मौका पाउदा चैट गरिदिए ।
It reminded me a proverb.
गिदडकी खाल बदली जा सकती है लेकिन आदते कभी नही !

हिनामिना को पुर्पक्ष हुनु पर्‍यो , निर्क्यौल अनुसार तिर्नु पर्ने भए बक्यौता बुझाउनु पर्‍यो , हैन र । जेल भन्दा पनि हिनामिना भएको रकम पुर्ताल पहिलो कुरो हो ।
 

Sidster,"The problem with people who run ANA is that they have the same thought process as yours. They think its their hard earned money and they can spend it however they want it, for personal benefit or communal."

Ha ha ha  Its their hard earned money ?  Are you fugging kidding me ?  WTF did they do to earn this money ?  I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT  THEY DID NOT DO SHIT FOR THE CONVENTION.  EVERYTHING WAS DONE BY VOLUNTEERS IN BOSTON.... WHO HAD TO PAY FOR THEIR OWN TICKET TO BE A VOLUNTEER.... WHILE THE EXECUTIVES(in some cases and their families) OF ANA WERE ENTITLED TO EVRYTHING FREE OF COST ?   BLOOD SEAT AND TEARS OF BOSTON VOLUNTEERS WAS WHAT MADE THAT EVENT POSSIBLE AND ANA EXECUTIVES CAME PARTIED WITH MOOJ MASTIII(all for free) AND LEFT .  ON TOP OF THAT ANA WANTED $70,000 FROM THE TOTAL REVENUE.  I HAD HEARD THAT THERE WERE 2 ANA PRESIDENTS WHO WERE THROWING THEIR WEIGHT AROUND IN BOSTON ? lol!!  TYO GADHA HARU SAAB AAFU LEY AFAI LAI MAIIIHUU BHANNEY HARU MATRA HO JUST LIKE THEM USELESS NEPALI POLITICIANS.  Cannot believe those fat asses wanted $70,000 for doing nothing but sit on their fat asses.  These GADHAS have no fugging shame.

242,"I thinl this finger pointing pakka Nepali politics!! Convention manegement arkai raicha. So Kaam bigarne [Disallowed String for - use of word not allowed] gaali khaane kaalu."

I am not saying they are not to blame either.  I know they made a lot of mistakes.  But when it comes to the $$ that is missing these folk are accoutable too.  I am not saying the Boston organizing committee is off the hook.  But they put a lot of time and effort for this event ther(on top of their full time job).  There was a lot of in fighting, tension, and power play amongst this committee too.

BC,

You must have been high while reading my post. I do not see a reason for you to go off on me when i am talking on the same line as you are. I will repost my comment again for you just incase if you misread it.

"The problem with people who run ANA is that they have the same thought process as yours. They think its their hard earned money and they can spend it however they want it, for personal benefit or communal."

Do you see the word PROBLEM on my sentence.

Sidster,

The problem with that is I have never felt entittled in any Nepali functions. I have only attended one ANA. And I paid for everything. Whereas these exec. assholes come over to ANA..... just cause they hold a TITTLE, they behave like they own ANA. And they don't want to get their hands dirty with anything either therefore the host city do all the dirty work.  But when the shit hits the fan... he he... They are very very quick to deflect the blame and start pointing fingers.  btw I was not going off on you, apologies if you felt that way.

In all honesty, it is not as sinister as it seems..atleast that's what I believe.
I hardly doubt anybody pockets the tonnes of money coming from the ticket sales. Organizers and volunteers might exploit their reach by getting free tickets and slipping in free for their friends. Local host (convener) might even get some hotel rooms along with top exec (just a guess here). That's the extent of the cheating that might go, which is not too bad. Now as for making money, the people who make money are the ones who are subcontracted, specially A/V guys, food guys etc. Call me naaive but this is what I know.

People are acting as if someone pocketed $80,000

the issue here is not that 80,000 was lost. the issue is that the expense was greated than revenue by 80,000

in regular accounting it is called a loss.

As in any organization, there will be profit sometimes and loss sometimes.

Most nepalis want to back bite and pull other nepalis down and this was the perfect opportunity to do so.

Again, I want to repeat, please understand, that 80,000 was not stolen or pocketed.

In my opinion, this convention was simply too big for the Boston Committee to handle. Obviously if ANA had given better direction, it wouldn't have run at a loss but all in all, there was mismanagement as far as controlling expenses and revenues.

"...that the expense was greated than... "
In regular grammer it is called a butchery.

Agree with you though, the loss was 80K, which was later reduced to slightly under 20k

@ Badriman lol !!  Ok then where the hell are the checks and balances ? How much $$ did ANA invest in last ANA ?  Did they give any $$ to the organizers in Boston ?  The answer to that question is NONE !! To mask ANA's incompetency now they are resorting to playing the blame game.  The event was held in July its March now where are the numbers... In other words SHOW ME THA MONEEEYY !!!  Yeah its easy to say it was a loss, yeah mero pani ghar ma Hatti ko SOON cha !!! lol

Stiffler,"Now as for making money, the people who make money are the ones who are subcontracted, specially A/V guys, food guys etc. "  
Well anyone who has organized an event of this magnitude knows that you have to come up with a proposal before you host.  And that proposal would also hold all the contracts made with different vendors and A/V folks.  So if their contract says $10, you don't pay $100.  If their checks are more than their contracts, whose fault is it ?  It is ANA's checks.

Agreed with BC, Badri in regular accounting Loss is accounted for via checks and balances. Why hasn't ANA come out with their checks and balances and clarified to the public that the reason for the loss of money is due to so and so cause? How long can it take?? Where is the god damn money? how did it get over spent? where is the accountability? shameful!

ANA has already made the profit and loss statement of Boston ana public. You can find the link to it somehwere if you search for it. I think the hotel expense was the biggest one I remember seeing that.

It was high time that such a scandal broke that an ANA convention sustained a financial hole to the tunes of ~ minus $80k. It directly implicates all the formal ANA orgazing officers and members. If those individuals remotely care about their reputation, then it is in their best interest to step up to the plate and explain the confusion/gap to the ANA devotees.

Like BC said, the behavior of the organizers are mirroring that of the national leaders in the old country [back home]. When such irresponsibility and/or perhaps even corruption seems plausible, are these peeps even acculturated enough to run an American-chartered organization that is perhaps even older than most of the ANA attendees?

Some candidates run for office with a mandate to simply provide the best ways to advance the organization in the changing times by doing this or doing that. Simply put what the diaspora needs is practical solutions to problems where sustainability of programs/services is of paramount importance, brain-storming of cost-benefit analysis to solutions, and not making promises that might be hard to deliver consistently.

It is not the lack of ideas that is holding back ANA or any organizations of smaller scale, it is the lack of integrity, discipline, fairness, frugality, value, and other traits that go along. After all, just because one is from a third-world country or lacks a degree paper does not mean one is natively stupid.

As an ANA attendee in the past or as just another Nepali Joe, an off-the-wall recommendation from my side is
when holding an election for ANA or any other organization in the US, we should only let individuals to run for office of such delicate nature by requiring them to have an average FICO score of at least 750. [ I am dead serious on this one but I can't help it ]. At the risk of over-simplifying, people with high FICO scores are said to be more responsible and fair-minded.

Another thing that just crept up my mind is, I hear a current member being a CIO in a Fortune 500 company, another one a programming whiz who would give Zukerberg a run for his money, next one a financial titan who would one-day topple John Paulson's records. That's all bull-crap. The kind of officers we need in such organizations are ones who can articulate their ideas, who are fairly competent in written/verbal English/Nepali, and above all who can hold the post to a higher esteem through integrity. It does not matter whether he/she is a Hamburger-University-diploma-holder, gas-station owner or a substitute teacher.

Attention ANA Devotee!
now that the ANA convention and the holy rituals there-in have made it to the endangered species list, aren't you going to walk like Egyptians in a rally and threaten to boycott the next ANA rendezvous until they post the P&L statement on a web 2.0 platform?

Attention ANA Organizing officers!
Feel free to contact me regarding Accounting consulting services. I have good news for you, I just got contact information of a former Arthur Anderson officer.

Badri Man i have tried a lot to find the profit/loss statement from boston ANA and came up empty handed. Not a single hit on it. If you know where it is can you please post it here? Saying it was publicly released information and not being able to find it creates more suspicion.

Some numbers are available in my previous post http://sajha.com/sajha/html/OpenThread.cfm?ThreadID=86784

http://sajha.com/sajha/html/OpenThread.cfm?ThreadID=86784
lol   Are you fugging kidding me ?  I can come up with some numbers too.  Where are the receipts ?  Where are the contracts ?  Where are the copies of the checks rendered ?  Yeah you can bullshit all you want to Nepali Sheeps but not this one.  Untill they show complete transparency ... he he  I am assuming all involved party are guilty.  Both the ANA Execs and the Boston Organizing committee.   

 As a president, Simon is responsible for the mess. Period.

He ran for the position of the president. People voted him because they thought he could handle things. Now, if his supporters are saying they didn't know about these other people making deals, it is same as deflecting responsibilities. In any case, first, I don't believe he is innocent, and second, I don't believe the arguments that these mismanagements were results of past misdeeds or some other associates being corrupt.

Ok those numbers mean nothing as long as they don't appear on the official books!