ANA Affairs Press Release
By Tulasi R. Joshi
Information Director Elect of ANA
After the 2011 election result announcement, conflicting reports, debate and confusion seem spreading. Here I have tried to put some conclusions based on the facts so that Nepali communities can make informed observations and their own conclusion. Let us try to follow the rules, work together, and help Nepali cause without tarnishing Nepali name and reputation.
Decisions of June 15, 2011 Meeting Invalid:
The Special Emergency Meeting of the ANA Executive Board held June 15, 2011 was not a valid ANA meeting, and decisions made at that meeting (see below) were not valid ANA decisions since almost all of the so called board members attending the meeting were not valid paid ANA members; non-paid members do not have voting rights according to ANA bylaws. According to the ANA website, as of June 21, 2011, there are 19 members on the ANA Executive Board. They are:
ANA Executive Board
Simón Dhungana
President
MD
Dhiren Gurung
General Secretary
TX
Kumar Deuja
Information Director
VA
Executives
Dilli Poudel
P. General Secretary
Baltimore Assn. of Nepalis in America, MD
Jangbu Sherpa
P. President
Greater Boston Nepali Community, MA
Kush Shrestha
President
Nepali Association of Oregon, OR
Laxmi Gaudel
P. Treasurer
America Nepal Society, D.C.
Shreedhar Ranabhat
President
Nepali America Friendship Association, Wisconsin, WI
Shree Ram Dahal
President
Nepal Seattle Society, WA
Yan Rai
P. President
Nepal Association of Northern California, CA
Girish Ghimire
President
Nepalese Association of Utah, UT
Bijay Thapa
General Secretary
America Nepal Society, Washington D.C
Arjun Tripathi
President
America Nepal Society, Los Angeles, CA
Chandra Lama
Coordinator
ANA Sports Council; DC
Tejaswi Giri
Coordinator
ANA Sioux City Chapter, SD
Robin Thapa
Coordinator
ANA New Hampshire Chapter, NH
Mahendra Poudyal
Coordinator
ANA Dallas Forth Worth Chapter
Navaraj Shrestha
Anu Rai
Coordinator
Coordinator
ANA Denver Chapter, CO
I checked the names of the Executive Members and officers against the membership list published by the Membership Verification Committee. President Simon Dhungana is the only ANA member in the so called ANA Board. Even the Secretary and the Information Director were not valid ANA members. Other persons attending the meeting at the best can be considered honorary members at the pleasure of the executive officers. According to ANA bylaws, “Honorary Members do not have to pay any membership dues, and are not allowed to vote in the affairs of the Association.” Currently 3 persons are serving as executive officers; two of them are not even members of ANA with voting rights as mentioned above. Same thing applies to Mr. Basant Shrestha, the chair of the Membership Verification Committee (MVC) and the three members of the ANA election committee (Sudeep Shretha, Sharda Khati and Hira Sharma). Since they are not paid ANA members, they cannot vote on ANA affairs; they can only assist and advise the committees. Again, only the paid members can vote to make decision on ANA affairs. Giving the ANA board membership to persons who have not paid membership due is not only against the ANA bylaws, it may also be considered wrong for other reasons. When the meeting is run by one valid member of the ANA board, and in which decisions are made by non-ANA members, how in the world you can consider it an ANA meeting. Therefore from ANA points of view, the decisions and the meeting of June 15 do not belong to ANA and are invalid.
An Experience of June 15, 2011 Meeting:
I am an ANA life member and the Information Director elect. I attended the so called June 15 emergency meeting of ANA. When I asked at the meeting the number of board members, no one had an answer for this. When I asked at the meeting if there was a quorum for the meeting, I was shouted at by a non ANA member not to raise a question of quorum when such a big crisis was happening in ANA. There was no roll call, no motion moved and no second of any motion. At the end, Mr. Sherpalama informed about the decisions made at the meeting; he could really have said any thing he wanted; Mr. Sherpalama is not even listed as an executive board member No parliamentary rules were followed for these decisions. Even though we disagree, the meeting should have been conducted following democratic parliamentarian rule.
President Dhungana’s Conduct:
Current ANA administration especially the president has failed to fulfill its responsibility in a number of ways defaming the organization and creating all kinds of problems and crisis such as the Boston convention mismanagement, installing ineligible persons in the ANA board, not updating membership list, not keeping financial books in an orderly manner (example of the Boston convention is the obvious one) and going against the advice of almost all past presidents and life members. There was an unpaid bill of about $85,000 in which about $50,000 was for the hotel bill. Life members of ANA came to the rescue to save the reputation of ANA donating money to settle the hotel bill. Consequently, he was asked to resign by past presidents and life members. But he declined to do so, and some members argued to give him an honorable exit provided he cooperated to hold election in an agreeable manner. As a result, a general body (GB) meeting of ANA was held and election was conducted. Rather accepting the result of the election gracefully, he went against it with the support of non ANA members. In this scenario, the DC meeting arranged by him and mostly non ANA members is not endorsed by the elected officers of ANA, almost all past ANA presidents and virtually all ANA life members, and we elected body declare that ANA will not be responsible if any liabilities is caused by the meeting.
Membership and Disqualified Candidates:
Apparently annual ANA registrants were told that they would have one year membership. But this membership clause was never amended in the ANA bylaws. Without amending it within 60 days, it does not become effective according to ANA bylaws. From this point of view and other reasons as pointed by MVC, the membership of the Boston convention registrants becomes null and void to vote in 2011 election. Since the 2011 election was uncontested as there was only one qualified member for each position, the membership issue was a moot matter from the election purpose. The MVC published the eligible voters list by giving an opportunity to eligible voters not listed to approach the MCV with proofs of the membership. Why the disqualified candidates on the basis of the membership list did not even try to approach the MVC proving that they were ANA members. Now they try to cry foul after the announcement of the election results.
Membership Verification Committee (MVC):
The MVC did a great job by following ANA bylaws. We understand its published report was signed by 3 members out of 4 members of the Committee. Two of the members changed their position calling the report flawed after the election result was announced. By the way these 2 members are not even paid members of ANA and do not have voting right according to ANA bylaws. The other 2 members who have voting rights have not changed their position. So the MVC report stands as is and cannot be called flawed especially after the announcement of the election result. You just cannot play the same game again after the game is over.
Election Committee:
The Election Committee chair who is a life member of ANA also performed an outstanding job by following ANA bylaws and good judgment under the situation to conduct a fair and free election within the stipulated time. The Committee consisted of 4 members. Mr. Raja Upadhyay was the chair of the Committee who was given the mandate of conducting the election by the ANA general body (GB); Mr. Sherpalama or the President Dhungana or anyone else has nothing to do with the election after the mandate. President Dhungana provided 4 persons (Sudeep Shrestha, Sharda Khati, Hira Sharma and Ramakant Adhikari) to assist Mr. Upadhyay to conduct the election. Ramakant Adhikari did not serve the Committee. The 3 people that served were not ANA paid members and therefore, did not have voting rights. As a matter of fact, Dr. Sudeep Shrestha who was referred wrongfully as Co-Chair or Vice-Chair had disqualified himself to be a member of the Committee. Since these three people did not have any voting rights, they did not have any decision making power. They were in the Committee simply to assist Mr Upadhyay in clerical works. Mr. Upadhyay was given the sole authority by the GB to conduct the election. Of course they were working for Mr. Dhungana/Mr. Sherpalama, and started making statements against Mr. Upadhyay when the election result did not favor their candidates. These 3 people have no power or right to go against the decision of Mr. Upadhyay.
Rights of Non-ANA members:
The works and conclusions of the Membership Verification Committee and the Election Committee is according to the ANA bylaws and the general body meeting of genuine ANA members supported by past ANA presidents and ANA members. If non-ANA members do not like it, they have no legal ground/right to challenge it going against the decisions of these committees.
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Special Emergency Meeting of the Executive Board
Representative Attendance: ANA Executive Board, Independent Task Force of ANA, Membership Verification Committee of ANA, ANA Election Committee, ANA Functional Directors, Organizing Committee of D.C. Convention, NECC Management Committee, NECC BOD.
Time: 9:30pm EDT- 10:58 EDT
June 15, 2011
Membership Verification Committee with majority decision has withdrawn the MVC report submitted to Executive Board since it was flawed and declared it void since new information have come to light. It was mistakenly released to public.
Election Committee with all four member’s decision has put on hold election schedule until further notice. ITFANA has issued a notice on that as well. Election Committee has asked for clarification from Election Committee Chairman who is out of country and went against the decision of the committee without informing them.
As previously discussed a transfer of deeds from ANA to NECC was to be decided. In light of this a Special Emergency Meeting of the executive board was held. The meeting was called according to the bylaws regarding meetings and decisions were based according to concerning articles of the bylaws. All options were considered proposed by concerned committees and decisions were reached unanimously on all.
Decisions:
The decisions of the meeting will be submitted to Annual General Meeting (AGM) of ANA for approval/ disapproval. The decision of AGM will be final.
a. ANA Election 2011 postponed by one month
b. All convention registrants become automatic members upholding previous executive board decisions, practices, traditions that are according to the bylaws of the association.
c. New/ renew membership application would be allowed for two weeks after convention.
d. Election would be held in two weeks after the membership closes.
e. Election candidates’ interaction/ debates to be held during the convention.
f. The current executive board’s term will end on July 4th at the conclusion of the convention as previously scheduled. The current Executive Board will handover to caretaker executive committee on July 4th. Caretaker committee will be in place until the election results.
g. Implementing Annual General Meeting decision of 28th ANA Convention, ANA will also be known as Federation of Associations of Nepalis in America forthwith.
h. Previously formed bylaws taskforce would recommend changes at the 29th AGM.
i. Titles and Deeds of ANA property in Lanham to be transferred to NECC. ANA will share physical address in perpetuity with NECC as brainchild of ANA.
j. The meeting decision will be submitted to Annual General Meeting for approval/ disapproval.
The decision of Annual General Meeting of ANA will be final.
Office of Secretary of State of Maryland has been contacted regarding the procedure. All committees of ANA listed above requests all concerned to ignore any inauthentic emails or opinions or statements of anyone including past presidents of ANA whose role is to advise only.
