BUFLA
Bangladesh Unity Federation of Los Angeles
BUFLA Website: www.bufla.com
Minutes of the BUFLA-EC Meeting
December 14, 2008, Sunday 2 PM to 5 PM
Shatto Recreation Center, 3191 W. 4th Street, Los Angeles , CA 90020
Summary of the Meeting-Minutes
1. About 21 representatives from various Organizations attended this meeting.
2. Meeting started with the National Anthem of Bangladesh and USA
3. The Treasurer gave an update on the last Fund raising dinner and a total of $18,700 was pledged by various organizations in the fund raising dinner.
4. Last Meeting minutes was approved by all the members.
5. Parade Route was finally decided to focus on Shatto Center.
6. The Secretary introduced the BUFLA Parade Raffle draw event before the members.
7. Dr. Mahbub, Quazi Moshurul Huda gave an update about the Little Bangladesh and Shahid Minar to the members in the meeting.
8. Souvenir committee gave an update about the status of the Souvenir for the Parade.
9. The Next meeting was decided for Jan 18, 2009.
Here are the details of the Minutes.
Attendees: (in alphabetical order)
Anis Rahman
AKM Toha
Col Omar Huda
Dr Nazmul Ula.
Dr. M A Hashem
Denny Tayeb
Ismail Hossain
Jahangir shayem
Mahbub Khan
M A Khaleq
Mohammad Husain Babul
Majib Siddiquee
Quddus Khan
Quazi Moshurul Huda
Saleh Kibria
Dr. Shah Alam
Shamsuddin Manik
S M Babu
Zakir Husain
Saif Kutubi ( General Secretary)
The Agenda of the Meeting was as follows :
Item 1. Approval of the last minute of meeting
Item 2. Account Status
Item 3.. Fund Raising
Update
Item 4. . Formation
of different Action Committees
Item 5 Discussion on Souvenir
Item 6. Discussion on
Parade Routes
Suggested Dignataries Name
Item 7. Update
of Different Community events
Item 8. Open Forum
Item 9. Next Meeting Date/
Meeting Call off by the President
The Meeting continued as follows :
Welcome Address . The President started the meeting welcoming everybody to come to the meeting. The agenda was discussed and approved by the members in the meeting.
Item 1. Approval of the last minutes of meeting. A motion was moved by the President to approve the last minutes of the meeting. All the members went through the minutes of the meeting for the last time and approved the minutes without any modification.
Item 2: Account Status. Treasurer gave an update on the account status of the BUFLA account. He also requested all the organizations to pay their yearly dues as soon as possible. Treasurer also gave an update on the last fund raising dinner and mentioned about the pledged amount of approximately $18,700 from different organizations and donors.
Answering a question from a member about the loan of last Bangladesh Day Parade 2008, the President replied that the amount will be paid to the person when the fund is available.
Item 3. Update on Fund Raising . The vice president gave an update on fund raising dinner for the BUFLA Parade and thanked every donors for their cooperation for the Parade. He also requested the donors to pay the pledged amount as soon as possible.
Answering a question from a member about the 501(c)(3) status of BUFLA, the Secretary stated that the application was submitted to the appropriate office with $750 fee for the Tax Exempt 501( c)(3) status. The IRS received the application, and it is now going through the process.
For the fund raising, BUFLA is taking another step to introduce the BUFLA Parade Raffle draw and the Secretary requested all the members to donate only $2 per ticket. The Opening ceremony of the Raffle ticket will be in the next month. The target number for the raffle ticket is to sell approximately 2500 tickets before the Parade.
Item 4. Formation of different Action Committees. Few names were included in the action committee list, as follows:
(a) Cultural committee. Krishno Majumder
Tapan Kundo
Item5. Update on Souvenir. Mr. Quddus Khan gave an update on the Parade Souvenir. It was decided that the mode of the Souvenir will be in English & Bengali, so that the other Community members can read it. The members added a few more subjects and topics for the Souvenir. It was decided that souvenir committee will send an e mail to all the community members about the articles for the souvenir with the last date of submission.
Item 6 . Discussion on Parade Route The Parade route was finally focused on Shatto center and the update on Parade route will be given in the next meeting. The members decided to invite other ethnic community organizations to join the Bangladesh day parade, and also to fill the side walk of the parade route with the spectators.
Item 7. Update on Different Community Events . The next item in the meeting was an update on different community events .
(a) Little Bangladesh: The President introduced Mr. Brian, a Korean journalist, in the meeting. MR. Brian gave an update on the little Bangladesh issue from the Korean community point of view. Jahangir Shayem introduced himself and discussed about his involvement with the Korean community. President invited the Korean Community to join the Bangladesh Day Parade 2009 through Mr. Brian.
Dr. Mahbub stated that the Rampart Village neighborhood council invited Bangladesh
Community to attend their neighborhood council meeting on January 20 to discuss about the little Bangladesh item.
(b) Shahid Minar. Quazi Moshurul Huda gave an update on Shahid Minar . Answering a question about the name of the Project, Moshurul Huda stated that the name of the project is International Mother Language Monument Project. The members suggested to have a website for this project so that all the community members can see the update of the project.
(c) Kazi Nazrul Endowment Fund. As a followup of presentation by Tarango executives (Major Hamid and Shiper Chowdhury) in the last EC meeting, Dr.Mahbub discussed in this meeting about this Endowment fund and proposed to have a program by BUFLA to raise some fund for this project.
(d) BUFLA Fund Raising Dinner for Miscellaneous Items: In view of other suggestions by various BUFLA EC members and community members from time to time about BUFLA, Dr. Mahbub suggested for BUFLA to hold a second annual Fund raising dinner to address various other Miscellaneous items, like Kazi Nazrul Endowment Fund, Shahid Minar, Little Bangladesh, Charity for local needy family, Burial help, Charity for needy family back home in Bangladesh, etc. So, BUFLA can have two fund raising dinners per year, with one annual fund raising dinner for Bangladesh day Parade and one annual fund raising dinner for Miscellaneous items mentioned above. Dr. Mahbub requested the EC members to think about it, so that a motion can be moved on it in the next EC meeting.
Item 8. Open Forum . Mr. Ismail Hossain proposed to have an office for the BUFLA. The matter was dropped due to fund. He also proposed to have Bangladesh Day Parade 2010 in San Bernardino county.
Mr. Khaleq proposed to increase the term limit for the present committee for two years. But that will require constitutional amendment. So, a term extension for the Present Cabinet is not possible at this time.
Item 9. Next Meeting Date. Next meeting will be on January 18, 2009 . The Location is the Shatto Recreation Center , 3191 W. 4th Street , Los Angeles , CA 90020, from 2 pm to 5 pm.
The Meeting adjourned at about 5:10 pm.
Respectfully
Major (retd) Saif Kutubi
General Secretary
BUFLA