We are trying to archive below the official, public communications/updates from the current OSA executives. Archived for your benefit.
April, 2008.
Appointed as primary coordinator Mr. Birendra Jena for OSA Awards and Mr. Sura Rath for Subrina Biswal Award.
Appointed Raj Maruvada as auditor/accountant for OSA.
OSA Execs send out appeal to members to make the convention at Toronto a resounding success by attending in large numbers.
OSA President appeals to and urges the local members of chapters who are not yet OSA members to convert their membership to OSA membership.
==================Orissa Center & Building OSA Archive
Jan 11, 2008
Dear members:
I just want to clarify this information
about OSA Center's bank account was news to us. I will contact Gopa
Patnaik and others past OSA executives who were involved with this
project to find out more about the operation. No information about the
OSA Center or the existing bank account at Vani Vihar branch was
provided to us at the time of transition. No status report is
available to us whether this center is still in existence or not. Or
why it got closed ?
The problem is the lack of records and maintenance of
documents. One of the solution is - keeping permanent records of OSA
activities in an OSA Archive. Permanency of document is needed. One
of our election manifesto is to build an OSA Archive and
maintaining documents, journals, important documents, financial audits
and transactions etc etc.
I welcome some dedicated OSA volunteers
to help us out to build a team to do it. The team will collect
documents, catalog and make pdf files of these documents. Please let me
have some ideas how economically we can achieve the goals. This will
help our future generations of OSA members and executives to know
about the OSA. With your cooperation and assistance we can do it !
If we are talking about transparency - this is a giant step towards that. Let's DO IT.
Pratap
=========== Jan 11, 2008
All:
In recognition of the sentiments expressed here (osanet), we have done several
interviews of people, reviewed IRS supplied documents, and had
meetings among ourselves, old execs, moderators, BOG and several
members to understand true concerns and address issues.
1. We have put a WARNING in our website about an EIN that may or may
not have been used fraudulently. However, we took the precautionary
note of warning viewers about it when they click on our 501(c)(3)
status. This external EIN in question might have even surrendered to
IRS; nevertheless, we have warned proactively.
2. We are also in the midst of communicating in writing to IRS about
our valid status and alerting them to watch out for any new or old
misuse by any one in our (OSA) name or our EIN. The president will
later inform more about the subject/actions in a separate communique.
3. We have also communicated (and reminded) to all OSA chapter heads
about the chapter's legal obligations to OSA and IRS, and how they
should treat the transactions professionally, even if it burdens them
a bit extra in document keeping. We strive to establish that we are
among the very best in professionalism among all small or medium
social, voluntary organizations. The chapters are one by one coming
around to our view point, but much work still lies ahead. We will keep
our effort up.
4. The execs have been planning to put all bank statements on the web
so anyone can scrutinize all transactions as they wish. The quarterly
news letter in the future will have one-line descriptions of all
non-trivial amounts spent by OSA national. I am arranging so the
treasurer or his helper among you can post the financial records on web.
5. Just keep the number of mails and topics minimal, and be respectful
of volunteers' time, energy and even financial sacrifice in all your
dealings. The moderators will be our "eyes and ears". That is for
division of labor and to provide a fair, independent way to deal with
publicly-aired personal or individual issues.
I and the other execs strongly prefer to be given the dignity, the
space and the time due to us to accomplish our jobs that behooves a
voluntary exec.
Come forward to help open-mindedly when ever possible, so you actually
help the organization and not further needlessly burden others.
We will relentlessly strive to bring professionalism to the chapters,
to the national body and to the membership in general. We will give
our best to bring order to the disarray being displayed, the cavalier
attitudes and less-than-professional operations. It will need a lot of
sacrifice in blood and sweat and sleep-less volunteering nights,
especially at first, arguments among the working volunteers who will
be further burdened in maintaining documentation, but we will strive
to show that we are a strong, transparent, PROUD and very highly
respected society of well-meaning, fun-loving people. Trust and
respect are important in addition to professionalism and focus.
Sincerely,
Priyadarsan Patra
Secretary, OSA
On behalf of the Executives of The Orissa Society of the Americas (OSA)
Jan 8, 08: I have installed photo copies of the OSA 501c(3) status papers on web:
the application on 5/29/1981 by Satya Shaw (the then Secretary), the
approval as a foundation 509(a)(2) -- an interim status, and the final
re-verification of the 501c(3) status. The image files are
www.orissasociety.org/scan0007 , scan008 and scan0015 respectively.
Priyadarsan Patra
OSA Secretary
========= Jan 05, 08
Kirtan babu and Purna bhai and others similarly interested:
Since I don't control or technically manage OSAnet yahoogroup, only
the moderators can set the mode. I am asking the moderators to hereby
explore the possibility of moving all or only-those-requesting from
"individual email" to the daily-digest mode.
There is also a web-only mode, where people at their convenience go
see the postings on the web. I have put mine in this mode. Anyone with
a yahooid can do so themselves.
Finally, it would be good if the moderators can arrange so that the
Official Communications (the announcements) go to members directly
(individual emails). Such announcements may be from moderators or
polls, etc. if such things are done in future.
If there are other good ideas, please discuss with the current
moderators directly; their email-ids are: <yogi_panda@...>,
"Ashutosh Dutta" <adutta@...>, "Gagan Panigrahi"
<g.panigrahi@...>, "Mahendra Kar" <m_kkar@...>, "purna
mishra" <purnamishra@...>
Thank you for your cooperation,
Priyadarsan Patra
.=================
Jan 3, 2008
I would like members to know that the Toronto convention team and the
OSA execs are in engaging communication over how to make it very
successful. The team over in Toronto is working hard and smart to have
a wonderful celebration of some of the best that we as Orissans have
to offer.
The spirit of collaboration and some useful information for all can be
gleaned from a recent dialog below:
"As you know, OSA execs are naturally and deeply interested in making
the upcoming convention best ever by several means within our ability
as the elected officials. The various avenues include support of the
Toronto chapter, assigned to host the convention,
at financial, promotional, sponsorship and planning levels. One of
the additional, newer ways we want to support is as follows:
1) I have created an URL/web-repository called "
http://convention08.orissasociety.org" so the Toronto convention can
be hosted there.
The convention will have full control and responsibility for
the contents while we have arranged for the hosting and integration
with the main OSA website. This will also allow a mechanism to make
the convention website more or less permanent -- in the future years
people world over can access what Toronto did, e.g.
2) Have created an ftp user called "osaconvention" and will allow
the Toronto Convention's web master to upload/download the
convention pages/data in a secure and easy way using a
password. http://convention08.orissasociety.org will reference this area.
3) I have also created an Email " convention08@..."
which is available to the world and emails sent to this address will
get automagically forwarded to Gagan babu and Amit babu's usual
emails addresses.
4) Videos are space hogs. So I have arranged with Google to
mitigate that problem. The convention can put up videos and can be
accessed
at http://videos.orissasociety.org
These capabilities are already available.
Capabilities for the convention time:
5) As for the directory information of OSA Members and
non-members, we can provide an excel spread-sheet from the DOLA system
that
has the up-to-date info as available to us.
6) During the convention time, we will provide an interface for
the convention officials to register new members and enter their data
directly the the consolidated, central database -- reducing mistakes,
manual work, etc."
Priyadarsan Patra
OSA
======Extension of the OSA Membership promotion
Jan 2, 08
Dear All,
The OSA Executives have extended the deadline for the Membership
promotion of reduced fees to March 31st, 2008. Please circulate among
your friends.
Priyadarsan Patra
=========Orissa Non-profits and public-benefit/interest organizations
Dec 30, 2007
Dear All:
As I had indicated earlier, I was working on a system to create a
repository and allow access to links to all Orissa-related
public-interest/non-profit organizations our members are interested
in. Now this subsystem is alive. Any OSA member can login at
http://www.orissasociety.org/W/ with their usual OSA username/password.
Then browse existing links and/or click on "insert" to provide
information for an appropriate organization/webpage as a new record.
I have "inserted" an example record for you to follow.
Happy new year.
Priyadarsan Patra
Secy., OSA
=========== Pravasi Prativa Samman Award nomination & endorsement
Dec 5, 2007
Dear All:
We
have recently received multiple requests to recommend nominations to
this award being given by the NROFC at the Prabasi Diwas. The OSA
executives have decided to send all worthy nominations they receive,
after minimal scrutiny, to the NROFC president for their own selection
process. So, if we receive any nomination for endorsement by Dec 10th,
we will consider it for our endorsement -- but we will not rank or
judge very deeply as we don't have any resources for that; we are
simply asking all the execs to stretch themselves and help do a quick
endorsement determination following the requests from some potential
nominators and the NROFC. Please send your nomination to the
president@... and secretary@... and follow up with phone conversation
with the president. [I am leaving for overseas in a few minutes, so
won't be able to speak to you, unfortunately.]
Priyadarsan Patra
Secretary, OSA
p.s. Please address all the NROFC guidelines (nrofc.org) below in your nomination.
********
==========Annoucement of project DOLA to all including non-members of OSA
Nov 20, 2007
Please disseminate the following announcement widely.
----------------------------------------
Hereby I am reaching out to the non-resident Orissans who are away from
India and at one time or another have shown, or potentially have,
interest in the The Orissa Society of the Americas (OSA). As the
Secretary of OSA (www.orissasociety.org),
it is my pleasure to inform you that I have started formulating a
project called “Directory of Odiyas Living Abroad (DOLA)” under the
auspices of OSA.
DOLA is meant to gather, archive, and judiciously
share non-private directory information among people of Orissa origin
or interest, irrespective of their color, creed, gender or religion.
Even those who do not speak Odiya but have a love for or special
connection to Orissa, its land or culture or ethos are within its
scope. You need not even be members of the Orissa Society of the
Americas (however much we would like to have you as a member of OSA).
Several
members and officials, past or present, of OSA have helped in providing
data/whereabouts of many of you, so I can get a head-start building the
project. I am trying to put together a safe, secure and convenient
system backed up by the resilience and automation of a database and
user-interface to bring the project to life.
DOLA is restricted to
those who register into the system, thus an authentication mechanism
and judicious listing of information will enable you to locate and
connect with other Orissa people in case of need or mutual interest.
It’s living because it will allow you to keep your information current
and dynamic, and the membership in DOLA ever expanding. It also of
course has the potential of being an enabling infrastructure for
numerous other important issues of present or future .How many times
have you wished you knew another friend or another Orissan when you
visit a new place! All information is meant to be within OSA and DOLA
framework but not for sale. It is planned such that a person/family can
enter a new record of self in to the system, and even delete own record
from the living database. They can update their own information as and
when needed through an authenticated login process, etc.
This is an
absolutely free service but DOLA members may donate to defray costs of
this project. As I have stated, you do not need to be a member of OSA,
but do visit the Membership area of www.orissasociety.org
to find out the benefits you will receive, and the causes and
aspirations you will support through your membership in OSA. If you do
ever want to become a member of OSA, please send an email to our
treasurer Mr. Dasverma at treasurer@... or visit the special, temporary promotion (discount and raffles) currently underway at http://orissasociety.org/ .
In
the next few days, I will send you a username and randomly generated
password for yourself along with instructions to access the system
being built. You will be able to register yourself and browse others.
We have catalogued about 1800 persons/families. However, we don’t have
emails of many of them. You may ask your Orissan friends to register
themselves by using “anonymous” as username and “guest” as password.
Only for those whose email we have, I will assign a username/password
so you don’t have to reenter that information or new record into the
database. In the meanwhile, don’t hesitate to visit www.orissasociety.org or ask any of our volunteer officials a question or two that you may have.
Best Regards,
Priyadarsan Patra
====== Nov 15, 07
Friends,
There is so much to do and that can be done, and yet so little time!
1. Those of you who are very serious about a matter and willing to bet
your you-know-what, please don't hesitate to offer your advice or seek
advice, offer your help or get help from me or the others at OSA. If
you are confused or mis-informed, don't stay so -- just call one of us
to chat about it.
Personally, no matter how much blood and sweat, I won't be able to
catch up with or reply to all the mails/postings all of you can
generate. Certainly not when we live a life, not to mention hold a
job. If some thing is very dear and important to you and you think is
within the possible powers of me or Pratap bhai or whoever, just take
time to make an appointment and chat about it by phone or f2f. I may
not get to repeat this, so friends, keep this in mind. My/Our time,
integrity, intellectual abilities, and strength in face of challenges
are the most precious things we can offer.
More mundane stuff:
2. I have implemented an idea for registering members' preference
about the OSA Souvenir. We will collect the preferences over the next
month and then use this data to drive decisions about the publication
modes, costs, sizes, "preorder" deadline, etc. through a small
subcommittee of people. You can update your record online with your
preference.
3. I have already instituted a couple of suggestions/tweaks about the
current database interface that came along with huge, appreciative
mails from the membership. I won't be able to answer each one of you
individually, however -- and I am sure you would understand.
Priyadarsan==============A new database, auntication and automated address systems
Nov 14, 07
Dear All,
I have been pouring many hours day and night to collect the excel
membership data from the earlier executives and turning it into a
full-fledged database. This has a number of fundamental advantages
including removal of redundancies, minimization of errors, automated
user-driven correction of data/address, authentication, customized
membership benefits, tiered services, polls, and much more. This is an
enabler for many planned or new initiatives as well.
After the database conversion came the hard part to create an
user-interface and the management system. Throw into it security and
authentication. I think the weeks of work is starting to pay off and
I am on the verge of providing each of you, whose email address is
recorded with OSA, a random password each so you can log into
www.orissasociety.org .
Once you receive your password and username from me by email in the
next couple of days, first thing you need to do is correct any errors
or incompletes on your data.
You click on the Member_Area->login button on left panel of the OSA
homepage, and then enter your data to sign in. Then it gives you a
window showing "MyOwnRecord". On the left side you will find an
"edit/update" icon and a "details" icon. You click the former and
submit the ensuing form to update information on you. You will slowly
or fast learn the several features of the system embodied there. I am
not describing many of those including the ability to search and
browse on all members of OSA which hides their private information. I
have allowed others to see one phone number and rough location of the
other members only. If we hear much complain we may turnoff the phone
display, but I don't anticipate that. We are like a huge big family
and this is available only to the authenticated members.
Finally, I do need to do work for my employer and family ;)
(1) I invite volunteers among you to further stress-test the system
and (2) maintain the system for coming years, (3) and spread the word
for those friends whose email is not with us to send their valid email
to Ashutosh or Sandip babu (VP & Treasurer).
Thanks,
Priyadarsan Patra
============== Nov 1, 2007
Dear OSA Members:
I would like to bring you an
update of our one month in office. While the transition activities
started in the second week of October - we are still in a process of
being fully functional. We are trying to achieve our goals by
discussing and communicating with you, the members.
Here are some of our accomplishments:
0. We had 6 new executive meetings and
two meetings with the outgoing executives. Numerous communications and
exchanges inter- and intra- executive teams, and the collection of
available documents followed. A few final transactions are being
completed.
1. a. We have established the (electronic) BOG Forum called "OSAForYou".
b. OSANet guidelines were
reviewed, finanlized and approved by BOG. Five Moderators i.e., Gagan
Panigrahi, Mahendra Kar, Purna Mishra, Jogesh Panda, and Ashutosh Dutta
have been appointed to administer the OSANet. Ashutosh Dutta, Vice
President of OSA will be replaced by a new moderator shortly.
2. OSA has opened a checking account
in Bank of America at Richland, WA with a view of keeping the OSA
funds(checking) in a national bank like Bank of America to continue the
accountability in future where the location will be transferred when
OSA elects a new treasurer. This will bring more transparency,
accountability and continuity of financial transactions.
3. Two accounts have been opened at CountryWide Bank or OSA fixed deposits of $85,000 for higher yield in interests.
4. OSA Website
Orissasociety.org
has been updated. Priyadarsan Patra, Secretary has picked up the
responsibilities from Santanu Das. Priyadarsan has updated a lot of
information content and pages and still continues to work on a few
powerful, new features/ideas.
5. OSA has appointed Sujit Mohanty of
New Jersey as the Legal Counsel to OSA. Mr. Mohanty will be rendering
his services at no cost to OSA. In case of additional counsels needed,
I will appoint more legal counsel to protect and preserve OSA.
6. OSA has decided to continue with Sikhanda Satpathy as the Chief of
OSA Editorial Board representing in the BOG. Other two editors are:
Soubhagya Laxmi Mohapatra of www.worldorissa.Com as Joint - Editor and
Payal Patnaik, Johns Hopkins University as the Joint - Editor(Youth).
7. OSA is still in pursuit to resolve
the incorporation issues with IRS and resolve all other incorporations
with the same name in the past. OSA is trying to form an organization
with a single Employer Identification Number(EIN) by cancelling any
other EIN numbers under names similar to "The Orissa Society of the Americas."
8. OSA has started the Chapter
verification process. Most of the chapters have been contacted so that
we can establish the chain of communication between the OSA executives
and the chapters heads. We have not yet received responses from four
chapters i.e., Ohio, Minneapolis, Maryland-Virginia, and North
Carolina.
10. President of OSA met an Indian
Parliament Delegation team i.e., Vaijyant(BJ) Panda, MP(Rajya Sabha),
and Dharmendra Pradhan MP(Lok Sabha) on October 14-16 at Washington DC
about Orissa development issues. OSA is exploring setting a Orissa
Watch Group in Delhi. BJ Panda, a life OSA member has agreed to take
the lead in Delhi and Orissa for facilitating OSA point-of-view. The
entire executive had a meeting over phone with MP Pradhan one evening
to discuss Government perspective on two Central Universities(KBK and
Ravenshaw), IIT and "Railways for KBK" issues.
11. A budget for the fiscal year 2008 is under preparation.
12. A working resolution: Any single check written for amount
above $1000 will require both the Treasurer's and the Secretary's
signatures.
Considering the past shortcomings, the OSA Executives have decided to further enhance the OSA operations in the following ways.
Various needed tasks have been identified; we have decided to empower
our interested and skilled members who can volunteer their time,
skills, and efforts to be a leader. Committees will be formed and asked
to analyze relevant problems and recommend solutions. Committee
deadlines will be established to be effective and for us to be ready
for any subsequent telecon or face-to-face meetings in next 4-6 months.
Committees being planned are as follows:
1. Financial Transparency -
Book-keeping, Auditing & Reporting Setting OSA status and removing
any duplicate or incorrect IRS registrations by chapters, etc.
OSA donation criteria and standards
2. Revising
Constitution/bylaws/Amendments to accommodate new recommendations of
various committees and new motions approved by general body
3. Grievances Resolution /Appointment of Ombudsman
4. Re-validation of OSA Chapters -
Responsibility, fiscal reporting, New Chapters, "Most Progressive OSA
Chapter Award" for outreaching community
5. Membership Drive & Benefits
Committee - Promote new members & Benefit such as discount in
airlines, insurance, credit cards, travel etc
6. OSA Business Development &
Corporate Sponsorships - Explore Business to sponsor OSA events/ How
OSA can bring business opportunities to sponsors.
7. Orissa Watch - Orissa Development Projects - Guidelines & Actions
8. Archiving OSA - Effort to put all
OSA documents into a PDF file in a server. All important documents,
journal, news letters and written information.
9. Publication of OSA Directory/OSA
Magazines/Convention Souvenir-- establishing a permanent OSA Directory
unit, exploring electronic OSA magazine; cost effective & alternate
publication, alternate economical mailing
10. Setting up a Convention Planning
Advisory Committee -An advisory committee to recommend OSA about
convention planning, guidelines on roles & responsibilities of OSA
and hosting chapter, Guests, cultural programs, meetings, sponsors,
future locations, frequency of the convention, possibility of
privatization, convention fees, awards, selection committees etc.
11. Feasibility and Implementation of Outreach Programs: Reaching out to
a. Senior Members - 1/3 of OSA members retired or are on verge of retirement
b. Women Members - Women's issues gaining importance
c. Youth - Community interest in Summer Camps for learning Oriya literature, art, music, dance Fun-n-learn programs
12. New Cultural Programs: Five
cultural events to be held at different locations/regions with a
co-sponsorship of a local chapters & interested sponsors.
a. OSA Sahitya Sammelan - A weekend at a particular location by inviting distinguished Oriya writer/poet
- discussions / poetry reading
- book exhibition by Oriya authors abroad
- Oriya Book sales
- Writing workshop
b. OSA Regional Drama Competition - A weekend at a particular location inter-chapter/City(where chapters farther apart like Western USA) regional drama competition
c. OSA
Film Festival - A weekend at a particular location a Film Festival
(Award winning Oriya films & American Films/documentaries by
foreign-based Oriyas). Directors, writers, actors, will be invited.
Oriya TV Network
d. OSA
Talent Show - A weekend at a particular place - a talent Show for young
Oriyas singing, dancing, playing instruments, (classical & Pop),
Speaking and writing Oriya language Art/picture/graphics/handicrafts
Scientific Talent/Projects Idea show, fashion show
e. OSA Regional Cricket Match - A weekend of one 20-20 or one day cricket match among OSA Oriya teams.
I know we don't want to stop here. We have to go beyond. This is a draft list subject to some change or revision. But to make any of the ideas WORK, we need motivated volunteers. If you find your passion in any of the projects, please jump in to volunteer and
join the team. Or if you can recommend someone's name, please do so.
But if you think it's not possible, then please give us a chance to
make it possible. How could we quit without trying to make OSA way
better ?
We need volunteers, especially from the younger generation, for helping with various community and leadership tasks including OSA's organizational tasks!
In near future, I will be announcing
the names of people to form the committees and the general scopes &
deadlines of the tasks to be performed.
Pratap Das, President
On behalf of all the four Executives