HINDU TEMPLE (2016-2017) Priest Priest Priest Administration
Pandit Nagabhat Vidyashankar Pandit Damodara Bhattar Pandit Laxmikant (Amol) Kulkarni Chandrasekaran Karmegam
Chairperson Vice Chairperson Secretary Member (15 - 17)
President Vice President Secretary Asst. Secretary
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Muralidhar Chintapalli Deepa Kashyap Sundara Chokkara Gayathri Ram
Treasurer
Swarna Gopalakrishnan
Asst. Treasurer
Yashaswini Kuriyavur
Member (15 - 17)
Venkatesh Bettadapura Sathyanarayana Pavuluri Deva Kandel Smita Dash Raj Nataraj Sudhakar Ammanamanchi
Member (15 - 17) Member (15 - 17) Member (16 - 18) Member (16 - 18) Member (16 - 18) Past President & Nomination Chair.
Member (15 - 17) Member (15 - 17) Member (16 - 18) Member (16 - 18) Member (16 - 18) Past Chairperson Long Range Planning Special Advisor to the Board Fund Raising Fund Raising
Murali Deshpande COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSONS Phani Tej Adidam Pooja & Religious Srini Nedunoori Pooja & Religious Sayi Repakula Finance Vandana Singh Education Monica Education Deepa Kashyap Cultural Keerthi Ranjith Cultural Surendra Khandavalli Mahaprasad Kantharaj Etigi Mahaprasad Srinivas Mallipudi Facilities Tirumala Chengalasetty Facilities IT Kameshwar Rao Myneni Publication Nagendra Chaturvedi Social Hall Gowridhar Madhu Volunteer & Welcome Harish Volunteer & Welcome Nageshwarao Atota Temple Tours & Public Relation Vandana Singh Temple Tours & Public Relation Natasha Keshwani Vedantic Center of Nebraska
Phani Tej Adidam.
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BOARD OF TRUSTEES Sriram Ravipati Prem Bansal Asha Deshpande Srinivasa Malipudi Jayesh Thakker Bhavana Dave Sandeep Agrawal Sanjay Varma Gowridhar Madhu Shashi Bhatia Rakesh Singh Subhash Bhatia Alekha Dash Ram Bishu
Hindu Temple, Omaha Annual General Body Meeting 2016, Minutes of the Meeting Date: June 26th, 2016, 1:00 PM: Location: Hindu Temple, Omaha Meeting Called By: Chairwoman – Board of Trustees- Dr. Shashi Bhatia Type of Meeting: Annual General Body Meeting 2016 # Attended: 50 plus. Minutes of Meeting Taken & Drafted by: Incoming Secretary of the Board (2016-2017) - Smt. Asha Deshpande
AGENDA:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Prayer Approval of the Minutes of the Last AGBM-Smt. Deepa Kashyap Chairperson’s address-Dr. Shashi Bhatia President’s Report-Dr. Murali Deshpande Finance Report-Sri. Sayi Repakula Presentation and approval of the Slate for 2016-2017- Dr. Shailendra Saxena Vision and Strategic Planning- Dr. Sri RamaMurthy Ravipati Vote of Thanks- Sri. Muralidhar Chintapalli Meeting Adjournment- -Dr.Shashi Bhatia
CHAIRWOMAN’S ADDRESS
The Chairperson Dr. Shashi Bhatia called the meeting to order, and after a prayer by the Priests-(Pt. Damodar Bhattar and Pt. Laxmikant Kulkarni) she welcomed all the attendees consisting of the patrons, EC members, Board Members and Non-Patrons. She thanked everyone for giving her an opportunity to serve the Temple as the Chairperson. The Current Board had aligned and worked towards the 2020 vision of the temple plan which were : o 1. Promoting financial stability and security of the temple, through the tireless efforts of the Fund raising committee and generosity of the Patrons. o 2. Long Range Planning committee has been working with stakeholders to secure the Northside Property as part of temple expansion plan. o 3. Various steps have been taken to improve devotee satisfaction; 3rd priest was hired in February 2016. Since Dec 2015, a few committee 2
members are working with priests on quality of service, temple maintenance, temple communication with devotees and coordination of outside puja. This interaction with the priests will be on an ongoing basis. She also thanked the EC members, Board Members, Long Range Planning, Fund Raising committee and special thanks to Mrs. Deepa Kashyap. She hoped that the incoming team will further enhance the vision, mission and value of the temple.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT:
The President’s report was presented by Executive Committee PresidentDr. Murali Deshpande. He focused his update on 4 topics: Puja Activities, Finance, Facility and Space Shortage, and Temple Administration. From puja activities perspective, several new pujas were initiated during the year 2015-16 and were well received by the devotees. Community Sathyanarayana Puja conducted every month is the most popular among them. In order to improve devotee satisfaction and to fulfill an increasing need for private pujas and religious services, a third priest Pandit Laxmikanth (Amol) Kulkarni was hired in February 2016. Additionally, for the past several months, a regular meeting is being held with the priests and Dr. Shashi Bhatia, Sri V.T. Ramakrishnan, Dr. Shantharam Joshi, Sri Muralidhar Chintapalli and Murali Deshpande to discuss about improving the interaction between devotees and the temple staff, and to discuss steps to meet devotee expectations. Temple’s current finance condition is healthy. Thanks to the generous donations from temple patrons and devotees. The temple received a record cash inflow of about $600,000 in the year 2015. Due to increase in the number of devotees visiting the temple and due to increased social hall utilization by the temple, various communities and private events, temple is facing space shortage in social hall as well as parking. Temple needs to come up with alternate plans to address this problem. Additionally, the damaged parking lot and carpet in the social hall need to be taken care of urgently. Temple has grown beyond our imagination and continues to grow. We are all excited and happy about it. With growth also come challenges. It is difficult for the president or EC members to address all these challenges. There is an immediate need for a fulltime manager to take care of day-to-day activities such as puja scheduling, proper care and maintenance of temple properties (temple as well as employee housing) 3
etc. President requested the incoming board and EC to explore the possibility of hiring a manager. The president also expressed a deep concern about the poor attendance in the EC meetings especially by the elected representatives. The outgoing president thanked all chairs and members of all the committees in the EC, all members of the board of trustees, temple employees and all regional organizations. The president also thanked Sri V.T.Ramakrishnan, Sri Shantharam Joshi, Sri Alekha Dash, Sri Rakesh Singh and Sri Ram Bishu for their valuable advice, guidance and support throughout the year on various aspects of temple management. The president also thanked his wife Asha and daughter Anusha for their support and encouragement throughout the year. President finished his talk by wishing good luck to the incoming Executive Committee and the Board.
FINANCE REPORT:
The Treasurer –Sri. Sayi Repakula presented the financial report ending for the Fiscal Year May 31, 2016. The temple has about $356,000 in checking account. Smt. Prem Bansal felt that there is a need to align the financial Report with the Management Term Year. Sayi mentioned that this is something that can be addressed by the incoming committee. Sri. Repakula also presented a separate report on the history of Fund Raising that was prepared by Sri. V.T. Ramakrishnan. The Patrons asked a few questions about the progress in the acquisition of the Northside Property of the Temple as part of the expansion plan. Dr. Rakesh Singh- the chair of the Long Range Planning Committee provided an update. In the previous Board Meeting, the board had approved to raise the offer to $1.1 Million and the Owner of the Property asking about $1.4 Million. A new offer has been sent to the Property Owner and the temple is waiting for a response.
NOMINATION SLATE APPROVAL -2016-2017:
Dr. Shailendra Saxena presented the slate for 2016-2017 of Board of Trustees and Executive Committee for consideration by AGBM Patrons. The slate was approved unanimously.
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INCOMING CHAIRPERSON’S VISION:
Dr. Sriramamurthy Ravipati, the chairperson for 2016-2017, addressed the patrons and presented his goals for the upcoming year. He has set 3 short term goals: Further Enhancement of the Delivery of Service to the patrons, Fixing the Parking Lot at the earliest, Financial Independence; which in turn well aligns with the long term goals of the temple.
Vote of thanks speech was delivered by the incoming President- Sri. Muralidhar Chintapalli.
OTHER NOTABLE DISCUSSIONS:
The Incoming Vice-Chair – Smt. Prem Bansal wanted the members to consider two important aspects: o Revisit the Bylaws to increase the service term of Leadership team consisting of the President of the EC and Chair Person of the Board from 1 year to a longer Period, perhaps 2 years, so that they have a longer period to implement their strategies. o Converging the Quarterly Meetings of the Board of Trustees with the Executive Committee.
It was also mentioned by another long-time patron member-Dr. Subhash Bhatia to enable/provide facilities for the members to attend meeting virtually through Phone, Video Conferencing etc.
The Meeting was successfully adjourned at 2:30 PM by Dr. Shashi Bhatia.
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