LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK (TIP): At the Annual General Body Meeting of India Association of Long Island (IALI) on December 14, 2014, the association President Satnam Parhar laid down his vision of buying a small property for IALI Home / India Community Center to fulfill the cherished dream of most of the members and the past presidents. He emphasized that when we came to this country, we all started with a small house and upgraded from there to bigger and better luxury homes. Therefore starting small, which fits our budget in terms of price and its maintenance, is the way to go. Gobind Munjal, past president of IALI and Chairperson of IALI Home / India Community Center, who also joined Parhar, in his commitment to realize the dream for IALI during this year, gave a detailed power point presentation about the property, along with Prasad Kambhampathy (finance chair), and answered all the frequently asked questions about the property, which IALI is buying for its office and to have a permanent address, keep records, do small programs for the Indian Community; like Senior Forum, Sangeet Forum. Youth Forum, Yoga classes, Hindi classes for the children, English and computer classes for the seniors and adults.

This commercial property (92 East, Old Country Road) is ideally located on the main Old Country Road just east of Broadway (route 107) in Hicksville, which is the hub of the growing Indian Community in Long Island and is accessible by Rail Road and public transportation.

A few members expressed their opinions, both positive and negative, but it was mostly positive, except for a couple of people. The General Membership present at the IALI Annual General Body Meeting endorsed the decision of the Executive Council of buying the IALI Home with an overwhelming majority. The contract to buy this property has been signed and the closing is set to take place early next week. At the end of the presentation, Parhar and Munjal appealed to all members present for their generous donations towards the IALI Home.

Parhar stated that 2014 turned out to be a good year, despite the tragic and untimely death of his son Dr. Romeo. He thanked each and every member of the executive council for their co-operation, help and support, and hard work in making all the functions and programs quite successful during the year.

The Treasurer, Ms. Gunjan Rastogi presented accounts for the year. She said around $25,000 were added during the year by the current administration towards IALI Funds which stood at approximately$350,000, as of Nov 2014. She appealed and asked the members present to be generous in giving donations for IALI Home.

Election results were announced by the Election Committee Chair and past president of IALI, Dr. Bhavani Srinivasan. Following is the list of elected executive council members.

President – Satnam Parhar; Vice President – Bina Sabapathy; Secretary -Rekha Valliappan; Treasurer – Gunjan Rastogi.

Members-at-Large: Ajay Batra, Damayanti Goklani, Vimal Goyal, Jyoti Gupta, Rakesh “Pinki” Jaggi, Sushil Khanna, Veena Lamba, Mohinder Miglani

Over 200 members attended this meeting. Mrs. Anila Midha, past president of IALI was the Master of Ceremony (MC) .

The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks from the Secretary Ms. Rekha Valliappan.

INDIA ASSOCIATION OF LONG ISLAND (IALI) is one of the largest and oldest (37 years old) organization in the whole Tri State Area. It is a community based non-profit 501 (c) (3) entity, with a mission to promote, share and celebrate the culture of India. It has about 2,000 members.