Meher Lanka along with Sudhakar Borra, Anand Akkineni and many respectable Past Presidents, Past Executive Committee Members, Emory University Donors, Sponsors & Senior TAMA Life Members
with your unfailing support. 12 November, 2013
th
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. Executive Summary ......................................................................................... 2 Rebuttal to TAMA Newsletter.......................................................................... 3 TAMA Newsletter .............................................................................................. 7 Minutes of the Meeting held on 16 th October, 2013 ..................................... 9 Anand Akkineni on 23 rd Oct., 2013 ............................................................... 12 Meher Lanka on 31st Oct., 2013 .................................................................... 13 Sudhakar Borra on 31 Oct., 2013 ................................................................. 17 Chand Akkineni on Amendments, 31st Oct., 2013 ..................................... 19 Minutes of the Meeting held on 20 th October, 2013 ................................... 20 Dr. Tekmal Rajeshwar Rao on 5 th Nov., 2013 ............................................. 23 Dr. Krishna Mohan on 5th Nov., 2013 ........................................................... 24 Gopalakrishna Paruchuri on 6 th Nov., 2013 ................................................ 25 Sheela Lingam on 6th Nov., 2013 .................................................................. 26 Sudhakar Borra on 6th Nov., 2013 ................................................................ 27 Maitreyi Gangaraju on 9th Nov., 2013 ........................................................... 28 Minutes of the Meeting held on 10th Nov., 2013 ........................................ 29 Dr. Raju Vanapalli on 10th Nov., 2013 ......................................................... 30 Ram Gangaraju on 11th Nov., 2013 ............................................................. 31 Gopi Koganti on 11th Nov., 2013.................................................................. 34 Chand Akkineni on 11 th Nov., 2013 .............................................................. 35 Dr. Sujatha Reddy on 13 th Nov., 2013 .......................................................... 36 Sobhan Babu Atluri on 15 th Nov., 2013 ....................................................... 37 Epilogue ........................................................................................................... 38
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1. Executive Summary
Dear friends and fellow TAMA Members, In response to the embellished truth allegations, please read the real story. They want to leave a legacy behind and have their eyes on the TAMA Cash Deposits. To take no more than a minute of your attention, we prepared an Executive Summary. The authors and supporters of the Spam Newsletter you received are self-serving members of the TAMA Board and TAMA Executive Committee and TAMA They want to create a new Tier of TAMA Leadership Board of Trustees - to gain control of TAMA funds They want to create a legacy for the future by buying a foreclosed property for an official building for TAMA and using funds from CDs saved and protected for over 15 years by 33 past Presidents We blew the whistle and you saw the first step of their wrath Even The Truth stated in the newsletter is riddled with falsified facts They have blatantly misused their authority to use TAMA mailing lists for personal attacks on whistle blowers We look forward to your continued support to SAVE TAMA from unscrupulous, selfserving leaders Thank you!
Meher Lanka along with Sudhakar Borra, Anand Akkineni and many respectable Past Presidents, Past Executive Committee Members, Emory University Donors, Sponsors & Senior TAMA Life Members.
We now would like to urge you to please read the rest of the document as you find time, to get a clear insight into the grandiose plans.
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person meetings. No conference calling numbers were shared deliberately, to eliminate participation. Meeting dates and times were selected to have schedule conflicts with other published Board/ HTA Trustee meetings. No minutes shared/ published on web site. To say the least, it was utter chaos and unprofessional. There is no formal count of how many such meetings were ever held. It is completely unreasonable to expect anyone doing a real job to attend these meetings. This is a not-for-profit organization, and does not require so many meetings. People just hang around and waste everyones time. What can be accomplished in a 10 minute phone call becomes an in-person meeting and takes 4 hours. 3. Some of the ridiculous comments are real cheap shots. Well ignore them for the moment, so as to stay focused. Truth Section: 1. Need for the Building:
a. b.
Mana Badi agree, this is in progress and beneficial to the community. Sahiti Sadassu agree, this is in progress, but we held just one this past year, and if you did not attend the event, the venue was NOT the TAMA office building. Business Networking Seminars I was a key member of this Committee. Six meetings were organized. Only one seminar was held at the TAMA office. We had to use other facilities including Public Libraries, and restaurants. Library - Except for books received from a handful of donors, books from most donors were discards. None have been catalogued, not a single book has been lent, and no one has cared. Clinic Great cause, but it closed about 3-4 months after opening! There has been no activity since August 2012. And no one even cared to inform you that it was closed. Even in this message they are withholding information and are not telling anyone about the closure. Similar activities What similar activities are planned is known only to a few, and is your best guess. The space was also used by one Board of Director to hold periodic meetings of an organization he leads which is not a part of TAMA. TAMA should have charged them for such use. This is misuse of authority and causing a financial loss to TAMA such variances should have had prior GBM approval. Revenues to be generated by renting a hall for smaller personal events like birthdays, educational academies, etc., a very primitive and fluid stage is like a kid telling us, and promising a great financial future by renting space, you decide.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
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h. i.
When the idea takes a shape and is documented, we will share it with community and hold a workshop We need to see when this will occur. Brainstorming Fund Raising Ideas From the attached message exchanges it is clear that the intellectuals have decided their game plan, and are stalling by saying that they are still brainstorming. They have done this for months, pretend to hear opinions but go their own way. TAMA leased office space (May 2012), has benefited : Please share the planned vs realized cost benefits to date. TAMA has raised around $150,000.00 pledges in June 2013, within three weeks' time Every respectable and knowledgeable TAMA member knows far too well to be hoodwinked by this statement. A pledge has less than a 20% realization. What is the actual amount we received is still not published. More such events will be held to raise more funds Enough! We have collectively raised hundreds of thousands of $, and each event has become nothing but a self-aggrandization and self-promotional event. Do we need to fund and support more of these?
j. k.
l.
In Summary Section:
1. 2.
No decisions have been taken: This is true, as we put them on check by blowing the whistle! No information has been withheld or concealed: Not true. You have seen above examples where information has been withheld. Meeting minutes were never shared published for years. Did you see any minutes posted on the TAMA web site? Self-serving Board Members, 'Truth: Not true. You would be so glad we blew the whistle and included you in our communications. Intent of misusing positions, funds or responsibilities assigned to us: Request you to please read on and, decide. At a 3 hour meeting on 11/10/2013, it was demanded that I apologize for my communication to the community and send a retraction. On emphasizing that everything articulated in the message was true to the best of my knowledge and on declining to retract my message, the newsletter was what you received. You will clearly realize and note, this is a blatant misuse of authority by the TAMA President, TAMA Treasurer, TAMA Board Secretary and TAMA Board Chairman, and others aspiring to become Treasurer and other key positions within newly (and yet to be) formed TAMA group the Board of Trustees, to collude to use the email media for personal attacks on individuals.
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3. 4.
Additional facts:
2.
3.
Audit of previous years financials are planned to be given to an external auditor, at a cost. My volunteering and offer to help review for one year, to save costs, was not agreed to. There is a move to create legislation by means of bylaws to censor communications by TAMA EC and Board members, to the outside world about meetings proceedings. That we are a non-profit cultural organization is long forgotten. It is our right to receive the meeting minutes in a timely manner. The recent meeting invitations sent, stated, Open to all, but was sent only to a select few. They were termed by the Chairperson, on 11/10/2013, as their well-wishers. If you were not invited to any of these meetings, you are not their well-wisher! Surprised?
FACTS VS FICTION:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Financial Audits were never performed nor published on the web site for the years 2011, 2012 and we have to watch out for 2013. The much publicized and less used TAMA Clinic has remained closed since August 2012 - for over 14 months! One Board Member used the TAMA facilities for holding his own organizations meetings There is no business case to have a TAMA office just for Mana Badi, it can be held anywhere. There is no urgent and compelling need to have a TAMA office as urgently as expressed.
You now probably have enough information to imagine and decide for yourselves, regarding their intent of misusing positions, funds or responsibilities. Thanking you once again for your time, Yours Sincerely, Meher Lanka along with Sudhakar Borra, Anand Akkineni and many of the respectable Past Presidents, Past Executive Committee Members, Emory University Donors, Sponsors & Senior TAMA Life Members.
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3. TAMA Newsletter
From: Telugu Association of Metro Atlanta (TAMA) [mailto:info@tama.org] Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2013 12:47 PM To: meher_lanka@hotmail.com; meher_lanka@hotmail.com Subject: Clarification regarding false information spread by a few disgruntled Directors of TAMA Greetings Board of Directors and Executive Committee of TAMA would like to alert Telugu Community about recent email messages initiated by three Directors of the Board Anand Akkineni, Meher Lanka and Sudhakar Borra. The message in these emails does not contain facts and truth. Some information was withheld in these emails while some other information, not known to TAMA Board and EC, has been added. These three directors have attended very few meetings. They do not read the agenda fully nor comprehend the minutes of the meetings in good faith. They end up making their own opinions in isolation. These days, it is very unfortunate that anyone who knows typing can write whatever he or she 'imagines'. The Truth: TAMA Officers have initiated a discussion about having its own office building to facilitate regular events like Mana Badi, Sahiti Sadassu, Business Networking Seminars, etc., run a Library, Clinic and use it for similar activities. Revenues to be generated by renting a hall for smaller personal events like birthdays, educational academies, etc.. This idea is in a very primitive and fluid stage. When the idea takes a shape and is documented, we will share it with community and hold a workshop. Ideas to raise funds are being brainstormed. Please stay tuned for further information via Newsletters like this. As you already know, TAMA has leased an office space in Alpharetta during May 2012. Since then we have benefited a lot from its use. Also you will be glad to know that, during June, this year, TAMA has raised around $150,000.00 pledges in a record three weeks' time towards Long Term Projects including having a possible building. More such events will be held to raise more funds.
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In Summary: No decisions have been taken nor any information has been withheld or concealed. We have minutes of all Board meetings and will be published on TAMA website shortly. If you have received any email or have been given any information, which is different from the above 'The Truth', we request you to ignore such misinformation. We have no intention of misusing positions, funds or responsibilities assigned to us. TAMA Board of Directors and Executive Committee If you have any questions, please write to chairman@tama.org and president@tama.org. Thank you for your time. Forward this email This email was sent to meher_lanka@hotmail.com by info@tama.org | Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe | Privacy Policy. Telugu Association of Metro Atlanta (TAMA) | 5490 McGinnis Ferry Rd Ste 217 | Alpharetta | GA | 30005
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* The BOT structure will have their own Chairman/Secretary/Treasurer for a termduration who will be elected among it's trustee members. The BOD Chairman & and EC President could be part of the BOT and attend their meetings as well. * There was a discussion on what the fulfillment amount should be? - There were several cases made by Goutham Gurram to set this amount as $5,000/- in order to gather more people. At the same time there were several members who made the case to set this amount as $10,000/* Lavu/Mahesh explained that there are already ~16 people who have committed to $5,000/- towards TLTP during the Keeravani concert time and having this amount set as $5,000/- will automatically mean that all these folks are now members of the BOT without any further donations. * On the other hand, if this amount were to set as $10,000/-, these folks could be approached for upgrading to the BOT-level which many of them would be more than happy to do so. I believe at the end of this discussion, a lot more folks were leaning towards the $10.000/- amount as it made more sense due to the above reasons. * There was another discussion point about the duration that can be giving for folks to complete this pledge amount - Several suggestions were received to set this duration between 2-5 years with many of the members leaning towards 5 years. * A couple of members present in this meeting (namely Sudhakar Vallurpalli & Devanand Kondur) have pledged to become BOT members if they were given a 5-year pledge period, which is a very positive sign. * A suggestion was given that there was should an "Honorary Trustee" position created an offered to a distinguished TAMA life-member to serve on the BOT for either a oneyear or a two-year term. This will give a good impression about inclusion of the TAMA members also in this body along with their constructive ideas. * The other discussion point was the process to utilize the funds in the TAMA CDs towards the purchase/down-payment for the TAMA building. Ram read the passage from the TAMA by-laws describing the same - Even though the by-laws doesn't explicitly mention that such usage would need GBM approval, a general consensus was given that we should propose this in the GBM and get the approval to avoid any future issues. * Also, since the time-line of the CDs usage is subject to a lot of other dependencies being completed first: formation of the BOT, budgeting, planning, scouting and then finally buying the TAMA building property - It was suggested that the GBM proposal would be a blanket one stating that the "BOT can utilize the funds in the CDs when the time goes towards purchasing the TAMA building". This will then avoid having to go to another GBM in case everything is ready to go sometime early/mid next year. * The CDs currently hold 200K and the TLTP pledges for this 2013/2014 are around 100K which brings the total seed-money to ~300K. The rest of the monies will have to be
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raised by another fund-raiser next year or by soliciting interest-free loans from the community or through a bank loan. * The next item for discussion was the creation of a new "Treasurer" position in the "Board of Directors" (BOD) structure to handle all the financial/auditing functions that are currently shouldered on the Board. Everyone agreed that this was a good idea. * A new topic has been raised by a few attendees to create a post called "President (Elect)" in-place of the existing "Vice-President" position in the "Executive Committee" structure. This means that there could be an election for the "President (Elect)" position but once they are elected they can move on to serve as the "President" the next year without going through the election process. * This will ensure the continuity of the position for two-years plus also give an opportunity for the PE to learn the job under the President for a year. * The criteria for running for the PE position has been suggested as having served previously as an officer in either EC and/or Board for a period of 2 years during the lifetime of that individual. This will ensure that the person contesting for the PE position has TAMA's interest in mind and also has done a little of ground-work for TAMA before trying to become the President. * Creation of the PE position would then eliminate the election for the President position. The idea of converting the VP into PE also has been received positively by all the attendees. Thanks, Ram Maddi TAMA - Board Secretary.
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that was also shrouded in secrecy. Even all the Board members nor all EC members were informed about this in advance which is a violation of professional conduct. I would encourage us to form an exploratory committee, not trustees, to come up with the a formal discussion, decision and present them for adoption. That should then be sent to all TAMA members for discussing at the GBM. If you have not already considered this, it might be a good idea, to have an informal meeting with wider audience at the TAMA Diwali day celebrations. 2. Changes: The unpublished, proposed changes to the bylaws, are also a serious problem, as they raise many questions on the reasons for secrecy. Viju Chiluveru should therefore share the proposed amendments (even draft versions if possible) at the earliest and not rush TAMA members through the revised set of bylaws, just a few minutes before a decision. We need to give time for everyone to review the proposed changes and opine. 3. Meetings: There were 2 meetings held one of 10/16 and the other on 10/20. Minutes were shared only for the meeting of the 16 th October, 2013, and not for the one held on 20th October, 2013. Request to please circulate the meeting minutes of the second meeting, and avoid any further delay. 4. Trusteeship: Certain aspects of this are quite unusual and abnormal. We collected moneys from donors for executing long term projects. How can we change that per our convenience to re-assign the collected moneys to meet another objective? People received plaques, and stood from one end to the other end of the stage, for donating magnanimously for long-term projects. Now they seem to get into a side deal and pay a marginal amount to stand once again on stage as Trustees! Taking credit twice for an amount donated for one purpose and then re-purpose that later to meet your convenience is absolutely wrong. As leaders we need to set an example in the correct way, not set a wrong example. For trustees, if the qualifying amount is $10,000 no one can become a Trustee till they complete donating the $10,000. One cannot use previously pledged moneys and re-purpose it for Trusteeship. If they begin donating $1 today, the moment the $10,00 is credited into the TAMA Bank account, that person cannot become a Trustee, not have any privileges whatsoever. Please check anywhere, and taking the example of our own laws of the land, no one gets to vote in here till you are 21. Our children that are not 21, cannot vote saying, they will be 21 someday in the future. And if this does not gel well, see any organization with Trustees. The Sri Sai Temple in Cumming, GA will not call one a Trustee till they have had paid the last dollar completely of the $10,000, within the stipulated time. So it is, with any other temple. I cite this example as some of you had quoted the HTA example, and therefore there is no legitimacy in saying that those who pledge and donate the amount will be Trustees from Day 1. Sorry, it defies all normal logic, and will not stand. If it was advertised previously itself that those who donate now would be considered for Trustees, then they would not have stood on stage and be the recipients of a plaque and
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accolades. Some more people would have donated for being Trustees, and some would not have donated at all. It is unfair to change the rules after the game has started. OR to change goal-posts after the ball has been kicked-off. Unfortunately, we cannot adjust and re-purpose donations retrospectively. If we decide to give credit retrospectively, those that donated money in 2013, should all also benefit by this proposal. If we had advertised earlier, money intended for TAMA Annual programs would have been diverted to long-term projects. While I appreciate the logic you have applied to create a third tier of TAMA management, it is not required. The goals stated in the message can be achieved without a single trustee. We can create a committee and be the donors of the moneys and ensure you apply the funds you raise to do whatever you desire to do. Despite all this, I still commend the person that came up with this idea of raising funds via Trustees. 5. Trustee Donations: How do we ensure that all the pledged money in the coming years will be collected is to be clearly stated. Who would be responsible to collect that? Even the past pledges for long term projects? 6. Role & Responsibilities: Many have raised a question What is it that the Trustees would achieve that the EC or Board cannot achieve? This is still unclear, nebulous and highly questionable. An answer through the TAMA website and newsletter is very appropriate. 7. Breaking Savings Funds: The TAMA savings laboriously built over three decades, supposedly $225k, cannot be touched by anybody such as the proposed Trustees, or the BOD that was created AFTER the EC was given full responsibility and accountability on the fiscal aspects of TAMA at the time of creation. Neither the Board nor the proposed Trustees can try to touch any moneys. Only the President can decide with the approval of the GBM. Seriously, in case these funds are broken into, the President, along with EC members & BOD stands exposed to litigation. A newly formed body as the proposed Trustees cannot usurp financial control of TAMA. What could and should be done is to raise funds, just as we just did (>$100k) and raise all the moneys required for the building project, and use only such newly raised funds for the building. Then no one would have any objection. There is no need to hurry and invest moneys in landed property that has a 50% probability or greater to end up being a liability to TAMA. We should slow down, and not rush in haste to achieve this unscrupulously. All said and done, some other Board members have also expressed certain opinions and especially said this move is not fair, breaking savings funds should include wider audience, and this is not a correct method/ process, but no one seems to care and respond. I think we should brave this and stand up to our principles and lead the community properly.
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It is easy to bust saved funds that took about 33 years to raise. That is an awesome, easy way to blow others hard work efforts. Let us man up and raise all the required funds to do whatever we desire to do, independently. Thank you for understanding and look forward to a positive approach to building a strong Telugu Community and executing all long term projects, and doing it the right way. Please keep up the good work. Side Note: TAMA Web Site: Our entire 2013 EC members are listed as being the EC for the year 2012. Please request the web master to correct this, within the next 2 months, and before the year runs out. The new EC will be coming in shortly, for 2014 and needs to be updated by 1st January 2014. Thanks, Meher Lanka TAMA Board of Director (2012-2013) 609.209.2222
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on items. We can decide and work remotely tooAnyway, I do not want to dwell on this issue. I am optimistic that this can be easily fixed. Lastly, I would like to comment on the topic President(Elect): Why do we need to create a new post called President(Elect) in-place of the existing Vice-President? I do not think, its a good idea to change the existing organizational structure of the Executive Committee. We need to keep the democratic process as is. If someone is interested in contesting for a President or any other position, let them do it. Its His or Her wish to run for a position. The people will decide whether to Elect them or NOT. Thank you all for your time.. Lets work as a team and move forward. Everyone! Have a Great Halloween evening!!! Sudhakar Borra TAMA Board of Director (2013-2014) 770-335-5728
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Attendees (13): Board of Directors (5): Srini Lavu, Ram Maddi, Viju Chiluveru, Mallik Medarametla, Sunil
Shavele
Executive Committee (8): Venkat Messala, Mahesh Pawar, Sandhya Yallapragada, Anil
Boddireddy, Murali Kakumani , Vinay Maddineni, Sandhya Yallapragada, Nagaraj Manthena.
* This ad-hoc committee will prepare a draft of all these topics and will submit them to the Board/EC members for their review/approval. The Board/EC members can then ask all the relevant questions arising from this draft document. Mallik has once again stressed that it is very important that the roles/responsibilities of the BOT body and it's members are clearly stated for more clarity now and also to avoid confusion in the future. * The other discussion topic was the creation of the new 'Treasurer' position in the Board of Directors (BOD). Several suggestions were given that the auditing scope of this position should be extended to the BOT accounts as well. Currently, the BOD is responsible for the audit of EC accounts. * As a side-note, Mallik has pointed out that we are extremely lagging with the auditing duties that the Board is obligated to complete each year. He mentioned that the 2011, 2012 and now 2013 audits are pending as of today and if we don't curtail this trend we might land ourselves into serious trouble pretty soon. It was also noted that if the new 'Treasurer' position is created in BOD, this should be a point-person for this very important duty and they will be the overall incharge to get this done each and every year. It was also suggested that we should look into taking external paid help for the auditing work to get us over this hump. * The next discussion topic was utilizing the CD accounts towards the building projects. Several opinions were expressed by the attendees ranging across the spectrum - Some said it was OK to utilize the funds whereas others said they were completely against the idea and they should be left there as-is for a rainy day. * Viju has suggested a compromise approach which is to leave enough reserves in the account (~$50K-$60K) and only let the remaining amounts to be used towards the building purchase. The exact amount for the reserves was discussed with various opinions but the general idea of always having a reserve amount in those accounts seems to have been well received. * Mallik has made it clear that he was completely opposed to using any of the funds from the CD accounts and said that alternate approaches need to be thought for getting new funds towards the building purchase. * Sandhya asked how we can involve the community in this entire process (CDs, BOT, etc.,) Lavu explained that these are just discussions here to make sure that the Board/EC members have a common understanding and an agreement on these topics after which these will have to presented in the GBM for all the TAMA members review & approval. He also asked if the next Board/EC could raise ~100K-150K within the next year, then we don't need to think about using the CD accounts at all. * There were also several suggestions to see if this should be in the form of a loan whereby BOT could use a certain pre-set amount of the money from the CD accounts (after factoring in the reserves) but they will have to re-pay that money back to the CD accounts dollar-for-dollar. There were several discussions on this topic as well but nothing has been concluded. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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These are the other topics which were proposed during the meeting but they could not be discussed due to lack of time. I'm listing them here ONLY for documentation purpose. The proposer would have to let me know if they would like to add these items to the agenda for the next meeting: 1. Creation of a 'Vice-Chairman' position in the Board of Directors (Proposed by Lavu).
2. Creation of a 'Past Chairman' position in the Board of Directors (Proposed by Viju).
3. Extending the term of the Executive Committee from 1 year to 2 years (Proposed by Anil). Thanks, Ram Maddi. TAMA - Board Secretary.
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Good to hear your opinion. I agree with you that building is a major liability. Tama will be better served renting for events, than building as maintenance will in itself will be difficult to manage. Once you have a building you will need employees taking care of the building. It will be difficult to generate income with these buildings. I thought I will express my opinion as a life member that has seen TAMA from its inception B.K.Mohan
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Subject: RE: Save "TAMA" Please read feed back Hello every one, I personally feel investing such huge amount on having a building is considered as dead investment gain nothing, instead TAMA should focus on helping many telugus around who need help in number of ways. Good luck Thanks Gopalkrishna Paruchuri
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1. Having a TAMA permanent office: I am all for it, if you can explain how you will raise 100% funds for it and collect it from the community. The existing funds nor CDs were collected or saved for this reason. This CD belongs to the hard efforts of the past 30+ presidents and the entire TAMA members/ community. Every past President must agree in case of breaking CD while following the proper procedures stated in the TAMA Bylaws. Also everyone must be involved, not just a few of the Board and EC members. 2. Trusteeship: What are the detailed roles and responsibilities of the newly proposed Trusteeship the Board and EC members do not have? We should dissolve the existing Board and create New Body called Trustees, collect 10K for Trusteeship and buy the TAMA office from such funds and for its maintenance Sheela R. Lingam 678-480-7982 rao_lingam@yahoo.com sheelarl@aol.com
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Dear Leaders, Members and Well wishers of TAMA, I am Mangaraju Vanapalli. I have been reading the views of all of you regarding the recently proposed changes of governance Especially the planning and privileges to handle finances . I am not one of the Past Presidents of TAMA. I was Secretary in 1984. I lobbied for life membership by first paying for it. Fortunately we have so many life members now. We used to collect money whenever we have to do some special function. During the time of Sri Akella, He was so thoughtful to start Activity fund. It worked well. Subsequently, thanks to the progress and our IT scientists arrival, the rising numbers made the difference. Their coming to Atlanta, as the saying goes,"Raising tide lifts all boats", all organizations were born and flourishing well. I sincerely thank all our young entrepreneurs whose commitment and participation put Atlanta as not only an important City for Indian activities in US but a landmark for Indian leaders in all spheres to visit. In spite of all that progress I still feel we are a young organization and cannot afford a major commitment like real estate. If a philanthropist donates land please accept and plan for better utilization. But not by breaking up CDs, the small nest egg. I also believe that TAMA as one Organization can do with one Treasurer than two. Creating more layers of governance will create conflict as we saw in national organizations. One EC elected by the members of TAMA is good enough if we all support them. If some leaders wish to change please do by referendum at the time of elections on the Ballot rather than GBM which is called at a time not suitable to attend even for interested members. Lastly, as an Orthopedic Surgeon, I believe in saying ," If ain't broke, don't fix it." Thanks for your time.
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2 attachments (total 235.5 KB) Screenshots from TAMA Web Site on 2011 & 2012 screen shots Respected TAMA Board and TAMA Executive Committee , I wish you all a Happy Diwali and hope the Diwali celebrations for this coming Saturday November 16th 2013 will be a grand success . I have been observing some e-mail exchanges w.r.t TAMA functionality, off late. Even though I am extremely busy with my work, I couldnt neglect this matter as it is related to Telugu (TAMA) community in Atlanta, wherein I am a proud life member. In order to resolve this situation, as a Responsible life member of TAMA ( from 2002), I would like to suggest some solutions (All my suggestions are as per TAMA Bylaws that are posted on the website). Here is how it goes; 1.) Running a Non-Profit Organization is a challenge. I appreciate that TAMA leadership understands this before taking up the responsibility. I equally recognize the fact you all leave your family time and dedicate for the good cause of the Telugu community. I respect that. However, it looks (Based on the e-mail exchanges) it is lacking these days. I hope you all take this with a positive mindset and try to embrace this as a constructive suggestion. 2.) As per the bylaws there is a HIGH DEGREE of expectation from TAMA Life Members and members that there needs to be accountability for the actions or decisions that you folks take in your leadership meetings . Any wrong decision will have a HUGE impact on the Telugu community that you serve. Because, you will always be under scrutiny or microscope for any deviations from By Laws. This is a BIG POINT of concern for me. 3.) As you guys are very well understand the fact that TAMA (Or Any Non-Profit Organization) is an asset or association of its members , NOT just a certain group of people. By considering this some of the discussions or meeting details are NOT posting to website or communicated to ALL MEMBERS of TAMA, there is a TANSPERANCY that we seek or expect. We have NOT seen any of these matters posted or communicated at all. THIS IS A BIG POINT OF CONCERN. Because, there were NO MEETING MINUTES for the year 2011, 2012 and 2013. Check the attached screen shot for the webpage.
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4.) I have spent some time on TAMA website, wherein I dont see any of the Financials 2013 (I believe you do it before end of November 2013) or Tax Returns for 2012. There are no links on this webpage. Check the attached for the Screen Shot.
5.) I would like to see the CDs (Reflecting the statement balance of $250,000+) and Bank account statements signed off by Corresponding Bank Manager as of this date (I mean THE latest, as of any day in this week before Friday). I hope that you will respond to these matters responsibly & positively, in the interest TAMA community in Metro Atlanta region.
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I would like to see the solution for the above mentioned matters on or before 11:59 pm November 15th 2013. Note: I Will NOT answer any calls of TAMA EC or BOARD MEMBERS. If you have to say anything, respond to this e-mail copying to ALL TAMA Fraternity. Thanks for your wonderful co-operation in advance. Regards RamGangaraju Proud Life Member or TAMA since 2002 NOTE: NO ONE EVEN CARED TO RESPOND TO THIS MESSAGE NOR PAID HEEDENACE TO THE REQUEST. WE HOPE TO SEE THE SOLUTIONFOR THESE MATTERS AT THE TAMA 2013 GBM ON 14TH DECEMBER.
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23. Epilogue
We have jointly received hundreds of calls in support of our upholding the TAMA principles and blowing the whistle on the misguided leadership. We have also received scores of emails stating that are puzzled as to why some are so very, short-sighted in their thoughts and going in this direction. We are truly humbled by this show of solidarity and support. Thank you all, very much. Your support is greatly appreciated.
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