Report on General Body Meeting Feb 20th 2020

Dear Friends

First, let us thank you for your enthusiastic attendance on Thursday for the General Body Meeting of ISA for Nowrooz Gala planning and preparation. Here is the report of the meeting for your consideration.

Location: 129A HUB-Robeson Center
Time: Thursday, Feb 20th, 2020 6 PM
Attendance: Approximately 70 people

1. The meeting started with the introduction of the new board to members by the Vice President I, Mehdi, and our appreciation for community collaboration.
2. Then, a brief on the last two General Body Meetings, the last three Board Meetings, and UPAC Funding negotiations have been reported by our President, Kamyar, to the community.
UPAC had sent us a resubmission request almost a month before new board of ISA officers were elected, and unfortunately, the person responsible was not responsive to these notifications. Due to this long delay, our funding application was almost canceled by UPAC. Considering the huge effort the new ISA officers made within a week after re-election, we were able to resubmit the funding request and save our Nowruz gala celebration event. The proposed Agenda for the Nowrooz Gala event was also discussed.
3. After Answering the Questions from the community on the details of the program, (some of them are covered at the end of this report), and the introduction of roles needed for conduction of the event, community people volunteered for collaboration. You can find the volunteers (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bJtAbabhmV8I8acNA7o8bLtiu5A7pD1s3eLL8NWe_jM/edit?usp=sharing) and if interested in collaboration, let us know via email to psu.isa@gmail.com or contact the officer in charge of the tasks.
4. In the end, suggestions for a better event were collected from the community to e discussed in the next Board Meeting.
Some of the Questions and Suggestions are followed:
Q. Why the event will be held on Saturday, not the actual time of Nowrooz on Thursday. A: As we need to hold it on Weekend and people prefer to be in their places at the Nowrooz, contacting their relatives living overseas.
Q. Why don’t we have a singer in this event? A: Due to the changes in ISA Board, lack of time for amending the UPAC Fund application request and emphasizing the cultural aspect of Nowrooz in 25th-year od celebrating this event in State College, the concert is postponed for another event in May.
Suggestions:
a. Decreasing the amount of food waste by decreasing the dishes that were not completely eaten last year.
b. Adding a childcare program to the event, at least by giving them gifts from Haji Firooz to let them enjoy the event as well as their parents.
c. Adding a competition to the event for more fun!
d. Changing the time of dinner (earlier than the past)
e. Adding a cleaning time to the schedule after serving the dinner
f. Sending an email to Iranian alumni of Penn State for fundraising (Please let us know your close friends graduated recently in order to contact via email or contact to Khashayar)

In the end, we want to appreciate your support and collaboration again.
Hope to have a great event and a greater new year,

ISA Board

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