if ANA is a registered nonprofit organization in the US, it is mandatory that they disclose their annual budget and expenditure. i dont know much about what ANA has been doing in the past with budget transparency policies, but i know that non profits will have a record of their budget on disclosure. like panditraj said, and like ANA has disclosed its 2005 annual budget report, the information has to be available to public. and once this information is out, anyone who is not satisfied or feels being cheated can file a claim. so let's wait for ANA to print out its report.

in fact, to the organizers of ANA convention: to start this thread already says clearly that some specific changes need to be made. i know it is all voluntary and takes a lot of effort, but if anyone in the Board feels burdened to do it, and Defends his stance of careless planning to voluntarism, i think he/she should quit and let someone else be on that place. that is why the question that E-Neka raises is very valid. ANA is a nepalese organization representing Nepalese all across the US, Why then, is a free and fair election not conducted in the convention or at a similar instance where more Nepalese will be able to choose someone who represents them. A leader selected from elections in ANA convention is yet not a complete representation of all nepalese across US, but it is a better representation than what you have now. If you declare there is going to be election, there will be contestants with their agendas, and there will be competition.That way we will have someone who has an agenda at hand, and if he/she doesn't bring an output, we will have the right to sack him/her. Isnt that fair enough?

financial transparency is important, and i hope you will bring that out sooner or later.

San - I haven't gotten a chance to say this before so here I go - thanks for the great work you have done over the years for Sajha.

To your point of a user changing his or her mind after posting, any thoughts on having an "edit" function that a user can use to edit a previous post? I have seen this on some other discussion forums and it is particularly useful if there have been typos and misspellings in your post ( I am sure it has other benefits too) . Just a suggestion.

Regards.

eNeka writes:

"I wonder whether Ashu is trying to pour his continued battled with some GBNCers who constantly criticize him since his GBNC days."


Since you brought this up, I think that a VERIFIABLY TRUE clarification is necessary.

I look back upon my GBNC days with great pride.
There are two parts to my GBNC career.

Part 1:

When I became GBNC president, that is, after taking over from Sanjay Manandhar, I spent a lot of time practically recruiting many of the team-members myself. The result was that we had a first rate team of Raju Pradhan, Sunil Shakya et al.

It was at that time, during my presidency, that GBNC FIRST started hosting momo parties, mailing out newsletters and GBNC phone directories and so forth.
Accounts were made clear and transparent too.

If you ask old-timers in Boston, and I am sure they'll be happy to support what I have said here. In fact, in Kathmandu these days, I still hang out with a number of Nepalis whom I first met as GBNC president in Boston.

*******
Part II

This happened when Rajesh Babu Shrestha was the president of GBNC.

I had had a jhagada with Shailesh Nath Gongal (SNG) over some non-GBNC matters. That jhagada could have been resolved by having a face-to-face conversation (my usual method for resolving misunderstandings and jhagada). In fact, I offered to meet Shailesh face to face and resolve it.

But in the hands of Shailesh Nath Gongal, that jhagada took a life of its own.

To his credit, he was able to:

a) recruit others to support him,
b) tell them his side of the story,
c) paint a picture of how he was wronged by me,
d) show me in the worst possible light, and then
e) and get a chorus of GBNC-wallahs to to bad-mouth me personally and publicly.

At that time, I was a bit down on my luck in my personal life; so I took the hit -- right
in my stomach, again and again. It was painful, but, then, I ended up experiencing
a rainbow of human emotions that I had only read about in fat Russin novels!!

Looking back, I think I NEEDED, for my own maturity, that particular experience at that time in my life . . .that experience of being backstabbed, attacked and publicly ridiculed . . . for the result has been that I have survived all that quite all right with a smile and with my head high, and have become much, much stronger in so many ways. I remain in touch with many of my Boston friends, and life has gone on quite well for me -- both personally and professionally.

Today, I harbor NO ill-feeling toward Shailesh Nath or toward GBNC. They did to me what they had to do, what they were capable of doing at the time. Sure, much of what they did was NOT right or fair.

But then, who says, "Life is fair?"
It isn't.
And I have learnt to live with that fact.

oohi
ashu

san jyu,
as always i always appreciate your hard work and u should get lot of kudos for that.
once again thank you for your side of story.

i meant no harm neither foul but am just trying to point to somethings that may be a better alternative for the forum as a whole. what say u?

One can always misuse the forum and its content for their personal benefit. This thread may be taken as a prime example.
This individual was not able to strike a deal with the organization and posts a version of it and forces an outcome. [one side of it]
may be there is some other side of story. [organization being at fault]

i do not think it is a right precedent to have something removed. Reason, author has to be accountable for what they write about.

[BANDUK bata chuteko goli ra mukh bata boleko boli firta lina mildaina]

One can APOLOGIZE in the forum and move on BUT just to take the whole thing back as NOTHING HAS HAPPENED is a REAL BAD PRECEDENT.

just my thots...
=========
but what do i know???

Well, it certainly is good to see this thread back again. It is indeed a privilege to have the opportunity to undo the act that one did, although the posters were matured, sane adults and posted the accusations and rebuttals in their capacity, perfectly understanding the nature and course it might take here in Sajha.

I guess, it is indeed the hallmark of sajha, where the moderator has been remarkably prompt in the request by the sajhaities. I assent with my fellow sajhaities that San deserves much kudos.

Regarding the editing option of already posted materials, we have to look at two side of the coin. At one hand, yes, we can edit and correct the misspelled words and other typos, but that would definitely take away certain spontaneity from the posting, and with it, a certain 'attraction'; so to speak. Many discussions and bantering follows a certain unplanned, on the spur of the moment equivocal postings, which actually keeps the 'masalas' alive, thus, before actually adding that function, we should really look at the pros and cons. MAYBE, too much flexibility, would cease to help keep the spontaneity factor, and also a poster can go and edit the entire piece at his whim. I guess unless the posting is largely personal and utterly disgusting; it should remain as posted. Of course we can request to take away our individual posting on our personal request to San, as he mentioned earlier.

Now, about the deleted contents; agreed that moderator had given this privilege to every Sajhaities to be able to request to remove their postings, never mind that those postings were relevant to many Nepalese. What concerns me is: would it not send a dangerous precedent for the future postings in the sense that a poster can request not only their postings to be removed, but also any other postings. I and Chatmandu had not requested to delete our posting, then to do so, on Chayaure ko dokan and ANA people's request is a little too much privilege for the sane adults who actually choose this medium to voice their displeasure. Those postings were not a personal attack, nor was it done in bad taste. Would it be a wise thing to do to delete OTHER'S postings just because those wise people apparently decided to settle the score in private? Indeed if it was a personal attack or if our comments were actually senseless act of spreading rumor, it would be justified, but I fail to see anything as such in our comments.

If that had to be removed at their whim, then so be it, but I just thought I should bring it to San's notice that it indeed sends a bad precedent. So long as we do not make a personal unacceptable attacks on the two parties concerned, neither of them should have enough authority to request OUR postings to be removed as well. Regardless, one's got to do what one's got to do, but I hope I made some sense.

Bar that, I acknowledge the difficulty and extra ordinary effort that the San has put for Sajha. I hope you would take it as a concerned opinion from huge Sajha enthusiast, and a well wisher.

IndisGuise:)

".....I acknowledge the difficulty and extra ordinary effort that the San has put for Sajha...."

Read: "....I acknowledge the difficulty and extraordinary effort that San has put for Sajha...."

P.S: Ignore the typos. :)

Sabaile San lai Namste garne ni. Good work.