December 05, 2003

Dear Fellow Members of AIA:

Greetings and all the best wishes to you and your family for a Healthy & Wealthy New Year.

Soon you will be receiving papers related to the election of the New National Executive Committee (NEC) for the Years 2004 Ð 2005. NEC comprises the President, 4 Vice Presidents, Treasurer and at- large members elected from each chapter proportional to their membership (one representative per 50 members). The President appoints the Secretary and each Chapter President is ex-officio member of the NEC with full privileges. AIA first invites nominations from its members to help the Nominations & Election Committee to create a slate of candidates for election for various positions; of course, there is always a provision for write-in candidates.

May I take this opportunity to THANK each and every one of you for your kind support during my more than twenty years of service to the organization and especially for the last four years when you entrusted me with the responsibility of its Presidency!

Though you are the best judge of how I, as your President, and the NEC performed, I can only assure you that we have tried our best to keep AIA alive and well. I hope that you have been reading our Newsletter and getting the information about the various activities of the organization.

It would not be out of place to mention a few highlights of the activities: This year, the first time ever, Diwali was celebrated at The White House. Not only that, it went from The White House to the State Houses and to the City Halls (Details in the Next Newsletter). AIA and its members responsibly acted to support the victims of September 11 and Gujarat Earthquake. Your organization has played a leading role in uniting various Indian national organizations and in initiating a process for developing a common agenda. We must not forget that the strength of a family/community lies in unity and we are no exceptions. Likewise, AIA has reached out to mainstream America with some excellent results. As you know, the broader the base we create, the higher is the probability of us reaching to the top. This effort has given us the privilege of getting two of our AIA members elected to the public offices: Mr. Upendra Chivukula to the NJ State Assembly and Mr. Ravi Mehrotra to the Glen Ridge Town Council. Friends, let us understand that "all politics is local," and "Charity begins at home." So, we created five centers including the Center for Developmental Leadership to embark upon such projects that would help create an atmosphere for a better representation of our community at the Federal, State and local levels. The visibility of your organization has been increased among various official circles in India and the USA and in the ethnic media. Plans are afoot to reach the mainstream media in this country.

Though my term expires as soon as the elections are over, I still request you to let me know what should I do to further strengthen the organization and serve you better. I will wait to hear from you. Meanwhile, if each one of you would add one more member to the organization, it will go a long way in the service of the community.

Once again, with best wishes,

Piyush C. Agrawal