Computer Association of Nepal - USA

Minutes of Meeting

Date: Thursday, July 29^th, 2010  (6:30 -7:30 PM EST)

1. Call to order

Bineet Sharma called to order the meeting of CAN-USA members at 6:30 PM EST on 8/29/2010.

2. Roll call

A roll call was called by the facilitator. The following members were present:

Bineet Sharma (BKS)

Pradeep Khanal  (PK)

Prabuddhda Dahal (PD) – tele conference

Prajesh Shrestha (PS)

Suresh Ojha (SO)

Pukar Malla (PM) – tele conference

3. Purpose of the meeting and discussion

The purpose of the meeting was to apprise the members of past and present CAN-USA activities and discuss on the new businesses.

BKS thanked members for helping out in publication of July 2010 Newsletter, successfully holding the 3^rd Annual Development conference in July 4^th weekend in Boston.  Dr. Ramesh Malla, President of ASNEngr was specially cited for his help during joint CAN-USA/ASNEngr conference in Boston. Prabuddha Dahal’s presentation on Disaster Preparedness at the NRNA Regional Conference at Houston was recognized as one of the most successful contribution in the conference.  Nisha Thapa was commended on her role for the Disaster Preparedness kick off meeting of the concerned parties in Nepal.  BKS let members know that details of all these activities are available in our website www.can-usa.org.

After that a lively discussion ensued for present and future activities of CAN-USA. 

SO cited need for exploring possibility of writing to US congressmen so that we can have meaningful contacts with US aid organizations in Nepal.  PM, BKS and PK agreed that now such initiation can be jointly done through ANMF/ASNENgr/CAN-USA.

BKS explained that Nepal Research and Education Network (NREN) with 45 MBPS dedicated line had potential of supporting three important projects CAN-USA Supports: Open University, Telemedicine and Disaster Preparedness.  While nature of support level was still unknown but, there was general concession that CAN-USA should provide full support for NREN and utilize the potential of NREN.

The CAN-USA Annual General Body Meeting (AGM) and election date was tentatively discussed and agreed upon to be by the end of September.  Name of the election commissioner was identified to be Mr. Dorji Lama of Fremont, CA. 

Bineet Sharma was nominated by Pradeep Khanal and seconded by all to represent CAN-USA for the Skill Knowledge, Innovation and Education (SKIE) task force of NRN National Co-ordination council. 

A need for Advisory board for CAN-USA was discussed and several names were cited to be candidates to be in the advisory board.  It was decided that there would be equal number of Advisory Board Members from Nepal and USA.  The names coined were Mahabir Pun, Sanjib Raj Bhandari, Bal Joshi from Nepal side, Dr. Gewali, Dr. Bijay Bdr Karki, Kiran Joshi from US side.  To get started a white paper on the concept paper on Advisory Board will be written by Pukar Malla.

Possible representation in ANMA/NASeA labor day weekend conference in Lexington Kentucky was discussed specially in Joint Disaster Preparedness initiative.  PD told that he may be able to attend the conference.

A discussion brewed about providing a Job Fair during CAN-USA AGM and Election Day.  It was decided that we will find out a lead person who can lead the job fair.

PD passionately brought, one more time, the need to think about changing CAN-USA’s name for expanding our mandate and reaching out to more members.  It was generally agreed that it is about time to bring the discussion to the general mass and if needed can vote on the topic during our election day.  Idea was coined to create a task force in the leadership of Nabin Acharya.

4. New Business

1.      CAN-USA election to be held by last week of September or early October which will be Annual General Body meeting and a Job Fair/Workshop

2.      Bineet Sharma will represent CAN-USA in SKIE task force of NRN NCC

3.      CAN-USA will participate in ANMA/NASeA joint conference in Lexington, KY

4.      CAN-USA Advisory board will be formed in the near future

5.      CAN-USA will explore the possibility of changing name

5. Action Items:

• BKS will talk to the possible election commissioner candidates and finalize the name
• SO will draft the letter to congressmen and PM will edit it
• BKS will talk to Job Fair/Lead candidates and form the group.
• PM will draft the white paper on Advisory Board (AB)
• BKS, PM, SO will initiate the preliminary talk with possible AB members
• PD possibly will represent CAN-USA in ANMA/NASeA conference.
• BKS will talk to Nabin Acharya to head the CAN-USA name change task force and also talk to legal counsel on steps needed to take and also with Nepali counterpart and let them know that the co-operation unshakable even if name will change.

6. Adjournment

BKS adjourned the meeting at around 8:15 PM PST.

Minutes prepared by: Bineet Sharma

These companies are actively recruiting:

·         Centrify

·         Academix Direct

For immediate consideration please send your resume or inquiries to: jobsinquiries@Can-usa.org

Please free to contact directly as well.

A Report from Nepal by Nisha Thapa

About one month ago, I was invited by the Computer Association of Nepal (CAN) USA to  a conference as the keynote speaker and representative of the US-Nepali disaster relief community in Kathmandu. The conference was a part of a joint initiative between CAN USA, the American Nepali Medical Foundation (ANMF), and the American Society of Nepalese Engineers (ASNEngr). Though honored by the invitation and excited about the experience, I was overwhelmed by such an important role.

I have been heavily involved here in the U.S in organizing community health screenings, and running a free clinic for uninsured people from Bhutan, Nepal, and Tibet as a part of the Himalayan Health Care Project.  My only experience in disaster relief was fundraising for the post-earthquake relief effort in Haiti with student volunteers from Harvard’s Operational Medicine Institute (OMI).

With this limited experience, I reached out to the best resource for disaster relief I could think of: The executive director of OMI, David Callaway. I found his insights invaluable, particularly his perspective on alliances, or as he called it, Disaster Diplomacy. This meant that the need to identify and reach out to Nepal’s allies is imperative. These allies are the Nepali army and police (the first responders), the Indian Embassy, Indian NGO’s, and other disaster relief entities such as the International Red Cross and the United States Agency of International of Development (USAID).

Bringing together some of the best minds and organizations of Nepal in this historic precedent for establishing a functional disaster relief infrastructure has already made strides in the effort. For the agencies such as the Nepal Society of Earthquake Technology (NSET) who have been doing this work for years, a new platform has been established to prop up the importance of their work.  Joint initiatives between organizations such as the Computer Association of Nepal (CAN) - USA, the American Society of Nepalese Engineers (ASNEngr) and the American Nepal Medical Foundation (ANMF) have been forged to develop disaster response plans. Various organizations that attended the meeting were hopeful that this joint initiative led by U.S Diaspora would bolster their ongoing efforts by integrating technology with disaster preparedness.

Our U.S based organization, Sahayeta.org, is piloting medical software called the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) at Model Hospital in Kathmandu, and in our Himalayan Health Care Project here in Bay Area. Electronic health records allow easy access and storage of medical records and billing information while facilitating better communication between health professionals, management and patients. EMR also allows for better preparedness in disaster recovery since the records can be easily duplicated and stored at multiple locations. Our hope is that the software will eventually be used to serve other disaster relief communities such as in places like Haiti, where the lack of technology made record keeping of patients and procedures challenging. This brings us to the central problem of disaster management: you cannot manage a disaster after it has happened. You must be prepared before it occurs. While an earthquake might be inevitable for Nepal, we must take the initiative to ensure that disaster impacts are mitigated. Disaster response plans are currently being drafted, but setting short term goals are equally as urgent.  Between preventative health care and Disaster Diplomacy, we have got a lot of work to do, and no time to spare.

Nisha Thapa is the founder and the president of Sahayeta.org.  She can be reached at nishathapa82@gmail.com.

American Society of Nepalese Engineers (ASNEngr) and Computer Association of Nepal-USA (CAN-USA) invite you to participate in the Joint ASNEngr/CAN-USA Conference 2010. For detail Click here.

Dear CAN-USA members and friends:

As you know the event unfolding in Haiti after the major earthquake in January 2010 rallied Nepali community in US to raise funds for the victims in Haiti as a community to community help.   That noble action also ensued the desire among all of us concerned to join force to attempt to come up with a broad Nepal earthquake disaster relief and preparedness recommendations that could be an exemplary initiative Nepali diaspora have ever taken in line with CAN-USA’s past actions to take up this issue.

This document is the proposed ANMF/ASNEngr/CAN-USA Joint  initiative on Earthquake Disaster Relief and Preparedness in Nepal sponsored by the America Nepal Medical Foundation (ANMF), American Society of Nepalese Engineers (ASNEngr), and Computer Association of Nepal USA (CAN-USA).   This document has been drafted with constant deliberation during past more than 4 weeks by these three organizations.

The proposed joint initiative by these three technical/professional organizations (ANMF, ANSEngr, and CAN-USA) to research and provide a set of recommendations which can be taken as a blueprint for actions in the ground for pre and post earthquake event in Nepal.

The actual action items resulting from the recommendations  of this joint study are likely going to be far reaching and broad in nature and no single organization will likely be able to complete them by itself along.   It will require a sustained and deliberate effort by all major non-resident Nepali organizations and national and international government and non-government organizations.

For this reason we are also seeking early support from major social organizations like NRN-NCC of USA and ANA to give us a moral support by signing this document.  During early stage we would like to assemble a team of approximately 12 professionals representing these five organizations and other concerned organizations, including some in Nepal. 

Sincere thanks to Suresh bhai for first draft of this document, and SumanJyu, AmbikaJyu and RogerJyu of NRN-NCC for providing early support.

Please use this thread to provide your valuable comments on the topic, your ideas and anything else which you think is vital for this study and would help this committee to do their work.

-Bineet

1. Call to order

Bineet Sharma called to order the ad hoc teleconference meeting of the Greater San Francisco Bay Area Nepali Community at 7:00 PM PST on 1/14/2010.

2. Roll call

A roll call was called by the facilitator. The following persons were present:

Amod Pokhrel                 CAN-USA

Anil Pandey                     Motherland Nepal

Ashish Hada                    Sahayata (Attended from East Coast)

Bineet Sharma                 CAN-USA

Bishnu Thapa                   NRN/NAC GS (Attended from East Coast)

Govind Sahi                     Community at large

Harihar Dahal                   Sunny Sagarmatha Society

Ishwor Sapakota               Sunny Sagarmatha Society

Jain Thapa                         BACC

Nisha Thapa                      Sahayata

Pratik Pandey                    Community at large

Roger Adhikari                 Community at large

Suresh Ojha                      CAN-USA

3. Purpose of the meeting and discussion

Bineet stated the purpose of the meeting was to establish a coordination committee to methodically and deliberately approach the issue of bringing together growing Nepali community for this devastation suffered by Haiti.  CAN-USA general secretary stated that this would be a good exercise for the Nepali community as KTM could be facing similar fate as the 8.0 magnitude earthquake is long overdue.

It was agreed after passionate discussion that earthquake preparation for Nepal is critical but there should be a follow-up meeting to discuss this issue specifically.

Anil Pandey cited an Emergency Fund ($4,500) which has been in the works for such calamity in Nepal.  Roger Adhikari, Govind Sahi concurred that a bylaws are being written for proper disbursement of such fund.  There was a concession that such hard earned fund may not be needed to be tapped for Haiti’s purposes.

Suresh Ojha asked for a research committee to investigate and analyze what could be needed in a similar situation in Kathmandu which shares a lot of similarities with Haiti.  He also requested a quarterly meeting of all of the Bay Area organizations to share the information.

Roger Adhikari cited that there has already been couple of such meetings in the past.  It was agreed that information on all future meetings should be widely disseminated to all interested parties.

At the end of the meeting a general concession was agreed upon to establish an ad hoc co ordination committee which will be comprised by representatives from Bay Area Organizations and volunteers from the community at large.  The fund will be raised and coordinated through NAC/NRN organization which is a 501 (3) © tax exempt organization and disbursed through US Red Cross.  All the organizations and well wishers will help in sending emails and rally around for the fund raising.

4. New business

a)   Haiti Fund Raising Coordination Committee:  An ad hoc co-ordination committee was established with Bineet Sharma leading the effort.  Other members include Harihar Dahal, Govind Sahi, Roger Adhikari, Nisha Thapa, Bishnu Thapa, Ashish Hada, Ishwor Sapkota, Anil Pandey, and Jain Thapa representing their respective organizations.  Other organizations are encouraged to nominate their members as soon as possible.

Action Items for the coordination committee:

1.      Brochure: Bineet Sharma will work together with Bishnu Thapa and other members to draft a brochure.  After approval by the full committee members the brochure will be used to solicit the donation from the community members.

2.      DJ Night: Nisha Thapa is organizing a DJ night specifically to raise funds for the Haiti victims. She is contemplating travelling to Haiti later to provide her medical service as well.  Coordination committee will work together with her to advertise her event and help in fund raising.

3.      Donation Solicitations with community members:  Coordination committee will work together with local community organizations to spread the call for donation through emails, meetings and other means.

4.      Next meeting: Coordination committee will meet in a regular and ad hoc basis until this fund event is closed.

b)   Nepal Disaster Research Committee:  Suresh Ojha will head a research committee to investigate specific actions that the members of the Nepali Diaspora can take to prepare for the expected 8.0 earthquake in Kathmandu and make recommendations for an efficient and coordinated response once the quake hits.  The goal is to present the recommendations by the ANA conference in July.  The members of the committee include Amod Pokhrel, Nisha Thapa, Ashish Hada.  The committee is expected to grow to include members from all facets of the community and multiple different disciplines.

c)   Quarterly Meeting of Bay Area Organizations: The meeting already in progress organized by Roger Adhikari will suffice this purpose.  The meeting notification will be circulated to include all interested organizations.

5. Adjournment

Bineet Sharma adjourned the meeting at around 8:45 PM PST.

Minutes submitted by:  Bineet Sharma

Minutes approved by: Roger Adhikari, Gobind Sahi, Harihar Dahal, Iswor Sapkota, Amod Pokhrel, Suresh Ojha, Bishnu Thapa, Anil Pandey

Realizing the importance of Career Management (CM) among the students and the professionals alike, we have thought of giving continuity to the first workshop (CM 1.0) held during ANA 2009 in Oakland, CA. This time around, we plan to go virtual - expert presentations and interaction live on the web and recorded for future reference. CM 1.0 focused mainly on 3 areas - Graduate School Planning (Application, Standarized Tests etc), Job Search (Resume writing, Interview Prep etc) and Career Advancement (Planning for Career Growth etc). For CM 2.0, we would like to hear your opinion/ideas on focus areas and format of the workshop. Please give us your preference on the following options.

1. 3 separate workshops (each for 3 areas)
2. 1 single workshop (Integrating all 3 areas)
3. Job Search and Career Advancement sessions bundled into one workshop, Graduate School Planning being the other
4. 2 separate workshops for Job Search and Career Advancement only (No need of Graduate School Planning)

Also, please provide us with any other suggestion/ideas you might have. We want CM 2.0 to be successful but more importantly impactful.

Thank you for your input.

Regards,

CM 2.0 Planning Team

Now that we have 501 (3) (c) Tax Exempt status, let us brain storm on how to further our cause.  It is important that all CAN-USA members are well versed on rules and regulations.  Please read all important legal documents including the letters from IRS and FTB regarding the exemption status.

CAN-USA Articles of incorporation

CAN-USA Amendments of articles of incorporation

CAN-USA By-Laws

Click here to verify the Tax Exempt Status from IRS website.

Exemption letter from IRS is available upon request (info@can-usa.org)

Exemption letter from CA FTB is available upon request (info@can-usa.org)

You can read more about 501 (3) (c) from IRS website, and many other websites who provide help to non-profit organizations.

Please provide your valuable comments, ways to effectively utilize this privilege in executing projects to further our cause.

As a chair person of ANA 2009 Souvenir, I would like to request you to be the part of this magazine. I always value your time and effort given to the community and your precious knowledge will help us to make ANA 2009 Souvenir a masterpiece. I know it is not possible for one or two person only to cover up all the issues of ANA and Nepalese community of USA therefore I want you to be the part of Editorial team to make it happen.

 Here are few ideas I have developed and discussed with the ANA convener, chair person and co conveners. This year for the first time I have proposed to cover up (if not all) most of the Nepalese organizations of USA to be enlisted.

Beside that there will be feature articles and columns on the topics as mentioned below, (if you think some topics are left out please feel free to suggest, This is not final just my proposal for this issue).

The topics are related to Nepalese Literature, Culture, Music, Arts, Social issues, Professional, Business, Immigrations Law, Education, NRN issues, General interests etc.

Therefore without your kind support and participation this would not be possible for us to publish Souvenir. Let me know if you have some more friends in your mind to join in this list. I sincerely hope you will accept my proposal to be the part of this team.

So far we have not formed editorial board; we will form it as soon as we get confirmation from you.

Advisors: ANA convener/Co convener, ANA Chair person,  

Editorial Team:           Dhruva Thapa, Sandeep Puri ,

English section:           Mani Nepali, Amod Pokhrel, Narayan Pradhan

Nepali Section:            Anil Pandey, Shekhar Dhungel, Basu Dhakal

Science and Tech:       <Requesting Names>

Business/ Law:            Rudra Sharma, Harihar Dahal, Dorji Lama

Org. & Culture:           Tej Rai, Lakpa Sherpa, Santosh Lama, Bishnu Gurung

Layout and Design:    Wendy Malla, Sanjeev Rimal, (as mentioned by Govind Dai) Pratik Thapa

Advertisement and Publication: Usha Lama

Govind Giri Prerna, Govindsing Rawat.

Dhruva Thapa

Chair person ANA 2009 Souvenir

CAN-USA Professional Networking Program

Vision

Since its birth on July 29th 2007, CAN-USA has been striving to work towards professional development of its members and ICT development of Nepal.  The Professional Networking Program is geared towards either goal by bringing the Nepali community in the ICT (information and communications technology) sector together and reaching out to the broader American community.

Today, professional networking among the Nepali Diasporas is generally confined to friends and is mostly at a social level.  CAN-USA aims to bring these busy technology and development professionals together so that we can help each other in our own fields.  At the same time, some can employ CAN-USA’s platform towards ICT development projects in Nepal.  Such a platform will also serve as a key resource to students and recent college graduate to advance in their career paths.

Plan

CAN-USA shall commence a series of bimonthly networking sessions, where individuals come to share their ideas and experiences in an informal setting.  These gatherings could be held in semi-private spaces such as restaurants or halls.  Generally, luminary speakers or another CAN-USA event will accompany the networking session.  CAN-USA encourages Nepali and American professionals to come together, share their ideas and broaden their network.

Bay Area Professional Networking Series

We will begin the Professional Networking Program in the San Francisco bay area. Silicon Valley is home to many Nepali high-tech professionals, working in a variety of industries and organizational frameworks. The first professional networking session will be held on April 10, 2009 between 6-8PM at WFG Auditorium, 2077 Gold St, Alviso, CA 95002.  During the session Transfer of Knowledge session on “Cloud Computing” will follow this professional networking.  At Nepal site there will be elaborate inaugural ceremony at the ministerial level.

Future

These bimonthly professional networking sessions will be organized in different parts of the US.  Another important networking session will be held during the 2^nd Annual CAN-USA ICT Conference during the ANA 2009 convention.