Minutes of the Fourth Executive Committee Meeting
Held at Santhosh Pillai’s residence (15315 SE 136^TH LN Renton, WA 98059)
On 27^th July 2005 at 7 PM

Meeting start time: 7:35 PM
Meeting end time: 9:20 PM
Attendees: Wilson David (President), Santhosh Pillai (Secretary), Prakash Menon (Treasurer), PM Mathew (Ex-Officio), Kalpana Hariprasad, Tom George (Members)
EC Members who did not attend: Rakhee James, Santhosh Nair (Members), Deepak George (Youth Representative), Neetha Daniel (Youth Representative).
Note: Attendance of the Auditor is not required.

President Wilson David presided over the fourth meeting of EC of KAW for the year 2005.

The Executive Committee approved the minutes of the 3^rd meeting. Santhosh Pillai read the minutes to the Committee members. Wilson David moved the motion to approve the meeting minutes. Ex-Officio PM Mathew seconded the motion. PM Mathew asked if the names of the Executive Committee members who do not attend the meeting be specifically written in the minutes. Tom George said that it was a normal procedure to record the name of the absentees.

Mr. John Titus placed a request to donate the amount raised by KAW for Tsunami victims to Rotary Club Global in Kochi. Mr. Titus told the Executive Committee that he’d be closely monitoring the activities of this club and would make sure that 100% of the money would be used for building houses for Tsunami victims. The current plan for Rotary Club Global is to spend the money in a village called Chellanam in Ernakulam district. A priest named Rev. Fr. Tobias Thekkeppalackal is said to be associated with the club to make sure that the money is utilized properly.

The Executive Committee agreed to donate the money that we have to Rotary Club Global of Kochi. The secretary will ask Care and Share to send the money to the above charitable organization. Mr. John Titus will get the contact address of the Rotary Club Global to the secretary.

The Executive Committee reviewed our Onam preparations. The first and foremost in the agenda was to look for an alternative venue for the celebrations. Prakash had some details about Renton IKEA Performing Art Center. The total expense for this hall is around $800 (or a bit more). We will have to rent a school hall nearby for food distribution. Other possible venues that can be explored are: Renton Technical College (Tom George), Forster High in South center and Ingram High in Seattle (Santhosh). Santhosh said he would also check out the Rockin' Horse Dance Barn in Renton, Highland Center Multi-purpose Room in Bellevue (Prakash Menon), and Sons of Norway Hall in Bothell (Prakash).

We expect to start the Onam function at 12 Noon with the Onam Sadya. Based on feedback, the Executive Committee encourages more group-oriented programs this time so that a wide spectrum of people can participate in the programs. Executive Committee also was unanimous in limiting the number of programs. Even though the youth representative Neetha Daniel e-mailed the secretary stating that she had some input about Onam programs, the secretary did not receive any input from her.

The Executive Committee appointed Kalpana Hariprasad and Neetha Daniel (in her absence—unless she does not have any objection to it) as the program coordinators for Onam. We will set a week before the program (tentatively as September 1) as the deadline for accepting programs/stage shows.

As always, Onam sadya will be potluck. Suja Wilson, Elizabeth Daniel, Kalpana Hariprasad, Neeni George and Divya Santhosh will be the potluck coordinators.

The Executive Committee will be asking Mr. Unnikrishnan Padikkapadath if he can deliver the Onam message. If he is unavailable, we will find another chief guest. We will have to find suitable person for dressing up as Maveli and also need a MC for the event. PM Mathew will check with Mr. Mathew Mathen if he would be willing to be the MC.

There was a suggestion to send a request to all the members to submit Onam messages of their own. A selected message will be read at the venue and the author will be rewarded.

Members of the Executive Committee also liked the idea of having an Athappoo competition. The pookkalam need not be of flowers (because flowers are expensive). The competitors can use colored flour.

The Executive Committee also discussed some upcoming shows by artists from Kerala. Chitra Iyer will be in the US during September/October. As we are not hearing about any other troupe visiting the US, we may need to bring them. There was a rumor that Biju Narayanan would be touring, but that could not be confirmed at the moment. PM Mathew will closely monitor this and report back to the Committee of any further development.

KAW EC members are looking at organizing possible charity work/community events. Tom George and Wilson David will keep an eye on this.

It is also tentatively decided that KAW will conduct a “Talent Night” for youth and kids along with Halloween celebrations on Saturday, 29^th of October, 2005. We will sort out the details in due course.

Another item in the agenda was the post mortem of picnic. This has been postponed to a later meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 PM.

Santhosh Pillai
(Secretary)