Jain Digest 1997 06 Vol 13 No 02

Author(s): Federation of JAINA
Publisher: USA Federation of JAINA

Page 30

Young Minds
Federation of Jain Associations in North America A Non-Profit Tax Exempt Religious Organization. IRS Code Section 501 (c)(3) El #54-1280028
yja@joyce.eng.yale.edu . http://www.yale.edu/yja/
YJA Holds Executive Committee Meeting
T JA held it's Bi-Annual executive board meeting July
31-August 3 in St. Louis, MI. Returning board
- members, including Ravi Gada, Raju Shah, Jill Shah, Gaurav Kapadia, and Kavita Jhaveri welcomed five new members: Sheetal Khandar, West Regional Coordinator; Ameet Shah, Southeast Regional Coordinator; Amit Shanghavi, Northeast Regional Coordinator; Purav Shah, Midwest Regional Coordinator; and Tejal Shah, South Regional Coordinator. Returning second year members Paulomi Gudka, Anish Sheth, and Dina Mehta who were unable to attend. The ten board members discussed ways to improve policy and project failures from last year and implementing new projects this year.
The YJA Executive Board discussed the need to to establish better lines of communication with JAINA. Suc- cessful endeavors from last year include an expanded Web page, and a popular response to two pilot programs, People to People, and Penpals, where people are given Jain penpals so they can get to know each other.
The Executive Board established a new standing committee, Education, Chaired by Ameer Shah. The Education committee established three goals: to propagate education by flying Pathshala teachers to various centers to establish a weekly Pathshala class or to help standardize Pathshala classes already in existence, to set-up a scholarship fund for YJA members, and to start fundraising for educational purposes through Jathras.
The Events committee, headed by Kavita Jhaveri, wishes to expand the Penpal program globally, implement a program to groom youth center leaders for future YJA leadership positions, and encourage regions to have more regional conventions and field trips. The committee also wishes to inject rejuvenated interest and energy into Foster Focus, a program whereby local communities aide YJA by engaging in national service projects.
The Fundraising committee, headed by Jill Shah, will look into selling copper/silver jewelry emblazoned with the "Namokar Mantra," and seek more corporate and local sponsorship especially for the publication of Young Minds. They discussed establishing unified YJA chapters across the country by asking all local youth centers to rename themselves, “Young Jains of (city or university)," a chapter or affiliate of YJA.
Directorship elections were held with the following results: Ravi Gada and Raju Shah, Co-chairs; Jill Shah, Finance and Fundraising; Kavita Jhaveri, Events; Gaurav Kapadia, Public Relations; Ameet Shah, Education; Dina Mehta, Records; Paulomi Gudka, Membership.
Most importantly, we discussed possible sites for the 1998 YJA Convention. The convention will be the third one since YJA's inception and it promises to be best YJA Convention ever.
The meeting was very productive, and the decisions made promise to yield many positive results for YJA members in the future.
28/JAIN DIGEST FALL 1997 Jain Education Interational 2010_02