________________
ACHIEVEMENTS OF JAINA DURING MY PRESIDENCY
(2003-2005)
I was very active with the Jain Society of Rochester and with the International Alumni Association of Shri Mahavir Jain Vidyalaya until 1995. In the spring of that year, Mahendra Dosi from Houston and Chandrakant Khasgiwala from Boston called me and urged me to get involved in JAINA. They thought I should be able help JAINA as it was going through a turbulent period at the time. I was elected as the Regional VP for North East. After serving in that capacity for 4 years, I became a Treasurer (1999-2001), First VP and Convention Convener (2001-2003) and then the President in July of 2003.
Two years is a very short period to make a big impact on a large organization like JAINA but with the help from the Executive Committee members, I have made quite a difference. I led a cohesive team and came up with many changes. Here are the highlights of the initiatives:
1. Soon after I became the President, JAINA Committees were restructured. Some of them were eliminated; new ones were added to reflect the changing needs of the community.
2. We reactivated the Patron Program and raised $65,000. This should contribute to the financial well being of JAINAon a longer-term basis.
9. JAINA has added 3 more Jain centers on our roster during the last two years. They are Greater Binghamton Jain Sangh, Atlantic Jain Sangh, and Delaware Jain Sangh. 10. We formed a new committee called Exhibition Committee. JAINA's successful booth at Barcelona successfully encouraged us to create infrastructure to set up booths at other locations. We plan to create long term display materials instead of
3. To disseminate important news quickly, we started reinventing the wheel every time. We had a booth at 2005 electronics newsletter called JAINA Spectrum. Convention and will keep doing it where appropriate.
4. We made further progress in improving the quality of Jain Digest. Now you see more colors, more photographs, religious articles, and timely printing and distribution. We raised our circulation to 9,500 from 8,000 families.
11. We wholeheartedly supported the Ahimsa Center chaired by Prof. Tara Sethia of California State University (Pamona) by our financial contribution and by becoming a charter member.
5. There has been a desire to revise the JAINA Constitution for a long time. I am pleased to inform you that we are very close to sharing with you a draft of the revised constitution. Upon approval, it will attract more volunteers and JAINA will become more efficient. The whole process might take another 3 to 4 months to finalize but it is gratifying to note that we have been able to finish most of the grunt work.
6. We gave a major push to the interfaith activities over the last two years. The attendance to the World Parliament of Religions by the JAINA delegation was a watershed event. We funded this project with $15,000 from general funds, drew delegates from UK and India, formed a Unified Jain Group and put on a good performance with one voice. I personally stayed with the delegation at Barcelona for 8 days and participated fully. After the success of this event, JAINA started working closely with other interfaith groups such as Religions for Peace in USA and sharing the message of Lord Mahavir with the mainstream America.
7. I brought in new blood by recruiting four new professionals who are experts in their fields into JAINA and assigned them to three new committees: Legal Advisory Committee, Media & Public Relations Committee and Planned Giving Committee. We have made use of the Legal Advisory Committee
several times over the last year or so; allowing us to handle legal issues more effectively. In the past, many of us tried to be our own lawyers! A very dangerous practice in the modern world. Media & Public Relations Committee has raised JAINA's visibility in the press as well as in the influential circles, which we have found to be very beneficial. To give you a concrete example, we would not have been able to get visa for Rakeshbhai Zaveri without the help from this committee. Planned Giving Committee has a huge potential to make JAINA financially strong on a long-term basis.
Jain Education International
8. We revamped the JAINA website completely. It is dynamic and more attractive, informative, educational and effective. I decided that for this most important tool to foster unity, we could no longer depend on voluntary efforts. We needed a professional touch and needed to spend some money. Now you can log on to jaina.org and see the result. Infrastructure is in place to develop it further.
12. The Jivdaya Committee became very active under the leadership of Pramodaben Chitrabhanu. She raised substantial funds and became more pro-active for the cause.
13. JAINA supported the initiative taken by the Jain Center of Greater Boston for publishing a revised edition of JAIN Directory and provided them with the JAINA database. We also printed their message in JAINA Spectrum and Jain Digest regularly and encouraged their efforts all along.
14. I am especially proud of another committee called "Education Committee" that published more books during the last 2 years. These books have now earned international recognition.
15. We were successful in convincing many Jain centers to channel their funds raised for the victims of Tsunami tragedy through JAINA. This will enable JAINA to build a school Andaman Island in the near future.
16. Because of the changing needs, we eliminated Temple Guidelines Committee and replaced it with another committee called Jain Centers Resource Committee. This committee has made an excellent beginning (Refer to the last issue of Jain Digest). We expect it to be a major source of information and guidance for any Jain Center who is interested in building a temple.
5. JAIN DIGEST SUMMER 2005 For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
