NIAASC holds 30th annual conference

The National Indo-American Association for Senior Citizens (NIAASC) just completed its 30th conference and held its 21st annual meeting on November 2 & 3, 2019, at ShantiNiketan2 (SN2) in Tavares, Florida, near Orlando.

Over 125 people attended the Conference. Many of the NIAASC Board members came from East Coast and West Coast for attending this two-day conference. It was a free event for all the participants, and the financial support was provided by the sponsors. Lunch and dinner was provided to all.

Gajinder Singh, President of SN2, and Mr. Rajeshwar Prasad, President of NIAASC welcomed the audience. Entire logistic arrangement with regard to space, food and overall service coordination in conducting the conference was undertaken by Chandrakant Shah, NIAASC Board member.

The conference was addressed by three eminent speakers: Baldev Seekri, author of books and articles on seniors, who spoke about “RESILIENCE   IN SENIOR YEARS: Social. Emotional, Physical and Spiritual Issues”.  Ingrid Collins, Associate State Director, AARP Florida, spoke on “All about AARP”. Santosh Kumar, Founder and Executive Director of Metropolitan Asian Family Services (MAFS) in Chicago, spoke at length about the development of MAFS and its multifaceted growth since 1993.

All the speakers made a power point presentation, and there was an interactive session after each speaker’s presentation. Dr. Bhavani Srinivasan and Dr. Ashok Sapre, Vice Presidents of NIAASC, coordinated the Proceedings. Geeta Chandran a very active leader at Shantiniketan joined the conference as a facilitator and participated in other activities during the conference.

The cultural and variety program was conducted and coordinated by Mr. Dick Sharad with participation from many talented residents of ShantiNiketan, as well as members of NIAASC: Program included dances, songs, music concert and jokes.

During the cultural program, Mr. Prasad made an announcement by identifying the person who was recognized for his untiring entertainment over the years at Shantiniketan with some talented people from the residents of SN and his own family members. That person, Dick Sharad, was presented with a plaque outlining his contributions in the service of seniors through music.

The 21st annual meeting was called to order by Raj Prasad, announcing the report of the nominating committee.  The nominating committee presented its report. As per NIAASC Constitution, one third of its Board members retire every year. Of the five retiring at the end of 2019, four were approved as Board members for the next three years.

One member expressed that his other commitments will not provide him time to continue as a Board member. A new Board member Mr. Harbachan Singh was nominated and approved by the board as the new BOD member. Mr. Satpal Malhotra, NIAASC Treasurer announced the names of the sponsors and he also presented the Annual Financial report.  Mrs. Gunjan Rastogi, NIAASC Secretary did the vote of thanks and also gave the information about the Directory of all Indo American Senior programs in USA, which is being complied by NIAASC and is a long-term project to be completed in 2020. “I am so happy that I attended this Conference, I learned so much” was the most common response of the participants as they left with glowing faces.”