Dear Telugu Family Members:
Members elect Governing Board to work with responsibility and expect to pay attention when they voice their opinions. Board is not supreme to anybody. Governing Board should make decisions jointly in the best interest of the organization within the purview of our legal boundaries. When GB informs those decisions to members, GB gets feedback from members. Basing on feedback and actual information used in the decision-making process when GB finds that decision is not a right one, GB has to accept and correct it with grace rather than stubbornly pointing itself as supreme authority. That is what I believe is the character of true leadership.
Even before I commenced my term as President of TANA for the period 2007-09, some Governing Board members had planned to secure their next positions and control the organization even with malicious actions on individuals who ever is in their way. These culpable actions have caused severe damage to the organization structure and activities. As the President, I am determined to face these challenges with courage and discipline. If I had not stood up with steadfast commitment to challenge these ill-conceived motives, today our organization would have virtually divided.
Conference:
First let me share my thoughts on the 17th conference issue. During the previous term, Executive Committee and Board of Trustees unanimously resolved to have the 17th TANA Conference for the first time in Orlando, Florida in 2009. After extensive search, we found a resort place (Marriott World Center) with an excellent auditorium, meeting facilities, banquet halls, and three thousand guestrooms under one roof. Mr. Ravi Madala was instrumental in identifying this conference site and hotel facilities in Orlando, Florida. But with orchestrated effort, Mr. Komati Jayaram, Mr. Nannapaneni Mohan and Mr. Thotakura Prasad decided to stop Mr. Madala at any cost from taking active role in the 17th TANA conference. I have tried my best along with several community members to reach an amicable solution with so many options, it is of no avail. To achieve their selfish interests, they have undermined the unity of our organization. This rift has caused an irreparable damage to TANA.
Next on March 29, 2008, the Governing Board made a resolution to move the 17th TANA conference to Chicago, IL by reversing the previous term TANA Boards' unanimous approval to conduct 17th TANA conference in Orlando, FL. Though it is easy for me to go with the flow by undermining the interest of the organization, I stood like a rock with high morals for the unity of organization against the Board. The truth is current Governing Board has no right to vote on the 17th TANA conference location. This Governing Board's resolution is not a true representation of the wishes of TANA members across the country by whom they were elected to protect and represent TANA.
This resolution caused the cancellation of the reservation in Orlando and resulted in penalty charges of $167,195. Later on, this information was brought to the attention of the Board. Still they wanted to move the conference from Orlando to Chicago. Once elected to the Board, majority of members are voting on issues with self interest and without any regard to the good of the organization.
TANA community was totally disappointed with that sudden change of location. Apparently Board members didn't discuss either with the Florida Telugu community or with the Chicago Telugu community before or after making this resolution. Board wants to enforce as a supreme body without any regard to the members and Telugu communities across North America. Board's actions have made my job increasingly difficult to reconcile between TANA members and Board's interests.
Even then I tried to work per the GB resolution. I tried my best to have only one unified TANA conference by including Florida Telugu community in various conference committees. After extensive discussions, Mr. Yadlapati agreed with me to have a unified TANA conference and called for a meeting of all on July 26, 2008 and announced all names as planned. However, after the announcement he succumbed to the pressure from EC and could not stand by his own word. His inability to explain to EC how he worked with the President and Florida community has created a bigger problem.
Membership:
Another issue we are currently facing is membership review process. We have clearly spelled out in our Executive Committee meeting in Houston what we should expect from each applicant. The review committee should first follow that process and report the findings to the President and Executive Committee.
Without doing that verification work, Mr. Komati Jayaram has requested and received approval from Governing Board to collect personal identity information of individual applicants. As a President of our organization, I requested Mr. Komati in the subsequent Executive Committee meeting that took place on May 3, 2008 to complete the review process with the available information, then make notes of committee's findings and report it to Executive Committee. I have clearly explained the scope of audit. After completion of examination, basing on the audit report, we may request for an additional information on selected members, if necessary. That is supposed to be the proper audit process.
Without completing this process and even without informing the committee members, Mr. Komati should not mislead the Governing Board to get identity information from all applicants. That is totally inappropriate and places a burden on all applicants when they complied with clearly spelled out procedures. We made it clear in our EC resolution that there is no need to send an ID for Life membership or Biennial membership. There is a tremendous outrage from members when they saw the additional request for photo ID. This is the time to act with responsibility and listen to the members' opinion. We are here to serve the members not to dictate to them. To stop this aggravation, I emailed members to ignore the additional request. If this committee cannot perform this task we can appoint an independent CPA firm or another team to audit these applications. That would be an ideal choice in the current situation.
After prolonged discussions on July 27, 2008 in a Governing Board meeting, Board of trustees were entrusted to set the guidelines for membership verification. I still have not seen those guidelines yet.
Law suit:
In the mean while we are facing a lawsuit because of mistrust of the GB and for lack of accountability, requesting information on financials, bylaws and membership verification process. If someone requests information it is our duty to present all information without any hesitation. As a public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, it is our prima facie responsibility to be transparent with all our information.
I strongly believe that we should be able to resolve these issues rather than fighting in the court. Again it has become very hard to resolve issues because of Board's strong position that unless the lawsuit is dropped it wouldn't share information.
This pointless defense is costing us thousands of dollars. The fact is we must have updated current financial data and we must not resist in sharing information with public, particularly with life members.
Because of these irreconcilable differences, it is inevitable to have a General Body meeting. So I am calling for an Extraordinary General Body Meeting on October 4, 2008 in Atlanta. It may help us to have consensus on conference, membership verification and on lawsuit issues. I will update you with the place in Atlanta and time of meeting soon. I truly believe that we should keep our personal differences aside and demonstrate unity of TANA. Let us work for the good of our beloved organization.
Sincerely,
Prabhakar Choudary Kakarala
President, TANA, Inc
17707 Hidden Trail Ct, Spring, TX 77379
Phone:713-443-4047
Fax: 281-537-5755
email: [email protected]
Web: www.TANA.org
