A nine-member board of directors was elected to serve the Bhutanese community in Iowa, Inc through an election held on December 25, 2013. A five member election committee formed under the leadership of L B Biswa conducted the election in which 13 nominees including 4 females contested for the seven board member positions. It is first ever election after launching of community organization in the state of Iowa.
The voting took place in a hall of Luthern Services of Iowa that opened to the public for casting their ballots from 10am to 3pm during which 133 ballot papers were cast. The vote count began right after the closing of ballot and took place in closed door session in presence of two observers, Doua Lour of Asian Outreach Resource center and Sanjita Pradhan of Iowa department of Human Rights.
Seven board members elected for the term of one to three years are: Harka L Biwa(President), Sita Adhikari(vice-president), Chidananda Dahal (Secretary), Tika Bhandari(Treasurer) and Bel B Chhetri, Ranjeeta Gurung (subba), Gopal Khadka as the board members. Two other board members nominated are Hem Magar, and Man Bhattarai the only representative of Hiwatha, another city in Iowa
A total of approximately 1200 Bhutanese are resettled in the state of Iowa.
After announcing the result of the election, the elected and nominated board members were felicitated by election committee with khada and teeka.
