Hari Adhikari Bangaley, Chairperson of the Organization of Bhutanese Communities in America (OBCA), is much likely to boycott the organization’s fifth national convention. However, he has maintained he’d not immediately step down.
Expressing his disagreement to the convention, which OBCA has called for June 12-14 in Texas, Bangaley said he was “unwillingness” to be a part of it.
“I seriously disagree with the statement from the OBCA as I do not believe it is a general consensus among the board members”, says Bangaley in an email interview with the Bhutan News Service.
On question whether he prefers to resign, he affirmed the possibility of joint plan of actions decided by a joint convention. He said, “I am not going to resign, before realizing the plan of bringing joint plans by OBCA and Association of Bhutanese in America. A resource center is what I am envisioning for joint steps ahead.”
In a press statement received by the Bhutan News Service, OBCA board member Manoj Rai and press and publicity secretary Karna Gurung have announced some details of its upcoming fifth national convention.
According to this statement, the convention will be held Texas from June 12-14. Upon query of BNS regarding the venue, Karna Gurung said, “it is yet to fix the convention venue. However, we’ll convene either in Fort Worth or Dallas.”
OBCA claimed that it has formed a national convention organizing committee (NCOC) headed by its vice chairman Hari Upreti to plan and carryout activities of the convention. A fifteen membered program organizing committee (POC) has also been formed in the host state with special input and leadership from Organization of Bhutanese Society (OBS), Dallas and Beginners Community Support Group (BCSG), Fort Worth. Prakash Koirala, president of OBS and Nayaran Subedi, president of BCSG have been entrusted with responsibilities coordinating the convention.
“The NCOC and POC will jointly reach out to the community organizations and members through various means and media with its program details and invitation for the convention at the earliest convenience,” read the statement.
During the convention, OBCA will be electing its new board and executives. Besides electing its officials, the press statement of OBCA does not carry any agenda of future action plans.
Gurung and Rai have invited everyone in the Bhutanese community to provide it with ideas and suggestions to complete its convention successfully..
Meanwhile, chairman Bangaley added that he has been talking to ABA on possibility of holding the convention together, claiming of some green signals from the latter.
According to him, he already informed his board members regarding joint convention and possible activities of OBCA and ABA to help local communities in each cities.
Bangaley also mentioned that many other OBCA members including its secretary have shown reluctance towards this convention.
