வணக்கம்,

As we get to the end of our term in office, the current Executive Committee (EC) for the years 2020 & 2021 would like to thank all our General Body members, for giving us an opportunity to serve you. It was indeed great privilege and honor to serve our community. Despite the challenges due to COVID pandemic, our team was able to deliver both in person and virtual programs beneficial to our community.

Here are some key highlights:
With the mark of 50th year of our TAGDV Sangam, we decided to celebrate all the programs in 2020 as “Ponvizha” events. Celebration of the Grand Pongal event in 2020 was a unique event with decorations portraying Tamil Nativity, including set up of Village Tea and Sugar Cane juice stalls. The event was a sold-out in the history of TAGDV for a Pongal event. For the first time, we had organized a Mulaipari with 60+ members and the highlight was the active participation of our kids. We had an interactive session with Vijay TV anchor Mr. Gopinath and our members. Members were served lunch in a traditional banana leaf.

As COVID hit we seamlessly made transformation in schools by switching to virtual learning and assessments. We negotiated with Microsoft saving several thousand dollars for our Tamil schools in MS Teams licensing for virtual classes. During the two years period Tamil schools in our region expanded to 4 schools and the enrollment was 550. This EC conducted fundraiser events to support the local community here in the US and our community back in Tamilnadu (Tamil Folk Artists), whose livelihood was badly affected during the pandemic. Our team was able to generate close to $10,000 dollars in funds within a short span of time and successfully distributed the funds.

For the first time in TAGDV history, we were able to provide with 20+ virtual programs free of cost to our members. We also conducted workshops for middle schools and high school students to prepare them for success in high school and for college admissions respectively.

Also, our team took critical steps to deal with protecting the privacy of students and our members. In response to GB feedback, in another first, all the EC members signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) on day 1 of office. We have implemented the same in all the TAGDV schools last year. All membership information is now secured in a new laptop that we had purchased this year and it will be handed over to the incoming EC team.

The EC was able to work with the Board and set-up a Bylaw committee and the first amendment draft was sent to the GB for review in October. We are handing over the draft by-law to the incoming committee for follow-up. We also launched a campaign to publish a special Golden Jubilee Sangamam Magazine highlighting the historic aspects of TAGDV and key highlights in the past 50 years. All the articles, historic artifacts and photos that we have collected with the help of the TAGDV patrons will be handed over to the new committee for publication.

We concluded our tenure and year with an in-person Holiday event at Wilmington, DE. This EC had an opportunity to unveil Ayan Thiruvalluvar’s statue donated to our Tamil Sangam by Dr. VGP Santhosam. We also recognized our Tamil School teachers and felicitated all outgoing EC, Board, Tamil School Board and TAGDV School Committee members. Variety show performance by kids and “Madras Melodies” band brought back the spirit of joy & togetherness. Delicious Food and snacks were provided to members. The next TAGDV committees were identified during this event.

We are happy that this EC is leaving the incoming committee with a much better financial health and a surplus of about $7000 more than what we inherited from the previous committee.

We wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a prosperous New Year. As the new EC committee takes charge starting in Jan 2022 be assured that “you’ll never walk alone”.

As we wrap-up 2021 with a spirit of gratitude, let us reflect on the 2 amazing years of relationships with our community & members. Please see the below flyer highlighting the key accomplishments by our Executive Committee.

May you enjoy quality time with those you love!

Wish you all a prosperous New Year!

As always visit TAGDV Website and TAGDV Facebook Page for updates!

Best Regards,
Dr. Suresh Paramasivam – President
Mr. Gobinathan Palanichamy – Vice President
Mr. Vijay Selvaraj – Secretary
Ms. Lavanya Sankar – Treasurer
Mr. Baskar Chinnusamy
Dr. Manoharan Ramasamy
Ms. Meena Ganesan
Mr. Suresh Sathiah
Mr. Thangamuthu Kumaran Vaiyapuri

[TAGDV Executive Committee 2020-2021]