KHNA Contacts List Released

Los Angeles, CA. July 1, 2008: KHNA President Dr. Ramadas Pillai has released an elaborate list of the KHNA contacts around the North American Continent. The list of nearly 120 individuals include the office-bearers, trustees and directors elected by the KHNA general body at the last convention in New York in July 2007, as well as a large number of friends around the continent who would be carrying out their duties as Regional coordinators. Please see the complete list of contacts at the bottom of the KHNA's Contacts page.

The breadth of the KHNA community is evident from the cities where the KHNA contacts are. From Portland (Oregon) to Miami (Florida), from Milwaukee (Wisconsin) to Monterei (Mexico), and from Toronto (Canada) to San Diego (California), KHNA coordinators can be found in most of the major metropolitan areas. Many of the western US cities are coming into the KHNA fold for the first time - Phoenix, Seattle, Salt Lake City and others. Several of these cities are actively participating in the recent activities such as the Swati Tirunal Day music festivals in Los Angeles and San Francisco and the upcoming Sreemad Bhagavatha Sapthaham.

A new position introduced by the President are Vice Presidents who report directly to him from four regions in the USA (west, midwest, south and east) and from Mexico and Latin America. Dr. Ramadas Pillai explains, "As KHNA's strength and reach has grown around the country, the number of regional coordinators in various cities has been increasing. Currently we have 75 regional coordinators, along with over 40 directors and trustees. This makes it difficult for the president, trustee chairman and other office-bearers to be able to discuss upcoming activities with a regional perspective and decide courses of action according to the regional sensitivities. For instance, the demographics are strikingly different among the Malayali Hindu population in the east coast cities, compared to the west coast cities, and their interests are also quite different, from my experience. The families in Canada and Latin America also have their own unique issues that KHNA may need to address. We do not intend to drastically alter the structure followed in the past, where the regional coordinators in various cities were directly in touch with the executive board. Thus, the regional coordinators are not required to report to the regional vice presidents. I find several conveniences in having regional vice presidents who can provide advice and act as "sounding boards" on the regional sensitivities towards our plans and activities. While we were discussing the need for such positions for several months, it is true that certain regional issues were what caused us to act and introduce these regionalVP positions now. We realize that in the future, the KHNA directors and trustees would need to examine the proper duties of regional vice presidents. In addition, we plan to announce a President's advisory panel soon, and this will include eminent personalities in our community and abroad, as well as those who have played significant roles in KHNA's growth over the years".

The announced regional vice presidents are: Sri. Manoj Empranthiri (San Francisco) for the US West Region, Sri. Aravind Pillai (Chicago) for the US midwest region, Sri. Parthasaradhi Pillai (New York) for the US East Region, Sri. Renil Radhakrishnan for the US South region, and Dr. K. Karunakaran Kutty (Toronto) for Canada. The name of the Latin American VP is yet to be announced.