Minutes: SUA Board Meeting
Sunday, Nov. 26, 2006
Hampton Inn Tropicana, Las Vegas, NV

 

February, 2007

Present: Dr. Amir Ismail Ajami, Ms. Zohreh Amoozgar, Dr. Kazem Attaran, Dr. Maryam Bahreini, Dr. Mohammad Behforouz, Dr. Ramazan Benrashid, Dr. Masood Khatamee, Dr. Khosrow Nasr, Dr. Hassan Ronaghy, Dr. Hossain Ronaghy, Dr. Bahram Katbab, Mr. Farbod Shafiei, and Mr. Reza Rahnama (Mr. Rahnama is a member of the SUAA Board in Iran).

Dr. Behforouz called the meeting to order at 9:05 AM and welcomed all for attending the meeting. He thanked the newly elected members for their willingness to help the organization.
The first item in the agenda was to select the officers of the Board.
A number of the members proposed that Dr. Behforouz continues his services as the Board president. Dr. Behforouz stated that he would prefer very much if another friend accept this responsibility. It was suggested that Dr. Behforouz accepts the position for a year until another person takes over the job. Dr. Behforouz agreed to continue for another year. However, emphasized that the success of the SUA depends on the willingness of the members, especially those of the Board to be involved and help the organization in its worthy cause. He asked the members for more active involvement in the affairs of the organization and the members agreed to be more active in fulfilling the SUA Goals.
Dr. Nasr graciously agreed to continue as the SUA Treasurer.
Dr. Attaran kindly agreed to continue his position as the SUA Secretary.

The second item in the agenda was to announce the results of the SUA Board election which was done at the meeting of the SUA members on Saturday 25 th of November. Dr. Khatamee as the Chair of the Election Committee, stated that according to our Bylaws 2/3 of the Board members (10) needed to be elected and 1/3 of the previous Board members (5) will stay on the Board. Five members from the previous Board were already volunteered to continue their services in the New Board. Dr. Khatamee read the names as: Dr. Attaran, Dr. Behforouz, Dr. Jamshidi, Dr. Khatamee and Dr. Nasr.
The newly elected 10 Board members in the decreasing order of number of votes (see Note 1 for details) are: Dr. Amir Ismail Ajami, Dr. Farideh Tehrani, Dr. Ramazan Benrashid, Ms. Zohreh Amoozgar, Dr. Shahla Masood, Dr. Asghar Rastegar, Dr. Mehdi Moghaddas, Dr. Hassan Ronaghy, Mr. Farbod Shafiei, and Dr. Maryam Bahreini.

General Discussions and Proposals : Dr. Nasr and Dr. Behforouz stated that our asking fee of $225 (member) and $150 (guest) for the Reunion was not adequate to cover the cost of the Conference / Reunion and need to be reexamined and adequate fees be determined for the future gatherings.

Ghorban's Fund: It was moved and seconded that the SUA Officers be members of the Board of the Ghorban's Fund. The motion was approved by consensus.
It was suggested that the SUA and the Organizations of the SU Medical School Graduates in North America joined together as one unit. Dr. Khatamee stated that previous efforts to have the East and the West Medical Organizations join as one unit have failed.
It was suggested to look into the possibility of SUA and the Society of the SU Medical School Graduates has a joint Conference/Reunion.

Fund Raising: Dr. Behforouz suggested that Reunions are the ideal times for fund raising and this needs to be considered and carefully planned for the future gatherings.

IRS and Tax Exemption: Dr. Attaran stated that according to the IRS Rules, SUA needs to be quite active as a Charity Organization to fulfill its status as a Tax exempt organization. The IRS will evaluate our activities in 2008 again and we need to show them that we have been indeed active in our charity goals.

SUA Committees and Chairs (Please see Note 2 for the list of the Committees and a brief description for each).
Dr. Behforouz suggested that our immediate need is for the SUA Committees (as disclosed for the IRS) to start their functions ASAP.
He asked the members to nominate friends or volunteer as Chair or committee members. This was agreed by the members.

Motion by Dr. Ajami: to have 3 to 5 members for each committee. The motion was seconded and approved by consensus.
The names of the committees and selected chairs as well as some committee members are as follows:

It was proposed that Dr. Bahreini, Dr. Nasr and Dr. Katbab look at a suitable location for our next Conference/Reunion possibly around the Los Angeles area.

 

NOTE 1

At the general meeting, on Saturday Nov. 25 th, as the Chair of the Election Committee Dr. Khatamee projected on the screen, the section of the SUA Bylaws where it states that 2/3 (10) of the SUA Board Members must be elected by the members present. He read the names of the five individuals of the previous Board members who had volunteered to stay on the Board. (Attaran, Behforouz, Jamshidi, Khatamee and Nasr).
Dr. Khatamee, then read the names of the candidates who were already in the Ballot as: Dr. Abedi, Dr. Ajami, Ms. Amoozgar, Dr. Benrashid, Ms. Garazan, Dr. Kasmai, Dr. Khojasteh, Dr. Moghaddas, Dr. Naderi-Oboodi, Dr. Rastegar, Dr. Ronaghy, Mr. Shafiei and Dr. Tehrani.
Dr. Abedi did not wish to be a candidate and withdrew her name.
Dr. Khatamee then asked for further nomination from the floor. Seven people were nominated as follows: Dr. Bahreini, Ms. Bozarjomehri, Ms. Irvanian, Dr. Masood, Ms. Mojab, Dr. Mostofimaab, and Mrs. Ronaghy.

The ballot papers with a total of 19 candidate names were distributed among the present members and the results were tallied and checked.
The results are as follows: The number of votes that each candidate received is in parenthesis.
The ballot papers with a total of 19 candidate names were distributed among the members present, then collected and the votes were tallied and checked.
The results are as follows: The number of votes received by each candidate is in parentheses following the name.

Dr. Ajami (41), Dr.Tehrani (37), Dr. Benrashid (37), Ms. Amoozgar (36), Dr. Masood (35), Dr. Rastegar (32), Dr. Moghaddas (31), Dr. Hassan Ronaghy (30), Mr. Shafiei (30), Dr. Bahreini (28), Dr. Naderi-Oboodi (17) Ms. Bozarjomehri (16)Ms. Garazan (16), Dr. Kasmai (15), Dr. Khojasteh (12), Dr. Mostofimaab (8), Ms. Irvanian (7), Mrs. Ronaghy (4), Ms. Mojab (2).

The first 10 individuals in the above listed were elected and with the 5 members from the previous Board, the new SUA Board will consist of 15 members.

 

NOTE 2

SUA Committees:
Promotion of dialogue and cooperation between the SUA members here and their counterparts in Iran in scientific, educational and humanitarian areas that are the main objectives of SUA will be done through the following committees. Although some of our members have been involved in some of these activities in the past, we have not yet been in these exchange activities in any organized fashion. As an organization, we have now achieved enough active members to plan for specific educational and charitable activities. To accomplish this, a number of committees will be formed and each will spell out their respective activities and oversee the work, all with the approval of the Board. The members of the various committees will serve voluntarily with no financial compensation. There may be minimal expenses to cover the cost of items such as stationery, brochures and long distance calls.

1. Committee on Exchange of Experts: This committee will identify and make a list of professionals from our organization (SUA) who would be willing to give lectures or workshops in their respective academic expertise at Shiraz University or at SUAA conferences. This committee will also arrange lectures and visits of members of the Shiraz University community to the SUA functions in the US. These activities will be at no or minimal cost to the SUA. In the past few years several of our members, on an individual basis, have voluntarily given lectures or workshops in medicine, sciences and engineering at Shiraz University at no cost to the SUA. Two of our Board members, Dr. Rastegar and Dr. Khatamee (MD's) have been and are involved in Bam's Earthquake project and have taken several trips to help the victims of Bam's Earthquake at no cost to the SUA.

2. Fund Raising Committee: This committee will develop a mechanism by which funds will be raised to cover expenses such as student's scholarships and other expenses to help the faculty and students of Shiraz University in their research and academic work. Except for the scholarships to the students here or at Shiraz University, these other expenses will be minimal and will include costs such as those associated with research or educational articles and sending them by mail or fax to individuals at Shiraz University or SUAA.

3. Scholarship and Research Committee: This committee will develop mechanisms by which the Iranian students with outstanding academic record who are in a financial need, both in the United States and at Shiraz University, receive tuition help for their studies. The students will send their application and academic record to a committee consisting of a number of SUAA Board members in Iran and SUA Board members here in the USA. Based on the need and the academic standing of the student, the committees will select the awardees (s) and the amount of scholarship to be awarded, all depending on the availability of funds. All such fund will be paid directly to the university involved in the name of the recipient of the scholarship. There will be a condition in the scholarship contract that if for any reason the money is not spent as designated, it will be the responsibility of the accepting university to return such funds to SUA Treasurer in US. This committee will also seek the expertise of the SUA members to help the students in their research. This help will be in the form of consultation and sending up to date articles and references. Occasionally, it may include arranging for a SU student or SU faculty to do part of their research (e.g. in the summer) in the laboratories of those SUA members in the United
States who are willing to help at a minimal cost to the SUA.

4. Student and Faculty Help Committee: The committee will identify the SUA members in various institutions who are willing to help graduate applicants from Shiraz University to obtain admission at the American Institutions for post graduate studies and training. Also the committee will help the newcomers to settle in their new environments. These activities will be done voluntarily and at no cost to the SUA. A good example of this activity has been done by Dr. Mohammad Behforouz, a professor of chemistry (retired) at Ball State University who has facilitated obtaining the admission and assistantship for over 50 Iranian graduate students in the sciences. These students have been some of Ball State outstanding graduate students both in their academic work and their teaching. Most of these students have either already received their Ph.D.'s from prestigious US Universities or are now in the process of studying towards their Ph.D. degrees.

5. Membership Committee: This committee will be responsible for attracting and registering members. This activity has not been undertaken in any systematic and organized fashion yet. We are now hoping that with a tax exempt status, we will be more successful in this regard. The expenses of this committee will be the cost of papers, telephone calls and printing brochures.

6. Conference/Reunion Committee: This committee will be in charge of organizing and conducting conferences / reunions in terms of location, theme, scientific and cultural contents and speakers.