Wednesday, 27 March 2013
Paulite meet at Bangkok, Thailand on 21st
March 2013.
As scheduled, the
meet up of Paulites to discuss issues related to the Event Paulite Forever,
took place at the office of Mr. Rattan Singh Narula (President OPA Thailand
Chapter), at “The OPUS”, Thonglor, Bangkok. After a quick round of
introductions over supper (sponsored by Rakesh Metakhun (1977) and Jaswant
Sokey (1977)) at the venue, the presentation about the Event was made with the
aid of a slide show by Jaswant Sokey. In addition, the gathering were handed
out individual printed copies covering the four broad subjects:- (a) What is
hoped to be achieved through this Event, (b) How the Paulite Forever Blog or
Website could be put to good use, (c) A summary of the proposed Entertainment
content for the Event, and, (d) The role of the core team members. The slide
show, comprised a basic run up of the various meets that had already taken
place at various locations through the year 2012. It also highlighted some of
the discussions that had taken place at those meets. The slide show also
consisted of an introduction to the core team members who had volunteered to
help out with making the Event a success. The Paulites who attended the meet
were:-
- Mr. Ken Pearce (1952)
- Mr. Mr. Narong Rangsichainirand (1961)
- Mr. Rattan Singh Narula (1962)
- Mr. Rakesh Metakhun (1977)
- Mr. Nilim Barua (1979)
- Sandeep Puri (1979)
- Jaswant Ch. Sokey (1977)
The topics of
discussion were as follows:-
Mr. Ken Pearce, who
represents OPA (Europe) Chapter, once again reaffirmed their support of the
event and the basic Paulite based principles which the Event stands for. It was
generally agreed that an Event of such magnitude will require the participation
of a broad based spectrum of Paulites from different batches. It was also felt
by Mr. Ken Pearce that more time would be needed to properly execute the plans
of such an event and he reaffirmed OPA Europe’s stand that if would be better
to hold the event around October 2014 rather than during April. But he also
made it very clear that OPA(E) would go with the majority on the choice of the
date for the event. Mr. Ken Pearce, also restated the desire of the OPA (E) to
chair a discussion at the event on the subject “the way forward”. This was
earlier expressed by Mr. J.K.Hammond of OPA (E) in an earlier Email.
Mr. Narong, who
represents the OPA Thailand Chapter as its secretary, advised maximum financial
caution to ensure that the money collected for such an Event, covers all
relevant expenses, and that there is no short fall of funds needed to make
payments against the costs at the end of the function.
This would require
judicious budgeting, which would only be possible after a clearer position
could be attained regarding the number of Paulites that would finally attend.
Mr. Narong also suggested that after the budgeting of a final figure of
projected expenses, the core team of the event organizers should utilize the
offices of the different OPA Chapters located world wide to collect the
targeted funds. Jaswant Sokey, clarified to the gathering that the two major
sources of fund raising for such an event that were being looked at till date,
were:- (a) a minimum entry fee from participating Paulites, and, (b)
Sponsorships from both Paulite based and non Paulite based sources. A
suggestion was also made by Mr. Narong, to get the involvement of the parents
of the current students, as it would contribute to a larger number of
participants at the event.
Mr. Ratan Singh
Narula, assured his indirect personal support towards organizational aspects of
the event. A sincere appeal was made by Jaswant Sokey to the members present to
obtain more involvement from the junior Thailand based Paulites also. Nilim Baruah
also felt the need to pass around word about the event more effectively among a
larger section of the Paulites based at Thailand and Mr. Singh hoped to pass on
the Paulite legacy to future Thailand based Paulites, with the help of the
younger generation of Paulites such as Mr. Baruah and Mr. Puri.
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