Press Release:  Moving ANA Forward We, the concerned past presidents, concerned former officers, and concerned  life members of ANA would like to express our opinions related to the current controversies and dispute related to ANA. The current problems of ANA have emerged primarily because the current president has misled the entire organization. What happened? In 2010 Boston convention, ANA encountered a staggering loss of over $85,000. The president of ANA, as the leader, has still not investigated this massive loss. As a result, the ANA Executive Committee appointed a three person team as Boston Convention Financial Investigation Commission (BCFIC). The team found a number of anomalies including the current officers personally taking financial benefits from ANA. The report pinpointed the current ANA Officers as responsible for this financial mess. Contrary to the ANA president’s acceptance of losses as valid, the BCFIC report contradicts his statement and states that many of the expenses were not legitimate as they were spent to personally benefit some ANA officers and the individuals favored by them.  Following the suggestion of the past presidents, on moral grounds, the Vice President resigned, and the Information Director also resigned later. The president, under whose watch this entire fiasco took place, has not resigned saying that he has not done anything wrong. Inside the Boston Convention Mess According to BCFIC report, Boston convention had revenue of about $85,000 and expenditure of $170,000. All the participants paid their own bills at the convention (except ANA Officers) and ANA provided nothing free to the participants. Where was the $170,000 spent? ANA is not an organization which doles out money to people. Then why the president is not presenting a line item expenditure and show to the members and well wishers where the money was spent? Some Disturbing Actions by the President On or about December 3, 2010, the entire nine Member Team of the Past Presidents of ANA in their advisory role unanimously made a private and confidential formal request in writing to the current president to resign so that there will be no bickering about ANA’s leadership. This step would allow the organization to move forward but this request was to no avail. Subsequently, a number of life members also requested the current president to step down, but to the same conclusion. The Executive Committee tried to form an implementation committee as suggested by BCFIC but the president with the support of general secretary and treasurer vehemently opposed and prevented it from materializing. On December 12, 2010 the Executive Board formed an Ad-Hoc Committee to take care of day-to-day affairs and asked ANA officers (which included the president) to concentrate in resolving the Boston fiasco. The president did nothing in the past eight months on this serious issue. On October 3, 2010 the president asked Executive Board to give him extra-ordinary powers to act on behalf of ANA. However, the Board rejected such a request. At the same Board meeting, a decision was made and a resolution passed that curtailed all special powers of all the officers including that of the President in order to bring some order to the chaos created by the current leadership. The only action the Ad-Hoc Committee took was formation of an implementation committee under the chairmanship of Mr. Tsewang Sherpalama. However, the Ad-Hoc committee has been stifled by the shenanigans of the President, and it has not been able to work effectively. In frustration, three elected Executive Committee members resigned and most are not taking active role in the ANA affairs. The Executive Committee, other than the President, is almost non-functional at present. Is the president acting according to ANA bylaws? Most activities undertaken by the president, since the Boston Convention, are against the by-laws. For example:  - The president called a special meeting despite knowing that his power to do so was already curtailed by Executive Board on October 3, 2010. Therefore, that so called special general body meeting was against the by-laws.  -          The so called special general body meeting was patched along with ANS meeting. In fact, the attendance of the members of ANS - a local organization, was more than double that of ANA members. And those who attended ANA meeting were the left-overs of the previous ANS meeting and most of them were not even ANA members.  -  No roll call was taken to determine/verify whether attendees were ANA members.  - A person who paid ten dollars 13 years ago for a year of membership claimed that he was legitimate member of ANA until now, and proposed to give special power to president at this general body meeting. The president claims that he has received the special powers as given to him by this special general body meeting. It is against the by-laws.  -           President appointed Kumar Deuja as an Information Director, which according to bylaws needs to be appointed with the consensus of three officers. There are no three officers left to bring the consensus (two officers resigned and one is on default and president took his power and gave it to general secretary). Another questions, is Mr. Deuja a paid member or just a volunteer? Is he also been executive member for two years as required by bylaw?  -  The auditor general of ANA since past 10 years resigned due to dissatisfaction. The President appointed another one without consultation or consent of the Executive Board.  -          The President made a public announcement expelling one of the Board members under a bogus pretext. Under what authority he has that power? Bylaw never gives him that power and Executive Board has never taken that decision. This is another example of abuse of authority by the President.  - Due to dissatisfaction with the actions and policies of the President, three Executive Board members resigned from ANA Board. The President quickly filled those posts by his hand-picked persons and those are again not even members of ANA as required by ANA bylaw. The bylaw criteria of three officers consensus is also violated as there are only two officers left in the present board.  -  Time and time again, the past presidents, as a group and as advisors to ANA tried to broker peace and help the President and the Association. However, on every occasion, the current president would pretend and ask for time to think but actually was buying time and was never acting in good faith on his promises.  -  The President called a board meeting attended by four members on February 6, 2011, which decided to form an all powerful independent (implementation) task force (ITF) headed by Mr. Tsewang Sherpalama. The attendance of just four legitimate ANA members in a 21 member board is not the right quorum to make such an important decision.  -         There was an understanding reached that the independent task force (ITF) will be formed which would be co-chaired by Dr. Kunjar Sharma and Mr. Tsewang Sherpalama which the president approved in writing on February 11, 2011. However, the president later completely retracted and unilaterally made Mr. Sherpalama as the only chairman of the ITF. What authority does the president has to give such a power to an individual?  -         Announcement of 29th convention in D.C. is in itself overstepping of power of the president. Much more, the appointments of convention chair (Tsewang Sherpalama) and the formation of convention committee was not done in accordance with due process. In view of all this, the Association is in deep turmoil. Nearly all of the past presidents, life members and well wishers of ANA are torn as to the steps we need to take to get the organization back on its feet. It is clearly not the wishes of the majority of past presidents and life members to be a tool of the current President and go to Washington DC to attend a Conference which has no legitimacy, and which is not being planned in an open and honest manner. It is also clearly not the wishes of the majority of past presidents and life members to be a tool of the current President and vote for him for a second term (or for life as he may wish to change the bylaws) or his henchman or any other person he wishes to prop-up. Never in the history of ANA have we been so cornered by a single individual determined to take unilateral actions   Submitted by Concerned Past Presidents, Former Officers, and Life Members March 15, 2011