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Presence:

A meeting of the SEBS-NA Executive Committee started at 3 pm EST on the August 31, 2002 at the ExComm meeting room at www.sebsonline.org. The following people were present:
Kiran Sitoula, President
Sagar Onta, General Secretary
Yubraj Acharya, Treasurer
Laxman Udas Pandey, Observer.

Treasurer Appreciated:

The General Secretary thanked the Treasurer for helping the general secretary with the preparation and publication of agenda. The President seconded the motion.

Batch Reps, and a need to make SEBS-NA stronger:

The President mentioned that he had not been able to approach most batches regarding batch representatives. He suggested that the committee set a firm deadline before the next meeting to deal with the batch representatives’ issue. The General Secretary suggested that the committee be clear on what we are going to say to the batch representatives before approaching them. He also expressed a need to make a bigger group of people a part of SEBS-NA and that he had to come up with some definite plans. The Treasurer mentioned that the batches in his responsibility were busy working and that he would approach them very soon. A need to make SEBS-NA more established was reiterated. That is where the batch representatives would come into play. The Treasurer expressed a need to focus on member services for some time. The President then said that he would initiate phone conversations with the SEBS-NA Ex-comm members to solicit ideas. Various approaches towards making SEBS-NA more institutional will be discussed then.

Handover of Treasurer’s responsibility:

The Treasurer mentioned that no progress had been made on the financial plan for the next fiscal year. The President stated that he had talked to Gyanu Lamichhane, the erstwhile Treasurer about transfer of signature. He was going to call the bank and find out the procedure for transferring signatures. He also mentioned that he would arrange a meeting with the Treasurer as soon as possible to handover the responsibility.

Communication:

A need for better communication was felt by everyone. The General Secretary suggested that we have phone conversations every weekend or so. The motion was unanimously passed. The officials then updated their contact information.

SEBS-AGM, MoU and the Office Development Proposal, Dinesh Prasai’s work appreciated:

The Treasurer put forward his opinion that the relationship with SEBS had been blurred further after the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, was sidelined in the SEBS AGM. He further asked if SEBS had been notified of this matter. The General Secretary answered that Rabindra Maharjan had been contacted and told to modify the MoU to suit SEBS’s interest and to send it to us. He had a feeling that SEBS did not like the MoU primarily because he was told that it caters too much to the chapters’ needs. He will call Rabindra Maharjan and discuss the issue before the next meeting. The President said that even if MoU was ignored it was positive AGM and that goal towards MoU would be a next logical step. The President stated that he had received several “positive” emails from the SEBS officers in the last few weeks. He expressed satisfaction over SEBS AGM and stated that SEBS NA should help SEBS in whatever ways it can when it moves towards the right direction. The General Secretary expressed satisfaction over the Office Development Plan. The officers agreed that the plan was very impressive and expressed confidence that this would be the stepping stone for a better SEBS. Everyone appreciated Dinesh Prasai’s 310B and others in AGM for their work.

Project Acceptance Policy, complications, flow of money to BNKS clubs, relationship with SEBS:

The General Secretary said that we had to develop a clear vision for SEBS-NA before going ahead with the Project Acceptance Policy, PAP. He reiterated that SEBS NA’s existence would be fruitful only if it went hand in hand with SEBS and that the categorization of funds in the PAP had been problematic. The Treasurer insisted that the flow of funds to the clubs at BNKS be stopped and that the clubs should generate the required fund the way they did in the past. The President expressed approval over the Treasurer’s idea and stated that the fund should be allotted for new initiatives only. The General Secretary expressed disapproval saying that we should not extend hands in too many directions. He stated a need to inform SEBS, informally at first, before drafting a document like the PAP. No concrete consensus was reached. Matter will be further discussed.

LUP welcomed to SEBS-NA and the meeting:

Candidate for Vice President Laxman Udas Pandey, LUP, was welcomed to North America and to the meeting by the officers. The General Secretary requested him to jump in the conversation at his own discretion.

Memorandum of the reunion 2002:

The President apologized for not being able to complete the memorandum of the reunion. He will do it as soon as possible.

Election for VP:

The General Secretary said there were two candidates who had send the application for the Vice President of SEBS-NA. The President said he would contact one of the candidates to make sure he was serious about it and if there happens to be only one candidate at the end, that candidate would automatically be declared the Vice President. The Treasurer expressed approval. The General Secretary stated that given the criteria set earlier, particularly a need to have stayed in the States for some amount of time, the process might not be as straight forward as expected. Matter will be dealt as more information becomes available.

Web, Rajan Nepal appreciated, SEBS’s perception of the site:

The Committee expressed high appreciations for the good job Rajan Nepal, along with the web team, had done regarding the SEBS online design. The President said he had suggested the webmaster to include links to more websites. The General Secretary mentioned that SEBS might be planning to launch its own site, as he has heard about it somewhere. SEBS might have a feeling that we are doing everything ourselves, he said. LUP was asked about SEBS’s perception about the site. He replied that a notion that the control/ownership was “not on their side” existed. A need to clarify that both the excomms have equal access and that the server was in the States because of the technology was also expressed. Replying LUP’s query, the President said that add/delete feature was now enabled and some of the SEBS ExComm members were utilizing it. The Treasurer asked if it would be possible to give all batch reps an access to the ExComm pages. This will be discussed later over the phone.

SEBS-NA priorities, questionnaire and relationship with SEBS:

The General Secretary stressed that the things had to be sorted out with SEBS before laying the priorities. We had promised to work together with SEBS, he stated. The President said that although no one can argue the success of SEBS-NA without cooperation of SEBS, we should be able to set our own priorities. The Committee decided to put the questionnaire, prepared for the reunion, on the web and include in the next newsletter. This will also be discussed over the phone.

Recent graduates, networking and what can be done:

The Treasurer will draft a welcome letter addressed to the graduates from BNKS who have come to the States this year. He was instructed to include tax help, other member services of SEBS-NA and the contact information of the ExComm. The letter will also be included in the newsletter. Regarding job opportunities for the frosh, the General Secretary will update the job openings on transportation engineering and the President will update on the international jobs. The Treasurer stated that most people seemed to be confused about loan and asked if there was anythin