ICC Elections Express Confidence in Previous Executive Team
The newly elected Executive Committee of the India Culture Center, (from left) Raj Bhalla, Santosh Varma, Pramod Bengani, Nisha Mirani and Hemant Patel pose with the two new Trustees Falguni Gandhi and Sanjay Sohoni. The third Trustee, Manisha Gandhi, was unable to attend.
HOUSTON: Just over a month ago, the India Culture Center held its annual Board elections and on in a follow-up round of elections on Sunday, January 6, in India House, the new Executive Committee and three more Trustees were voted in unanimously. Outside, on a crisp, sunny day, the grounds of the center were filled with players from a local Latino soccer league and the parking lot filled up with spectators and athletes.
To express the ICC’s confidence in the leadership from last year, the same Executive Committee was selected to move forward in 2019 with the exception of the Secretary Ajit Patel who was replaced by Santosh Varma. The others are Nisha Mirani, President; Pramod Bengani, Vice president and Hemant Patel, Treasurer.
The election of the Executives and three vacant Trustee seats were conducted by this reporter who has been an Election Commissioner for four years. The other two Commissioners – Sam Merchant and Girish Pandya – were unable to attend. In addition, it was disclosed that Trustee Raj Bhalla had taken over the remaining one-year term Director position of Harshad Patel, who has had to resign due to ill health.
The remaining EC position of Past President was thrown up for grabs as the 2017 president Falguni Gandhi was term-limited and had to withdraw from the Board, according to the Bylaws. The position would then fall back on the past presidents from previous years, but as both – Raj Bhavsar and Charlie Patel – are currently Trustees, the next in line would be Bhalla, who willingly accepted.
The final bit of votes involved filling the three Trustee seats. Nominations were made from the floor and Falguni Gandhi and Sanjay Sohoni accepted while Manisha Gandhi accepted via a telephone call.
With conclusion of the elections, the ICC Board held its normal meeting and discussed plans for the first flagship event: Republic Day celebration on Sunday, Jan. 27 Stafford Civic Center on Cash Road.