This is an historic Board meeting for several reasons. Firstly it is the first visit to Australia for Sunil Chandy in his role as Director, having previously trained in Adelaide. Secondly it is our first Board meeting in Darwin. This has a twofold purpose. One is to meet at that the same time as the Alumni and secondly to launch a FOV in the Northern Territory.
The affairs of the Board have been discussed between face to face meetings by teleconferences and we had a special teleconference with Devi and Barry Conde about forming the NT FOV. They will host some of the Board for dinner tonight to continue the discussions.
Attempts, however, to contact members of Friends of Vellore in New Zealand and offer them ongoing association with CMC through the Australian group have not been fruitful.
The new Australian FOV website has a more modern look and functionality and serves to update news from CMC and news of activities in the states. It has been helpful to continue to receive the list of Australian visitors who can then be engaged by the state branches upon their return.
There are several projects that we are keen to follow up. The first is the Yelagiri retreat to which we committed funding a few years ago. The second project is the Jawadhi Hills Summer Camps about which were approached for funding and there was considerable enthusiasm for the project. We will also keenly watch progress and plans for the Kannigapurum and Chittoor Campuses.
The two Senior Training Fellows this year are Mrs. Menaka Raghuraman, a lecturer in the College of Nursing and Mr. B Christopher from radiology. This continues a tradition of forging new relationships between the staff at CMC and their counterparts at Australian centres.
Of the Executive I, once again thank our Treasurer Richard Caitens, Publicity Officer Stephen Aseervatham, and vice President Bella George. I especially want to recognise the work over many years of John Rothwell as secretary of the Australian Board as he will be resigning form that role at this meeting.
Finally I plan to attend the next Council Meeting at CMC in January, which will be my last opportunity as President to do so.
Ian Olver AM President Australian Friends of Vellore Board