The 29th Annual General Meeting of the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America was held over Friday 29th April to Sunday May 01, 2016. The AGM was hosted by the Zoroastrian Association of Michigan and held at the Holiday Inn Farmington Hills in Novi, Michigan. Nearly 100 delegates representing the various FEZANA Member Associations, Small Groups and the various Committee Chairs attended this three day event.

Pre-AGM Events

The AGM was preceded by the North America Regional Meeting of the World Zoroastrian Chamber of Commerce. Presided over by Edul Daver, the discussions included ways and means to foster more interaction with FEZANA Member associations both locally and globally.

Two Pre-AGM Sessions organized by FEZANA were held on Friday afternoon. The first one was on Seniors 55+ conducted by Navaz Merchant (ZAGNY) and Dolly Dastoor (ZAQ). The talk discussed the findings of their surveys on this topic. The session was video recorded and FEZANA will put up the recording in the days to come. The second session was on Funds and Finances by Ratan Mistry (ZANC) Co-Chair of the Funds and Finance Committee. The session discussed ways and means of fundraising for FEZANA activities.

Friday evening saw the attendees gather at a local community center where everyone networked with the local Zarathushti community over dinner. Before dinner the results of the FEZANA Executive elections were announced, followed by Member Association Reports presented by the various Presidents or FEZANA representatives present.

FEZANA Executive Elections

At the end of this AGM Katayun Kapadia, President FEZANA 2012-2016 finished her two 2 year terms and retired from her post. She will continue on as FEZANA’s Congress Committee Chair. Katayun was lauded by one and all for her excellent leadership and stewardship of FEZANA over the last 4 years as President.

At the end of the AGM Saghar Javanshir, Secretary FEZANA 2013-2016 stepped down from her post. Saghar’s contribution to the FEZANA cause and her integral role within the Executive was appreciated.

The new FEZANA Executive 2016-2017 was elected as under

• Homi D. Gandhi, President FEZANA
• Arzan Sam Wadia, Vice-President FEZANA
• Nilufer Shroff, Treasurer FEZANA
• Percy Master, Secretary FEZANA
• Afreed Mistry, Assistant Secretary FEZANA

7th World Zoroastrian Youth Congress

FEZANA Member Associations will be hosting the next WZYC in 2019. The winning bid was awarded to the California Zoroastrian Center (CZC).

30th Annual General Meeting 2017

Zoroastrian Association of Houston was awarded the bid to host the 2017 FEZANA Annual General Meeting

Annual ZAOM Gala

The local Zarathushti community put up an excellent Gala Banquet on Saturday night. Events included a Gara Raffle and a fantastic entertainment program performed by the kids of ZAOM. The Gala was a sellout with over 220 people registered.

Conclusion

Besides the above discussed highlights, the AGM also had its regular items on the agenda. This included committee reports, and other deliberations and discussions that shall be documented in the AGM Minutes that shall be made public in the weeks to come.

The AGM ended on Sunday with the conclusion of all business and the approval of the budget for the year 2016-2017. A vote of thanks was proposed to the outgoing Executive. Thanks were also offered to the host association ZAOM who did an excellent job in hosting this AGM, and all those who attended left with wonderful memories that will last for many years.