MINUTES OF MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF OLD COTTONIANS ASSOCIATION (INDIA)
(at 19/48, First Floor, Malcha Marg Market, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi on 19.04.2017)

Those Present :-
S.NO.
NAME
1.
Justice R. S. Sodhi (Retd.) – President
2.
Mr. Ashwani Singh Virk
3.
Mr. N.K.Mehra
4.
Mr. Himmat Singh
5.
Mr. Chetan Singh
6.
Mr. Vivek Bhasin
7.
Mr. Anurag Batra
8.
Mr. K.Vijay Singh
9.
Mr. Harpreet Khatkar

1. Mr. Rupinder Singh Sodhi, the New President, welcomed all the Old Cottonians present to the house. After formal introductions were exchanged between the New President and other members, Mr. R.S.Sodhi firstly thanked the outgoing President Mr. Sukhinder Singh and his team for the hard work they put on to take the OCA (India) to a new level. He also briefly discussed the activities being done at the school presently. The President informed the members about the constitution of a new Committee under his leadership and urged the younger OCs to take on charge of the committee.

2. The President and the members duly elected and appointed the following members to form the Committee :-

a) Neel Kamal Mehra – Treasurer
b) Ashwani Singh Virk – Secretary
c) Vivek Bhasin – Jt. Secretary, Member (Delhi Chapter)
d) K. Vijay Singh – Member (Delhi Chapter)
e) Col. Uppi Gill – Member (Northern Chapter)
f) Dr. Ravi Toor – Member (Northern Chapter)
g) Mohnish Sharma – Member (Mumbai Chapter)
h) Suneel Bandhu – Member (Mumbai Chapter)
i) Himmat Singh – Member

Nomination of 2 members from Himachal Chapter is still awaited on assurance from its President Mr. Narinder Chauhan.

3. The newly formed committee also decided to change the authorised signatory/ ies of OCA(India) Bank Accounts with immediate effect.

4. The outgoing Jt. Secretary / Treasurer A.S.Virk duly handed over the charge to the new Treasurer Mr. N.K.Mehra (since the Previous secretary was not present in the house) and also informed the President that to meet the current expenses of ongoing activities of OCA (INDIA), it had been decided by the earlier committee that the funds of OCA (INDIA) lying at UCO Bank, Shimla would be utilised.

5. The house was also informed by A.S.Virk that a ‘digitisation of records’ project had been taken up by the 1983 batch in 2016 and OCs Rajesh Bhalla and Mohnish Sharma had been entrusted with the responsibility towards execution of the same. The work towards the same is in considerable progress, so a part payment towards such expenses had also been approved by the previous committee, out of the funds already donated by their batch to OCA (INDIA), to the Vendor/s responsible for getting the job done and the same efforts would be continued by the new committee to see the project through.

6. On other matters there was a suggestion by a member to buy a permanent office space for the Old Cottonian Association (India) office after duly consulting the Chairman Emeritus Mr. D.C. Anand. Some members of the house were apprehensive towards the idea since the cost of buying such an office could be huge and as such the OCA(India) is not cash-strapped. The House took a note of this and still decided to try and probe the possibility of the same further.

The President put forward a valuable suggestion to the house that if individual accomplishments/ achievements of Old students from their respective batches could be compiled in a Book/ Directory, as to how they have performed in their educational, social, professional life, it would be great for our fraternity. The members lauded the same and Vivek Bhasin was delegated to co-ordinate the respective batches and compile data as far as possible.
The President also put forward the idea that a Corner/ Wall in the War Memorial should be dedicated to Indian Defence officers (OCs), who have fought in any war/s, with brass name plates. (Any batch could bear the expense of the same), The House agreed to take up the matter with school authority.
K. Vijay Singh informed the house that the Delhi Chapter is already compiling a handybook of ‘OCs and their whereabouts’ information wherein address and phone numbers would be readily available to all.
Chetan Singh was also delegated with the task of organizing some good activities in order to bring together the OCs.
Himmat Singh has been very enthusiastic in recording the Birthdays of OCs and their Wives and also their Marriage anniversaries, his humble gesture was appreciated by everyone and it was suggested that as far as possible a telephone call from OCA(India) on such an occasion to the respective OC or his wife would be very inspiring.
A.S.Virk put up to the house that it has been long discussed in the previous executive meetings to start an interactive OCA App which would reach out to every OC across the world. But no ground level action has been taken. Also, the 1983 batch had opted to bear the expenses towards the same, if the app were to be launched. The house agreed to invite quotes from at least 3 Vendors to take up the matter further since it is a need of the hour today to be connected across everyone’s mobile phones.

The President invited everyone present in the house to a high tea and ended the meeting on a thank you note.

———————————x———————————-