Dear Members of our Community:

Shuvo Nobo Borsho.

We convey our grateful appreciation to you for your enthusiastic and overwhelming support, goodwill, and participation in this year's grand Pohela Boishakh celebration. The outstanding turnout in the event, despite unfavorable weather conditions, unequivocally reaffirms the community’s sense of belonging to BAGA, all the while heartening the BODs’ effort to advance the organization to a greater height and purpose.  We faced a number of challenges in the organization of BAGA’s first ever Pohela Boishakh festival, including a late start and some disruptions, but together with you we persevered, persisted, and prevailed. Thank you so very much!

An event of this scale obviously required direct involvement by many community volunteers. They include everyone associated with organizing cultural programs, helping with rehearsals, venue and other logistics, food prep and sales, and myriads of other chores. We are grateful to all of them. We also thank the sponsors of this event, including many businesses and individuals who supported us financially. We like to mention Pragma Systems, Inc. in this regard, which has been a steadfast patron of BAGA since its inception. We also recognize Mr. Salim Chowdhury who also has been an enthusiastic sponsor of BAGA all along.

Our special thanks go out to city and state officials who set aside their routine weekend activities in order to be with us. As well, the out-of-town guests and cultural participants from San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas deserve special mention for their attendance and patronage. We appreciate the efforts of Bangladesh Student Association of Texas A&M University whose members drove the distance and braved the chilly and windy day until the very last moments. BSA of UT Austin also participated in the event, including setting up a stall, and we are appreciative of that. We thank our colleagues and friends from other communities who kindly joined and celebrated with us at the event.

Special thanks to Central Texas Bengali Association (CTBA) members and its president Subha Addy for attending and extending helping hands in the event.

Last but not least, the presence and performance of the band Jagoron at the event, just like at Bijoy Dibosh 2006, elated and exalted the youthful spirit of the community. Mr. Joy of this same entity, like before, engineered the audio station with consummate skills and finesse. We are indebted to Jagoron and its members.

We take this opportunity to offer our apology for any inconveniences you may have suffered due to the coziness of the venue. There was very little we could do this year in terms of securing a better venue, but rest assured that the BODs will be working hard on this issue. In fact, Austin City councilman Mike Martinez declared at this year’s event that next year’s Pohela Boishakh will be held at a downtown location, and it will be sponsored by the City of Austin.

Moving on, BAGA will continue its effort to reach out to everyone of Bangladeshi origin in the greater Austin area. We have also expanded our effort to plan and participate in many community activities and volunteer opportunities at the city and state levels. We are counting on your continued involvement in all these efforts. Your encouragement and support will be our guiding light as we begin the new year with a renewed sense of purpose and vision, which is to make BAGA a model community organization.

We pray for a happy and prosperous new year for all of you.

Sincerely,

Board of Directors

Bangladesh Association of Greater Austin – BAGA

www.bagatx.org