Telugu Association elects the first woman president

The New Zealand Telugu Association hosted its Annual General Meeting on Monday, January 1 and also completed its 20 years of existence. This year has been exceptional for the community, as it has elected its first woman president since the birth of the Association in 1998.

Ms Aruna Bhoompelly has been elected as the new leader of the Association at the AGM followed by a team of 22 committee members.

This committee will have four vice presidents, a general secretary, a treasurer, two joint treasurers, five joint secretaries, seven executive members and two co-opted members. Ms Bhoompelli is preceded by Dharmendra Alle, who served the as the president of NZTA in 2017.

The NZTA election process starts months before the AGM with a public notice on NZTA’s website and social media requesting all members of the community to come forward and fill in the application to be a part of the election process.

A cut-off date before the AGM and voting is done at the AGM if too many people are contesting for the post. The final selection takes place at the AGM, and the new president and executive team is then chosen.

With growing number of Teluguites across the country, NZTA has initiated a committee in different cities with a local dedicated team. This year NZTA announced its newly formed Hamilton/Waikato team to look after the events and activities of the Telugu community in those regions. The new team in Hamilton will be called as Telugu Association- Hamilton Branch with the same motto of serving the extended Telugu community.

The committee in Auckland will remain as the main organization serving and advising the stretched divisions of Telugu community.

The Hamilton branch of Telugu Association will be led by Sudamsh Bamara as the president and Ravi Reddy Boddu and Sai Sravani Tatikola as the vice presidents of the committee.

Both NZTA and its subsidiary in Hamilton hosted its first successful event of the year by organising ‘Sankranti Sambaralu’ on Saturday, January 6 & 13.

NZTA’s next big community event is hosting a blood donation camp to raise awareness of the importance of blood donation and getting the community together towards one noble cause. The camp will be held on Thursday, February 8 at Epsom NZ Blood branch from 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.