Following is the report on the GOSUMEC Foundation Meet held recently (view
power point presentation)
Dear Friends:
It gives us immense pleasure to share with all of you what a wonderful GOSUMEC
get together we had last Sunday (Oct. 13, 2002) at Viceroy of India in Lombard,
Illinois, USA from 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. CDT.
We had around 40 attendees (hit a minimum target - we had good quality, now
we need more quantity), great GSMC/KEMH power point presentation by Dr. Manubhai
Kothari, update on GOSUMEC Foundation by Dr. Vijay Dave followed by an extraordinary
multi-media presentation entitled "Timelessly..." put together by GSMC students,
Drs. Nilima Kshirsagar (Dean), Ravi Ramakantan and Lopa Mehta. We saw many people
wiping their tears of joy while watching the musical extravaganza (what an emotional
journey!).
The senior most alumnus was Dr. Chhotalal N. Shah (1946 MBBS)who attended with
his wife Ansuyaben (Dr. C. N. Shah is shown with Dr. Vijay Dave in the last
picture attached below). Dr. Vikram Kamdar from Los Angeles specially came for
this event. Drs. Ajit and Madhavi Parekh came from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Rest
of the attendees were from Illinois and Indiana.
Dr. Manubhai Kothari assured the audience that whatever money is sent by the
GOSUMEC Foundation USA for any specific project will be fully used for the project
(not a single cent will be misused or wasted).
Dr. Vijay Dave gave a status on GOSUMEC Foundation structure and current position
of the Corpus Fund. He appealed to all GSMC/KEMH Alumnus to give at a minimum
$1,000 to the corpus Fund. The principal amount will stay here in USA. Interest
from this corpus fund will support future projects at GSMC/KEMH. In addition,
there is an immediate need to procure Audiovisual Aids for Lecture Halls # 2,3,4
& 5 at a cost of Rs. 10 lacs ($21,000). We have set the goal of raising $21,000
for the above project by 12/31/2002.
We are happy to report that as of 10/15/02, we have received donations/ pledges
of $22,003 for the Corpus Fund, $5,000 for Lecture Halls Renovation project
and $6,603 for the Audiovisual Aids for Lecture Halls. We are short by only
$14,400 for this special project. The attached power point presentation provides
a status report on the GOSUMEC Foundation.
One of the suggestion put forward by Dr. Dushyant Patel was to have an Annual
Appeal to GOSUMECs in USA. By this e-mail, let us start that process of annual
appeal. Please use this opportunity to help our alma mater.
Kindly share this e-mail and ppt file with as many GOSUMEC friends in your area
as possible in next few weeks. We all can take advantage in 2002 by writing
a tax-deductible check to "GOSUMEC Foundation" and mail it to GOSUMEC Foundation,
P. O. Box 3801, Naperville, IL 60567-3801. You will receive a receipt for your
donation. Please indicate in the memo section - Corpus or Special Project. Remember
the final scene from the movie 'City of Joy' - "In the end, whatever is not
given is lost!".
Another issue was raised at the get together - are we reaching out to younger
Alumni? We had several younger Alumni at the event. We need to make extra effort
to involve both younger as well as mature Alumni.
For those of you who could not make the event, we are attaching few snapshots
of good memories we had last Sunday. Enjoy! For those who attended the event,
we have sent an e-mail, so you can access all the photos from the event.
For the future, we are working on establishing similar non-profit foundations
in India (lead by Dr. Sharad Gogate), Canada, UK, and Australia/New Zealand.
With all five Foundations working in harmony, we have a potential of raising
a large corpus fund to help the alma mater. One of our dream is to see in our
life time a combined corpus fund of $100 million dollars.
Special thanks to Dr. Avi Patwardhan who has even reached out to his non-GOSUMEC
friends and collected donations for the GOSUMEC Foundation. Both Drs. Avi and
Nilima Patwardhan are working on academic affiliation between University of
Massachusetts Medical School (Worcester) and GSMC. Stay tuned for any new development
on this front!
Speaking for myself, I am a GSMC/KEMH son-in-law dedicated to bring excellence
to twin institutions. I also belong to Amreli, the same hometown as the First
Dean, Dr. Jivraj Mehta. We have given Dr. Manubhai Kothari US Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Award Guidelines for Education (for GSMC) and Health Care (KEMH).
These guidelines will help assess the twin institutions with respect to Strengths
and Areas for Improvement. We are convinced, with the right leadership support
from the Dean and Department Heads, we can help GSMC/KEMH to achieve the greatest
height it is capable of and become one of the finest and premiere institutions
in India, Asia and the world.
Special thanks to all those who worked extremely hard to pull this event together
(Drs. Kanti Chandarana, Ashwin Damania, Vijay Dave, Prashant Deshpande, Mayank
Doshi, Jayant & Sunita Ginde, Gopal Lalmalani, Ashish Vora & Nila Vora).
It has been my pleasure to serve GSMC/KEMH.
Manu Vora, Ph.D.
Executive Director
GOSUMEC Foundation, USA
http://www.gosumec.org/
630-548-5531
