1 Please Donate Generously Visit your temple, your priest or temple web site www.thehindutemple.org. Support your temple and donate generously. The amount is insignificant, the intent is what counts in the court of Gods. Chairman —Manoj Sach deva Vice Chairman —Avinash Ra chmale President —Dhaval Va ishnav Vice President —Anil Sakhuja Treasurer —Vishnu Panjwani Asst. Treasurer —Keshav Raiz ada Secretary —Kalpesh Un adkat Asst. Secretary —Jignesh Patel Advisory Board —Dr. Sarju Shah itÇwtÇt THE HINDU TEMPLE 2014 Board Members Temple Timings Monday to Friday— 8AM-12PM & 5PM-9PM Saturday & Sunday— 9AM-9PM Temple Address 44955 Cherry Hill Road Canton, MI 48188 (734) 981-8730 Inside this issue: 2014 Board 1 2014 Chairman's Message 2 2014 Committees 3 2013 Chairman’s Annual AGM Report 5 Weekly Activities 6 AGM Meeting Minutes 7 Our Priests 8 2013 Statement & Budget 9 2014 Major Temple Events 13 MAY 2014 Temple Administrator —Dalip Guglan i Temple Co Administrator —Suresh Sha h Trustee —Navnit Patel Trustee —Nitin Desai Trustee —Ashwani Narula Trustee —Raj Vaishnav Trustee – Anurag Bajaj
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Dear Temple Board Members, Members, Priestsand Devotees,Hari Om ,Namaste and Good Morning:
I want to thank the Board of Directors of The Hindu Temple ofCanton and all of you for giving me another opportunity toserve you as the temple chairman for the year 2013. It is aposition which carries a lot of responsibilities in particular whenour past chairmen have worked so hard and have done anexcellent job to make sure that the temple gets nothing but thebest in all areas. I have been very lucky to work with not onlythe past chairpersons and presidents but also with the current
team of Board of Directors. All these people have great ex-perience in their field. I also want to mention the devoted teamof volunteers and other staff members including priests fortheir whole hearted support. We all will continue to work to-gether as a team for the betterment of the community. This inturn will help our temple not only be a place of worship butwill also be a part of the community to achieve their socialgoals.
At this time, I would like thank the retiring board and commit-tee members and would like to welcome the new board mem-bers as a part of our team. The retiring board members are:Mr. Jatin Desai, Mrs. Bela Patel, Mr. Urmil Salvi and Mr. Dax-esh Modi. The incoming board members for next 3 years are
Mr. Avinash Rachmale, Mr. Manoj Sachdeva, Mr. Anurag Bajajand Mr. Ashwani Narula. All of these people not only have agreat devotion and commitment for the temple but they are thepeople who face challenges on a daily basis and find solutionswith the limited resources we have.
In order to stay in touch with the outgoing board members andother associated members of the temple, an attempt was madein the previous year to create a non-voting Advisory Board sothat the current board members can get advice and directionswhen needed. I believe it was a great idea not only to retainour respected members but also to stay in touch with them on aregular basis. Going further, I would like to make a request tothe board of directors and temple members to consider creat-
ing some limited positions as continuing board members (non-retiring) so that their experience, expertise and knowledge canbe retained by the temple for the betterment of the temple. Aswe all know from our own experiences in daily routine whetherit is education, business, social work or anything else, experi-ence is very important.
The year 2013 was a very challenging year. We had thehighest number of festivities in the temple and they all werevery well attended. I know that because of all these, we werenot able to arrange our Annual Dinner this year. However, fornext year, we already have scheduled November 15 in our
Calendar for 2014 Annual Dinner. I want to thank our Reli-gious Chair Mr. Dhaval Vaishnav along with his team includingvolunteers, priests, etc., who made sure that every event wasplanned properly from decorating the lobby to the place ofworship, food and the parking . This year we have to bringnew ideas and plans which can continue on an ongoing basisyear after year to generate revenues. A good stream of rev-enues is one of the most important and wanted need for anyorganization of our nature. We have a place of worship anda beautiful banquet hall, along with classrooms, to meet theneeds of the community. To maintain this beautiful building weneed to pay all the bills to keep it healthy. We all go and buy
Health Insurance for our health and try to plan for our Retire-ment. For this beautiful Temple, we all have to plan for theongoing maintenance and the retirement, so that there is nodebt. I am requesting all of you to please get involved in therevenue process at any level. You all can help the temple inone of the following ways:
Sign up for automatic monthly debits from your bank orcredit card account to pay off the mortgage.
Loan money to the temple at interest free certificates ofdeposits so that those can be used to pay the debt of theTemple.
Make one time donations to be a Life Member and quali-fy for all the benefits of being a Life Member.
Most important is , to commit to pay for any recurringexpense of the temple, which include utilities (electricity,gas, water), Sunday Prasad, Maintenance, Flower Deco-rations ,etc. for a particular deity
Sponsor any of the regular activities. A complete list ofevents for 2013 is available on the websitewww.thehindutemple.org and the list for 2014 will beposted soon.
Here, I would like to bring to your attention that we were ableto pay off $595,000 in principal pay down in 2013. Currenttemple mortgage loan balance is $ 3,995,000. As you all cansee from the actuals and budgets/projections presented, weplan to pay off more of the debt sooner than it is due. This willnot only make us feel better, but will also save us lot of moneybeing paid towards interest expense.
In the past, the Board of Directors created a Board Designat-ed Fund of $500,000 to take care of Operations in case ofemergency situations. We have always maintained that. We,as the Board of Directors, have discussed various options ofinvesting this money to earn interest. But the interest income isso low that it is not worth to invest in banks. If the same moneyis invested in other securities there are risks involved includingloosing principal amount. After a detailed study, the board ofdirectors have concluded that we should bring this Board
Designated Fund to $250,000 and use the additional$250,000 to pay off the debt. This move will save the temple$10,000 every year in interest expense. Hence, I am request-ing for your support to make it happen.
As you all have seen, the Hari Om Gift Center is in operationand I would like to make a request to all of you to visit andpurchase items from there. We sell a lot of items there likeCD’s. religious books, deity pictures, Pooja samigri, pre-packaged items for all poojas, blessed silver coins of deities
and several other items. I want to thank all the volunteers whoare running the shop.
Another addition to the temple this year has been our ownlibrary. I want to thank Trupti Modi and Brenda Vaishnavalong with other volunteers who took the lead to make surethat this project, which was started 10 years back, is a reality.I am pleased to announce that the library is open and is func-tioning. As always, we are in need of volunteers to run it. Soif you are available, please let us know so that we can includeyou in the schedule.
In the end, I would like to make a request that you all bringyour friends, family members, guests and relatives to the tem-
ple, your own place of worship. I also encourage all devoteesto make use of all the facilities available at the temple includ-ing the havan area, banquet hall and classrooms to support thetemple. I also request that you all stay connected with the tem-ple by not only providing financial help but also volunteering
your time to assist in other activities.
On behalf of the temple, its board of directors, committeechairpersons, co-chairs, priests and other support staff, I wouldlike to thank all of you for your continued support and encour-agement. I also want to thank all the volunteers from my heartthat come and assist to make sure that every event is properlyorganized.
I would also like to bring to your attention that year end isapproaching fast. Only a few days left. Please make yourdonations before December 31, 2013 to take advantage of
tax deductions for year 2013.
In the end, based upon community feedback, we are decidingto have a Suggestion Box at the Temple and I am requestingall of you to please participate in this and give us your sug-gestions so that we can review them and implement them.
Let us pray to God and look for his wisdom, guidance andblessings for all of us so that we all together can make this anhistoric place for all the times to come.
If you have any comments or concerns, you can reach me at(313)617-3596 or any of our board or committee members at(734)981-8730. You can also email your suggestions to me at
Date: December 8th 2013Location: Temple Prayer HallMeeting Chair: Anil Sakhuja, Chairman, Board of Trustees Board of Trustees in attendance:
Avinash Rachmale (Vice Chairman and Board Member),
Manoj Sachdeva (Vice President and Board Member),
Vishnu Panjwani (Treasurer and Board Member),
Keshav Raizada (Assistant Treasurer)
Dhaval Vaishnav (Religious Chair and Board Member),
Dalip Guglani (Temple Administrator and Board Member)
Kalpesh Unadkat (Secretary and Board Member)Jatin Desai (Board Member)
Bela Patel (Board Member)
Jignesh Patel (Board Member)
Urmil Salvi (Board Member)
Meeting started with prayers by Pandit Ji, Kiran Ji and Mukhi-
ya Ji.
Welcome note by Chairman, Anil SakhujaAnil Sakhuja welcomed all the devotees to the 2013 AnnualGeneral Body meeting. . Anil ji also stated that all our three
priests Kiran ji, Mukhiya ji and Pandit ji are doing outstandingjobs and they are an integral part of team going forward. Wehave received extension of Mukhiya ji’s visa and we havedecided to file an application for Mukhiya ji’s Green Card.
Approval of December 16, 2012 Annual General BodyMeeting MinutesAnil ji stated that AGM meeting minutes are published eachyear in the first temple newsletter “Vandana”. He asked ifany of the devotees had any questions. Since nobody had anyquestions, Anil ji put meeting minutes on the floor. Dr. SarjuShah proposed those minutes for approval and Akhilesh jiseconded it and minutes from the December 16th, 2012 AGMmeeting were approved.
Chairman’s Report (Presented by Anil Sakhuja) Anil ji thanked all the devotees for attending the AGM andthen read the attached Chairman’s report highlighting templeevents and celebrations.
Religious update by Dhaval Vaishnav, Religious ChairThe following are the highlights of Dhaval ji’s presentationDhaval ji started by thanking all three priests and he statedthat our true religious chairs are these priestsThen he described the list of this year’s religious events and hementioned to the board that all religious events were cash flow
positive.Laghu Rudra havan, Maha ShivratriRam NavmiMata Ki Chowki with Chanchal jiShri Nath ji Patotstav with JeJeJanamashtami with Pundrik MaharajGanesh ChaturthiNavratriDiwaliBala jiTulsi Vivah
Then he mentioned visits of the following religious leadersJeJePundrik MaharajViditatmananda jiAshwin ji PathakMukundanand ji
He thanked all the volunteers that made all these events andvisits possible and especially thanked the following three peo-ple—Bela ji, Prakash ji and Keshav ji for decorationDalip ji managing cooking and kitchen.
Then he praised the Vedic knowledge of Pandiji and Kiran jiand singing of Mukhiya ji and he assured the board that all
these priests are here to stay.
He also announced the following new religious programs forthe next year:
Sai Puja on ThursdayBhajan SandhyaFew additional havans
At the end he thanked everybody and thanked priest for theirdedication, honesty and integrity.
2013 Financial Report/Temple Cash on Hand and 2014Budget presented by Temple Chairman, Anil Sakhuja This session was chaired by Anil Sakhuja,
First he thanked Vishnu ji, Keshva ji, Dalip ji and office staffmembers Raman ji and Purvi ji for their dedication and support
Then he explained the budget
Printed copy of the budget was handed to all devotees,so that everybody can refer to it.
Budget and accounting was up to date for nine monthsstarting January 1, 2013 – September 30, 2013
12 month budget for 2013 was based upon projections.budget also included projections for year 2014,2015,and 201
Approval to reduce temple emergency funds from$500,000 to $250,000.Anil ji gave the following information about the templeemergency funds.
Temple has been maintaining $500,000 cash at hand foremergencies
Temple has not touched those funds for last 3 to 4 years
Last AGM multiple questions were raised regarding whywe are keeping$500,000 in cash and not reducing ourdebt by making additional payment
If we pay $250,000 extra payment from our emergencycash funds then we can save $10,000 per year In interestpayment
Board of trustees discussed this in their board meeting andapproved payment for additional $250,000 .
Motion is on the table for temple members to reduce cashreserve from $500,000 to $250,000 and pay $250,000towards additional principle
Motion was put on the floor by Anil ji and members voted
by show of their hands. More people raised their handsagainst this motion than for this motion. So motion did notcarry.
Approval of 2014 Budget.
Somil Shah proposed it and Satish Mistry seconded it andthe budget was approved for 2014.
After budget approval Question/Answer session started andafter that session, the Annual General Meeting was officiallyconcluded.
Minutes taken by Kalpesh Unadkat.
Note: " These minutes exclude certain com-ments because they are either personalin nature or have been retracted". The retrac-tions are recorded and available as part of the-se minutes as an attachment.
itÇwtÇt
2013 AGM Meeting Minutes
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Shri Prasad Muliyala Ishwara (Pandit Ji) With the Temple since March 2003
Well trained in Vedic philosophy from Maharshi Veda Vigjana VidyaPeeth,Theerthahalli, Karnataka Started his Vedic education at early age of 12 Has been honored with prestigious titles like ''Veda Murthi'' and ''Samhita Paathi' English, Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Tulu, Working Knowledge : Malayalam, Gu-
jarati and SanskritCell Phone: (734) 383 -1872Email: [email protected]
Shri Jitendrakumar Ranchhodbhai Sevak (Mukhiya Ji) With the Temple since July 2011 Underwent several years of formal education in the Hindu scriptures of Vedas and
Upanishades, and in Sanskrit literature, prior to completing his Bachelor of Arts degreeprogram in Sanskrit literature at Shri Bhagwat Vidyapith
Served as a full-time Priest in Shri Vallabh Nidhi Trust Temple, a reputed Hindu temple
in Mumbai Sings Melodious Bhajans English, Hindi, Gujarati and SanskritCell Phone: (734) 272 -1667Email: [email protected]
Shri Kiran Subramanya (Kiran Ji) With the Temple since October 2005 Well trained in vedic philosophy from family guru Shri Kumara Subramanya from Amai
Samprathishtthana in Karnataka Started his vedic education at early age of 13 English, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Tulu, Working Knowledge : Telugu, Gujarati, SanskritCell Phone: (734) 377 - 6138Email : [email protected]