NATA meeting attracted hundreds in Los Angeles

Los Angeles (February 20, 2011): The first NATA California chapter meeting, which was held on Sunday 2/20/11 at Party City, Anaheim in Los Angeles, has attracted huge crowd of Telugu people living in many parts of California, said Nageshwar Rao, Regional Vice-president of NATA. The meeting was attended by over 200 people from various parts of Los Angeles and made a resolution for strengthening membership for growing NATA family.

The meeting was chaired by Nageshwar Rao (Regional Vice-president, California) and was attended by Regional Coordinators Veera Reddy Nandyala (Beverly Hills), Jaipal Reddy (Orange County), Mallik Reddy (Newport Beach), Venu Gopal Reddy (Los Angeles City South), Laxma Reddy (Los Angeles City North), Rajanikanth Reddy (Riverside), Bharathi Naidu (Anaheim), Sai (Santa Monica), Ravindra (Burbank) and other members. Several Telugu associates from this region, including Prasad Reddy Alle, acting president, OCTPA (Orange County Telugu Peoples Association) have participated in the meeting.

All regional coordinators took oath to strictly adhere to NATA constitution and bylaws and thanked NATA advisory council members Dr. Prem Reddy and Dr. Malla Reddy, and President AVN Reddy, and local Board of director Dharma Reddy. Nageshwar Rao has updated the group about NATA inauguration and its mission that is agreed at Las Vegas meeting on 1/23/2011. He assured that NATA will take care of all social interests for Telugu people in the US, and explained eight (8) key goals of NATA from its Articles of organization such as preservation, promotion and advancement of Telugu culture, festivals, heritage and language.

In his key note address, Dr. Pailla Malla Reddy, a prominent Telugu leaders and core advisory member, said that NATA provides a greater opportunity to fulfill social service aspirations of all sections of Telugus in the US, especially such enthusiastic young members from California. Dr. Prem Reddy could not attend the meeting due to travel. Regional coordinators have updated on membership drive and pledged to continue strengthening NATA, and said that they made over 50 new memberships recently.

The entire group appreciated the Regional VP, Nageshwar Rao for his generous donation, on behalf of NATA, of $1,000 to Telugu Association of Southern California (TASC) for supporting their 40th Year Celebrations. The chapter made a resolution to extend the support to TASC in celebrating the upcoming 'Ugadi' Telugu New Year celebrations.

The main highlight of this meeting was merger proposal from OCTPA, a local Telugu association in California. All members from OCTPA are attracted by NATA mission and its national leadership, and they have expressed interest in joining NATA. OCTPA President Prasad Reddy Alle and members Sravani Reddy, Sreedhar Reddy, Dayakar Reddy have submitted a merger resolution to NATA California team. The OCTPA members are highly inspired by the dedicated Telugu leaders Drs. Prem Reddy and Malla Reddy and decided to join NATA, said Prasad Reddy. NATA does not have provision for other associations to merge, said president AVN Reddy, mainly because of differences in by-laws and constitution of other organizations. In a post-meeting statement, President, however, suggested all members of OCTPA to become members of NATA and enjoy all the privileges.

The team is raising funds from several members to support local community service activities, including Telugu meetings, community and cultural events. The organizers thanked Nageshwar Rao, Jaipal Reddy, Veera Reddy and Mallik Reddy for donating $500 for organization material.

NATA is swift in response to issues affecting Telugu community and has helped many Tri-Valley University students on immigration and other needs, said Nageshwar Rao. The meeting provided a forum to discuss issues affecting Telugus in California region and showed their appreciation to all NATA leaders for helping people of Telugu origin. The team members are highly excited with the overwhelming success of the meeting and resolved to work vigorously for building the image of NATA by extending its services in California region, said Veera Reddy.

The participants and their families including some elderly and young children felt happy with the Telugu festival atmosphere at the meeting and vowed to play active role in building a great NATA. Families of participants helped taking care of young children and served food to all participants. Shobha, Ratna, Sravani, Kavitha, Anitha, Priya, Suneetha, Rupa, Bharathi have contributed to the success of the meeting. The team has thanked Jaipal Reddy and Shobha Reddy for sponsoring food and Mallikarjun Reddy and Ratna Reddy for their arrangements.

Venugopal Reddy and Bharathi Naidu thanked each and everyone for making the meeting a grand success. "I hope and wish to be on top and ahead of other RVP's in California region for NATA membership and activities", said Nageshwar Rao.