TANA to be held on Memorial Day Weekend in May

Dallas, Texas: The largest and oldest National level Telugu Association in the United States, Telugu Association of North America (TANA) finally broke the silence on Saturday, July 28th by announcing a change in the 2013 Convention Dates from July 4th Weekend to the Memorial Day Weekend in May.

TANA Conference, traditionally held for over a quarter century on July 4th weekend every alternative year has announced their next convention in 2013 in Dallas. But North American Telugu Society (NATS), the Association that was created by splitting TANA in 2009 also announced their convention in Dallas Metro Area on July 4th weekend in 2013. This decision created a major embarrassment for the entire Telugu community. But finally, the TANA management took a decision to change their convention dates.

"We want to bring to your kind attention that, in the best interests of the Telugu Community of North America in general and the Telugu Community of Dallas in particular, TANA Executive Committee and Board of Directors unanimously approved to conduct the 19th TANA Conference during the Memorial Day Weekend (May 24- 26, 2013) at the Dallas Convention Center, Dallas-TX, instead of the Independence Day weekend.", said V. Chowdary Jampala, Chairman, Board of Directors of TANA and Prasad Thotakura, President, TANA in a press release on Saturday.

"Our organization, TANA, with your active help, has been striving for the past 35 years to serve the entire Telugu community in North America in accordance with our Mission Statement. We have always tried to keep the interests of the community first in all our activities.", TANA said.

"For well over a quarter century, TANA has been conducting its biennial Conferences during the first week of July in alternate years. Since 2005, Telugu community of Dallas has been requesting to host the TANA Conferences. Accordingly, the Board of Directors of TANA selected Dallas to host the 19th TANA Conference in July 2013 and TANA entered into contracts with Dallas Convention Center and Omni Dallas Hotel respectively on September 18 and 30, 2009. Since then, another Telugu association has decided to hold its conference on the same days in the Dallas metropolitan area.", TANA explained.

"Your leadership, along with many of you, is concerned with the potential adverse impact on the community and on our Mission of having two Telugu conferences in the same city on the same dates, though for reasons certainly not of our making and entirely beyond our control. Your leadership made extensive efforts exploring ways of avoiding inconvenience and unpleasantness of any kind to Telugu community members because of this. We feel that this is best achieved by changing the dates of the TANA Conference. We assure you that this decision was not arrived at lightly, considering that the TANA Conference, traditionally held for over a quarter century on July 4th weekend, is being moved to the Memorial Day weekend. We, however, feel that this change best serves the community. By putting the needs of the community first, we are moving ahead with our Mission, leaving distractions aside.", Chowdary Jampala and Prasad Thotakura said.

"Your leadership is assured of enthusiastic involvement of Dallas Telugu community and looks forward to YOUR active participation and enjoyment. Please mark your calendars, let your friends know of the change in dates, attend the convention and make it successful. Thank you for your understanding and support.", TANA said.