From: Asthana, Abhaya
Date: Thu, Sep 10, 2009
Subject: Program Schedule for 4th Annual Hindu Mandir Executive's Conference HMEC 2009

Namaste,

Many of you have called to enquire about the program schedule as it stands. On behalf of the program committee it is my pleasure to share with you the HMEC 2009 schedule as of now.

About the Program:

The inaugural session for the program is on Friday 11th at 6:30 PM. We have Swami Mukundananda Ji from JK Yog gracing that session with his message. Other distinguished youth and adult speakers will also present their thoughts in this session.

On Saturday morning after a refreshing Yoga , Meditation and Bhajan classes we will have the welcome session. Pujya Swami Dayanada Ji's keynote addressis on Saturday morning, followed by a string of inspiring and exciting talks. The reception and the cultural program is on Saturday evening.

In the concluding session on Sunday Sept 13th, there are sessions on Hindu-Jewish Dialog, media, followed by summary of resolutions and action items. Swamini Sarvaananada Ji from Yogaville Ashram, VA will share her parting thoughts and bless the audience as we depart.
The key theme of the conference is that with mandirs as the nucleus, the Hindu-American community can become more cohesive, and focused. The synergies derived from this networking may help imbue our children and grandchildren with Hindu values and traditions more effectively. In this gathering, collectively, we all may learn to value our values more meaningfully and create a legacy for our children that they can be proud of .

There are twelve sessions in the program in which Mandir executives from across USA and Canada share their ideas, experience and wisdom in talks that are informative as well as enlightening. Due to overwhelming response we had to introduce a parallel track in the Saturday post lunch segment and an interactive workshop with 4 breakout sessions .The program is structured around the five functional areas of significance to the mandirs, namely, Seva, Worship, Education, Samskriti and Operations. The scope of the issues to be discussed are both local and global in nature. We have several youth speakers and there is a special youth workshop on Saturday afternoon.

Guidelines for Moderators and Speakers:

Generally, there are three talks to a session. Each talk is expected to be under 12 minutes in order to provide approximately 20 minutes at the end of a session for Q&A. The moderators only introduce the sessions and the speakers and keep the session flowing smoothly and on time.

Dinner & Breakfast for Speakers and Session Chairs:

At Friday evening's dinner (6:30 PM) and also at Saturday morning's breakfast (7:00 AM) there will be opportunity in the dining area for the moderators and the speakers to get to know each other while enjoying their meals.

This agenda has been shaped by Dr. Siva Subramanian, Shri Sant Gupta, Dr. Sharma Tadepalli, Dr. Bapineedu, Dr. B. V. K. Sastry, Shri Abhinav Dwivedi, Dr. Kumar Nochur, Dr. Umesh Shukla, Shri Ravi Joshi, Shri Virendra Gupta, Dr. Pawan Rattan, in weekly meetings and follow up actions for the past three months.

We look forward to meeting you in person this weekend .

Hari Om.

Abhaya Asthana, PhD
Program Chair, HMEC 2009